However, many AfroColombians have experienced displacement due to violence and poverty. The Pacific Coast of Colombia has a dense Afro population, namely the department of Choco and many people from Choco are now living in Medellín. La Universidad de Medellín for example has many students who moved from Choco or Quibdo to Medellín for school. The diversity of UdeM is one of the most positive aspects of the university. The Pacific Coast of Colombia is wild and untamed, yet beautiful and sabroso (flavorful)... or so I hear. As I have found to be very true in my travels geography and culture are deeply linked. Therefore, the Pacific Coast has a unique, wonderful and sabroso culture. Apart from being deeply intrigued by AfroColombian culture, I am very attracted to AfroColombians, in fact they are pretty much the only Colombians I am really attracted to at all.
Medellín continues to amaze me, with its constant offering of fabulous, FREE, cultural events. Last weekend was the Festival de Música Afrocolombiana aka Festiafro. After spending a rainy afternoon with Jessy in el Centro going to an artisan fair and eating delicious chocolate truffles, we headed to Parque de Los Deseos at 5:00 right as the festival was beginning. The first artist took the stage, a beautiful, pregnant woman in a patterned dress singing beautiful songs she wrote herself as thunder roared and lightning flashed and rain poured around us. The rain persisted throughout the night, but added flavor, excitement and soul to the whole event. As my favorite group of the night played Son Pacifico (http://www.myspace.com/sonpacifico), I looked around at a sea of umbrellas with smiles spread widely across a rainbow of faces. Many people were dancing with so much passion, excitement and happiness getting drenched in the rain, there is something about singing and dancing in the rain that is truly magical and beautiful. By the end of the night the crowd had grown significantly and the rain hardly seemed to faze anyone. I was in heaven, surrounded by good music, a good energy, absolutely gorgeous people and the familiar smell of marijuana. To the left side of the stage there was a large group of Chocoana's who, led by one main guy, danced together the traditional steps of baile Chocoano. Everyone was so talented and everyone knew the steps. I was entranced as I watched and stood in the back trying to dance along. To the right side of the stage there were 3 AfroColombian men, two adults and a young boy who stood in a line and danced some traditional moves together, led of course by the little boy. There was also a gringo who although he had no style, rhythm or beat was dancing his heart out. Jessy looks at me and states "it pains me to watch that gringo dance with no rhythm" I laughed but it was true, in comparison to the graceful and stylish Colombians surrounded him he looked quite stupid. Its amazing how most Latinos have dance, rhythm, grace, movement and style in their blood. There was also another gringo couple who could actually dance. They were soaking wet from the rain but enjoying themselves so much and dancing their little hearts out, they were in love and clearly having the time of their lives as they travelled together. This scene and moments like this are some of my favorites. Its what I cherish most about the summer music festivals my friends and I frequent and is even more inspiring and fulfilling when you find it in another country with a slightly different cultural flair and you can share it with a group of people distinct from yourself. Its a moment where your lives, excitement and energy cross, it is a moment of positive globalization and intercultural experience, sharing and communication as you share a look or a smile with a stranger or dance and sing with your neighbor all in this shared moment of ecstasy. Another magical moment that I didn't have a camera for, but will live as mental images in my mind and soul. It was so beautiful and fun to see, it gave made me a longing to be part of it, to be part of a culture so close knit, passionate and beautiful. On my way home I realized that although my culture and community, is much less flavorful, diverse, traditional, passionate and "picante", it still is the base of my life, it still encourages me, supports me, fulfills me and created me. Sure we don't have a style of music or community dance styles, but we have love and community events that most members will do anything to attend....
My salsa instructor, Norman, is a large, strong, tall negrito from Cali. He is gorgeous and awesome, we have so much fun dancing together and its so nice to dance with someone bigger than me! Haha. On Thursday he slid me through his legs... it was awesome! One day we were dancing and he stops and looks down at our hands. "Look how beautiful our skin looks together" he commented. I had to agree, the contrast was incredible. He looks at me and asked if I had ever been with a negrito. I smile and nod. He smiles back and continues to tell me that his girlfriend (a doctor) looks just like me, "una mona" he describes. "Here in Colombia we are very diverse" he continues. I have to agree and tell him that last weekend I went to "El Festival de Música Afrocolombiana", he is happy to hear that it was so amazing and goes on to tell me about the AfroColombian culture or La Chocoana culture (from the department Choco). They have their own style of dancing, music and way of life. This is exactly what I witnessed during the Festival. It was a communal passion, tradition, flavor and shared experience. Norman went on to describe that there is very little racism in Colombia and that AfroColombians were the first to be free after Independence from Spain and Europe. I remarked that I noticed that and that Ecuador was so much more racist. He laughed and responded "Si, claro. Ecuatorianos son brutos y tontos!" (innocent/uncouth and stupid). Considering Ecuador and Colombia are such close neighbors and similar in many ways there are some fundamental differences, this being one of them. Ecuador continues to live in a strictly divided, hierarchical, prejudice and racist society, while Colombia for some reason has been able to move beyond that. In Colombian I really have not seen much less of that, but I have yet to create a theory as to why this difference is so big. Of course there is a major socio-economic separation and the upper class tends to be lighter skinned and featured (or get work done to appear that way) there is much less outright racism and prejudice. People say Colombians are more intelligent and certainly more developed than Ecuador so maybe this all has something to do with it, but it still is quite interesting and puzzling to me. Its certainly something I will continue to question, observe and ruminate on trying to find a theory behind it.
