Una Gringa en Bogotá

This book apparently just came out in Spanish and I started reading it. Its really interesting and I am reading it in Spanish pretty easily (maybe because its a translation from English that makes it easier?)

An article from Semana in Spanish:
http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?IdArt=107467

A Gringa in Bogotá
Living Colombia's Invisible War

By June Carolyn Erlick

To many foreigners, Colombia is a nightmare of drugs and violence. Yet normal life goes on there, and, in Bogotá, it's even possible to forget that war still ravages the countryside. This paradox of perceptions—outsiders' fears versus insiders' realities—drew June Carolyn Erlick back to Bogotá for a year's stay in 2005. She wanted to understand how the city she first came to love in 1975 has made such strides toward building a peaceful civil society in the midst of ongoing violence. The complex reality she found comes to life in this compelling memoir.

Erlick creates her portrait of Bogotá through a series of vivid vignettes that cover many aspects of city life. As an experienced journalist, she lets the things she observes lead her to larger conclusions. The courtesy of people on buses, the absence of packs of stray dogs and street trash, and the willingness of strangers to help her cross an overpass when vertigo overwhelms her all become signs of convivencia—the desire of Bogotanos to live together in harmony despite decades of war. But as Erlick settles further into city life, she finds that "war in the city is invisible, but constantly present in subtle ways, almost like the constant mist that used to drip down from the Bogotá skies so many years ago."

Shattering stereotypes with its lively reporting, A Gringa in Bogotá is must-reading for going beyond the headlines about the drug war and bloody conflict.

June Carolyn Erlick lived in Bogotá from 1975 to 1984 and from 2005 to 2006 and has visited the city many times in between. A veteran journalist and foreign correspondent who now teaches feature writing at Harvard Extension and Summer Schools, she is the Editor-in-Chief of ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Her previous books include Disappeared: A Journalist Silenced, the Irma Flaquer Story and the original Spanish version of this book, Una gringa en Bogotá.

By gamm2 on Dec 1, 2009, 17:18 in Friendly Talkzone.

webmanco says on Dec 1, 2009, 18:30:

I looks interesting.

No hay extremo cierto o verdadero, porque los extremos opacan, enruedan, (lavan cerebros) verdades. Yotas

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Pappassito says on Dec 1, 2009, 19:31:

I just checked, it's available from amazon.com for $19.95.

"A wise monkey never monkeys with another monkey's monkey."

0 funny, 0 helpful.

babygirl says on Dec 1, 2009, 20:01:

Cool cool! Thanks for sharing.

Canadian Girls Kick Ass!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

miamimike says on Dec 1, 2009, 22:18:

Bet she has some good tales if she was in Bogota in the early to mid 70s, she was there when all the Hippies descended upon Bogota. I'm going to check out the Public Libraries for it.

"You can take the Banana Out of the Republic but you Cannot take the Republic Out Of The Banana"

0 funny, 0 helpful.

gamm2 says on Dec 2, 2009, 04:52:

Yeah - I think it was published in the US (in English) in 2007 and then it just came out (in Spanish) on Nov 7. They just got it here in my school library. I think its cool because she´s balanced - she had this part that I really liked. Ha Ha I will translate it back to English.... These are her rules for her fulbright year in Bogota in 2005.

"I want to concentrate on day to day life and see what happens. I am 59 year middle class woman, a gringa who loves this country and feels "invested" here. I want to go out of my house and see what I see. I am not going to go looking for the war. I will travel only where I am invited for my work. I am not going to isolate myself in an ivory tower, but I am also not going to go looking for poverty and crisis. I hope I am not becoming indfferent. These are the rules of my time here, but maybe some of them will be broken."

0 funny, 0 helpful.

gamm2 says on Dec 2, 2009, 05:05:

She does say that people always enter and exit Transmilenio orderly and politely which is sooooo not true!!! :)

Another thing she talks about is the Colombians´ unique reactions to movies. She gave the example of the Edukadors (german movie about some kids that kidnapped a rich guy because he was rich). Apparently some Colombians didn´t like how the kidnappers in the movie basically got what they wanted - because that shouldn´t happen to kidnappers.

I experienced a similar thing while seeing Bastardos sin Gloria (Inglorious Bastards). I heard people coming out of the movie talking about how they (the nazi killers) were paramilitaries which would never have even crossed my mind.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Monpirri says on Dec 2, 2009, 17:49:

Well she appears to be a well traveled lady and she is not a pussy cat to enjoy Colombian food.
Here's a sentence I copied from the above Semana Magazine.

"Amante de la fritanga, el chunchullo, los mojicones y la lengua en salsa, asegura que aunque le encanta la comida tradicional, no le gusta el chocolate santafereño."

"Anyone who still thinks that Colombia is not a gastronomical paradise needs to have their head examined." Darloup

0 funny, 0 helpful.

webmanco says on Jan 11, 2010, 08:34:

Nice pics.

I meant on the following site.

http://jiselstravelblog.blogspot.com/

No hay extremo cierto o verdadero, porque los extremos opacan, enruedan, (lavan cerebros) verdades. Yotas

0 funny, 0 helpful.