The Archivo de Bogotá

The archive's entranceway and view of Bogotá's city center. 

A few photos of the Archivo de Bogotá, located in the Belén neighborhood a little south of the city center and the government buildings.

The Archive of Bogotá's modernistic building stands out in its poor hillside neighborhood. It was inaugurated in August 2003, designed by architect Juan Pablo Ortiz, and contains both a multitud of historic documents and temporary exhibitions about different people, places and subjects.

A view toward the city's eastern hills. 

On the archive's north is the Nuevo Santa Fe housing development designed by architect Rogelio Salmona. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia's Colorful Musical History

Cheesy, corny, silly, romantic, sentimental or offensive - the Archivo de Bogotá has an exhibit going on right now about the history of Colombian music on LPs. (MP3s just don't create the same emotional and artistic bonds.)

This guy is remembered for having passed out for so long after partying that he was given up for dead. he survived, and wrote 'The Death of Abel Villa' about the experience. After  resurrection he wrote songs with titles like 'Recogete' and 'El Higueron.'

These young ladies are best remembered as the 'Hermanitas Singer' thanks for the ditties they sang to advertise sewing machines.

Born Yuri Bedoya in Buenaventura in 1968, he moved to Paris and paid for his studies by playing music. He changed his last name to Buenaventura and wrote songs like 'Banano de Urabá.'

I wonder whether Los Speakers ever heard of The Beatles, or The Monkeys?

Jose Maria Peñaranda died in 2006 at age 99. He was known as the greatest writer of the  cancion picante, penning perhaps 1,000 songs, including suggestive ones such as 'The Nail' and 'The Injection' and 'El Caiman,' many of which got censored. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Author Tomas Carrasquilla in the Archivo de Bogotá

Tomas Carrasquilla, altho little-remembered today, is one of Colombia's major writers. An exhibition on now in the Archivo de Bogotá (in the Belen neighborhood just south of La Candelaria) focuses on the best-known aspect of this custombrista writer - his descriptions of the lives and habits of common Colombians.

Carrasquilla's Wikipedia entry argues that the writer is little-remembered because during his long life  (1858 - 1940) spent mostly in rural areas and the city of Medellin, the costumbrismo style fell out of favor and was replaced by modernismo, leaving Carrasquilla appearing out of date.

"One thing has charmed me greatly, and those are the bicycles. What a pleasure seeing these people balanced on those wheels, with that smoothness, that delicacy, that speed and that grace! I can't help be feel a certain envy when I see one of these guys rolling down these streets and passages." 

"Bogotanos drink chicha, a fermented corn drink which Carasquillo called 'scorpions liquor.' "I still haven't accustomed by guts to this infamous liquor which distills into a demented jerkiness and toad's stomach bile."

"And this business of bumping up against the multitude of unknown people is a charm." Carrasquilla went on to say that this isn't a city only for great men.

"No, they worry about any silly person and any gossip or commentary and the details of the most insignificant subject."

The view of Bogotá from the Archivo de Bogotá's second floor. 

A market scene from way back. 

Plaza Bolivar back in Carrasquilla's day. The writer observed that everybody dressed in black. 

The entrance hall of the Archivo de Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours