Cartagena, known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias, is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, along the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link in the route to the West Indies provides it with important historical value for world exploration and preservation of heritage from the great commercial maritime routes. As a former Spanish colony, it was a key port for the export of Bolivian silver to Spain and for the import of enslaved Africans under the asiento system. It was defensible against pirate attacks in the Caribbean. The city's strategic location between the Magdalena and Sinú Rivers also gave it easy access to the interior of New Granada and made it a main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, establishing its importance by the early 1540s.
Medellín, officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín, is the second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central region of the Andes Mountains, in northwestern South America. The city's population was 2,508,452 at the 2018 census. The metro area of Medellín is the second-largest urban agglomeration in Colombia in terms of population and economy, with more than 4 million people.
Manuel Ricardo Palma Soriano was a Peruvian author, scholar, librarian and politician. His magnum opus is the Tradiciones peruanas.
Benito Pérez Galdós was a Spanish realist novelist. He was a leading literary figure in 19th-century Spain, and some scholars consider him second only to Miguel de Cervantes in stature as a Spanish novelist.
A bookmobile, or mobile library, is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Bookmobiles expand the reach of traditional libraries by transporting books to potential readers, providing library services to people in otherwise underserved locations and/or circumstances. Bookmobile services and materials, may be customized for the locations and populations served.
Juan Antonio Gossaín Abdallah is a Colombian radio national news director, chief editor, and journalist, as well as a novelist. He wrote the novel "The Ballad of María Abdala." He is well known for directing the RCN Radio Network from around 1984 to 2010 and during that time had his own radio program that was regularly broadcast in Colombia. Gossaín was a two-time winner in the radio journalism category of the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar, a national award for Colombian journalism.
The Biblioteca Nacional de España is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos.
News of a Kidnapping is a non-fiction book by Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in Spanish in 1996, with an English translation released in 1997.
The National Library of Colombia is a national library located in Bogota, Colombia. The library is a dependency of the Colombian Ministry of Culture.
Fondo de Cultura Económica is a Spanish language, non-profit publishing group, partly funded by the Mexican government. It is based in Mexico but it has subsidiaries throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
The North Coast Cartel was a drug cartel operating in northern Colombia between in 1980 and 2010, mostly controlling the area of the Colombian Caribbean coast illegal drug trade flow from other regions of Colombia and neighboring countries and local production. Its operations center was the city of Barranquilla. Other name was the Barranquilla Cartel.
Colombian literature, as an expression of the culture of Colombia, is heterogeneous due to the coexistence of Spanish, African and Native American heritages in an extremely diverse geography. Five distinct historical and cultural traditions can be identified, with their own socioeconomic history: the Caribbean coast, Greater Antioquia, the Cundinamarca-Boyacá Highlands, Greater Tolima and the Western Valley. Colombia produced one of the richest literatures of Latin America, as much for its abundance as for its variety and innovation during the 19th and 20th centuries. Colombian intellectuals who forged the literature of this period also contributed decisively to the consolidation of Latin American literature.
Flavio Enrique "Kike" Santander Lora is a Colombian-American composer, record producer, arranger and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the principal Latino composers of the day, having worked with artists such as David Bisbal, Cristian Castro, Thalía, Chayanne, Natalia Oreiro, Diego Torres, Davi Wornel, Alejandro Fernández, Olga Tañón, Bacilos, José Luis Rodríguez «El Puma» and Gloria Estefan among others. Santander has composed more than 710 songs and has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. His work as songwriter and producer includes themes such as Let's Get Loud by Jennifer Lopez, Abriendo puertas by Gloria Estefan, Me Estoy Enamorando by Alejandro Fernández, Mi Vida Sin Tu Amor by Cristian Castro, and Premonición by David Bisbal, as well as many songs recorded by artists such as Thalía, Natalia Oreiro, Gisselle, Edith Márquez, Luis Miguel, Soledad Pastorutti and the Spanish song for Eurovision Song Contest 2004, amongst others.
Luis Antonio Robles Suárez also known as "El Negro Robles", was a Colombian lawyer and politician. He was the first Afro-Colombian to hold a cabinet-level ministry in Colombia serving as Secretary of the Treasury and Public Credit during the administration of President Aquileo Parra Gómez, as well as being the first Afro-Colombian Congressperson as Member of the Chamber of Representatives for Magdalena, and the first Afro-Colombian Governor of a Department, as the 16th President of the Sovereign State of Magdalena. He graduated a lawyer from Our Lady of the Rosary University in 1872, thus also becoming the first Afro-Colombian to ever serve as a lawyer in Colombia.
Enrique Jacobo Pedro Luis Plácido Zóbel de Ayala was a Spanish-born industrialist and philanthropist who became the first patriarch of the Zóbel de Ayala family. He was also one of the leaders in the Philippine Falange during the 1930s and 1940s.
Hannah Weyer is an American filmmaker and writer living in New York, who has written, directed and produced narrative and documentary films. Her films have screened at the Human Rights Watch, Sundance and the New York Film Festivals and won recognitions, including awards from LoCarno, Sundance, Doubletake Documentary and South by Southwest Film Festivals. Her documentaries, La Boda and La Escuela aired on PBS as part of the POV-American Documentary series. Screenwriting credits include work that premiered on HBO, including Life Support (2007), directed by Nelson George, which earned a Golden Globe Award for its lead actress, Queen Latifah.
Joaquín Ibarra y Marín, also known as Joaquín Ibarra, was a Spanish printer who was known for several important technical developments in the fields of the press, books, and typography. Some of his most important works are Conhuración de Catilina y la guerra de Yugurta, printed in 1772, and an edition of Don Quijote de la Mancha, as well as Real Academia Española, done in 1780.
Carlos Rendón Zipagauta is a Colombian-Belgian documentary filmmaker. Rendón Zipagauta studied film and screenwriting in Belgium, where he lived for 16 years. He began as assistant then co-director to Jean Christophe Lamy. He returned to Colombia to shoot documentaries. His 1993 film Nukak Makú, about the indigenous Nukak peoples, won festival prizes in France and Belgium enabling also EU grants to make further documentaries.
Venezuela Aid Live was a concert to benefit Venezuela in Cúcuta, Colombia, a city near the Venezuelan border, on 22 February 2019. The all-day concert, called Música por Venezuela: Ayuda y Libertad, was organized by Richard Branson and Bruno Ocampo, and featured over thirty of the best known Latin American artists from nine countries. The concert's slogan was, "Let the stars shine for all".
John Parra is an American illustrator. Parra's books have received awards including the Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book Award, Golden Kite Award, Christopher Award, and an International Latino Book Award. He has additionally worked as an illustrator for corporate marketing campaigns and as an art instructor.
