COLOMBIAN SOAP OPERAS: A JOURNEY OF RECOGNITION

If there is something common with the citizens of this beautiful country is that everyone, at
some point in our lives, have seen an afternoon soap opera. It's something that could sound
stupid or useless for some people, but for anyone who embarks on the adventure of
knowing and understanding our culture, must know without doubt the important and
undeniable role that soap operas has in our society.
Year after year, from the reception of television in our country, with the subsequent birth of
the channels and production houses to maintain their popularity and reputation so far, we
have seen how screenwriters, writers of great stories, have written scripts worthy of
Broadway, as we have also seen great fiascos that become schools for themselves, on how
not to write, produce and direct a novel.
Titles like "Caf con Aroma de Mujer, Alondra, Gallito Ramrez and Yo soy Betty la fea",
marked a fairly extensive period, although the many years between production and other,
they preserve the characteristic genius and mysticism of the novels; Soap operas of this
period, specifically between the 60's and 80's, were productions with extensive dialogues,
keeping the moderation and customs of that years, but more than anything, was the surreal
representation of the very Colombian society, social and political reality , their legends,
their flaws, their stories inherited by generations, and everything portrayed in episodes 60
minutes: the novels were, unequivocally, the version on flesh of the macondo spirit
which one day Gabo immortalized us.
To nineties soap opera took a more proactive line in its themes, addressing the needs of
innovation and addressing other contexts, keeping the touch of fantasy and television soap.
The stories then mixed themes intermingled local and regional to the global environment,
large markets and the ever common melodrama of the poor woman who falls for the well
rich business man.
By the year of 2000 and its subsequent decade, the novel certainly was industrialized; were
increasingly common major television productions full of stunning scenery and great
logistical deployment bringing to our screens night after night a final product that stole our
breath away and we could not believe the channel with the rating shift could achieve but
somehow or another, we caught and forced us to know if the next day the star would charge
his revenge or the protagonist would know who had stolen his newborn son.
However, in accordance with the expressed here, certainly the soap opera exploited the
political, social and cultural reality of the country for the development of Star scripts, but
our history undeniably permeated by war and drug trafficking, filtered in the fabric of our
soaps so much that for a couple of years, the young man who wanted to have easy money
and the teenager who dreamed of an easy life, marked the theme of all the novels that were
produced. They never stopped talking about our heavier cross - our history - at any time,
they only had forgotten the details and romantic happy endings.
Finally, we are in the era of globalization where is really difficult to capture the attention of
an audience that has seen movies and series with the purest stamp of U.S. production, the
public which no doubt have raised the quality standards of the things they observe and
obsess. Soap operas shouldnt try to be in plane that is not theirs, not referring to formats
but content, because, in my personal opinion, they alone are a legacy, are heritage of our
culture, who we are. The novel should not be underestimated because they dont have the
largest technology deployment, no; it should be kept, treasured, like any archaeological
pieces that date from the pre-Columbian or the copy of one hundred of solitude that rests
in each Colombian middle class house, the favorite public.






















CARIBBEAN COST MUSIC
As an important aspect of Latin American culture, music has a unique and special place.
For us, the music always has been an escape door, the voice that cannot be repressed, that
has immortalized years and years of cultural and social changes. In this short text I will
refer to the Colombian music, specifically, two rhythms that were born here, in the
Caribbean cost: Vallenato and Champeta.
Both, created in different times and context, agrees in one single part, they are a reliable
representation of the society who created them. I am going to start with Vallenato. Beyond
the origins and the sources of the rhythms and instruments, I would like to talk about the
letter of the songs and its transformation. At the beginning, the vallenato songs used to talk
about legends, the letters were an exaltation for those histories that our ancestors inherited
to us, which could speaks about the man who become an alligator in order to spy the naked
women on the river or maybe just tell the achievements of the farmer that worked really
hard that day. With the passing of the years and the addition of instruments, the sounds of
vallenato evolved; also the letters did it too, but never leave the initial inspiration: Society.
As we can see in many of the old songs, one of the main characteristics of the Caribbean
cost has been successfully portrayed: The machismo. For years, we have been a mens
society, women were just pretty ornamentation with the responsibility to support the man of
the house, raise the kids are pretend they dont have another family or another woman;
now, the letters speaks more about the relationships, about the cheating, the heartbreak and
the man effort to conquer a womans heart.
In the other Hand, we have the champeta, the rhythm that was born in the underground, in
the deepest of the eightys Cartagena society. The Champeta is commonly associated with
poverty, violence and bad taste, due to its origins, due to the first men who brought the
Africans and Caribbean sounds, that melted with our own legacy, creating a new rhythm
that represent a whole society, a big part of our history. The letters of the champeta songs
used to talk about the violence, about the police persecution to the citizens of the poorest
regions of Cartagena, which only crime seems to be had been born there. Finally, another
similitude between champeta and vallenato, could be the transformation process, despite of
keeps the society as their source of inspiration, the troubles and the common life, the
rhythms has changed, has became a huge phenomenon, has transcended the boundaries of
their first audience, the middle and lower classes, and has reached the upper class, showing
to the world that the music never was about the violence itself or maybe about just the
denigrating letter, showing that music, has been always the way out, the door that remains
open.









GO TO A CATHOLIC MASS: THE EXPERIENCE.
Go to a Catholic mass for us, is just one of the traditions that come off of the coffee
idiosyncrasies and was ingrained in our culture since the Spaniards set foot on this land, so
it is not strange that in a city like Cartagena, which evokes in every corner its Hispanic
history, have over 20 churches grounded in the Catholic, apostolic and Roman faith,
inherited faith, product of the Spanish syncretism that converted many African slaves to the
gospel. However, in the country there are places, settlements of African descent that have
retained their traditions, their original deities, their own songs of worship, which attempt to
inculcate in future generations. Now, I am going make the closest possible approximation
of the experience lived in a Catholic mass in our city. Since you go inside in the church, it
feels an air of revival but also spirituality, the priest's words are solemn and everything
goes step by step. Although we must also recognize that, like good Colombians, also the
mass permeates of that joy and songs of praise that are very common in our population. The
Catholic Mass has two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In
the liturgy of the word, readings are made in accordance with the feast of the church that is
held or depending on the time of the Catholic calendar. The liturgy of the Eucharist is
where it is the solemnity of this celebration, and here this is itself the axis of the Catholic
Mass in which the body and blood of Jesus are praised and recalls the last supper. For a true
Catholic, Mass is great event and is nice to see one way or another people connect with
God through it, plus it also reflects that the faith of the Colombian and the importance of
the religious aspect in the development of our culture is so big that we are known as the
country of the "sacred Heart".