Somebody just give me a youth hostel, a weekender's duffle, and a pineapple and I'm set.
Dear Followers, please excuse the delay in posting. A full week later, I am still alive and well after a deeply life-enhancing trip to Cali for the World Salsa Festival with three of my favorite Fellow F-bombers, Gabriel Hurst, Jeannie Guzmán, and Stephanie Claytor. From there on, I've been back at the University scrambling to try to fit in all of the networking and teaching services I'm trying to pull off this semester... I continue to receive a greater number of requests for private tutoring, and I’m charging ahead with research and note sharing with the UPB’s Model OAS debate team. I am feeling especially driven because today is a moment of emergence for two of Latin America’s great nations: Brazil and Colombia. In light of this week’s obliteration of FARC military commander “Mono Jojoy,” more eyes than before will be beaming down on Colombia and it’s mammoth neighbor to the east, to see whether and to what degree the two countries are able to sustain their development trajectories.
I’ll just start by saying that Colombia’s third city, Santiago de Cali, is not called the World Salsa Capital for no reason. Few will contest this nickname, for Cali has promoted itself through a genius branding strategy. The city has made salsa its salient point of memory for Colombians and foreigners alike. Walking through Cali’s streets at night, one hears far less of the Rock, Reggaeton, Cumbia, Vallenato, and Hip-Hop crossover mixes that might fill the air in Medellín, Bogotá, or even Cartagena or Baranquilla. What one does hear is SALSA, SALSA, SALSA and more SALSA. And, goodness, the caleños dance it well! The residents of the Valle del Cauca’s regional capital have given this global movement a sophisticated and snappy flair that is truly unrivaled. I quickly found out that beginners should tread lightly because the caleños show extreme attention to detail in their version of the dance, and take its lifestyle very seriously. And the city’s basic attitude toward those who know no salsa at all seems to be “Good luck and good riddance!” In addition to their dozens of salsa-only nightclubs across the city, the caleños have made an imprint on the global salsa scene by offering a number of high-quality and rigorous salsa schools. As a result, the majority of the most competitive teams competing in this year’s Fifth Annual Festival were all from (even seemingly lower class) neighborhoods of Cali. In fact, the undefeated four-time World Champions, Swing Latino, come from there. Just what, you might ask, have the caleños invented to produce such a winning salsa recipe? To start, while the Puerto Rican style, for instance, seems to be slower and more sensual, estilo caleño is much more about pointed, sharp movements, quick twists, and energetic kicks. To be honest, much of this formula seems to be based off a very witty incorporation of Rio-de-Janeiro-style samba. But the dance itself is to say nothing of its presentation. In Cali, the competitors’ astronomical attention to detail in their dress and choreography is what really made the Festival one of the most jaw-droppingly impressive spectacles of my life. Witnessing the dancers’ brilliant costumes, hairstyles, enthusiasm, painstaking coordination was really mind-blowing for me. We’re talking, here, about people who have breathed, slept, and eaten salsa practically since in diapers! Four two nights, us four Fulbrighters marveled at the best dancers in the world, surrounded in the Plaza de Toros by about three thousand other screaming and drumming caleños. Astonished, I thought to myself how attendance such a professional event might run a spectator up to US$100 back home… But here we were watching it utterly for free! Events like these really reveal the warmth, passionate character, and drive for social change embodied in the caleños, and many Colombians altogether. Now, I feel no choice but to hurry back to this city for more salsa lessons. I am inspired.
Cali is certainly not Bogotá, and it is not Medellín. It has a distinctive provincial flavor that is hard to characterize. In fact, my fellow Fulbrighters and I spent much of the weekend pondering US-Colombia city analogues, trying to figure out just how Cali stacks up. For one thing, the dress and architecture of the city seem to be more colorful than either of those in the country’s first and second cities. Moreover, Cali’s hot and dry year-round climate, coupled a soft flowing breeze, distinguish it still further from its larger counterparts to the north and northeast. (In fact, while Medellín has been caught in an uncharacteristic bout of heavy rain, which paisas complain must be driven by climate change, the climate of Cali, which has been caught in a three-plus-month draught, was exceptionally pleasant at the time of our visit.) Though there is growing industry in Cali, the city really comes off as all about fashion, music, and dance. After a bit of consideration, I arrived at the following equivalents: if Bogotá, the financial and political capital, is a New York City/Washington, DC hybrid, and Medellín, a more temperate industrial and rising entertainment center, is somewhere between Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas, then Cali must be Miami…
My trip to Cali also brought to mind another of Colombia’s advantages: the geostrategic and demographically diverse profile of its city layout. Much unlike its larger neighbors, Colombia has not only a couple of major cities of major interest, but at least seven so far as I can count, in no particular order: Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales, Cali, Cartagena, Baranquilla, and Bucaramanga. Survey the landscape of Latin America’s northernmost power player, Mexico, and you will find only a restrained collection of cosmopolitan cities: perhaps three, if you count Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. Brazil, of course, has at least half a dozen large and dynamic cities—but it should, given its population is roughly four times that of Colombia. Chile, Argentina, and Peru are truly capital-centric, each boasting only one overstuffed major metropolitan area overshadowing only many other, much smaller provincial towns. Meanwhile, what is impressive about Colombia is the density per population of economically significant and culturally noteworthy towns, each swanking their very unique regional flavors.
