La Gente

There are many things that can make a place feel like home. When looking closely at the world, we can see that the food we eat, the way we speak, and other things like how we dance and pray and play all can play big parts in forming our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Part of what makes Colombia such a beautiful place is the fact that there are so many different lived experiences within the nation. There is not one perfect way to be Colombian and this is demonstrated perfectly by the diverse array of cultures that bloom en Colombia.  

 

The nation’s incredible diversity is not only visible in the categories of topography, biodiversity and climate, but also in its multiculturalism. With around 900 different ethnic groups many demographers describe Colombia as one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world. Unlike the United States which frowned upon miscegenation, the mixing of races was encouraged in Spanish colonies throughout the history and development of Latin America. Initially this incentivizing of racial mixing was rooted in white supremacy, but over time it allowed for a number of racial and ethnic identities unique to Latin America to develop. Within Colombia, most individuals descend mainly from three groups, Europeans, Amerindians, and Africans. Due to the diversity of Colombia’s climate and topography, we saw even more cultures begin to bloom as people from those groups mingled and spread throughout the nation. As people across the nation’s 32 departments and 6 geographic regions made homes for themselves they developed unique music, clothing, food, and dances that all served key parts in crafting Colombian identity.  

 

Linguistically, Colombia is also incredibly diverse. While it is true that most Colombians use Spanish as their primary language for communication, more than 750,000 Colombians speak one of the nation’s 70 indigenous languages. When it comes to the number of indigenous languages spoken actively by its citizens, Colombia is in the top four nations in the world, but its multilingualism does not go unthreatened by the conflict throughout the nation's history. 

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The preservation of Colombia’s unique and diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic traditions has been tested numerous times throughout the nation's history. As individual’s experience complex conflict and displacement, it can become very difficult to effectively preserve cultural identity in the way that it has been preserved for previous generations. A connection to one's home and the people that share that home is a cornerstone of the cultural identity of many groups in Colombia, so losing one's ancestral space can be a major tragedy. 

 

La esencia de Colombia lives in the diversity of its people. Throughout the hardships and conflicts of Colombian history, people have been able to preserve and invest in the humanity of Colombia and its traditions. 

Estas son las historias de algunos de la gente de nuestro valle.