A Frenchman's View of Old Colombia

A riverboat at a coffee plantation.

Bourgarel on horseback.

A lifelong diplomat, Ernest Bourgarel was France's consul general and chief minister in Colombia at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century. Between 1890 and 1902, Bourgarel traveled widely across Colombia, particularly along the Magdalena River, documenting in his notebooks and with his camera a nation which was growing economically and developing its coffee industry - but also suffering from repeated civil wars.

Bourgarel's are some of the earliest documentary photographs of Colombia.

A selection of Bourgarel's photos and notes are on display this month in the Museum of Bogotá, in its new building on Calle 10 between carreras 3 and 4.

A cargo train.

La Candelaria Church in Medellin.

Working on the Panama Canal.

A steam train crosses a bridge.

Mules and men cross a wood plank bridge.

Bolivar street in Medellin.

The exhibition in the Museo de Bogota.

An old map of the Magdalena River.

Interior patio of the Museo de Bogotá.

Ernest Bourgarel, a self-portrait.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia's Own Charlie Hebdo Moment

On the morning of Aug. 13, 1999, journalist and satirist Jaime Garzón was driving to work when gunmen murdered him. Right-wing paramilitaries are believed to have been behind the assassination, which is still under investigation 16 years later.

Today's newspapers reported the Paris massacre. El Tiempo
printed its front page in black and white.

Whoever was behind it, Garzón's murder shook Colombia, which had become tragically accustomed to the killing of politicians, but not to that of popular commentators. And, inevitably, Garzón's killing, like that of many Colombian journalists before and after him, inevitably sent fear thru every Colombian journalist and commentator, who wondered whether his or her next observation would bring a bullet.

Sound familiar?

Today, journalists the world over have become very aware how just a few armed fanatics can destroy lives and a newspaper.

I'm not defending Charlie Hebdo, which I've never read and wouldn't understand if I did. A Financial Times columnist called Charlie Hebdo's ridiculing of Islam "stupid," altho the commentary has since been revised. And it sounds as tho the magazine was very offensive not only to Islam, but to many groups and religions. But it was a group of Islamist extremists trapped in a medieval mentality who apparently stormed the newspaper's office yesterday and massacred 12 people.

'We are all Charlie.' El Espectador published a
French-language cartoon on its front page..

Today, journalists all over the world, including Colombia, feel a bit more scared about what they
right and where they go. Journalists, more than other professionals, are vulnerable because they must constantly venture out into unfamiliar places, amongst strangers, to get the story. Probably there'll be less of that now, which will mean a loss for society. It will also mean suffering for Muslims and other immigrants across Europe, since right-wing, xenophobic protests like those last week in Germany will undoubtedly intensify.

Those offended by Charlie Hebdo, like those who hated satirist Garzón, had lots of reasonable alternatives, including filing a lawsuit, marching in protest or just closing the magazine and tossing it into the trash.

The Committee to Protect Journalists lists 45 Colombian journalists murdered since 1992. Those murders have inevitably had a muting effect on media investigation and reporting. Freedom House ranks Colombia's press as only 'partly free.'

During recent years, Colombia has had many scandals, including the parapolitica, government spying and the horrific falsos positivos murders. We can only speculate about how much wrongdoing would have been reduced or even prevented had Colombia had a more vigorous press.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá a la Francesa

Bogotá's City Hall, designed by a French architect in French Rennaisance style. 

Simon Bolivar.

There's an exhibition going on now in north Bogotá of Memorabilia from French general and dictator Napoleon Bonaparte. In the exhibition you'll actually be able to see the saber used in Napoleon's coronation as emperor, the royal jewels, the emperor's hat and, even, the emperor's brother's bed!

In other word's, it's a display of hero worship rivaling that of Colombia's own 'El Libertador' Simon Bolivar.

Napoleon Bonaparte.

The two men crossed paths at least once: Bolívar was in Paris to witness Napoleon's coronation as emperor - which horrified Bolívar as a betrayal of the French Revolution. (Yet, ironically, near his death Bolívar wanted to be appointed Colombia's president for life.)

Napoleon influenced Colombian history - from a distance. It was thanks to his invasion of Spain - tho not his intention - that Colombia and the rest of South America achieved independence as early as they did. With Spain weakened by French occupation, criollo loyalty to the crown withered and some Latin American leaders saw their chance to throw off Spanish rule.

Last weeks in Bogotá! A Napoleon talks on the phone in La Candelaria. 

Le Corbusier the Great.

And the idealism of the French Revolution and the North American colonies' rebellion against Britain inspired the Spanish colonies' rebellion. Colombia, like most of Latin America, was also influenced by the Napoleonic Code - altho nowadays Colombia and other Latin nations are shifting to a more English/American-style legal code.

French bread in Cafe de la
Peña in La Candelaria. 

While Colombia has received fewer European immigrants than have other Latin American nations, several French citizens have made their marks here.

French-Colombian citizen Ingrid Betancourt
while a captive of the FARC guerrillas. 

Perhaps the most colorful Frenchman to visit Colombia was the convicted murderer and escapee from the Devil's Island penal colony Henri Charrière, known as Papillon, who wrote that he happily cohabited with Wayuu women on the Guajira peninsula. Another was the famed Swiss-French urban planner Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, who was hired in mid-century to build an master plan for Bogotá. But Le Corbusier's 1950 plan, which left the city's rivers exposed, was never implemented. Another French architect, Gaston Lelarge, designed Bogotá's City Hall, known as the Palacio de Liévano, built in 1907. But undoubtedly the French citizen who left the deepest mark on Colombia in recent years was Green Party presidential candidate and Ingrid Betancourt, who was kidnapped in 2002 by FARC guerrillas and freed by the military with others in 2008.

Pascal Tournamille, from Toulouse,
proprietor of the La Tartine
restaurant in La Candelaria. 

Today, there seems to me to be a disproportionate number of French travelers and students living in Bogotá, at least in La Candelaria, and at least compared with Brits, Germans and other nationalities. Thanks to them, the neighborhood has a number of French bakeries and restaurants, including La Cicuta restaurant on 9th St. and Carrera 2, el Cafe de la Pena on Carrera 3 just south of 10th St. and the La Tartine restaurant on Calle 12 just above Carrera 4.

A French immigrant's tomb in
Bogotá's Central Cemetery.

But historically Colombia apparently received fewer immigrants from France than Britain and Germany - at least judging by the fact that those other two nations have their own ethnic cemeteries here, but the French do not. (Or, perhaps that's only due to most French being Catholic, and so willing to be buried in the Central Cemetery. Still, I haven't seen many French last names there.)

Colombian leaders must regret that France did not have the U.S.'s success in digging a canal across Panama, which the French attempted to do in the 1880s, when the isthmus still belonged to Colombia. If the French had succeeded, then the U.S. likely would not have torn Panama off of the rest of Colombia, as U.S. Pres. Teddy Roosevelt later did.

'Treasures of Napoleon' runs until early May in the Claustro La Enseñanza, Calle 72 No. 7-51. Entry ranges from 15,000 pesos for students to 25,000 pesos for regular people on weekends and holidays. Open Sundays 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Mon, Tues, Wed 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Thurs, Fri. and Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours