Colombia’s Banana Massacre

Posted on December 21, 2014 Posted in Colombia, History, Latin AmericaTagged Banana, Ciénaga, Colombia, Minor Cooper Keith, United Fruit CompanyLeave a comment

Killing in the name of business. It’s hard to imagine today that this could have been even momentarily something to pass without condemnation, but times have changed. On Dec. 6, 1928, Colombian soldiers shot to death banana workers on strike at the United Fruit Company. The U.S. government’s man in Bogotá, Ambassador Jefferson Caffery, sent a dispatch home a month later, informing Washington: “I have the honor to report … that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military exceeded one thousand.”

Moneymaking could now return to normal after the month-long strike. Back in the U.S., an aging and ailing Minor Cooper Keith, founder of the United Fruit Company, got the news. Years earlier, Keith had been a restless youngster from New York City who bailed on his private schooling, and at 17 tried his hand at cattle ranching in Texas. But Texas wasn’t big enough for young Keith. Two years after Texas, Keith’s uncle and brothers invited him to Costa Rica to build a railroad. Continue reading on OZY…

photo: Keystone-France/Getty

Building Billion-Dollar Businesses in Latin America

Posted on December 6, 2014December 21, 2014 Posted in Business, Colombia, Economy, Latin AmericaTagged PolymathLeave a comment

Wenyi Cai goes to plop down in a chair in a cramped, bare-bones office with white walls, sticky notes and black scuff marks. I pin her at about 29, but to be polite, I pass over the question. Plus, she’s just jumped off a call with an investor that she admits was stressful. “Do you want this one?” I ask, hastily pushing the more comfy chair toward her. “No, it’s fine, whatever,” she shoots back. “Let’s do this. So, I’ve got like … what? Fifteen minutes.”

Cai, who is actually 30, is in a rush because she and her four other partners are out to build businesses through venture capital, but not Silicon Valley Cool. Her Colombia firm, Polymath Ventures, is all at the unglamorous end of the business, searching for ways to build scalable companies and services in underserved markets for Latin America’s emerging middle class. Continue reading on OZY…

photo credit: Juan Felipe Rubio

Healing Colombia’s Scars of War

Posted on November 27, 2014 Posted in Colombia, ConflictTagged conflict, Latin America, psychology, victimsLeave a comment

Eight years ago, around 1 in the morning, Colombian Edgar Bermudez woke to grenades raining down on him and his battalion. He and his men — on a mission to eradicate coca in the jungles of southwestern Colombia — had come under attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist rebel group at war with the Colombian state since 1964. Continue reading on Ozy…

Where Salsa, Jazz and Funk Collide

Posted on November 10, 2014November 27, 2014 Posted in Colombia, Culture, Latin AmericaTagged cali, Music, SalsaLeave a comment

The town of Timbiquí, the world Colombian singer Begner Vásquez grew up in, seemed more likely to deal him a fate of digging gold out of an illegal mine or send him into the crosshairs of his country’s armed conflict. But some things tilt history in your favor — like the record player Vásquez and his friends used to listen to in their small river town, a place tucked away and almost forgotten, a place buried in the thick jungle along Colombia’s Pacific coast. Population: 100. Continue reading on Ozy…

The Day Orlando Lost: Colombia Cockfighting In Photos

Posted on November 2, 2014November 12, 2014 Posted in Blog, Colombia, CultureTagged Ciénaga, cockfightingLeave a comment

When two men on Colombia’s Caribbean coast settle on a deal, they often say ‘palabra de Gallero,’ which means ‘Cockfighter’s word’. It means something along the lines of this: my promise to you is public and now written in stone.

It seems like just about every man I saw in the town of Ciénaga, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, had a gallo – a rooster – under his arm. Colombia’s Caribbean coast is known for its strong cockfighting tradition. This photo essay takes you inside the fight and tells of the time when Orlando de la Rosa lost the game. Continue reading on Beacon…

The Parabola of Tío

Posted on October 23, 2014November 12, 2014 Posted in Blog, Colombia, CultureLeave a comment

“Somehow, Tío is still drinking…,” I sometimes find that I say to myself mornings upon waking after the fiesta. I used to make this observation and say it with amazement. How can he be drinking at this ungodly hour? Now, I say it with very little surprise.

A personal essay about the place where I live, Colombian fiestas, and parabolas. Continue reading on Beacon…

Colombia: Guerrillas Demobilize, Forgive & Move On

Posted on October 18, 2014October 25, 2014 Posted in Colombia, Conflict, HistoryTagged demobilization, guerrilla, m-19Leave a comment

photo credit: Fernando Vergara/AP

Is peace with a guerrilla movement, followed by democratic political reintegration, actually possible? As Colombia continues to negotiate in Havana with its notorious FARC rebel group, its own history suggests maybe so. Continue reading on Ozy…

Damned Roosters

Posted on October 16, 2014October 25, 2014 Posted in Blog, Colombia, CultureTagged Ciénaga, cockfighting, roostersLeave a comment

You didn’t have to take more than one glance at Orlando de la Rosa to know how bad he had lost. Orlando de la Rosa leaned in on the rim of the arena and his black cowboy hat dipped down slightly. His shirt was still tucked deep into his jeans, his black boots dusty. But his moustache could not hide a tight and pensive expression on his face. The animal – his animal – was limp, laying on the ground, and covered in blood. His rooster was dying.

Cockfighting is a serious pastime for folks on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. So I persuaded my friend and guide Benedicto to take me to a match late one Friday night to see what it was all about. This is a personal essay on cockfighting in Colombia, peace and conflict, and what it means to be victorious – or not. Continue reading on Beacon…

Sometimes It Takes An Ocean

Posted on October 11, 2014October 25, 2014 Posted in Blog, Colombia, CultureTagged Colombia, Travel, vacationLeave a comment

Before I tell you about all the great things that happened to me on vacation, I should probably mention a couple of things that people always ask about for context: First, I didn’t get sunburned…

This Hotel Prado joint on Colombia’s Caribbean coast was the best spot around. It was vacation. And my girlfriend and I were traveling. She used the whole tube of sunblock, but I forgive her. This is a personal essay about vacation and sun block, an abandoned Colombian commercial shipping wharf, and loving someone. Continue reading on Beacon…

Ciénaga’s Cemeteries for Rich & Poor In Photos

Posted on October 7, 2014October 16, 2014 Posted in Blog, Colombia, CultureTagged cemeteries, Ciénaga, deathLeave a comment

Ciénaga, a town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, has two cemeteries for people who die there. This photo essay takes you inside them. One is called Cemetery of the Rich, and one is called Cemetery of the Poor. View photo essay on Beacon…