This isn't to say that Colombia isn't without its social problems. Here in Colombia if you have money and you come from one of the handful of families of power you will get anything and anywhere in life. It doesn't matter how smart or devoted you are to your studies, and children from these families know that and are brainwashed into believing many untrue facts about life from their parents. These children will get good jobs and live wealthy lives because of their last names and connections. Connections run Colombian society, I asked a girl my age who had just graduated and was looking for a job. I asked her how one goes about getting a job out of college, she described that you must fill out applications online, but more than anything its the connections you can make or your family has. Luckily, I have very little contact with these families and children, because as I stated before la UdeM is a middle class university and the cheapest of all the private universities in Medellín where tuition is based on your income and it has a high level of diversity. Not to say that there aren't ugly girls with zebra-striped hair, braces, boob jobs and lipo-sunction driving nice cars, but its no EAFIT (the "best" University in Colombia, full of spoiled rich kids) who go to college just because its the next step not because they care. Jessy however works at one of the "best", meaning expensive, colegios (schools) in Medellín called Montessori (although it is far from a true Montessori school). I went to visit her last week, to check the scene and attend her little kid gymnastics class (which was awesome). The campus was beautiful and cute, however Jessy and any other teach I've met who works there can give you quite an earful of the problems they experience working at Montessori. This job has given her quite the insight to the upper class and El Poblado life of Paisas. El Poblado is the most southern part of the city which also happens to be the most upperclass neighborhood. There are many people who live in the hills of El Poblado (where you MUST have a car) and never leave this sector, unless they are forced to and then they keep their car windows up, do their business and hurry back to the high rises, tennis courts, golf courses and pools of El Poblado. Everyday Jessy has a new ridiculous story about the lives and attitude of her students and even worse, their parents. There are many behavioral problems and even some incest... rich families marry rich families... its not uncommon for cousins to marry cousins (first cousins!) and the result?... strange looking children... this is no joke.
Last night (Saturday), we met up with a friend of Meg's from Cartagena who is a break dancer, in an outlying barrio of Medellín for a Concurso de Breakdancing (competition). As we cruised North out of our normal comfort zone of the city, I looked at Meg "where the heck are we going?", she shrugged and laughed. "Alright," I said as I looked around feeling nervous, "I guess I should just accept that I might get robbed tonight"I joked. Meg laughed at me, because this of course is always a possibility no matter where we are, but since we stand out even more in poorer barrios like this we feel more at risk. But we would be with the 6'3" Colombian and we weren't planning on wandering around the streets after the show was over, so we'd probably be ok. The crowd was very Colombian and Hip-Hop (Colombian style of course). We were the only gringos, sticking out like a sore thumb. We walked in and the whole crowd gave us a stare down. I smiled back at them and continued with my life. The Concurso was amazing and a great additional study to my side project for Fulbright...Colombian Dance... Not exactly sure what the final product of all this will be, but it has been quite enjoyable to experience and observe many different kinds of Colombian Performing arts. Keko, Meg's friend from Cartagena, is an awesome guy. He is spirited, fun, intelligent and apparently a talented break dancer. He was not in the competition although he says he has the skill level to compete. Since the moment I met him a week ago, he has been teaching me and sharing with me the culture, style and the specifics of breakdancing. In fact he won a scholarship to go the US for a month in December to study and practice Breakdancing. Apparently it is a more developed subculture and practice in Colombia than one might expect. In Medellín there are many hiphop schools and in el concurso there were groups from all over the country. It is certainly very different than any style of dance I have ever done, but it is beautiful, challenging, useful and amazing in many of its own ways. Breakdancers are called B Boys or B Girls and its a style and way of life. Keko was describing to me last night how it is used to solve problems as an alternative to violence, because its about showing off your skills and being humbled and inspired to practice more and get better when presented with someone more talented than you. He described how for him its a mental reminder to be a good person as well as a kind of meditation and inspiration. Furthermore, the crowd is often a huge influence as they know and respond when one dancer has more passion, style and talent than the other. In the Concurso there were two judges from New York and L.A. and they judge in 5 categories (can't remember them all). There are many rules to a contest and many categories of competition. It was a fun and unique experience as well as a way to further understand and experience the Colombian culture outside the little bubble we can so easily remain within.
Tonight Jessy is having a potluck at her house! I made roasted corn salsa, but am having a hard time making it a decent spicy level since most Colombians can hardly handle the spiciness of mint gum.
Been dreaming about the fall and how its such a magical time of year. In the grocery store today they had ornamental pumpkins and I almost bought one just to put in my room. I'm craving the flavors of fall, the weather and the feelings as the days get shower and energy begins to slow as we leave summer and enter the winter months. Living in the tropics and on the equator has many benefits, however as an North American changing seasons are seriously missed as the weather affects your life and personality so much throughout the year. Here we are in the midst of rainy season, which kinda feels like winter, but it will be over in a month or two, which I am excited about because my tan has started fade :)
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