The Orchestral City
The creation of youth orchestras in Bogotá for social reconstruction
Master thesis in Musicology University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, e Netherlands – May 17, 2017
Student: Felipe Mora
Student number: 11106387
Supervisor: Dr. A.H. van Oostrum Second Reader: Dr. B. Titus
Acknowledgements
I want to thank everyone who helped me with my research. I was surprised to find so many great people that are actively working in my fields of interest. Special thanks to the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, to its director, Sandra Meluk, and the coordinator of the Centros Or-questales project, Diego Calderón. anks for opening the doors to such an amazing project and helping me both in my academic and professional careers. With them, I want to thank the complete team of the Centros Orquestales project, who work every week for a better fu-ture.
I would also like to express my gratitude towards Helena Barreto who guided me in my first approaches to the musical projects that take place in Colombia. Our long conversa-tions not only taught me about the projects but also showed me the hard and passionate work of so many people, like her, convinced on creating a better future through the arts. To
Alejandro Mantilla in the Ministry of Culture, who guided me through the complete history of the ministry, and helped me understand the whole scenario.
Finally, my most loving gratitude for my family—my parents Claudia Garzón and Eduardo Mora, my brother Santiago Mora, and my uncle Pablo Garzón—who encouraged my musical formation and have been beside me every step of the way. is work would not have been possible if not for them, and I dedicate it to them.
Abstract
is thesis investigates the recent creation of orchestral music projects in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city. I focus on the Centros Orquestales of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. Do-ing a historical recount of the internal conflict in the Colombia, I show the damages done to its citizens and the policies the country took to address these. A change in Colombia’s consti-tution promotes the creation of musical projects aimed to heal some of the detriments of the conflict. I also perform an overview of two similar projects to draw similarities and cautions to take in my case study: e West-East Divan Orchestra and Venezuela’s El Sistema. By pre-senting my case study, exploring its origins, methodology, concerts, and performing inter-views, I demonstrate the benefits these projects have in Bogotá’s society and how this project responds to the need the city has of these spaces of culture. Finally, I draw conclusions and recommendations to improve and continue the project.
Table of Contents
Table of Figures v List of Abbreviations vi Preface vii 0 – Introduction 1 0.1 Chapter Overview 4 0.2 eoretical Framework 60.2.1 Music and Conflict 7
0.2.2 Musical Programs 8
0.2.3 Type of Research 11
0.3 Methodology 12
Chapter 1 – Colombia 13
1.1 Beginning of La Violencia 13
1.2 Guerillas, Drug-trafficking, and Paramilitaries 16
1.3 Colombians 19
Chapter 2 – Diversity as the National Agenda 23
2.1 CREA 25
2.2 Ministry of Culture 28
Chapter 3 – Orchestras for Society 33
3.1 e West-Eastern Divan Orchestra 33
3.2 El Sistema 36
Chapter 4 – Bogotá 44
4.1 Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá 45
4.2 Legal Framework 45
4.3 Centro Orquestal de Teusaquillo 50
4.4 Learning Music at the COT 51
4.5 Creating a Methodology 53
4.6 Repertoire 58
4.7 Concerts and personal interviews 61
4.7.2 Tunjuelito 64 4.7.3 La Candelaria 67 4.7.4 Personal Interviews 70 4.8 Institutional interviews 72 5 – Conclusions 75 5.1 Recommendations 76 Bibliography 78 Annex 81 Interviews 81
Interviews with the Parents 82
Extra Pictures 83
Teusaquillo 83
Tunjuelito 84
La Candelaria 85
Schubert – “Unfinished” Symphony 86
Valencia – Profe 94
Bogotá – Social strata map 106
Concert program 1 – Teusaquillo 107
Concert program 2 – Tunjuelito 109
Concert program 3 – La Candelaria 111
Map 1 – Teusaquillo 113
Map 2 – Tunjuelito 114
Map 3 – La Candelaria 115
Table of Figures
Figure 1 – Jorge Eliecer Gaitán during his speech at the Bolivar Plaza 15
Figure 2 – Car bomb at the DAS 18
Figure 3 – Posture, p. 18 30
Figure 4 – Reed making, p. 27 30
Figure 5 – Organization chart of a municipal music school 31
Figure 6 – Encore at the Prom, 2007 36
Figure 7 – Bogotá, Localities, and Social Strata 44
Figure 8 – Comparison chart between detriments and benefits 48
Figure 9 – Choir practice in the school’s library 51
Figure 10 – Workshop with Richard Young 53
Figure 11 – Richard Young conducting 54
Figure 12 – Notes on Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony 56
Figure 13 – Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Measures 1 - 17 57 Figure 14 – Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Measures 1 - 17, extra parts 57
Figure 15 – Notes on Valencia’s Profe 59
Figure 16 – Valencia’s Profe 60
Figure 17 – Concert in Teusaquillo 61
Figure 18 - A round of applause for the students after the concert 63
Figure 19 – Inside the INEM school 64
Figure 20 – Concert in Tunjuelito 65
Figure 21 – A round of applause for the teachers after the concert 66
Figure 22 – Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé 67
Figure 23 – Choir open rehearsal at the school’s library 68 Figure 24 – e students getting ready to come on stage 69
Figure 25 – Felipe Mora giving a speech 69
Figure 26 – A celebration after the concert 69
Figure 27 – OFB Centros Orquestales questionnaire 72
Figure 28 – Interviews 81
List of Abbreviations
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
COs Centros Orquestales
COT Centro Orquestal de Teusaquillo
CREA Una expedición por la cultura colombiana CSPC String Pedagogy and Curriculum
DAS Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
GMH Grupo de Memoria Histórica
OFB Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá OSSB Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar
Preface
I first encountered social musical programs when performing the mandatory community ser-vice done in the last grade of high school in 2004 in Bogotá, Colombia: my classmates and I decided to teach music—recorder and guitar—to young children of displaced, vulnerable, and low-income families. It was an enjoyable activity for me, but I only realized the impact this activity had on these kids when they told their stories, full of losses and difficulties caused by social problems in their communities. Our music lessons became a safe zone where they could express themselves without fear.
During my master’s studies, I decided to come back to this topic and was surprised by the amount, quality, and extension of the new social music projects that exist today in Bo-gotá. e purpose of this research is to study the benefits participation in the arts produces in the children and their communities. In this way, I can contribute to the social reconstruction of my country. I do believe that only through peaceful and inclusive practices, the violent past of my homeland can make way for a new Colombia to exist.
When arriving in Bogotá to perform my fieldwork in June 2016, I was immediately immersed in these projects, thanks to the help of my colleges who, like me, believe in social reconstruction through artistic means, and was invited to come to rehearsals, conferences, and debates. My job at the Centros Orquestales project allowed me to study and contribute di-rectly to the project. Because of this job and research opportunity, I decided to extend my stay and my studies for one semester and experience the project more. I met many people in the city devoted to social betterment and reconstruction. If the music lessons we gave as teenagers had a positive impact on the lives of others, I can only imagine the enormous impact these city-sized projects can have in the country.
