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| El Negro Chivas in front of el Café de los Locos. |
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| Manuel González Guzmán and friend. |
The ambitious law student went crazy after his girlfriend betrayed him. The widow was driven crazy by her husband's death in one of Colombia's many civil wars. The fast runner who chased streetcars fell in love with his sister - until she escaped from him on a streetcar. He went crazy and chased streetcars trying to find her. The son of high society loved cheese and a woman. But she left him on the altar, driving him crazy.
All went crazy for kinds of love.
These four semi-legendary characters of La Candelaria are on display in new café, appropriately named 'Café de los Locos,' located in the Hotel Continental's shopping area, just off of Jimenez Ave.
The café, just one week old, is the brain-child of journalist Manuel González Guzmán, and won several historical and cultural recognitions. When I visited, the café was vacant, but that hopefully will change when neighboring stores are rented and open.
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| El Bobo del Tranvia |
'
El Bobo del Tranvia', or 'The Fool of the Streetcars,' loved chasing streetcars and also fell in love with his sister, who fled from him on a streetcar, driving him crazy. He then pursued streetcars with more fervor, hoping to find his sister on one of them. In the end, El Bobo helped direct the city's streetcar system.
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| The café's interior reflected in a mirror. |
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| 'El Bobo' close up. |
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| La Loca Margarita |
La Loca Margarita's (The Crazy Margarita) husband died fighting for the Liberales under Rafael Uribe Uribe in the Thousand Day's War. She possessed the ability to predict the future and predicted Uribe Uribe's 2014 assassination in alongside Congress, in La Candelaria. That killing drove her completely mad, and, dressed in red, she roamed La Candelaria denouncing the Conservative Party.
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| Manuel Quijano y Figueroa, known as Pomponio. |
The son of a wealthy family,
Pomponio loved cheese and a woman, who left him at the altar. Driven crazy, Pomponio nevertheless eventually became a capable letter deliverer.
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| El Negro Chivas. |
El Negro Chivas was an Afro-Colombian man from El Chocó, who traveled to the capital to study law. Soon after his arrival, however, his parents died and his fiancé left him for a white man. Crazed with fury, Chivas turned his anger against the sun, at which he yelled until his eyes were burned out.
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| The patio at the end of the commercial center provides a peaceful, secluded spot to sit. |
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| Most of the shops are vacant and for rent. |
By Mike Ceaser, of
Bogotá Bike Tours
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