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Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and events from around the hemisphere with AQ's Panorama. Each issue, AQ packs its bags and offers readers travel tips on a new Americas destination.
Colombia is fast becoming Latin America’s newest player on the global fashion scene. Leading the couture revolution is the Medellín-based fashion house InexModa and its annual Colombia Moda fashion show. The two-day event, held in July, features 23 runway shows, where over 70 designers showcase their work with 90 Colombian models.
Colombia Moda was first held in the early 1990s, but with increasing international attention on Colombian designers, this year’s show is expected to generate record sales of $75 million from foreign and domestic buyers, according to Colombia’s national export promotion agency, which sponsors and promotes the event. Some 9,000 designers, models, buyers, and aspiring design students will attend. InexModa executive director Carlos Botero, who oversees the show, touts it as “a way to showcase the best brands and brightest designers Colombia has to offer.”
This year’s theme, Consciencia Moda (Fashion Conscience) reflects rising interest in environmental and social issues, and the emergence of corporate social responsibility in the industry. Botero says “the show will include seminars on ethical labor, fair trade and environmental sustainability.”
The 2011 show will spotlight some of Colombia’s cutting-edge designers, such as Bogotá-born Amelia Toro, whose distinctive styles and use of traditionally embroidered fabrics have garnered global acclaim; Pepa Pombo, known for her use of hand-embroidered silk; and Agua Bendita, whose bathing-suit line is inspired by traditional indigenous designs.
Brazilian Serginho Laus, 31, isn’t like most surfers, who clog the coastline in search of the next killer swell. But that didn’t stop him from capturing the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records title for longest distance surfed—an accolade he held for five years.
The wave Laus rode lasted 10 kilometers (7 miles), a distance made possible by a natural phenomenon known in the native Tupi language as pororoca, or “great destructive noise.” First surfed in 1997 by legends Eraldo Gueiros and Guga Arruda, the pororoca is a tidal bore that occurs only during full or new moons. When the forces of nature converge, Atlantic swells up to 4 meters (13 feet) travel up the Amazon River, destroying virtually everything in their path. “The first time we surfed the pororoca,” Laus says, “it felt like we were part of a video game. I surfed past obstacles like bamboo, rocks and parts of trees.”
Despite the dangers, in 2001 Laus and his river-surfing colleagues turned their passion for the pororoca into an internationally-recognized event called the Pororoca Circuit, which took surfers from all over the world to the Brazilian states of Amapá, Pará and Maranhão in search of waves. A decline in sponsorships in 2008 has temporarily halted the annual championship, but Laus is optimistic that they will restart soon. “We have been working on a bunch of new ideas to raise funds,” he says, “and tidal bore competitions in places like China have attracted up to 400,000 spectators.”
Whether Laus and his fellow surfers manage to restart the annual championships or not, nothing is going to stop them from pushing the limits of long-distance surfing. In 2010, U.S.-born Steve King set a new world record by surfing a whopping 12 kilometers (9 miles).
Facing the Caribbean Sea on Colombia’s northern coast, the charming city of Cartagena de las Indias, founded in 1533, boasts some of the oldest, best-preserved colonial architecture in South America. The city’s historic walled district was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984
1. Spend the Evening in an Open-Air Plaza. The Plaza San Diego and Plaza Santo Domingo are your best bets to catch street performances of local folk music, called vallenato, or—if you’re really lucky—a Shakira impersonator like the one above.
2. Get Lost in the Walled City. The Ciudad Amurallada, surrounded by 400-year-old stone walls, offers both romance and history. The sea is visible from the tops of the walls, and a stroll along the narrow brick streets past burnt orange and royal blue buildings is a way to relive the city’s colonial past.
3. Climb the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. A short walk from downtown, this seventeenth-century fortress is a maze of tunnels that seem custom-made for hide-and-seek. The fortress was built as a defense against pirates. The tunnels were designed to help overtake intruders.
4. Catch a Few Rays. With its blinding white sand and turquoise blue water, Playa Blanca- may be the prettiest beach around Cartagena. Passenger boats depart every hour from the main port for about $25 roundtrip.
5. See and Be Seen. The city plays host to a number of music, literary and film festivals, many of which take place at the historic Teatro Adolfo Mejía. If high art isn’t your thing, catch one of the rival beauty pageants that captivate every cartagenero come November.