0 – Introduction
In his speech at the Gran debate sobre la cultura en Colombia [Great debate of culture in Colombia],1 Álvaro Restrepo, creator of the dance academy El Colegio del Cuerpo [School
of the body]2 in Cartagena, told about his experience with culture and the arts:
ese children and youth who come from historical deprivation or the recent dispossession find in artistic and cultural education [...] a way towards dignity. [...] And make them conscious of what they are worth as sacred human beings, having a profound change of mentality. Without a doubt, this is the most significant contribution that culture, the arts, and education can make to create that new citizen, that new Colombian needed for the era that is to come, that has already begun.3
His speech made me question the use that the arts and culture can have in particular kinds of projects. is sentence reflects many subjects of my interest, summarizing the past, present, and future of Colombia: historical deprivations, referring to the colonial and slavery history of the country; recent dispossession, relating to the detriments caused by the internal conflict and displacement; artistic and cultural education, referring to the actual projects created to form new kinds of citizens; that new Colombian for the era that is to come, referring to the recent peace talks4 and possible peaceful future of the country. e minister of culture,
Mari-ana Garcés, explained the role of her ministry in peace building projects,
e ministry has worked on the construction of the social fabric before the peace talks.5 […] Its
pres-ence in the regions is vital for the transformation of societies through artistic practices: for people to enjoy their cultural rights. […] We believe that, besides being happier, people develop a critical ap-proach to their realities and contribute more to society, and resolve their differences and conflicts in another way.6
1 e debate was organized by Semana magazine on June 8, 2016. I attended as an observer. More information
at <http://www.forossemana.com/evento/id/15536/gran_debate_sobre_la_cultura_en_colombia>, accessed April 1, 2017.
2 e School of the Body is a dance academy aimed at the vulnerable population in Cartagena. More
informa-tion at <https://www.elcolegiodelcuerpo.org/>, accessed April 1, 2017.
3 “Estos niños y jóvenes que provienen de las privaciones históricas o del despojo reciente, encuentran en la
edu-cación artística y cultural […] un camino hacia la dignidad […]. Y cuando he hablado de hacerlos conscientes, a través de la educación (artística y cultural), de lo que valen como seres humanos sagrados, estoy hablando de un profundo cambio de mentalidad: sin duda éste el mayor y más crucial aporte que la cultura, las artes y la educación pueden hacer para contribuir al nacimiento de ese nuevo ciudadano, ese nuevo colombiano que re-querirá la compleja etapa que se avecina, y que ya se inició.” Álvaro Restrepo at Gran debate sobre la cultura en Colombia: June 8, 2016. I recorded, transcribed, and translated the speech. e original Spanish text is found on the foot note for the sake of readability.
4 Peace talks with FARC, November 19, 2012, through August 24, 2016. e agreements were rejected by
pop-ular vote on the referendum held on October 2, 2016. A new peace agreement was signed on November 26, 2016.
5 Ibid.
6 “El ministerio lo viene jugando antes de las firmas próximas. […] La verdad es que la presencia del sector
Continuing the debate, Gonzalo Castellanos, cultural researcher and consultant,7
spoke about a new understanding of the country’s cultural diversity.
e cultural diversity makes Colombia the country with the largest amount of recognized cultural ex-pressions in the Intangible Cultural Heritage list of Latin America […]. We have finally understood that culture is fundamentally a possibility against the conflict, a possibility against the war, a possibility of social and political transformation, as a peaceful resolution of the conflict.8
It is this moment that makes me question my role as a musician in the actual state of my country. Attending the debate made me wonder how to use culture and the arts in a deliberate way as a means of social betterment. When I began doing my research, I found that most of the musical projects in Bogotá state this goal as the core of their mission, taking art away from the Romantic idea of l’art pour l’art—where art detaches itself from the current situation—and instead gives it a function and a say in the contemporary cultural, political, moral, and economic life of Colombia.
Upon exploring my musical education, I learned that the music schools and programs I attended were part of a larger picture. I received my early musical education at Fundación Batuta,9 a nationwide network of music schools and orchestras created in 1991 with the goal
of providing a better quality of life for the children of the country, partially funded by the Ministry of Culture. Several years later, my university’s wind band participated in nation-wide competitions:10 events that are part of the incentives that the Ministry has for this
en-semble.11
la gente que no ha tenido acceso a sus derechos pueda disfrutarlos. […] Creemos que, además de ser más feli-ces, la gente tiene más sentidos críticos frente a la realidad y puede aportar más a la sociedad: de esta forma, siendo capaces de dirimir las diferencias y conflictos de otra manera.” Mariana Garcés at Gran debate sobre la cultura en Colombia: June 8, 2016.
7 Cultural researcher and author, working in the fields of cultural heritage in Latin America, promotor, and
con-sultor of various laws.
8 “Esa gran diversidad cultural del país se traduce en la circunstancia, por ejemplo, en que tenemos el mayor
nú-mero de América Latina, de reconocimientos de expresiones culturales en la lista mundial de patrimonio cultu-ral inmaterial […] Hemos entendido que la cultura es fundamentalmente una posibilidad frente al conflicto, una posibilidad frente a la guerra, una posibilidad de transformación social, una posibilidad de transformación política.” Gonzalo Castellanos at Gran debate sobre la cultura en Colombia: June 8, 2016.
9 [Baton Foundation] For more information about Fundación Batuta: Rodríguez, 2013; Rincón, 2015.
10 Concurso nacional de bandas de Paipa [National Concourse of Wind Bands of Paipa]. I attended this concourse
twice, as part of the symphonic wind band of Universidad Javeriana for my Bachelors in oboe interpretation.
Returning to Bogotá to conduct my fieldwork—June 2016 to February 2017—I found a city with an expanding landscape in music education. Both the private and public sectors help in those educational programs. Focusing on the latter, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá [OFB, Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra] created 5 Centros Orquestales [COs, Orchestral Centers] in the city since 2015. Each one of the centers with a capacity of 400 students, free admission, with full orchestra sets, opened four hours per day, six days a week. In contrast, when I began my music education in 2000, I had to bring my instrument to class and pay tuition to attend one hour of instrument lesson per week. e project done by the OFB is, once again, aimed at social reconstruction and betterment in the city.
is research seeks to answer two questions: first, what is the need Bogotá has for children and youth orchestral projects aimed at social betterment; and second, what are the effects of these projects on the children and their surrounding communities. By first going back in history, I will address the major events that created the actual state of Colombian so-ciety, understanding the harm the country’s internal conflict produced in its citizens. I will also explore the need for new projects that can help restoring coexistence in the country through cultural means and the origins of the government support for these. Finally, my re-search will explain the functioning and the characteristics of one case study: the Centros Or-questales of the OFB and the benefits it generates; how a musical project creates benefits for the children that partake in it and to what degree these benefits extend to their families and communities.