The Cali trip and hours of loitering around the sidewalk that encircles the Salsa Festival venue, the Plaza de Toros, awarded Gabriel and I a new friend. One afternoon, while eating empanadas and surveying salsa discs at the vendors’ booths outside the Plaza amphitheater, Gabriel and I, always curious and always ethnically ambiguous, exchanging some broken Portuguese, bumped into Patricia Pacheco. Patricia, a carioca (a Brazilian from Rio), has relocated to Cali with her Armenian husband to "financially restructure." Reporting that in light of Brazil’s enormous growth, Rio has gotten tremendously expensive, Patricia has come to Cali in search of building a new future in tourist real estate. Gabo, a Cornell grad and linguistic genius more well versed than I in Latin American Studies, and I both have dreams of doing something similar before long. So naturally, it was obvious that a coffee date with our new carioca friend and her husband was in order. That Sunday, we met at Cali’s Chipe Chape Mall to stretch our linguistic capacities with some much-needed Portuñol practice. Over a mind-massaging cappuccino the four of us swapped travel stories and insights of unfolding economic opportunities across Latin America. Patricia’s husband, Ara, offered some useful real estate tips. First, if investing in Colombian property, one should always request a detailed certificate from the landlord validating that the place has never been owned by a drug trafficker or terrorist. Second, we concluded along with Ara, one should meanwhile continue to look out for new and short-lived deals in Brazil. Considering the arrival of the World Cup and the Olympics to Rio this decade, there is serious infrastructural management and money to be made in the world’s timeless “country of the future.” Patricia revealed that when she left Rio, a nicely located tourist rental apartment could run for 120 reais per day—or US$69.82 at today’s exchange rate. Now, do the math. That’s roughly US$489 per week, or about US$2,094 per month! Whew: sounds like midtown Manhattan rent! Now, if you in addition consider how prices might explode in the midst of the world’s two greatest sporting events, you’ve got yourself a prospect for a killing. Fusing the two countries that form the Latin American base of our lives’ tripod, it appears Gabriel and I have got some serious searching to do for apartments in Cartagena, Cali, Medellín, Salvador, and Rio—and extra hunting for the world’s most price-insensitive clientele! By further prodding my fascination with capital movements and price change dynamics in the Western Hemisphere, this conversation was the perfect way to wrap up a weekend of swapping critiques of Latin American societal evolution with my Fulbrighters. Needless to say, I left this conversation with Patricia and Ara not only ecstatic to have made two worldly and likeminded Colombian-Brazilian friends; I was also feeling electrified with mental light bulbs about the economic development opportunities ahead across my birth continent.
...
"Underdevelopment is not only an attitude. It's a behavior."
-Gabriel "Morocho" Hurst, Fulbright Student, Cornell class of 2009
Okay, no weekender’s paradise in Colombia is complete without at least a couple of mishaps. Pardon me, but let me please inject yet another story about Colombia's terrific inefficiency and disregard for the economic value of time. Our last morning in Cali, Gabriel, Jeannie, and I woke to Stephanie's cell phone ringing at 9 am. It was an agent from Aires Airlines. Her obscure but apparent message went something as follows: "Buenos días, Ms. Claytor. We called to notify you that your 2:30 pm flight to Bogotá has been moved earlier, to 11:30 am. Good luck in your travels to the Cali airport." Understandably, first Stephanie could not quite comprehend this memo. Confused, she repeated it aloud to us. Then she reviewed the agent's explanation: "We've had so many passengers request an earlier flight that we’ve decided to bump it forward in the day.” WHAT!? “Nonsense!” we all concluded… There must be someone important on that flight… Mmmmm, mmmm, mmm, you’ve got to love the smell of corruption. Feeling that I had been splashed awake with a gallon of cold water in my face, I shook my head and asked aloud, "Wait... Am I dreaming!?" In all of my short but action-packed 22 years, I've heard of plenty of flight delay announcements. But a flight rush announcement?... Please! That is just downright illogical! I wondered, does the concept of externality and economic loss EVER figure into these people's business practice? To imagine the extreme inconvenience such a move could cause a traveler, let us enter into an economic narrative. Let's say that a given individual, call him Roberto, had rushed to a rural municipality outside of Cali for the weekend for an unexpected funeral. Say, moreover, that Roberto had to stick around after the ceremonies to settle life insurance disputes and will mandates on behalf of the deceased. And then imagine Roberto having that distressing lemon of life disrupted because Aires demanded that he jet off early back to the airport! Is this story exaggerated for the sake of argument? Yes. Is this story plausible? YES! Stephanie impressed us all in her response to the call, rising rather promptly from her rest after a long weekend, packing up, and bouncing out the door. Gabriel, Jeannie, and I, on the other hand, felt appalled and terrified by this mishap for much of the rest of the day. I'm sorry but I'm not sorry to say that I value economic choices that produce value. So goodbye, Aires: you will never receive a dime of my business.
