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I made this report in 8th grade (1974). It was a real tough one for me and I got one of my lowest grades for it, a B-. I still want to share it with thoughts patrons:
(My paper was late and I even forgot to date it.)
Colombia
Colombia is a fortress nation with high valleys and broad plateaus of the interior. The tropical coast extends along the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean.
Colombia is divided into two parts. One has forest and jungle and its waters draw into the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. In this part of the country is the Andean region. This Colombia is two-thirds of the country but only has two percent of the population.
The other region of Colombia has all the population and is called Effective Colombia. Second Colombia has mountains and the one thousand mile Magdalena River that ends at the Caribbean Sea. Farms, factories, mines, and businesses are also in Effective Colombia.
The Politics, economy, and culture of Colombia is shaped by its awkward geography. Bogata's access to the sea and outer world is long dependant on the Magdalena River. In 1920, airlines began and brought communication to and between small cities.
Colombia's land area is 439,520 square miles, more than Texas and California combined. In 1958, its population was over 13,500,000. Colombians are twenty per cent whites, seventy percent Mestizos, five per cent Indian and five per cent native blacks. The blacks live mostly on the coast. The Indians live mostly in the forest and jungle region to the South and East. The whites are the dominant group with pure Spanish blood. The language in Bogata, the capitol, is the finest spoken Castilian in South America.
Colombia's political record stands in vivid contrast to Venezuela. It's elections are always important and sometimes they are honest. Dictatorships are rare, also unpopular, and when there arfe dictatorships, they are brief. Colombia's had more than twenty civil wars since 1830. It settled-down there in 1909 as one of the more orderly states. Pledges were honored until 1948.
Before planes were made in Colombia, there was very little traffic because the mountain passes are too high and the jungle wastes are impenetrable. Bogata is a commercial, cultural and political center. Medellin is an industrial stronghold. Cali and Popayan are important agricultural centers. Barranquilla is the Caribbean outlet to coffee, oil and other commodities.
Colombia is the only country in all the Americas to be named in memory of Christopher Columbus. Of all South American countries, it is closest to North America geologically. A tiny part laps onto Panama, making a frontier with its neighbor to the North.
Barranquilla, Cartagena and Santa Marta are all main Caribbean ports. Colombia has more than twenty important cities, a large number for a Latin American country. Colombia is called "Country of Cities." 2,000,000 live in the capitol city, Bogata. Bogata is an inland city and has a high tableland of mountains surrounding it. Before commercial aviation, it was the world's hardest-to-reach of all the capitols in the world.
Medellin and Cali compete for the second best city in Colombia. Cali is a gay, charming city, with friendly people with a zest for living. It also has a love for sports. There's a saying that the most beautiful women come from Cali. Medellin is an industrial city surrounded by mountains like Bogata. Despite the factories, textile mills and modern buildings, it is clean and well kept, which gives it a pleaasant air.
In the upland cities of Colombia, they have perpetual springs. Along the coast its Summer all year long and you can go swimming every day. Bogata is four degrees North of the equator but still feels colder because Bogatans live in the mountains.
The mountains of Colombia make Transportation difficult. Colombia has 2,000 miles of railways and 20,000 miles of roads. The roads and railroads have been built and maintained in great hardships. The reason is it's hard to maintain them is because of landslides which sweep them away. Mostly these landslides occur in the Winter because of tropical rainfall. The way Colombia tackles the problem is by air. Colombia's air transport system is the best in South America. Even Bogata's remote villages, llanos, rain forests and selvas are reached easily by air.
Before Bogata was a city, farmers settled themselves where Bogata is today. These farmers were called the Chibcha Indians and they developed a fairly high civilization. The Chibcha Indian's chief had a fortune in gold, emeralds and pearls. There is a true story told that at a religious ceremony, the chief took all his clothes off and rubbed himself with a sticky resin. Then he was covered with fine gold, and after that was done, he bathed in the sacred lake, while attendants threw gold and emeralds into the water as an offering to God. Today the rest of the Chibcha gold is in Colombia's national bank. The display of golden breastplates and bracelets are open to visitors. Alexander von Humboldt guessed that the sacred lake (Lake Guatavita), that the Indians threw gold into, holds 300,000,000 dollars. All efforts have been made to recover the gold that's under the lake. One English company tried to drain the lake, but ran out of money before it was completely drained.