0.1 Chapter Overview
To answer the first research question, the research will begin with an overview of the coun-try’s past and its consequences. Chapter 1 begins by retelling the history of the violence and conflict in the country since its first recorded massacre in 1928 until the writing of a new con-stitution in 1991. It continues by exploring Colombian citizens and their involvement in the conflict. It is basic to explore the detriments that violence produced in the people to under-stand the projects that were created to aid this situation. e general report done by the Grupo de memoria histórica [GMH, Group of historical memory] serves as a guide to the ef-fects observed in victims of the conflict and gives general recommendations for dealing with the damages done to them in an emotional and psychological, moral, political, and sociocul-tural way. e chapter provides an overall perspective on the setting on which the rest of the research will take place.
Chapter 2 begins with the 1991 constitution, when Colombians change the way they define their nation—from a mestizo to a diverse one—with different but equally important cultural manifestations. e constitution gives the task of creating the national sentiment to culture. Several cultural projects are designed to explore this diversity and had unexpected re-sults: the project CREA generated peaceful moments in conflict areas with musical and cul-tural activities. e chapter continues with my interview with the music coordinator of the Ministry of Culture, Alejandro Mantilla. Our conversation revolved around the history of the ministry and its importance in today’s cultural life in Bogotá. e musical programs devel-oped by the ministry are intended to bring musical involvement to all Colombians and, at the same time, tackle some of the problems caused by the internal conflict.
Chapter 3 explores the second research question by observing symphonic musical pro-jects around the world to understand their effects on the population and compare these with my case study. e first part examines Daniel Barenboim’s ideas for social betterment through musical practice. His lectures and books will guide my research to understand the benefits that he finds in collective musical performance. Barenboim experiences and is directly involved in creating an ensemble that brings together people from enemy backgrounds in the West-East Divan Orchestra. e chapter continues with an overview Venezuela’s El Sistema,
which inspires similar projects worldwide12 including my case study. Venezuela shares a
simi-lar culture and history with Colombia, making the project effortlessly applicable to the latter. e results and experiences given by El Sistema are important to take into consideration when creating a new project in Colombia. e criticism El Sistema receives will also be ex-plored by consulting authors and interviews with Venezuelan musicians that now reside in Bogotá. By studying both the positive and negative aspects of this project, I hope to get a wider understanding of it and can engage with my case study.
Chapter 4 will answer the second research question by exploring the musical activities that are taking place in Bogotá, focusing on my case study, the Centros Orquestales project of the OFB. It will begin by shortly describing the orchestra that created the project and how it is rooted in the city’s legal framework. en, it will continue by explaining how a Centro works and describing my direct involvement during my fieldwork in Bogotá: it will also show the locations, beneficiary populations, and social aspects. e project is only two years old and is in the process of creating its methodology and consolidating its repertoire.
e chapter continues with the description of concerts given by three different COs to explore the relationship between society and musical practice. During these performances, I conducted interviews to the public, exploring how the project affects the lives of both the beneficiaries and their communities. e OFB also conducted an official study to evaluate the progress and reach of the activities. e combined results of both the OFB and my findings help me answer my research questions. ey also portray the general results the project has and what can be improved.
Finally, I respond my research questions by addressing the need for these orchestral projects in Bogotá and by showing the reach these have on their communities. Ultimately, by comparing my experience with the results of the interviews and the recommendations made by other authors, I build on the project’s achievements by giving some recommendations. ese may help the project progress on its goals and prevent mistakes by knowing the chal-lenges and weaknesses of the other studied projects.
0.2 Theoretical Framework
For this research, it is basic to understand how the country defines culture and the use given to it. Alberto Sanabria explains in the book Ley General de Cultura [General Law of Cul-ture]13 the importance that the Colombian 1991 constitution gave to culture. It states that
culture, in its different manifestations, is the fundament of nationality:14 culture becomes the
root, the base, and reason-to-be of the Colombian nation. e 1991 constitution defined the country as a diverse one, opposed to the previous 1886 one that defined the country as a “mestizo nation in the process of whitening, united under one God and one race.”15 Sanabria
continues his argument by attributing the failure of Colombia as a country to the imposed economic models that disregarded the existing local cultures. Moreover, the elites considered the local cultures lesser or even non-existing. In this regard, the acknowledgment of multiple and diverse cultures implies new values to construct nationality: respect, listening to the other, and tolerance towards other beliefs, values, and various forms of expression.16 is
constitu-tion gave unprecedented importance to the concept of culture. “Culture is not a creaconstitu-tion of the state, but the state is a cultural product.”17
e general law of culture, created in 1997, defined culture as “the distinctive, spir-itual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize human groups and that comprehends, beyond arts and letters, modes of life, human rights, systems of value, traditions, and beliefs.”18 e law established the legal framework from where cultural
pro-jects could be set up and promoted. It also recognizes the Cultural Rights of the Colombian citizens as an integral part of their Human Rights. It also stated the right of Colombians to partake, create, and benefit from cultural life. Article 70 of the constitution establishes that the government is obliged to promote equal opportunity access to culture to all Colombians.19
13 Sanabria, 2000.
14 Colombian Constitution. Article 70.
15 Ochoa, 2001: 377, To be expanded in Chapter 2 – Diversity as the National Agenda, p. 23. 16 Sanabria 2000: 6
17 “La cultura no es una creación estatal, pero el Estado sí es un producto cultural” (Sanabria 2000: 7) 18 Law 397, 1997, Title 1, Article 1 (Ochoa, 2001: 377)
Ana Ochoa, one of the most prominent Colombian musicologists, asked, “What does it mean to ask ‘culture’ to restore areas of coexistence?”20 Ochoa’s works21 are contemporary to
the creation of the general law of culture. “Culture would be what allows to ‘reconstruct coexistence’ or ‘social fabric’; create a ‘safe zone’ amid the violence; give a new path to the historic habits of vengeance which lead to the infinite persistence of war; allow the presence of grief or transform the meaning itself of politics; deconstruct the history of exclusions to transform it into processes of inclusions.”22 She states that achieving peace was possible if the
diversity of cultures and ideas coexisted.
Ochoa’s work is an inspiration for my research: she worked with different cultural entities23 when the country established the cultural policies and—particularly interesting for
me—when my musical education began: my musical career was directly affected by the poli-cies of the 1991 constitution. By using these texts some 20 years after their creation, I can ob-serve the results these policies had. It also gives me the opportunity to continue Ochoa’s work: although almost two decades have passed and many the country’s problems continue. e country still uses culture as a peace-making tool, and Ochoa’s questions are still relevant today.
0.2.1 Music and Conflict
John M. O’Connell gives an insight into the powerful connection found between music and conflict. “Music rather than language may provide a better medium for interrogating the character of conflict and for evaluating the quality of conflict resolution. While language as prose tends to delimit interpretation according to the partial dictates of authorial intention, music as practice serves to liberate interpretation according to the multiple views of audience reception. […] While writing may be a crucial factor in the chasm that separates literate con-trol and non-literate freedom, music, in contrast to language, may present a more fertile locus
20 “¿Qué implica pedirle a ‘la cultura’ que restaure ámbitos de convivencia?” (Ochoa, 2004: 18) 21 Ochoa 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2006.
