I was just reading about the history of my “hometown” these last six months, Pereira, Colombia, and stumbled upon a random factoid that stood out. Freeing yourself of existing beliefs is perhaps one of the best forms of understanding.
Let me back up for a second to put this in context. It is no secret that governments in Latin America struggle to maintain order and that corruption is widespread. This comes not as a dig against them, it is simply the case, and anyone here will tell you that. Okay, let us move on.
When it comes to Colombia, the story gets even more chaotic. It is also very well known that perhaps the most beautiful country on earth also is the home of some of the most notorious narco-traffickers and a 40-year struggle with leftist movements. The violence has claimed many lives and has also led to foreign meddling, as is the case with the U.S. and its Plan Colombia. A byproduct of the latter is the widespread destruction of farmland that has displaced many rural residents. However, none of these problems are significant players today in the country, at least on its impact on general safety. It has been almost 30 years since Pablo.
When I registered as traveling internationally with the State Department before I left for Medellin last September, I did so not out of any fear of where I was going. The only thing I thought of Colombia at the time was coffee, and I registered in hopes that somehow it may help me in getting the V.A. to send the medications I need post-cancer/transplant while I was away.
I immediately started getting emails from the State Department bots telling me how dangerous Colombia is, how kidnapping and murder are “common,” and that muggings happen all the time, and on and on, telling me how I was DOOMED! “So be careful.”
Don’t Believe Everything You Are Told
Armed with that knowledge, I headed right into it. Medellin steps away from Envigado, made recently famous again by the Netflix Narco series when they featured the Medellin Drug Cartel and Pablo Escobar store. He was from Envigado, and in those neighborhoods, you see in the series, a lot of that is Poblado, the one in which I resided.
When I arrived, I found a completely different situation on the ground.
Populated with perhaps the friendliest, engaging, welcoming, and genuinely lovely people I have ever encountered in my life, I fell in love with the place immediately. Only the Haight Ashbury/S.F. vibe of the late 80s/early 90s (I was born in the 60s, so I was not there for that) was close, or perhaps some areas of western Oregon to how “at home” I felt with the reception of the people.
Medellin is also where I met Juliana Tabares, who I had known only through social media and private messaging and videos for several months before arriving. She was in the doorway of my first Air B&B the day I arrived to greet me, and she is currently sleeping in the next room as I type. Having her with me through all of this has been a blessing, and now back to the story.
I only lasted seven weeks in Antioquia, the department Medellin is in, and, together with my new partner Juliana Tabares, moved to her hometown. Pereira is located in the Department of Risaralda, in the Coffee Axis, the oldest coffee-producing area of the country, and sits in the center of the Golden Triangle, which consists of Medellín, Cali, and Bogota. It is a medium-size city with perfect weather all year long. Each day, the weather is the same. It is somewhere between 70-80 degrees, with most days featuring some rain and temps suitable. Located so close to the equator, Colombia does not have seasons. The city is ripe with all the fruits and vegetables of South America in season all the time.
You can hear me yelling “aguacate, aguacate, mango, aguacate” as they walk with a wheel-barrel full down the street throughout the day. Papaya, guava, bananas, plantains, and some I either don’t know how to pronounce or have not seen yet are available every couple of blocks from local markets to street vendors. It is an organic paradise full of some of the healthiest foods the earth provides. Both avocado (aguacate) and papaya (pronounced “pa-pie-jah” like Medellin is “Medda-Jean,” the “ll” makes a “J” sound in Colombian Spanish).
So, if it is not evident, I have been highly impressed with Colombia. So much so that I intend to seek residence here if I can find a way, but that is another story, and let us see if I end up saying that about Mexico, or Tanzania, or Croatia; all places on the list for “next.” Also, I will go deeper into what sets the people of Colombia apart from where I come from, the United States, once I get a little bit of distance from here to be as objective as possible. As of right now, Colombians are way out in the lead, but the U.S. right now is also at all-time low incivility.
Speaking of civility, let us talk about a popular political hot potato at times in the U.S. Since the U.S. State Department felt the need to make this country appear as stepping into the movie Escape from New York, let us talk about that for a second.
My opinion on this topic is irrelevant. I am mainly trying to distance myself from all U.S. political talk as I left it in the states. However, the death penalty comes up from time to time back home, so let us compare the two on just that issue.
In Colombia, the last execution was of David Lopez, who was 19 and convicted of murder. By his request of the executioners, he was shot through the heart on July 26, 1890, or about 130 years ago.
Since resurrecting the practice in 1972, over 1,500 people have been put to death, and currently, over 2,500 are awaiting execution.
Why? For killing someone, of course, or more than one anyway. Speaking of that, while statistics are always questionable, let us look at murder. In 2019, there were 16,425 reported in the U.S. In 2020 in Colombia, the number is 326. Now, before you say that since Colombia is a developing nation, and I have already mentioned corruption, that the number is actually much higher, it probably is, but it is still 16,000 less than the U.S., so that is a lot of coverups if indeed it is the case.
Indeed, it is not.
Overall, this is how people from the United States faired in Colombia the year before I arrived.
“Three U.S. citizens died in homicides in 2019, two of which occurred in Cartagena; more than a dozen private U.S. citizens reported being the victims of armed robberies. There was one reported incident of sexual assault of a U.S. citizen.…FARC dissidents not participating in the peace process, the ELN, and criminal groups have extorted all types of commercial entities in their areas of operation. They may use violence, including bombings if targets do not meet their demands.”
