The silleros, cargueros or silleteros (also called saddle-men) were the porters used to carry people and their belongings through routes impossible by horse carriage. A famous example is the use of silleros by colonial officials to be carried across the Quindio pass in the Colombian Andes. [1] [2]
Silleros often carried between 100 and 200 pounds (50 and 90 kg) of weight crossing the Quindio pass, considered the most difficult of the northern Andean passes. Besides their baggage, silleros even carried the travelers, such as colonial officials or explorers, in a wickerwork chair mounted on their backs. [3]
The practice was described by Alexander von Humboldt, who crossed the Quindio in 1801 – he refused to be carried and preferred walking. [4] [5] Humboldt noted that porters were generally mestizo or whites, while others have stated that they were most often Indigenous. The contemporary descriptions often referred to the mode of transportation as a lomo de indio (on Indian back). [6]
Another traveler who described the practice was Captain Charles Cochrane of the British Navy, who criticized the infrastructure of Colombia and, as Humboldt did, refused to mount silleros. He wrote that "I have been told that the Spaniards and the natives mount these chairmen with as much sang froid as if they were getting on the back of mules, and some brutal wretches have not hesitated to spur the flanks of these poor unfortunate men when they fancied they were not going fast enough". [7] Cochrane also noted that the 300 silleros of Ibagué rarely lived past the age of 40 and that a leading cause of death was the bursting of a blood vessel or pulmonary problems. [8]
According to nineteenth-century anecdotes, sometimes, when hired by particularly demanding or demeaning masters, the Indian porters would tire from the heavy burdens put upon them and eventually, would throw their riders into the abyss and escape into the forest. [9]
In his work Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man, anthropologist Michael Taussig describes the practice of using silleros to cross the Andes as part of the colonial tendency to see and treat the indigenous people as subhuman wild creatures. [10]
In parts of Andean Colombia, such as Antioquia, the silletero still exists and is considered an important part of the cultural heritage of the area, although now, they only carry goods, not passengers. [11]
The city of Medellín holds an annual Festival of the Flowers every summer. One of its main events is a parade of silleteros who carry silletas filled with artistically-designed floral arrangements.
El Dorado is commonly associated with the legend of a gold city, kingdom, or empire purportedly located somewhere in the Americas. Originally, El Hombre Dorado or El Rey Dorado, was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (zipa) or king of the Muisca people, an indigenous people of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of Colombia, who as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita.
Colombia is a unitary republic made up of thirty-two departments and a Capital District. Each department has a governor (gobernador) and an Assembly, elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods. Departments are country subdivisions and are granted a certain degree of autonomy.
Quindío is a department of Colombia. It's located in the western central of the country, specifically in the Andean region. Its capital is Armenia. It's famous for the quality of the coffee plantations, colorful architecture, benign weather, variety of hotel accommodations and tourist landmarks. This department is located in a strategic area, in the center of the triangle formed by the three main cities of the country: Bogotá, Medellín and Cali. Quindío is the second-smallest Colombian department with 12 municipalities. Ethnographically and culturally, it belongs to the Paisa region.
A Paisa is someone from a region in the northwest of Colombia, including part of the West and Central cordilleras of the Andes in Colombia. The Paisa region is formed by the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío. Some regions of Valle del Cauca Department (north) and Tolima Department (west) culturally identify as paisas. The main cities of the Paisa region are Medellín, Pereira, Manizales and Armenia.
The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 metres (660 ft) underground in a halite mountain near the city of Zipaquirá, in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is a tourist destination and place of pilgrimage in the country. The temple at the bottom has three sections, representing the birth, life, and death of Jesus. The icons, ornaments and architectural details are hand carved in the halite rock. Some marble sculptures are included. The cathedral is considered one of the most notable achievements of Colombian architecture, being described as a "Jewel of Modern Architecture". The cathedral represents a valuable cultural, environmental and religious patrimony for the Colombian people.