22 “La cultura sería aquello que permitiría “reconstruir la convivencia” o “el tejido social”; crear una “zona de
dis-tensión” en medio de la violencia; darle una ruta diferente a los históricos hábitos de la venganza que llevan a la persistencia infinita de la guerra; permitir la presencia del duelo o transformar el sentido mismo de la política; deconstruir la historia de exclusiones para transformarla en procesos de inclusión.” (Ochoa, 2004: 18) My translation of her work. e original Spanish text is found on the foot note for the sake of readability.
for studying multiple interpretations of war and diverse readings of peace.”24 His book Music
and Conflict gives some examples where this connection is evident, whether it is in the use of music to understand a conflict or—even closer to my research—how music helps conflict res-olution.25
I will explore Daniel Barenboim’s experience with the West-East Divan Orchestra project, which is a clear example of how music can be used to bring conflicting people to-gether. is orchestra shares characteristics with my case studies—where musicians come from violent backgrounds—helping me make a comparison between his conclusion and my research. “Music is the common framework, their abstract language of harmony. […] Nothing in music is independent. It requires a perfect balance between head, heart, and stomach. And I would argue that when emotion and intellect are in tune, it is easier also for human beings and for nations to look outward as well as inward.”26 Music becomes a new
language between rival groups. Barenboim has a profound experience with his project in the East-West Divan orchestra, which unites Palestinian and Israeli musicians into a single ensemble. He states that these projects, more than resolving the conflict itself, show an exam-ple for the general society to follow.
0.2.2 Musical Programs
Colombia’s neighboring country, Venezuela, provides the best example of a massive scale, well-funded, long lasting musical program: El Sistema [e System]. Many of the musical projects in Colombia27 are Sistema-inspired projects: an alliance between the OFB and El
Sistema trained the first generation of teachers in my case study.28 Also, many teachers
em-ployed in the OFB projects came from or studied in Venezuela. Two authors with very differ-ent views—Tricia Tunstall and Geoffrey—were deeply touched and inspired when they heard and saw the results of such a project. However, their research29 showed vastly opposed
con-clusions.
24 O’Connell, 2010: 2
25 e specific examples are found on the chapters: Reyes, 2010; Pettan, 2010. 26 BBC 2017
27 Both Batuta and the Centros Orquestales are Sistema-inspired projects. 28 Further developed in Chapter 4 – Legal Framework, p. 45.
Tunstall begins her book, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music, defining what she calls Dudamania, upon learning of Vene-zuelan violinist and conductor Gustavo Dudamel: “We have not seen such a case of mania again… until recently, with the emergence of ‘Dudamania,’ which concerns another musical phenomenon with ferocious tent, abundant charm, and – yes, exceptional hair. is time, however, at the center of the excitement is not a rock band but a classical musician.”30 Her
work shows the positive aspects of the program: “El Sistema’s overarching goal is to ‘rescue the children’ from the multiple dangers of poverty, and most importantly, from the sense of hopelessness and low self-esteem that can lead to gang membership, drugs, and violence.”31
Tunstall has found a direct connection between the arts and the betterment of the subject’s lives: the specific words she uses, “rescue the children,” show the tremendous importance this program claims to have. Her books32 provide an insight to the interviews and quotes of José
Abreu, founder of El Sistema: “El Sistema is not only to help children but often, literally, to rescue them – and in the process, to effect real and lasting changes in the lives of their families and communities. ‘e orchestra and choir are much more than artistic studies,’ Abreu says. ‘ey are examples and schools of social life. From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, he is no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, who will become a citizen.’”33
As a contrast to Tunstall’s ideas, Baker criticizes many aspects of El Sistema. Many praise it as something innovative and revolutionary: Baker mentions what the director of the Paris Conservatoire stated about El Sistema after a visit to Caracas in 2014: “In France, when the heads of several conservatories got together to talk about teaching and pedagogy, we concluded that modernity is in Venezuela and not in Europe, the future of culture and young people’s interest in classical music is here [in Venezuela].”34 In his essay, El Sistema: the Future
of Classical Music?, Baker states that El Sistema has been “fundamentally misunderstood in Europe and North America. Information circulates almost entirely in the form of newspaper articles and documentary films, rather than academic research, and the result has been the
30 Tunstall, 2012: IX 31 Ibid.: X
32 Ibid.; 2016.
33 Ibid.: XII, Italics are mine. 34 Baker, 2016: 2
creation of a story with an extraordinary hold over the public imagination, stretching well be-yond the usual circles of classical music, yet one that is in many respects a myth.”35
Guillermo Rosabal-Coto continues Baker’s argument bringing forth postcolonial ideas: “I find it problematic that […] dozens of programs around the world, should copy the rationale for nineteenth-century European music education practices—control and improve-ment of the marginal classes—refracted through El Sistema. […] e revival of this rationale in Venezuela has not been systematically and critically analyzed, or submitted to public de-bate.”36 Rosabal-Coto continues by advising on how to create projects without recurring to
what he calls “nineteenth-century European music education practices,” by aiming “to edu-cate future citizens ‘who are not only socially aware but also able to make responsible individual and collective choices and engage in healthy social relationships.’”37 e advice
given by Rosabal-Coto helps understand the problematics these projects may have when they are used to control and improve marginal classes rather than as a tool for empowering. Never-theless, postcolonial theories will not be an essential part of this research which focuses on music and conflict resolution.
François Matarasso’s work, Use or Ornament? e Social Impact of Participation in the Arts, is a study performed in 1997 on the results of musical programs in the United Kingdom. is study has been used by the OFB as a guide to promote the creation of new Centros Or-questales in Bogotá. “Between September 1995 and March 1997, Comedia, a leading
independent research centre, undertook the first phase of a study into the social impact of arts programmes. is concentrated on participation in the arts, as the area most widely claimed to support personal and community development.”38 Studies like this one are critical when
observing the real reach and effectiveness of the projects: the OFB conducts its research based on it.39 35 Baker, 2016: 1 36 Rosabal-Coto, 2016: 158 37 Ibid.: 176 38 Matarasso, 1997: VI
0.2.3 Type of Research
Svanibor Pettan defines the kind of research done depending on the methods used: “e con-scious decision-making of a researcher whether to step beyond the mere study of the selected phenomenon and affect the examined circumstances.”40 Pettan also mentions the work of
Daniel Sheehy, which complements the definition of what applied ethnomusicology is. For Sheehy, “Applied ethnomusicology as a conscious practice […] begins with a sense of purpose, a purpose larger than the advancement of knowledge about the music of the world’s peo-ples.”41 Jeff Titon defines applied ethnomusicology as “[putting] ethnomusicological
scholar-ship, knowledge, and understanding to practical use. […] Applied ethnomusicology is best regarded a music-centered intervention in a community, whose purpose is to benefit that community. […] It is music-centered, but above all the intervention is people-centered.”42
Under these definitions, the approach I had toward my research defines it as applied ethnomusicology. As a researcher, I decided to personally get involved in the activities instead of watching from afar: I was hired by the OFB to work as a coordinator for my case study, the Centros Orquestales project. Pettan continues mentioning both the work of Antonio Abreu and Daniel Barenboim and disregarding them as applied ethnomusicology for they are not rooted in ethnomusicology research.43
In the book Shadows in the Field, New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Jonathan Stock talks about the particularities of conducting what he calls fieldwork at home. I encountered similar situations and challenges as the ones he describes in his chapter, as the feeling of “responsibility to contribute to the improvement of our home societies where possi-ble.”44 As a Colombian myself, I share my culture and heritage with my research topic: “they
may regard us not as strangers but as individuals already emplaces in a pre-existing web of so-cial responsibilities distinct from the assumptions that greet a foreign researcher.”45 As Stock
also mentions, this kind of research brings some challenges of itself. Finding a correct balance between the research and family responsibilities is challenging and fully concentrating on the
40 Pettan, 2015: 31 41 Sheehy, 1992: 323 42 Pettan, 2015: 4 43 Ibid.: 31 44 Stock, 2008: 110 45 Ibid.: 113
research topic becomes more difficult. Ultimately, doing fieldwork at home permits a more profound study because of familiarity of with the location and the ease of communication.
