COLOMBIA THROUGH TIME (week 12-13)

Sebastian`s life was wonderful, he had all things he wanted, but not all things he wanted. He was born in the sixteenth of August 1536, and so his parents considered him “a gift from God to celebrate victory” but he didn`t consider himself as such thing. It was August sixteenth 1544, and Sebastian was bored in his huge room, with all kinds of luxuries in his big mansion at Barcelona, thinking of the only wish he had made since he was 3: that he could go out of his fantasy world of rich and explore how the world was. But suddenly a familiar voice woke him up saying: “Sebastian we`re leaving the country”. When the young boy heard the news, he thought his dream was finally becoming true, and he got so excited that he packed his bags in almost a second. He was going to Colombia as a birthday gift from his parents, because they were aware of Sebastian`s dream, and it was the family’s first time.

When he arrived to the colony, he saw it a little different than Spain. There were people with rare clothes, making sounds with some things that he couldn`t even dream of. He was not scared, but, as many other kids, he was interested, and he asked his mother who they were, but he was amazingly surprised when she said they were nothing he should worry about, because his mother had never answered him that way before, and the mystery interested him even more. At the big house were him and his family were staying, he heard his parents talk: “Sebastian is a very special boy, but he is interested in foolish things, when we know he could become minister”…

At the next morning, after what he learned after his short presence in Colombia, he looked into some books, but they talked about how Colombia became a great place since the colonialism, but he wanted to see something different. Some minutes later, he saw how everything changed, and he felt like he was in a movie, and it skipped ahead many years. When finally everything was calm, he found himself in a plane space, with plenty of Sun, but what was happening wasn`t as good as the day. It was a battle, and he saw as the two bands killed each other, but there was one side which seemed more powerful than the other one. One had armors, and was very strong, and Sebastian immediately recognized it as the people he saw very often at home. The other side was likely to the people he saw when he first arrived to Colombia, and he saw them suffering in big amounts. The scene was the worst thing he had ever seen, with plenty of blood and deaths, so he realized that back home he was living in a fairy tale. It was all skipped ahead again, and he found himself in a better place: it was a marked, but Sebastian felt very confused, and he was in shock so he passed out. At the next day, he was in the ground of the same place that he was before he passed out. It was the same market in an afternoon, and he saw people with a different culture then he was used to, there was plenty of noise, and people selling and buying things, when he saw a newspaper saying: “Bolivar, the Saver of the Independence”. In the newspaper, it was March 5 1811, and he asked a seller: “Where am I? Who is Bolivar? Who are they? Why is it 1811? ...

The man didn`t even look at him, so he asked again, but the man still didn`t pay attention. Sebastian didn’t understand a thing about what was happening, and he knew he had to discover things on his own. Some days later, he was still in the same place, which wasn`t so strange to him after some investigation. He realized he was still in Colombia, but it changed. Now his country didn`t rule Colombia, but it was a different government. When he found out about all this, he also saw that Colombia was a little smaller than he remembered, and he knew many things had changed, he somehow knew that it was a more peaceful way, despite the battle he saw earlier, because in mysterious ways he knew that battle was worth it. Once more, he saw how everything changed, but this time it was a rewind, and he was again at Colombia in December 6th 1544, reading the same book he was reading before the craziness started, and then his mother told him: “Sebastian, honey, are you all right?” He stood still and said: “This will change”.

THE INDEPENCE (wk 11a)

As we well know, the Spanish government did things in Colombia that benefited them and their people. There was a stratocracy established in Sevilla, and it represented the King Fernando 7th, and it was the government during that time in Colombia, and it ruled very radically on every aspects. This government didn`t realize that their harsh ways of ruling could come into unexpected consequences. So during these people
ruled, others were planning a revolution and being prepared. Among other conflicts, the people who were planning a revolution didn`t realize that some more conflicts were going to be presented, and that was another reason to be prepared (all this happened in 1808, because 2 years before the independence they were already setting up a strategy for freedom).

It was a very hard work to accomplish the independence for everyone in all aspects, and now all that was left to do was to organize a new government with a better rule, and so they tried to build a more modern thing: “La Independencia constituye, entonces, un fenómeno de ruptura y transición, un esfuerzo por salir del pasado y por construir la modernidad” (Colombia, Imágenes de su Diversidad, pg. 127). But this did not result, and brought our country plenty of civil wars, politic debates, popular conflicts, etc. These conflicts brought a failure in the Republic, because of bad organization from the new government, and because of this failure, this was called by some “La patria boba”.

The independence was a very hard thing to get, and, we got it, and many things changed since the independence, but our government didn`t think well about the consequences that the new and first republic (since the colonialism) would bring if some did not agree with the new form of government , and this brought to failure into the first Republic and led to bad things. In conclusion, the independence was accomplished, but its organization and its first attempt to make a good government failed.