…
Let's get into the matter of schooling efforts in Medellín. Two weeks ago, I had an opportunity of a lifetime to visit Medellín's Fería de Libros, or Book Fair, with about 15 students and three other professors from my faculty. (Stupidly, I forgot to pack my camera that day, so I will need to wait at least one year before I can share footage of the event with my friends around the globe... SHUCKS!) Held annually at northern Medellín's lush Jardin Botánico (Botanical Garden), the Fair is a bonanza of books, historical exposés, interactive exhibits, and activities designed to boost children's literacy. It was a joy to see hundreds of paisas, young and old and of all social classes, gathered to learn about the urban history of Medellín and to rejoice at encountering an abundance of something all too scarce in Latin America—reasonably priced books! Mouth watering at the immense quantity of books in one place, I myself even had to splurge, buying two solid texts: one on the environmental and social history of Latin America written by a Colombian scholar but published by Oxford, and one about the political history of the Colombian mafia across the 20th Century. When a Fulbrighter sees punch-packing academic volumes like this, written in Spanish, at a 25% discount in Colombia, it is simply hard to say no. Such things are generally expensive and harder to find here. (As always, it is the seemingly trivial things we seem to always take for granted back in the States… Sigh.) But the major source of my satisfaction with this event is its reflection of a much larger movement taking part across Medellín: urban revival and the integration of public education. Since the government of Medellín began an outstanding effort to clean up the city, restoring its global image, about 10 years ago, events of this type have apparently been spreading as quickly as fires across Northern California throughout the city. As a result, children's literacy has increased and interest in taking the tough exam to enter Antioquia's top public universities has apparently amplified. Once again, there can be nothing more impressive in my opinion than a Latin American city that has gone from being recognized as one of the world's harshest to one this year lauded even by the United Nations as having one of the continent's highest qualities of life. (To add some sweet honey to the issue, this week Medellín's El Colombiano paper reported that Colombia experienced 4.3% GDP growth in the second trimester of this year—of course not as outstanding as Brazil's 5+ at this moment, but still stable and worthy of applause.) Citizens' enhanced ability to attend arts, culture, and education events for free across Colombia's second city has had a palpable impact on uniting demographics and polishing up the city's aesthetic appeal. Yet most importantly for a Latin American country on the rise, it has helped stimulate regional and national pride.
Finally, for the story of the month: I struck gold this week and won much anticipated tickets to see Puerto Rican reggaeton greats Zion y Lennox perform Saturday night at the Jardin Botánico. I had seen advertisements for this exclusive concert at Poblado's Crista Club two weeks before. Soon after, I responded to a Facebook post on Crista's page promising free tickets to the member who uploaded a photo of the club's ads. Low and behold, I realized I had unknowingly but serendipitously taken photos of the signage as a reminder to look into buying tickets! Now, all I had to do was post my photos, get all of my friends to click the "Like" button on my post, and convert my "historical accident" into those prized tiquetes. A week or so later, this past Thursday, I called the Crista's manager, urging him to look up the data and produce my tickets. And BOOM: I had done it! After showing up early Friday night to Crista, I got the tickets slammed into my palm! Fellow Fulbrighter Francesca Ioffreda, visiting over the weekend from Bogotá, and I had no problems converting the tickets into one night of rocking to the tightest latin street rythms on earth. Yet, of course, it's not as if to say all was on point. Anticipating typical Colombian tardiness, Francesca and I decided to show up for the show, listed as opening at 8 pm, at an appropriately late 9:30. But little had we considered just how late this country continues to operate. Arriving at about 9:35, we quickly noticed nearly nobody was yet in the venue. The result: we listened to the DJ spin the hottest jams across the continent for slight THREE-AND-A-HALF HOURS until lazy Zion y Lennox decided to step onto the stage—at 1 AM! Now, I know that in the States, some fans might get indignant at this sort of unpunctuality, and, offended by their economic loss, simply leave the Garden. But in Colombia one must learn to respond with a tranquilo attitude to such madness and merely laugh it off. So chuckle we did, and once Z y L emerged to light up the venue with their braggadocio of romantic harmonies and rumbling raps, no doubt the sonic thunder was worth the wait. Videos of the concert follow in the post below...
I will leave you tonight with what is in my opinion a creative piece of art. My debate buddy and friend, Luis Quintero, recently tipped me off about something groundbreaking: a US rapper who filmed a feature video in Medellín! And not just any rapper, but the King of Miami himself, Rick Ross the BOSS! I'm actually embarrassed that I, an eager Ross fan, had not known about this earlier. In any case, please enjoy the wonderful footage of the City of Eternal Spring contained here in Ricky's "All I Really Want," featuring none other than the Radio Killer, a.k.a. the American Dream: http://new.e1.music.yahoo.com/videos/Rick+Ross/All+I+Really+Want+Featuring+The-Dream--217227069
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