0.3 Methodology
For the present research, I began exploring the subjects of violence consequences, displace-ment, social fabric, social betterdisplace-ment, cultural projects, and youth orchestras. First, I per-formed a literature review of studies done on these subjects. I also carried out archival consul-tation for my case study, consulting laws, proposals and agreements that reside in the Or-questa Filarmónica de Bogotá’s files.
Second, I conducted personal interviews with staff members of the Ministry of Cul-ture, coordinators, and teachers from the OFB, COs, and El Sistema.46 I also did anonymous
interviews with the parents of the beneficiaries of these projects.47
ird, I recollected materials used in the researched project: musical elements (sheet music, arrangements, concert programs), pedagogical guidelines (instrument methods, guide-lines for the structure of a music school), and photographic evidence. e musical material shows the level of the researched orchestras and how they are using the repertoire. e arrangements show how the music is being changed to fit the orchestra’s features, and the concert programs give a repertoire overview from which I can quantify the amount of
performed symphonic and folk music. e photographic evidence shows the characteristics of the concert halls, the instruments, and the children themselves.
Finally, my personal experience and involvement will be part of my research. My trav-els to Colombia since June 2016 until February 2017, let me experience the processes person-ally, performing what Stock defines as fieldwork at home. My involvement was one of partici-pant observer: attending concerts, classes, convocations, meetings, conferences, and debates. I made part of the staff team of the OFB from August 1 to December 31, 2016. By working from within one the project, I could see how different decisions and directions affect the overall result. My musical experience allows me to measure the musical results and progress of the processes.
46 For the scheme, number of interviews, and informed consent see Annex – Interviews, p. 81.
Chapter 1 – Colombia
Colombia has been a country marked by violence. Historian Marco Palacios states that collective fratricide has been a source of nationalism for the Colombian people: violence be-came the place where all social and cultural life took place.48 Although researching the
com-plete history of the conflict is outside the scope of this thesis, it is important to understand what has created the critical state that has dominated life since the beginning of the 20th
cen-tury.
1.1 Beginning of La Violencia
e great strike broke out. Cultivation stopped halfway, the fruit rotted on the trees and the hundred-twenty-car trains remained on the sidings. e idle workers overflowed the towns. [...] at was where José Arcadio Segundo was on the day it was announced that the army had been assigned to reestablish public order. [...]
Martial law enabled the army to assume the functions of arbitrator in the controversy, but no effort at conciliation was made. As soon as they appeared in Macondo, the soldiers put aside their rifles and cut and loaded the bananas and started the trains running. [...]
José Arcadio Segundo was in the crowd that had gathered at the station on Friday since early in the morning. He had taken part in a meeting of union leaders and had been commissioned, along with Colonel Gavilán, to mingle in the crowd and orient it according to how things went. [...]
Around twelve o’clock, [...] more than three thousand people, workers, women, and children, had spilled out of the open space in front of the station and were pressing into the neighboring streets, which the army had closed off with rows of machine guns. [...]
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the captain said in a low voice that was slow and a little tired. “you have five minutes to withdraw.” [...] No one moved.
“Five minutes have passed,” the captain said in the same tone. “One more minute and we’ll open fire.” “You bastards!” [José Arcadio Segundo] shouted. “Take the extra minute and stick it up your ass!” After his shout something happened that did not bring on fright but a kind of hallucination. e captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once.
[After escaping] José Arcadio Segundo did not speak until he had finished drinking his coffee. “ere must have been three thousand of them” he murmured. [...] “e dead,” he clarified. “It must have been all of the people who were at the station.”49
48 Ochoa, 2002
In his novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) creates a fictional recount to the event considered by some historians as the beginning of the conflict: the first reported massacre in Colombian history. e author is referring to the events that occurred on November 12, 1928, in the city of Ciénaga,50 where the Colombian army
violently repressed the strikes of the workers of the United Fruit Company.51 e exact
num-ber of victims will never be known, for there is no official report on what happened.52
is event reveals the relationship between the conservative government of Colombia and its people: the economic interests of the elites prevailed repressing any opposition. Representing the ideas of most workers, Congressman, and populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán (1903-48) rose to fame throughout the country. His speeches denounced the abuse of power from the elites and the traditional political parties.53 In the countryside, farmers and
workers created small guerilla-like groups to protect themselves from the violence of the pri-vate sector that would, in many cases, take their lands. e pripri-vate sector and landowners cre-ated paramilitary groups in response to defend themselves from these guerrillas. Although some laws were set in motion to benefit the worker’s interests, these “were little more than to-kenism”54 and did nothing to stop the fighting.
Besides this, the following decade, 1930-40, saw a great divide between the two principal political parties—conservatives and liberals—and their differences were sometimes resolved with violent confrontations on a local scale, for the liberals “had been accumulating grievances (real or imagined) during the long conservative ascendancy.” 55 Violence became
commonplace in the countryside.
50 Ciénaga is a city located by the Caribbean Sea in the Magdalena department of Colombia. It was one of the
principal centers for banana production during the first decades of the 20th century. 51 e United Fruit Company is known today as Chiquita Bananas.
