COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA

ETYMOLOGY

- Derived its name from the lastname of Christopher

Columbus (known for his 1492 discovery of the “New World”)

COLOMBIA

Capital BogotaOfficial Language

Spanish

Area 1,141,748 km2

Population (July 2015)

48,219,827

Currency peso

Climate very warm and tropical on the coast and in the north, with a rainy season from May to November

Dialing Code +57

TOURIST SPOTS

GOLD MUSEUM

CERRO MONSERATTE

THE SALT CATHEDRAL OF ZIPAQUIRA

BARICHARA

CABO DE LA VELA

TAYRONA NATIONAL PARK

CAÑO CRISTALES

SAN AGUSTIN

The 5 Best Colombian Writers and Their Works

EVELIO ROSERO

- was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on 20 March 1958

- He is a Colombian writer and journalist, who won in 2006

the Tusquets Prize.

THE ARMIES

(The Armies) is a novel of a country torn apart by war. Ismael, a retired old school teacher and his wife, Otilia, live morosely and modestly in the town of San José. Ismael loves to spy on his neighbor's wife, making his own wife to feel embarrassed, and there is a sense of spree on everything going on until some family members begin to disappear and fear takes over the inhabitants of San José. One morning, after his usual walk, Ismael finds out that some soldiers of God knows that armies had taken away his neighbors. His wife had been looking for him and unsuccessfully he tries to find her instead. The fighting intensifies from all sides, and while the citizens of San José decide to run away and join the hordes of displaced peasants of Colombia, Ismael chooses to stay in the blasted and ghost township.

MATEO SOLO

Mateo Solo is a story about a child confined in his own home. Mateo knows

about the outside world for what he sees through the windows. It is a story of

dazzling confinement, where sight is the main character: his sister, his aunt, his

nanny all play their own game while allowing Mateo to keep his hope for identity

in plotting his own escape.

LAURA RESTREPO

(born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1950)

- a Colombian author who began writing what were mainly

political columns in her mid-twenties

Story of a Fascination (Historia de un Entusiasmo)

This novel is Restrepo’s experience during the government/guerrilla conflict.

This novel speaks of President Belisario Betancur and her own struggle with

death threats and 5 years of exile. Because she was involved in negotiating

peace between the two groups in 1983, it gives a firsthand account of what

was going on and how everyone was going to change the world.

Isle of Passion (Isla de la pasión)

Set in the early 1900s during the Mexican Revolution and World War I, the

novel narrates the story of Ramón Arnaud, his wife Alicia, and many soldiers

from the Mexican military who making their lives on small and barren Clipperton

Island in the Pacific. The group starts their lives on the island until the

revolution and World War I leave them without any supplies. Bad weather

happens and Alicia and Tirsa, a lieutenant’s wife, are left to lead the survivors.

Restrepo based this novel of a true story.

JUAN GABRIEL VASQUEZ

- Juan Gabriel Vásquez (born 1973) is a Colombian writer

- best known for his novel The Sound of Things Falling,

originally published in 2011.

The Informants (Los informantes)

The Informers is narrated by Gabriel Santoro, who shares his father's name.

Several years earlier, in 1988, the younger Santoro had published a book called

A Life in Exile, about the life of a Jewish woman -- a family friend -- who had

come to Colombia from Germany as a girl before World War II.

The Sound of Things Falling

The Sound of Things Falling is the story of a law professor named Antonio Yammara, who

narrates the storyl. Scenes switch between the 1990s Bogotá (the present), where everything is

falling apart as the result of the drug wars, and the past where the drug trade seem interwoven

into everyone's lives.

In the present, Antonio and his friend Ricardo Laverde are shot in a drive-by shooting. Ricardo

dies and Antonio is severely wounded. Antonio became racked with fear causing his marriage to

Aura to crumble. He is contacted by Ricardo's daughter Maya, who tells her estranged father's

story: he was a pilot who was caught smuggling drugs into the United States and given a 19-

year jail sentence. Maya's mother had returned to her native United States when Maya turned

18, and died in a plane crash when attempting to visit Maya and Ricardo after he got out of jail.

As the story progresses, Antonio and Maya are drawn together, united by their tragic pasts.

JORGE ISAACS

- Jorge Isaacs Ferrer (April 1, 1837–April 17, 1895)

- was a Colombian writer, politician and soldier.

- His only novel, María, became one of the most notable

works of the Romantic movement in Spanish-language

literature

Maria

It is written between 1864 and 1867. It is a costumbrist novel representative of the

Spanish romantic movement. It may be considered a precursor of the criollist novel

of the 1920s and 1930s in Latin America.

Despite being Isaacs' only novel, María is considered one of the most important

works of 19th-century Spanish American literature. Alfonso M. Escudero

characterized it as the greatest Spanish-language romantic novel. The romantic

style of the novel has been compared to the one of Chateaubriand's Atala. Notable

are the description of the landscape and the artistic style of the prose.

GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

- (6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014)

- was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer,

screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as

Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America.

In Evil Hour

(La Mala Hora)

In Evil Hour takes place in a nameless Colombian village. Someone has been

placing satirical pasquinades about the town, outlining the locals' shameful

secrets. Some dismiss these as common gossip. However, when a man kills

his wife's supposed lover after reading of her infidelity, the mayor decides that

action is called for. He declares martial law and sends soldiers (who are

actually armed thugs) to patrol the streets. He also uses the 'state of unrest' as

an excuse to crack down on his political enemies.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

(Cien años de soledad)

It is about multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio

Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia.

The widely acclaimed book, considered by many to be the author's masterpiece, was first

published in Spanish in 1967, and subsequently has been translated into thirty-seven

languages and has sold more than 30 million copies. The magical realist style and thematic

substance of One Hundred Years of Solitude established it as an important, representative

novel of the literary Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, which was stylistically

influenced by Modernism (European and North American) and the Cuban Vanguardia (Avant-

Garde) literary movement.

POETRYJOSÉ ASUNCIÓN SILVA

(Colombia, 1865–1896)

Most celebrated poet was born in Bogotá, into a rich family, and after a pampered although unhappy childhood, led a tormented life. He was additionally morbidly sensitive and this, along with his difficult life, inspired his melancholy poetry, collected and published after his death.    

POEMS For the Reader’s Ear Chrysalises Butterflies Nocturnes III Dusk Childhood The Woodsmen of San Juan Ars Poetica

For The Reader's Ear No, that was not passion,

It was the vague tendernessInspired by a sickly child,Lang syne, and moon pale nights.

The spirit sings onlyWhen the heart is moved,When, shaken by love’s power, it trembles,Broods, draws back, says not a word.

True passion might in factHave been…these pages,That were they written in happier timesWould have appeared as tears, not verses.

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo 

(November 7, 1833 – May 5, 1912)

Trained as a mathematician and an engineer in a military school, Rafael Pombo served in the army and he traveled to the United states of America as Secretary of the Legation in Washington. After completing his diplomatic assignment, he was hired by D. Appleton & Company in New York to translate into Spanish nursery rhymes from the Anglo-Saxon oral tradition.

Some of the characters most recognized in Colombian children's literature and the popular imaginary are the stock characters created by Rafael Pombo, which are often found in nursery rhymes, familiar folk tales and in the textbooks for elementary school.

"El renacuajo paseador“ (The tripping tadpole also

known as Rin Rin the tadpole)

"Pastorcita“ (Sheep keeper

girl)

"El Gato bandido“ (The bandit cat, also known as Michin the cat)

"La pobre Viejecita" (Poor old Lady)

"Simón el Bobito“ (Little dumb

Simon)

That In All Things God May Be

Glorified!