The multicultural Colombia mosaic is much different than in Canada. This is one thing that has been weird when coming back to Canada. No one is out of place in Canada; at least not in the major cities. Canada is arguably the most multicultural country in the world (sorry USA, I think we have you beat.) Colombia, on the other hand, embraces a much different form of multiculturalism.

Ya, Canada’s pretty beautiful too.

It’s funny what we have a greater appreciation for once leaving our own country. Random biggest craving I had while I was in Colombia? Indian food. Is Indian food Canadian? No, but in a funny way it is. Some of the best Indian food outside of Delhi can be found in Canada’s large cities.

Colombia, on the other hand, doesn’t even have a single Indian restaurant in it’s second largest city, Medellin. I realize the reasoning behind this; there are probably less people of Indian heritage in all of Colombia than in a square kilometer in Vancouver. On top of this, Colombians aren’t accustomed to, nor do they enjoy Indian food.

The illustration of Indian food I make just as an example of things that we take for granted in Canada. The world is within our borders, and we can find near anything we want from any corner of the world within our major cities. I came home from South Korea a few years ago, and can still eat an amazing Korean BBQ whenever I feel the desire. This is not possible in Bogota, which is 8x the size of Calgary.

Slave trade statue in Cartagena. This sad history is part of Colombia’s multiculturalism.

OK, I’ve focused a lot on the food aspect of multiculturalism; I’ve done this for two reason. One, it’s a big part of a culture. Two, I love food.

Obviously there is much more than food options to concern yourself with when talking about multiculturalism. Colombia, in many ways, is a multicultural country; it’s just not multicultural in a way in which a Canadian is familiar. Within Colombia’s borders there are a plethora of indigenous tribes, all with their own customs, cultures, traditions, clothing, and yes, food.

There are also many people descending from different backgrounds. Colombia has the third largest population of people with African heritage in the New World, behind only the USA and Brazil. The dances, food, drink, music, and customs of this Colombian sub-group is extremely rich. I had the opportunity to attend the Pacific Music Night during the Feria de Cali. A non-black Colombian was a rare sight this evening, never mind a gringo like your’s truly.

Colombia’s Pacific Coast is largely of African decent.

This Pacific Music Night reflected very clearly to me the rich diversity of Colombia’s different people. I was able to try their food (mostly fried fish,) their drink (terrible tasting fermented who-knows-what,) and their dance (which is much better than their food or alcohol.) One of my most vivid memories from Colombia was dancing in the middle of a dance circle, having about 20 black Colombians cheering me on. Then, with the warmth that was so frequently shown me while in Colombia, they went about showing me new moves to work on, all the while cheering me on when I got close to nailing said move.

Carnaval in Barranquilla is a “must-see” event to see the beauty and complexity of a multicultural Colombia.

The true fibre of a country comes out during their festivals. Nowhere is this more evident than during the Carnaval de Barranquilla. Carnaval is Colombia’s biggest festival, and the second largest Carnaval on the continent. The whole of Colombia’s history, culture, traditions, and people can be seen dancing down the streets of Barranquilla during this amazing event. You’d have a challenge arguing that Colombia wasn’t multicultural after witnessing, and participating in this spectacle of colour, life, people, and culture.

Having traveled widely around Colombia, I can definitely say that it is multicultural. The Paisas of Medellin are as culturally different to the Costeños as Canadians are to Europeans. The Cogi people of the Sierra Nevadas are a world away from the Rolos of Bogota. This is multiculturalism in Colombia. They just don’t have Indian food.

Thanks to Marcello (in the black) for taking today’s photos.  I was one row further back, and therefore couldn’t take as good of photos.  This picture is of the five of us enjoying the parade together.  I had another foam battle with Candy’s little daughter, Maria.  Very fun.

From 2 to 92 all Carnaval-goers were having a great time!  This guy was practicing his moves.  I think he has the idea.

Elaborate costumes abound.  Amazing visual experience.

I love this woman’s smile.  So authentic and beautiful.

Marcello and Maria doing their best Blues Brother impression.  She was adorable.  And quite the little warrior with a foam spray can, too.

Another amazing smile on a dancer.  There were definitely no shortage of mega-watt smiles on the parade route.