52 For more information see Posada, 1998. 53 Ibid.
54 Hudson, 2010: 40 55 Ibid.
Figure 1 – Jorge Eliecer Gaitán during his speech at the Bolivar Plaza56
Jorge Eliecer Gaitán gave one speech on February 7, 1948, being now a presidential candidate. e Marcha del Silencio [Silence March] walked down the streets of Bogotá to the central Simón Bolivar Plaza asking for a peaceful end to the violence. Some 100,000 people rallied to hear him speak (Figure 1). Gaitán’s speech began,
Mister President Mariano Ospina Pérez57:
Under great emotion I talk to your Excellency, bringing with me the will of this immense multitude who hides in its heart, hurt because of so much injustice, under a strange silence, asking for peace and piety in our homeland. […]
Mister President, we are not cowards. We are the decedents of those who annihilated the tyrannies of this sacred land. We can sacrifice our lives to save the peace and the liberty of Colombia! […]
Mister President, prevent the violence. We want the defense of human life, that is what the people can ask for. Instead of this brute force, we must take advantage of the working capacity of the people for the benefit of the Colombian progress.58
56 Image available at < https://www.quien.net/wp-content/uploads/politica-quien-fue/
Jorge-Eliecer-Gaitan.jpg>, accessed April 2017
57 Mariano Ospina Pérez, president term: 1946-50. Life: 1891-1976
58 “Señor Presidente Mariano Ospina Pérez: Bajo el peso de una honda emoción me dirijo a vuestra Excelencia,
interpretando el querer y la voluntad de esta inmensa multitud que esconde su ardiente corazón, lacerado por tanta injusticia, bajo un silencio clamoroso, para pedir que haya paz y piedad para la patria. […] Nosotros, se-ñor Presidente, no somos cobardes. Somos descendientes de los bravos que aniquilaron las tiranías en este suelo sagrado. ¡Somos capaces de sacrificar nuestras vidas para salvar la paz y la libertad de Colombia! […] Impedid, Señor, la violencia. Queremos la defensa de la vida humana, que es lo que puede pedir un pueblo. En vez de esta fuerza ciega desatada, debemos aprovechar la capacidad de trabajo del pueblo para beneficio del progreso de Colombia.” Avalable at < http://www.revistaarcadia.com/agenda/articulo/
Jorge Eliecer Gaitán was assassinated on April 9, 1948, some streets away from the Bolivar Plaza. e death of the populist leader created an uncontrollable situation in Bogotá downtown, where the masses assumed that the conservative government was behind this act. ey proceeded to loot and burn great portions of the city’s center.59 Although Bogotá saw
the most deaths and destruction, the entire country busted into a war between the liberals and conservatives: La Violencia [e Violence] (1948-59) began.60
New communist guerrillas joined the liberals’ fight against the conservative govern-ment. All attempts from the conservative president to stop confrontations were of no use. On 1953, military leaders replaced the unpopular—and unrecognized by the liberals—president with General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.61 e coup brought the nonpartisanship of the military
into power, although General Rojas was akin to the ideas of former president Ospina Pérez. Under Rojas’ rule, liberal guerrillas took the amnesty proposed by the government and re-turned to civil life, but not all sides stopped the violence. Many armed groups continued their war, under false political banners, and aimed for an economic gain. General Rojas persecution of them only increased the victim’s count of 175,000 people since e Violence started.62
1.2 Guerillas, Drug-trafficking, and Paramilitaries
During the decade of 1950, Latin American revolutionaries saw the possibility of rebellion as had happened around the world under the influence of Marxism. Colombia, where the violent state, the social injustices, the low wages, and the incompetence of the government, was a perfect scenario for a revolution. Groups of students, intellectuals, labor unions, and workers saw in these ideas a possibility for social transformation, creating some 20 com-munist-inspired insurgent groups.
One guerilla group, following pro-Soviet ideas, was repressed by the government in what is known as Marquetalia Operation in 1964, where the small guerilla group achieved a victory over the Colombian army, which gave them a greater status. is farmers and workers created the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia [FARC, Revolutionary Armed
59 Images of the riots and destruction at <https://youtu.be/wM0NK03AAQ4>, accessed April 1, 2017. 60 Hudson, 2010: 43
61 General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Term: 1953-57. Life: 1900-75 62 Hudson, 2010: 44
Forces of Colombia]. In contrast, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional [ELN, National Lib-eration Army], founded that same year, consisted of students and professionals.63
After the defeat in elections for president of General Gustavo Rojas in 1957, a new form of government was created to try and end violence between the liberal and conservative parties known as El Frente Nacional [e National Front] (1958-74). is form of govern-ment gave a 4-year presidential term for each party and equal representation in Congress. It did not allow smaller parties to have any representation or power, leaving the Communist party’s ideas out. Instead of ending the violence, it incremented the divide between the tradi-tional elites and the leftist groups and gave strength to the dissident guerrillas.
e presence of the insurgent groups remained limited because of the big costs that a large-scale revolution would have. eir primary way of financing was through extortions to the local people who would have to pay a fee to be allowed to remain in their territory. e situation changed with the rise of drug production and trafficking in the country during the decade of 1970. It began with marijuana cultivation in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of Santa Marta, but in the following years, the natural and geographical advantages made of Colombia one of the principal suppliers of cocaine worldwide.
Several cartels emerged in Cali and Medellín and controlled the drug traffic of their cities. A prominent member of the Medellín cartel was Pablo Escobar (1949-93). e cartels would create fear in the towns with terrorist acts such as assassinations, bombings, extortions, and taking hostages. Fear dominated the 80s and 90s.64 Pablo Escobar gave a reward of some
$4,500 USD for each police officer killed, producing the assassination of some 550 officers. On November 6, 1989, a car bomb at the government building of the Departamento Admistrativo de Seguridad [DAS, Administrative Department of Security] killed 70 people, in-jured 700 more, and destroyed both the building and the archive (Figure 2). During the first two decades of the cartel’s existence, many bombs destroyed houses, and shopping centers, killing more than 20,000 civilians.65
63 Hudson, 2010: 44 64 Ochoa, 2004
65 Semana. Available at <http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/
Figure 2 – Car bomb at the DAS66
e guerillas also participated in the drug-trafficking business, allowing cocaine pro-duction in their territories, and giving safe passage for the smugglers to their destination. With new narcotics money, the guerrillas gained the economic means to resist in the war against them from the Colombian government. Paramilitary groups in other regions also benefited with the drug traffic, creating an internal war between them and the guerrillas for the territory they controlled. All the sides of this conflict were against each other: paramilitar-ies were set up to protect private interests from the guerrillas and the government; the
guerrillas fought the other ideology guerrilla groups, the paramilitaries, and the government; the cartels fought the guerrillas for control of cocaine-producing territory and the govern-ment.
Middle-Class professionals and academics with social-democratic ideals created one more guerilla group in 1970, the Movimiento 19 de Abril [M-19, Nineteenth of April Move-ment], concentrated in urban areas. ey took hostage the Dominican Republic Embassy in Bogota for 61 days in 1980 with 15 ambassadors within. A more prominent act was the siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá on November 6, 1985. e army decided to end this siege by breaching the building. More than 100 casualties were reported, including 12 Supreme Court Justices. e assault destroyed the building and many justice records.67
66 Image available at <https://www.las2orillas.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/
6208916746015e3ae445de4da7caf143.jpg>, accessed April 2017
In 1990, the popular support for the guerilla groups, which had been at a high of 15%, had dropped to almost zero. ey had lost their cause and now were a dangerous insurgency, contributing to the general state of fear and violence. Massacres, displacement of populations, war taxes, and widespread violence became the norm in the country. Colombia found itself in an “exacerbated state of violence.”68 e warring sides caught the local civil population in the
middle of all this havoc.