Filandia is a town and municipality in the northern part of the department of Quindío, Colombia. It's located on the west side of Cordillera Central of the Andes mountain range running through central Colombia, 26 km north of the departmental capital Armenia. In 2023 the estimated population of Filandia is 12,596 inhabitants.
The Nevado del Quindío is an inactive volcano located in the Central Cordillera of the Andes in central Colombia. The summit marks the tripoint of the departments of Risaralda, Quindío and Tolima, and is also the highest point of the departments of Risaralda and Quindío. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the Los Nevados National Natural Park, which is a wildlife sanctuary. There are no historical records of any eruption. The andesitic volcano is located on top of the Palestina Fault.
Francisco José de Caldas was a Colombian lawyer, military engineer, self-taught naturalist, mathematician, geographer and inventor, who was executed by orders of Pablo Morillo during the Spanish American Reconquista for being a forerunner of the fight for the independence of New Granada. Arguably the first Colombian scientist, he is often nicknamed "El Sabio".
Guillermo Abadía Morales was a Colombian linguist, academic, anthropologist, folklore researcher and indigenous language expert. Abadía Morales was one of the first to champion the study of indigenous languages in Colombia.
Alejandro Gaviria Uribe is a Colombian economist and engineer, serving as the Minister of National Education of Colombia since 7 August 2022, replacing María Victoria Angulo. He also served as Minister of Health and Social Protection of Colombia from 2012 to 2018. He is the former Rector of the University of Los Andes (Colombia), where he served from 2019 to August of 2021. He was Dean of the School of Economics at University of los Andes in 2006, until his appointment as Minister in 2012. Prior to his academic career, Gaviria served as Deputy Director of the National Planning Department of Colombia, as well as Deputy Director of the Foundation for the Higher Education and Development (Fedesarrollo), a private non-profit policy research centre, and as a Researcher at the Inter-American Development Bank. A published author of several books and scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, in 2019 he was appointed Rector of University of the Andes for a four-year period.
The Muisca calendar was a lunisolar calendar used by the Muisca. The calendar was composed of a complex combination of months and three types of years were used; rural years, holy years, and common years. Each month consisted of thirty days and the common year of twenty months, as twenty was the 'perfect' number of the Muisca, representing the total of extremeties; fingers and toes. The rural year usually contained twelve months, but one leap month was added. This month represented a month of rest. The holy year completed the full cycle with 37 months.
Muisca numerals were the numeric notation system used by the Muisca, one of the civilizations of the Americas before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. Just like the Mayas, the Muisca had a vigesimal numerical system, based on multiples of twenty. The Muisca numerals were based on counting with fingers and toes. They had specific numbers from one to ten, yet for the numbers between eleven and nineteen they used "foot one" (11) to "foot nine" (19). The number 20 was the 'perfect' number for the Muisca which is visible in their calendar. To calculate higher numbers than 20 they used multiples of their 'perfect' number; gue-muyhica would be "20 times 4", so 80. To describe "50" they used "20 times 2 plus 10"; gue-bosa asaqui ubchihica, transcribed from guêboʒhas aſaqɣ hubchìhicâ. In their calendar, which was lunisolar, they only counted from one to ten and twenty. Each number had a special meaning, related to their deities and certain animals, especially the abundant toads.
Elisa Mújica Velásquez was a Colombian writer. She published novels, short stories, essays, books for children as well as interviews, book reviews and columns for local newspapers El Tiempo and El Espectador. She was a member of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua and the Real Academia Española. In 2018 the award Premio Nacional de Narrativa Elisa Mújica was created in order to recognize the work of unpublished female authors and to honor her 100th birth anniversary.
Juan de Albarracín was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and Panche people. He was captain of the brigs which sailed up the Magdalena River from the Caribbean coast in 1536 and later discovered the high quality salt that lead the Spanish conquistadors along the Camino de la Sal up the slopes of the eastern ranges of the Colombian Andes towards the Muisca Confederation.
Ageratina tinifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is found in the Andes from southern Colombia to Venezuela, where it typically occurs in the transition zone of high Andean forests and páramo vegetation.
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