Also, in 2017 nine tourists were reported as being murdered while in Colombia, while 177 were killed in the U.S.
So, what is the point of all of this? When I read that the town I have lived in for five months, Pereira, was also the last place of state execution in a land that so many see as violent, one that including a beautiful city that TIME Magazine called “The Most Dangerous City in the World” in 1988, Medellin, the irony of it struck me.
Every country has its problems, every county as killings, and how much of it depends on so many things. Stable government is the number one contributing factor. But for these two, the oldest constitutional governments in North and South America, the struggle seems epic.
Look at the U.S., where a government that appears stable on the surface can not do anything but demonize each other’s positions and drag the population down with its divisions. Murder, and mass murder, and incarceration are through the roof, and the nightly news is like a horror movie.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, poverty, crime, and corruption have created a land where there is minimal opportunity but plenty to eat. Absent strong leadership, like in the U.S., the various interests explode from time to time in unrest. The prevailing corruption leads to turning the other cheek to drug trafficking in the form of bribes or different political deals.
Still, the question remains, why did I write this? Why should anyone care about what another person from the United States has to say about Colombia, and what value is any of this to someone in Dallas, or Seattle, or Chatanooga?
I wrote it because, as an “American,” which Colombians also areas they are from South America, I think someone needs to say these things. I could have been much franker, and I also mentioned some things no commonly talked in this way, but we need more of that up north and get off the exceptional high horse we ride.
Being born in small-town southern Illinois then moving to Chicago’s affluent neighborhood Norward Park, by 18, I had only known one lifestyle. One where I had everything I needed, though at the time, like most kids, I did not see it that way. I had it made. After leaving Chicago in 1985 and then moving around the country a lot over the next three decades, I experience much more of the diversity of life. However, it was all still the United States and more or less the same.
Living in a developing country is not like the relatively easy life of some of the hardest-hit areas of first-world countries. Only in some tiny sections of the U.S have I experienced anything even close. I have been to Pine Ridge, I have been to Appalachia, I grew up in the City of Chicago, and I have seen what it is like on skid row. Still, nothing prepared me for what I have seen here in some places. The difference is that in Colombia, the people do not complain, do not look for handouts, and live. They do not “wear their emotions on their sleeve.”
I noted this when I arrived in Poblado and was immediately inundated with most Venezuelans who had fled the socialist takeover of their homeland, which ushed in a very oppressive government. They were not asking for pesos, and they were selling things, all kinds of things. Cigarettes, candy, bracelets, iPhone covers, fancy facemasks, you name it, and they are everywhere. They are not pushy, and they do not expect you to buy anything. They show you and perhaps have a brief sales pitch. Often their kids are right there along with them, sometimes it is a whole family, and they do not have a home at all.
Other times you see men just lying on the sidewalk. This is relatively common in the busier districts. They naturally frequent these areas looking for aid in whatever way they can find it and lay down on a box. The Policia wake them up if they sleep too late to tell them to move along, sometimes, and I have only seen that in Pereira.
But from the poorest of the poor to the elegantly dressed women who are very aware of the appearance, nobody seems to have an opinion really about anything. You may see a football jersey, or soccer as we say in the states. Still, you will not see a political message like “Save the Earth” or a candidate hat, sticker, or any accurate indication of what the individual believes in or otherwise do, and, by and large, they are helpful.
It is common to see men stop walking when they see someone trying to parallel park, get up alongside the car, and start doing hand and arm signals while calling out to the driver to help them park. Being greeted as you pass someone in a hallway, in an elevator, or even walking down the street is almost a given.
Unlike Medellin, Pereira does not have much of an ex-pat community, and I have met just one fellow digital nomad, who, oddly enough, is also from Chicago. In my time here, thanks to my girlfriend Juli, her friends, and her family, I have been able to enjoy the Colombia experience in a very authentic way. However, I still struggle with my Spanish language.
If nothing else, take from this that so much of what we hear about others may have elements of truth but that it does not necessarily paint a complete picture. Walking the streets of the U.S. is not like walking the streets of Colombia because this is potentially a more dangerous place simply because everyone is everywhere. You do not have white neighborhoods, black neighborhoods, or any other significant difference between areas of town. Sure, there are “safer” areas, but three blocks away can be a completely different story. I am not trying to say the U.S. is more dangerous. It is not in the vast majority of places.
That said, if I was in a bind and needed help and was given the option of an average United States citizen or an average Colombian? I would choose the Colombian. Why? Because of that very question which would likely be the North American answer: “Why would I help you?” Not every time, but a lot of the time. For my South American brother or sister, it would be: “What can I do?” and I bet that would be almost every time.
This may sound unbelievable to some, particularly back home, but that is why it is important to free yourself of existing believes in the first place. The world is bigger than the safe bubble of the norm.
Visit Colombia but leave the U.S. mindset at home along with your Cubs hat and wonder if the Final Four will be televised. It will not be, but what will be on the T.V. either. It will be a country full of beautiful people who populate perhaps the naturally wealthiest nation globally, from Salento to Santa Marta and Bogota to the Amazon. Colombia has it all, and they will no hurt you either. It’s okay, it is, but be sure to look before you leap on places you choose to go. Opportunity is where the problems may arise, be smart, just like in my other hometown of Chicago. Now that is a dangerous place.
https://windandraven.com//blog/a-fresh-start-at-reinvention/