I think the guy in this pairing is in awe of the beauty of the woman he was paired with, since he doesn’t seem to be moving.  I don’t know if guys in Colombia are aware of just how beautiful the women are in their country.  Hopefully these portraits from Carnaval can help demonstrate this beauty to the world.

Abrazos.

This guy played his part perfectly.  Stoic stare the whole time.  Helped that he was skelton skinny, and very tall.

These slave boys run around covered in shoe polish and stretch their move into contorted positions.  I don’t know how long they have to exercise their mouth muscles to be able to come up with some of the crazy positions. One woman’s dance routine last year took three months of practice.  Maybe these guys do it year round, since they don’t need to be with their friends to perfect their style.

Just one example of the beautiful poses that these dancers put on for the photographers.  They always have a beaming smile, and a perfect pose for the camera.  I don’t know how they keep the energy up for so long.  My guess, however, is that the city just feeds off of the collective energy that is created for this magnificent event.

The costumes come in all shapes, sizes, colours, and motifs.  This guy was telling me that if I kissed his ring I could be his boy slave.  Needless to say, I didn’t take him up on his offer.

Here I am posing with an Amazon hunter boy.  I think he’s ready to go in for the kill.

As I showed in my previous post, a common occurrence during Carnaval are foam fights.  This time we had to leave our foam at the checkpoint, so we decided to have some fun with it.  Doesn’t Marcello look beautiful?

This woman looks a bit confused.  I’m sure she has seen a few Carnavals in her days.  It’d be great to talk with an abuela about their experiences over the years of Carnavals.  Maybe next year.

These beautiful dresses are used during the beautiful dance called the cumbia.  I learned to dance this dance last night.  I quite enjoyed it.  It’s a suave dance, and the men use their sombreros to frame the women.  The candles were used in days past to illuminate the dance.

This is a mascot for one of the local soccer (futbol) teams.  Apparently the team from Barranquilla won the Colombian league last year.

I took this while sitting on some steps.  I love the blue dusk sky framing him.  He didn’t know I took the photo.  I hope he’s OK with that.

This is another photo after the foam fight was done.  We had called a truce, and our adversary sat still for long enough to get this great shot.  I don’t know what Marcello’s doing here, but I know we were having fun.

Abrazos.

There are some beautiful parades to watch during the Carnaval in Barranquilla, but most of the fun is in the participation.  The Gran Parada has fences up to block you from participating in the streets with the people of the parade.  In general, it’s a spectator event.  It’s an amazing, high paced, and beautiful spectator event, but still, a spectator event.  I think, however, the greatest attribute of this spectacular festival is interacting with the beautiful people of Colombia.  I had written a previous article on how warm and fun-loving the people are in Colombia.  This comes out in spades during  their festivals.  I’m sure this will be evident in the pictures that follow.

Lina, with all her rage and hate, bringing swift vengeance and justice to her attackers.  If her mom hated us for bringing out the little hellion in her girl, she sure didn’t seem to mind.  Like the vast majority of Carnaval-goers she was just happy to see people having fun.

  More fun being had by our Argentinean fence-jumpers with a band of drummers. 

   

I asked this woman for a photo of her and her beautiful little girl.  She quite obviously was happy to pose for a photo for me.  The little girl is wearing a common costume here.  I asked a woman later in the day what was the significance of the red polka dots.  She told me that it was the uniform for the maids during the slave days.  The women who worked in the houses of the slave owners wore this uniform.  Now many of the women around town wear a variation of this costume, or just a bow in their hair, like the one the girl has in her hair.

The little ones in the parade were so cute.  You’d think that in the hot midday sun they would be tired and not so happy, but that was not the case.  I didn’t see a single kid crying or screaming that they didn’t want to be marching all day in a hot costume.  To the contrary, they would stop, smile and pose for photos.  All of my friends agreed that the little ones were a highlight of every parade.

I love the above photo.  This girl is filled with pride for the pretty dress she’s wearing, and her dad is filled with pride seeing his little girl so happy and proud during Carnaval.  This photo says more about the people here in Colombia than I could ever try to describe in words.  I’ll keep trying, don’t get me wrong, but the intangibles in this photo just can’t be put into words.