1.3 Colombians
Colombians have been a people marked by violence. Today’s conflict is some 70 years old, meaning that the lives of most Colombians have taken place in a violent country and did not know another way of living. Since I can remember—although I lived in a relatively safe neighborhood in Bogotá—I was constantly reminded of the dire situation: homicides and massacres were common news in the 1990s, and a constant fear of bombs was everywhere. A car bomb exploded a couple of blocks away from my house in 1999, killing seven people and injuring 40 more.69 My family and I lived in a constant state of fear.
In the rural areas, the civil population was caught in the middle of the fighting and fell victim of all sides. e general report from the Grupo de memoria histórica70 [GMH,
Group of historical memory], states that the prolonged violence caused consequential dam-ages and impacts not only for the direct victims, but for their families and relatives, commu-nities, organizations, and public institutions of the Colombian society. It divides the kinds of damage in 4 groups: emotional and psychological damages, moral damages, political
damages, and sociocultural damages. I will briefly concentrate on the emotional and psycho-logical ones.
Fear is one of the first consequences of an emotional and psychological damage. In the report, victims tell how fear was the strongest emotion when they saw armed people arrive at their towns, regardless if they are from the guerrillas, paramilitary, or military.
68 “Estado exacerbado de violencia” (Ochoa, 2004: 18)
69 Car bomb in Pepe Sierra street. Available at
<http://caracol.com.co/radio/1999/11/12/bo-gota/0942390000_021476.html>, accessed April 1, 2017.
Nights were terrible because we looked for different places to spend the night […] Everyone came to-gether to sleep in one house, sleep in another… with the purpose of taking care of ourselves […]. We kept ourselves prepared, may of the people slept with the clothes on, with the clothes in the suitcase, even the children, had a planned escape plan. So that time was of a terrible anguish.71
Fear becomes a paralyzing sentiment that prevents people from continuing their normal life. Trust in the community is lost and families break. People become afraid of com-ing together, to protect their lives. e report mentions how this fear created defense mecha-nisms such as silence, distrust, and isolation, modifying and destroying community and fam-ily relationships. In turn, the fear can develop into hate and rage. “It is usual that the repres-sion of feelings of anger and hate are redirected towards other people, especially towards the weaker, as the minors. is occurs because the victims do not find the adequate spaces to rec-ognize and process such feelings.”72
In other cases, emotions such as guilt and shame are predominant, especially when the victims are not able to protect loved ones or to prevent something to happen. Some victims feel guilty to be alive while their relatives perished. “To recover everyday life is a disrespect to the loved ones that now are absent.”73 e report states the following as some of the
psychological detriments seen in the victims: “confinement, isolation, silence, recurring and repetitive nightmares, disinterest for activities they used to enjoy, lack of sexual desire, physical neglect, lack of self-esteem, deterioration of health, depression, and the recurring remembrance of the hurtful events, described as images and intrusive thoughts.”74
In her master’s dissertation, Andrea Rodríguez focuses on the impacts the conflict and displacement have on children and youth. Besides the damages listed above, children that have lived and seen the war have been socialized and taught to survive it using defense mech-anisms. eir sudden and significant losses are related to violent acts of destruction, experi-encing cruelty and pain. e experience of forced physical separation from people and objects will have a profound impact on their lives. ese will deteriorate life quality by fragmenting and destroying the family and the social networks. e breaking of the social fabric destroys traditional values, lifestyles, appropriation and transmission of their heritage and culture. Among the characteristics these children present, the following are mentioned: constant
71 Interview with a victim (GMH, 2013: 261) 72 Ibid.: 264
73 GMH, 2013: 265 74 Ibid.
nightmares, impairment of attention span, daily instability, emotional outbursts, emotional aggressiveness, and high sensibility to loud noises. Besides, the most worrying characteristics are the loss of confidence, defensive or frighten attitudes, the use of violence as a way of problem-solving, and the lack of trust and hope in other people and a better life.75
Colombia has 7,760,000 displaced people as of March 1, 2017.76 To help understand
this number is it like the populations of the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, and Utrecht combined. is is one of the most notorious and devastating consequences of the sit-uation. Colombia is the country with the most internal displaced people in the world. ese people have fled their homes and towns to save their lives from the devastation of the conflict. “e displacement is not an event that begins or ends with the escape; it is a lengthy process that starts with the exposition to other forms of violence as threatening, intimidation, armed confrontation, massacres and other modalities. Periods of tension, anguish, suffering, and in-tense fear preceded the run.”77 Most of these people arrived at the bigger cities, such as
Bo-gotá, Medellín, and Cartagena, looking for safety. But life is impossible to reconstruct under these conditions. Displacement itself adds to the extensive list of psychological damages caused by the conflict, especially destroying the people’s identities, autonomy, and empower-ment. Once in the city, people have nothing from their previous lives, restricting any possibil-ity of a life plan.
e general report of the GMH concludes with some recommendations for
peacebuilding in the country. For decades, the Colombian state has modeled its legal struc-ture in response to the internal conflict, increasing military spending over time. e report suggests the use of this budget for peace construction and social development, proposing the creation of projects with the following topics:
75 Rodríguez, 2013: 54
76 Displacement in Colombia. Available at <http://cifras.unidadvictimas.gov.co/Home/Desplazamiento>,
ac-cessed April 1, 2017.
77 “La experiencia vivida por la mayoría de las personas muestra que el desplazamiento no es un evento que
em-pieza o termina con la salida o la huida forzada, es un largo proceso que se inicia con la exposición a formas de violencia como la amenaza, la intimidación, los enfrentamientos armados, las masacres y otras modalidades. La salida está precedida de períodos de tensión, angustia, padecimientos y miedo intenso, que en algunos casos son los que llevan a tomar la determinación de huir.” (GMH, 2013: 296)
a) Promotion and strengthening of citizen participation.
b) Planning the national budget with social inclusion priorities, for the victims, with the necessary precautions for people in need, etc.
c) Guarantees for the exercise and security in political participation. d) Changing the previous norms for the challenges of this new stage. e) e function of the Public Force, reorienting their efforts toward peace
construction.
f) e protection and guarantee of Human Rights, especially for vulnerable populations.78
e 1991 constitution gave culture a new role in Colombian politics as an attempt to help the situation. “Culture would be what allows to ‘reconstruct coexistence’ or ‘social fabric’; create a ‘safe zone’ amid the violence; give a new path to the historic habits of vengeance which lead to the infinite persistence of war; allow the presence of grief or transform the meaning itself of politics; deconstruct the history of exclusions to transform it into processes of inclusions.”79
After looking back at the history of today’s Colombian internal conflict, the im-portance of creating projects to help the victims becomes apparent. During this long war, many parties and sides have fought each other with no winners. In between the fight, the civil population was deeply affected. Displacement in the country is much more than the mere act of going to a new city. e violence and migration had profound damages in the lives of the displaced. ese created such a critical state that the country had to rewrite its constitution as an attempt of improving the situation.