THE FARMS (wk 10a)

The farms were very useful businesses but they were not very studied themes, and that is going to be the theme for this week’s essay. These farms were very good systems for everyone, since they helped them in all aspects, plus it was not a hard business to handle.
The ranches produced every variety of things, such as “cacao”, banana, sugar, fruits, etc, and these things went out to the market and were sold at very good prices for the costumers and for the owners of the ranches.
The people were all satisfied with the new business, and they started to have ranches all over Colombia. These places were very big, because to be able to produce something, they needed certain space to produce good products and with more order. The farms also could last a lot of time in function, and this made a long time of life with many benefits for many generations.

As mentioned before, the farms were very good businesses and was one of the benefits during the colonialism, but these places had also many debts and neighbors often complained about them. Some ranches didn’t work and had to close because they had a bad start or because they didn’t produce enough things to pay for them later.
Some farms specified on producing a single thing, like “cacao”, because it was sold vey good and people found it easier to produce and a smarter way to handle farms.
Farms benefited natives too, because they saw it as living their own law, as we can see in the book: “Basta afirmar que fue un simbolo de libertad para indios que huian de la oppression de sus encomenderos o para marginados que huían de la justicia y deseaban vivir en su propia ley” (Colombia, Imágenes de su Divesidad, pg 101).
Farms lasted a lot of time because as the owners died, their heirs assumed control over the farms. Mostly the people with power owned a farm, so it was mostly the Spaniards who owned a ranch, and it was very rarely that the natives had a fam of their own.

In conclusion, we see that the ranches were a step up in economic situations during the colonialism, and they even benefited natives, but they also caused trouble in the government. The owners were mostly rich and powerful, plus these places sometimes were very varied and sometimes they weren´t, because the “cacao” was a very good business. Some were not successful because of different reasons.

THE SLAVES (WEEK 9)

During the colonialism, an important fact happened: the Europeans took black people and the mixture of Spaniards with natives as slaves to satisfy their needs. The slaves` ways of living, of eating, and their habits are going to be our theme for this week. Their life conditions were really tough and exhausting, but unfortunately there was nothing they could do to avoid the slavery or even soften it. The slaves weren`t only men, but the women, children, and third age people had to suffer the same conditions.

The number of slaves was amazingly high, and this fact was for the Europeans to take advantage of a lot. The Spaniards mainly used the slaves to destroy the native architectural design, and change it into more interesting designs, so the slaves were useful to help build that. They also helped to search for gold in the mines, and to help in the houses in their masters. They built their homes in ranches, in places that gave homes to plenty of slaves and families, even though those were very small places for such a big amounts of slaves, including families and couples.

Their bad situations of living exposed them to bad situations of living exposed them to diseases: “Quienes sobrevivían quedaban expuestos a múltiples enfermedades”(Colombia, imágenes de su diversidad, pg 94). Their masters were supposed to take care of them, meaning to give them food, clothes, and supply them with needed medicines and health. The masters accomplished with all these tasks, but the help was minimum, because the needed care was not taken and the slaves did not have enough money or sources to satisfy their needs. Some were so crazy that even hit their masters.

The slaves had to work a lot, but they couldn`t complain about anything, because their punishment was severe, and it was the same conditions for women, men, and children.

The responsibility of the slaves` health and care was mainly of the masters, because traditionally they were supposed to assure all the needs of the slaves in exchange for work, but this didn`t last much, especially when the slaves were powerless, and, in contrast, the masters were very powerful. Some slaves managed to escape these places, others got caught triyng to escape, and others were scared of escaping.

The slaves lived in ranches, eating whatever they could find, and that affected their chances of living longer, because they died of diseases, of cold, hunger, and fatigue. The Spaniards took the black people as slaves because they were very resistant to everything. The economic situations of the slaves were also very bad so they had to take advantage of every little thing that the Europeans provided them, even though it was a very unfair situation, because they worked more than 12 hours and their pay was a little food and clothes.

The diseases were very common among the slaves, because they didn`t eat well, plus it was very hard work, with almost no rest, and they had no vaccination to anything, so their exposure to any kinds of diseases was very high. These facts could also apply to the prices of the slaves, because they might be useless with a serious disease or a defect. The young slaves (children) weren`t bought too often because in their growth they were more exposed to infectious disease than the adults, and they were also very weak and small.

As a conclusion, the slaves had to destroy their own things, cave in mines, and serve the houses in exchange for little food clothes, and health. Besides, they had to live in little ranches for plenty of slaves and very ill in all aspects. They were so ill that the Europeans had to isolate the slaves with viruses to keep them from spreading them, because there were already very few slaves.