Many conquistadors searched for Lake Guatavita or El Dorado as it was called then. Gonzalo Jumenez de Quesada, a learned lawyer, pushed his way through Tropical rain forests along the Magdalena River, then he crossed the Andes to where Bogata was to be. He left the coast in 1536 and 800 men. He arrived in 1538 with 173 men. When Quesada got there, the men weren't too tired to fight the Chibcha Indians for the land. Quesada won and he settled, and it became Bogata. An impossible coincidence haplpened: Sebastian de Belalcazar and Nicolas de Federman, both conquistadors, also showed up at El Dorado with 173 men and all three showed up within days of each other. However, the King of Spain honored Quesada with the title of Mariscal.
As the Kingdom grew, priceless cargo was collected by the new world and explorers passed through the Caribbean port of Cartagena. Cartagena's original name is Kalamary, meaning "crab." Crab is a good descripltion of Cartagena's coast. Its clawlike peninsulas extend into the bay and cuts into "tortuous" channels and crooked lagoons. The Cartagena Bay has two mouths leading to the sea. One, Boca Chica, called "Little Mouth." The other one, Boca Grande, called "Big Mouth." Fleets of English and French pirate ships forced their way into Boca Grande and blocked the passage with huge rocks. That made it easier to guard. Then they enclosed Cartagena with a wall sixty feet wide and forty feet high. It took twenty-seven years to build it, and it cost the King of Spain 70,000,000 dollars to build it. They constructed awesome battlements and terraces with watchtowers and they linked it together with subterranean chambers. The King of Spain would stand to lose tons of treasure if Cartagena was defeated. Sir Edward Vernon gathered the largest force ever to attack Cartagena; one hundred and fifty ships and several thousand men. He attacked for fifty-six and retreated. Mount Vernon was named after Sir Edward Vernon. Today, you can drive along and on top of that great wall.
The Spanish ruled Colombia for two hundred and fifty years. Then Colombia became an independant nation with help from Simon Bolivar.
Colombia is a republic with three main branches of power. They are the legislative, executive and judicial (as has the U.S.). They are divided into seventeen departments, also four intendencias and four comisarias. Dr. Alberto Llenas Camargo held the office of president twice and is the living symbol of his country's leadership in this hemisphere. He is a former Ambassador of the United States and served as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). Camargo helped his country become a member and a leader in the following groups: The UN, OAS, and LAFTA, the Latin American Free trade Association. The LAFTA's nine members have cut taxes on goods shipped from one country to another on at least two thousand items.
The law-enforcement of Colombia isn't very good. Hundreds of bandits move about the country in gangs. Some of the things these gangs of thieves do is attack buses on lonely highways and drive farmers away from their farmland.
Colombia is the largest producer of coffee and every year they ship off a billion bags of it. This accounts for eighty per cent of all the money earned in Colombia. But when the coffee isn't selling for its regular price, so much is sold that they lose a lot of money. They solve that problem by, when the coffee isn't selling for its regular price, then they store the coffee for the next buying season. They solved this problem in 1927. Juan Valdez represents the 200,000 plus coffee growers of Colombia. Valdez owns his own farm, and if you would like to know more about Senor Valdez and his family and farm, write the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, 120 Wall Street, New York City, New York, zip code 1005; it's free! Juan Valedez owns 3,000 trees, and he prunes them constantly. He doesn't let them grow taller than six or seven feet; it results in better berries. At harvest time, the family picks the berries from the lower branches. Then the berries are dried in the sun. From there, they are dumped into machines, which hull them. Inside the berry is a green seed with some pulp. The pulp is washed away from the seed. Then the beans are dried and sorted and packed in burlap bags. Only when the beans reach their destination are they roasted.
Other important exports are bananas and oil. Colombia is the second largest producer of oil in South America; behind Venezuela. Bananas earn 10,000,000 dollars a year. Less important exports are gold, silver, platinum, and emeralds. Although gold is one of its less important exports, Colombia is the biggest producer of gold in S. America. It is also the onlly country in S. America that mines platinum. Colombia practically supplies the whole world with emeralds. The gems that were thrown into the sacred lake were mined at Muzo mine. The country has coal mines near Cali, Bogata and Medellin plus deposits of lead, copper and manganese.