78 GMH, 2013: 403
79 “La cultura sería aquello que permitiría “reconstruir la convivencia” o “el tejido social”; crear una “zona de
dis-tensión” en medio de la violencia; darle una ruta diferente a los históricos hábitos de la venganza que llevan a la persistencia infinita de la guerra; permitir la presencia del duelo o transformar el sentido mismo de la política; deconstruir la historia de exclusiones para transformarla en procesos de inclusión.” (Ochoa, 2004: 18)
Chapter 2 – Diversity as the National Agenda
Being the longest existing constitution in Latin America before 1990, the 1886 constitution stated that Colombia was a “mestizo nation in the process of whitening, united under one God and one race.”80 is definition ignored the vast diversity of the 34 million inhabitants
that conform the country. Although the official language is Spanish, Colombia has about 78 living languages; 86% of the population consists of white and mestizos,81 10.5% are
Afro-Colombians (including blacks, mulattoes,82 and zambos83), 3.4% are indigenous people, and a
0.01 % of Roma peoples.84 e definition given by the 1886 constitution disregards the reality
of the country. “In the view of many Colombians, the epidemic of multifaceted violence re-sulted in considerable part from the rigidity of the country’s institutions.”85 is was one of
the main reasons the people of the country voted in a referendum held on May 1990 asking for a new constitution. e following year, president César Gaviria (term: 1990–94) con-voked the Constituent Assembly that worked on the process of writing the new constitution.
e new 1991 constitution included all the inhabitants of the country by giving them legal representation. e first chapter of the constitution—which is called “of the fundamen-tal principles,” and refers to the human rights—mentions culture, showing its importance in the national agenda. Article 7 states that the nation must recognize and protect the ethnic and cultural diversities. Culture became a new area of interest for the definition of the na-tional sentiment. Alejandro Mantilla86 told me in his interview: “Although this cultural
diver-sity is evident for us [Colombians], it is not explicit until 1991, with the definition of a multi-cultural and multiethnic national sentiment.”87 Article 70 states that the State has the duty of
promoting and encouraging cultural access to all Colombians in equal opportunities […]. Culture, in all its diverse manifestations, is the fundament of nationality. e state recognizes the equality and dignity of all [of the cultures] that coexist in the country. e state will pro-mote investigation, […], development, and diffusion of the cultural values of the country. e
80 Ochoa, 2001: 377
81 Mixed white and Amerindian ancestry 82 Mixed black and white ancestry 83 Mixed black and Amerindian ancestry 84 Hudson, 2010: xxxiii
85 Ibid.: 57
86 General Coordinator of the Musical Department in the Ministry of Culture of Colombia 87 Interview with Alejandro Mantilla.
general law of culture, created in 1997, defined culture as “the distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize human groups and that comprehends, beyond arts and letters, modes of life, human rights, systems of value, traditions, and be-liefs.”88
Alberto Sanabria89 portrays a glimpse of the national sentiment during these times
when he mentions that the great failure of the economic development of the region was be-cause the ruling class disregarded the local cultures. Many of the local political structures were imported from abroad without any knowledge of the cultural values and historical processes of the region, generating conflicts of high complexity. Sanabria proposes that only when the distinct parts recognize each will they resolve their conflicts. “is recognition implies respect, listening, and tolerance towards other beliefs, values and diverse ways of expression; but at the same time, it can be understood as generosity and solidarity.”90 e local population loses
their modes of expression and communication when treated as inferior to the European counterpart. Before the 1991 constitution, these cultural expressions were seen as something curious, a touristic attraction, sometimes of bad taste. “Many thought […] (and there are some that still do), that the indigenous people had no culture: their speech was a dialect, not a real language; their religion was paganism; they had customs but not culture.”91 e creation
of one unifying national sentiment, especially if the country understands itself as being in the process of whitening, opposes the country’s cultural reality. After the 1991 constitution, cul-tural diversity became a defining concept for Colombia: “Culture, in its diverse manifesta-tions, is the fundament of Nationality.”92 e diversity of the country with a multitude of
cul-tural expressions became what makes the it move forward toward progress.
88 Law 397, 1997, Title 1, Article 1 (Ochoa, 2001: 377) 89 Compiler of the General Law of Culture
90 “El reconocimiento implica respeto, escucha y tolerancia hacia las creencias, valores y maneras de expresarse
del otro, pero también se traduce en generosidad y solidaridad.” (Sanabria, 2000: 6)
91 “Muchos pensaban, en realidad (y todavía hay quienes lo siguen creyendo), que los pueblos indios no tenían
cultura: su lengua era un dialecto, no un verdadero idioma; su religión era paganismo; tenían costumbres pero no cultura.” (Bonfil, 1987: 90)
2.1 CREA
e Instituto colombiano de cultura [Colcultura, Colombian institute of culture]93 developed
a program to document the diversity of cultural practices and show the multicultural and multiethnic country the constitution implied: CREA: Una expedición por la cultura colombiana [CREA, An expedition through Colombian culture], which gathered diverse cultural mani-festations and gave them visibility with concerts and workshops. is program took place be-tween 1992 and 1998. It organized expositions at a local level, from where the best would go to the municipal, regional, and finally, on a national scale. e cultural flow was reversed, tak-ing the expressions from the smallest towns towards the capital, in opposition to how the traditional media that flows from the capital to the regions. In 1995, the first presentation of the CREA program took place in Bogotá with 1,687 artists from all parts of Colombia.94
e CREA program did not only give visibility to the cultural expressions; in some cases, especially in conflict zones, CREA generated unexpected moments of peace. In her es-say Sobre el estado de excepción como cotidianidad, cultura y violencia en Colombia [On the state of emergency as everyday life, culture and violence in Colombia], Ana Ochoa explains what happened in different areas when this program organized cultural events and concerts in the region. e constant fear from the cartels that controlled the territory defined everyday life in the emerald-producing area of the department of Boyacá. People would close their businesses early and stay home in fear of the perils of the night. Although the local cartels had tried to end their fights and their differences on several occasions, they had encountered many diffi-culties in being able to call the community to come together once again. Local cultural leaders had tried to gather people in the public scenarios, and then closed due to the fear that reigned in the region.95
When the CREA program arrived, it gave local visibility to what the local cultural leaders were doing. Observers to what was happening stated, “it had generated a peace pro-cess in Boyacá.” is event led to the recuperation of public spaces that the conflict took from
93 Colcultura was created in 1968 as a section of the Ministry of Education and would serve to manage the
cul-tural policies of the country (Decree 994 of 1969) . It became the Ministry of Culture in 1997.
94 Ochoa, 2004: 31 95 Ibid.
