By: Sylvia Davila MM
Bogotá
I have always thought that Culture found a terrible fate when it was confined to a government line. If we go back to the first day of creation, culture is born from a long process. It begins, I guess, with a group of people sharing a territory. Then, I assume, those people get their primary needs satisfied. It follows, I believe, a basic living agreement. And, when the community recognizes to every individual his or her right to think the world sees “the Egyptian architect, the Babylonian astronomer, the Hebrew prophet, the Persian ruler, the Greek poet, the roman engineer, the Hindu saint, the Japanese artist and the Chinese sage.”* Culture does not need permission.
When people use their right to think the natural result is creation. There’s when we thank God for music, poetry, literature, dance, theatre, movies, television, and – to keep ourselves in our context – Barranquilla’s Carnival, Bogotá’s Theatre Festival, the street storytellers, the Vallenato Festival, Batuta Symphonic Orchestra, the variety of vests, Botero’s fat ladies, the currulao, salsa and merengue (typical dances), tamales de pipian y ajiaco (typical dishes), Cali and Pasto Fairs, capachos llaneros (typical musical instruments), the cachaco’s chocolate, the Guajira’s dresses, La Candida Erendida and Rin Rin Renacuajo (personages from books), the shores, two oceans, the jungle, the desert, the plains and Los Andes mountains. Colombia is paint in colours.
This might be the reason why this Presidential
elections has showed not just the traditional blue and red, but a new variety
of orange, yellow, green and white. This is our culture of many colours. And
the fact that every community – ascribed not to a territory but to an idea-
uses its right to think with colour, gives hope to everyone. It is the hope of
any country wishing to produce architects, astronomers, prophets, rulers,
poets, engineers, artists and sages of all kind. The right to think and to communicate
freely IS culture expanding with knowledge, ideas and arts. You can ask a
candidate many things, but if he assures us that, the country and every
individual have a future. /SILVIA DAVILA MORALES®
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