Colombian Culture by Maria Juliana Henao

The Colombian culture has its origins, in the cultural miscegenation between natives and Spanish colonizers, from where comes most of the cultural influence.  Colombia presents a huge variety of sub regions with cultural differences too, this is because, thanks to the geographical accidents that the Colombian territory presents, in the time of colonization it was difficult to reach some regions. Due to the variety of regions, there are also different types of subcultures such as: Costeños, Paisas, Llaneros, Santandereanos, Vallunos ,Caucanos,.Tolimenses, Amazónicos, Cundiboyacenses, and Bogotános.
Even dough, there are different  subcultures, this one’s have in common many things, for example the language, Arts, music, gastronomy and religion. The principal language in Colombia is spanish, but this varies among sub regions, due to the influence of elements from Indians, Europeans and Africans. The paint and art comes, as said before, from the influence of colonizers, such as sapanish people; this was characterize by  a religious influence, but since the XX century some painters such as Alejandro Obregon, Enrique Grau y Omar Rayo, created a rupture between the classical religious influence, to a modern one. Now a day Fernando Botero is recognized as the maximum representative of the Colombian art, showing in his works, the style of the Colombian life. Colombia is also characterized by his crafts, that are made by hand, such as the “sombrero boltiao”, las alpargatas (a type of shoe), la ruana (a type of coat made of wool), etc, which all show the influence of the first natives that lived in Colombia.
The colombian music has its origins in the pre-Columbian age, were some instruments are preserved and still used, such as sonajas, cascabeles, flautas, ocarinas, fotutos, etc.). The first musician known,  was the jesuit J. Dadey. During the time of the viceroyalty, there were many musicians that had, a very strong Spanish influence. The popular music, is a combination between Indians, Hispanics and blacks, that’s way the rhythm of the music in the different regions varies. 
The colombian gastronomy also varies between regions, some of its most popular alcoholic drinks are: aguardiente, beer and ron.  Coffe is also an important drink, and its recognized internationally too.  In the hot drinks chocolate is really important, and is accompanied by  cheese and bread. In Colombia, a variety of native fruits are consumed such as:  guayaba, zapote, lulo, curuba, mamoncillo, corozo, uchuva,  feijoa,  granadilla,  mamey,  borojó,  mango,  chontaduro, tamarindo, tomate de árbol, guanábana,  badea and the  pitahaya.  In the traditional meals we can find  “ hoja the platano ” (banana leaf), cheese,  pasteles y tamales, "pandebonos" ,  bandeja paisa,  beans ,  corn arepas,  yuca,  ajiaco, rice with coconut, fish, etc. All this typicall meals are part of the colombian diet, and theres a variety of them in each region due to the influence of European culture.
Since 1991 the church separated from the colombian state, because a religious liberty  among the american indian was stablished.  Since the colonial times most of the population was catholic, due to the European influence, since then,  celebrating catholic celebrations, such as the holly week and going to churcha ll Sundays. Now a days the 80% of the colombian population is catholic, 11.5% Christian groups, meanwhile a Little portion practices judaism, rastafarism, Islamism etc.
Finally Colombia is a country, that not only haves a reach diversity in culture, but also has beautiful land scape, making of this country unique among the hospitality of the regional people and because of its variety and wonderfulness of its territory and fauna and flora.