Columbia has fifty thousand manufacturing plants. Colombia produces ninety-five per cent of what they need. They are third in textiles behind brazil and Argentina. But Colombia has a better chance to sell these items through LAFTA. Although Colombia produces so many things, they owe more money than they get from sales.
Colombia has twenty-two universities. Youngsters may learn English before coming of age. Other studies for about sixth grade are Spanish grammar, arithmetic, religion, science, geometry, history, geography and literature, but half of Colombias's people haven't even learned to read or write. Jose Joagun Salcedo thought of a way to teach those people to read and write. He raised an antenna above the church steeple and broadcasted classes which started at 6AM. The farmers gather around the receiver in the village and learn reading, writing, etc. The transmitter has 50,000 watts, among the most powerful in South America. The network has taught 150,000 Colombians to read and write. Today the UN is assisting the radio school program. The wires from the church reach a long way. The school's budget is now a million dollars.
Roman Catholicism is Colombia's official religion, so it is taught in school. In somewhat of a contradiction, the country's constitution provides for complete religious freedom. Colombia's churches are old and new with many starkly modern buildings interspersed with sculptured chapels and cathedrals built by the Spanish. The most unusual church is the Salt Cathedral which was built inside the Zipaquira salt mines, outside of Bogata. The miners thought of the idea.
Colombia has nineteen national holidays and or including twelve religious ones. The ones that are religious honor saints like Joseph, Peter and Paul. The most important holiday is Christmas. To celebrate, families build mangers or nacimientos, the place Christ was born. They carve figures of the hold family, shepards and animals that were in the stable. On Christmas eve, people go to misa de gallo which means "The Mass of the Cock," a midnight church service that celebrates the "crowing of the cock," to announce Christ's birth. Then they come home and have a soup made of white potatoes, chicken, bits of corn on the cob, peas, capers, and flavored with leaves from the fibrous tree, called guasca. There is a big piece of chicken with heavy cream floating on top. After the soup comes; tomales, which were made with chopped pork, onions, eggs, and olives all rolled up in cornmeal dough and wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. They're called bunuelos, which can be served with cheese fritters and syrup. In Colombia you might have roast pig and chicken stew, but farther North you might have pasteles de gallina for the main dish. Pasteles de gallina is a pie of chicken and pork with rice and peppers. Christmas day everyone sleeps late, but children can't sleep too late because they can't wait for the presents. Easter is the second most important holiday in Colombia. People pack the streets behind a slowly moving cart with carved statues of saints and crucifixes. This is called Semana Santa.
Probably no other American country has so many variations and original combinations. The guitar is the most popular instrument. They have a special guitar called the Tiple, and it looks like a Spanish guitar but has more strings. With all the tiples and maracas, the people along the coast perform pretty rhythmic dances with lots of fancy footwork. In the Andes Mountains, the people do a slower, sadder dance called the lambicco. The name came from Africa's ivory coast. Slaves were shipped from Bambuk to Cartagena by the Spanish.
Soccer in Colombia is played like soccer in the U.S., but is called futbol. It is an all-time favorite and attracts thousands of spectators. Colombians also like basketball, tennis, polo, boxing, golf, swimming, horse back riding, horse shows, horse races, and bicycle races. They also have a game called tezo. It is played like horse shoes, but instead of a heavy iron object, tezos are used.
Spanish toreos and Colombian toreos perform coridas (bullfights). They are performed every Sunday in February and during the March de Circo Santamacia in Bogota, one of the finest. This activity combined with all the large soccer matches can be likened to the U.S. with its yearly Superbowl and World Series.
Bibliography
Herring, Hubert. Latin America. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1961
Colliers Encyclopedia. PF Collier and son Corp., New York, Toronto,1960, vol. 5, pp.297-304
Halsell, Grace. Getting to Know Colombia. Coward Mecam, Inc., New York, 1964
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You should mention that Columbia is the "Israel" of South America. A front for the CIA and the US to wage war on its neighbors. Particularly Venezuela. Just finished reading "The Secret History of the American Empire" by John Perkins. One class assignment that I appreciated even thou it made me want to barf. Don't read it if you have a weak stomach.
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Posted by penumbra88
on 2008-03-04 17:25:44
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