6. Hop on a Bike. Escape downtown and head to the working-class neighborhood of Getsemaní. On your way back, ride past the clock tower and stop at a nearby bakery for a bocaqueso (a cheese- and guava-filled pastry). Bikes are available at shops downtown with two-hour rentals for about $3.50.
7. Visit the Convento and Iglesia de San Pedro Claver. One of the city’s many cathedrals, this church doubles as a museum, housing pre-Columbian and colonial archaeological artifacts and a small, but surprisingly rich, collection of Afro-Caribbean art. Tickets cost $3.75 for adults, and it’s open daily.
8. Put on Your Dancing Shoes. Coastal Colombia is home to a vibrant salsa culture, and Cartagena is no exception. Café Havana in Getsemaní gets going after 11 p.m., with crowds spilling onto the streets.
9. Release Your Inner Child. Splash around in a warm mud bath atop the Volcán de Totumo, about an hour’s ride outside of the city in nearby Arboletes. Make sure you take time to rinse off afterward at the nearby lagoon.
10. Stay at the Charleston Santa Teresa. The Carmelite convent in the walled city has been converted into a boutique hotel. Not for the budget-minded (double rooms start at $450 per night), it’s still worth visiting to see the large courtyard and tropical garden, and the rooftop pool with spectacular 360-degree views.
Boleto al Paraíso (Ticket to Paradise) by Cuban director Gerardo Chijona is set during the “special period” of extreme hardship in Cuba that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Using the tale of two runaway teens, the movie contrasts the universal desire for a better life with the hopelessness of daily life, especially among Cuba’s youth.
Eunice (played by Miriel Cejas), flees a sexually abusive household and meets Alejandro (played by Héctor Medina), who is supposedly on his way to a rock concert in Havana with a group of friends. Eunice, who longs for a family to call her own, quickly latches on to the tight-knit group.
But Alejandro and his friends, we discover, are really going to Havana to infect themselves with HIV so they can be admitted to a state-run sanatorium, where they will get good food and a roof over their heads. This is their “ticket to paradise,” they believe.
Alejandro and Eunice are fictional characters, but the film draws on true stories of patients in the Sanatorio de Santiago de Las Vegas, a facility in Los Cocos, Cuba—as told by Dr. Jorge Pérez, who began treating HIV patients in 1983. Pérez describes his work in a 2006 book, SIDA: Confesiones a un médico (AIDS: Confessions to a Doctor).
The story of Eunice and Alejandro reflects real stories in Pérez’ book, making the movie all the more haunting. “I made a point of narrating the story through Eunice so viewers would relate to the other characters [through her] and think about the decisions they were forced to make,” says Chijona.
Chijona’s portrayal will leave some filmgoers not only sympathetic to the characters’ choices—but accepting them as rational.
Boleto al Paraíso was accepted to the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in in Utah. It premiered in New York on April 7 at the Havana Film Festival.
A partnership between the National Endowment for Democracy’s Forum for Democratic Studies and the Instituto de Ciencia Política de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Journal of Democracy en Español provides cutting-edge analysis from the Journal of Democracy to Latin American readers in their own language. Now in its third year, the annual Spanish version of Journal of Democracy includes translated articles from the English version and original articles by scholars in the region.
Bogotá-based think tank Instituto de Ciencia Política has provided a nuanced and multifaceted look at the political, social and economic issues in Venezuela with the latest issue of the policy magazine, Perspectiva. Published three times a year, the February 2011 issue includes contributions from scholars and analysts from around the hemisphere with analyses on the future of Colombian and Venezuelan relations.
When it comes to understanding defense issues in Latin America, La Red de Seguridad y Defensa de América Latina’s (RESDAL) annual Atlas comparativo de la defensa en América Latina y Caribe is the hemispheric gold standard. The report contains data and analysis covering a wide range of defense issues, from the size and preparedness of the region’s armed forces, to military expenditures by country. At a time when Latin American militaries have gone on a weapons-buying spree, the reports are a valuable, fact-based resource on the armed forces and civil-military relations in the region.
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AQ's coverage and post-trip analysis of the President's May 2-4 visit.
