How many people have walked the streets of Corralito de Piedra? How many people have lived in the Heroic City? How many people have fallen in love with La Fantástica? How many people have said “yes” to Cartagena de Indias?
For 491 years, we will always be the city of rebellion, where its people tell the story of the spearmen of Gethsemane who fought for the freedom of these lands. In 491 years not everything has been fantastic and with sensations of change, sorrows and joys we have built a society, maintaining the deliciousness, the talk and the tradition. We have reinforced our identity and, even if it is difficult, we continue working for 491 more years. Read here: Yorlandis and the value of saving lives on the beaches of Cartagena
Cartagenero is the one that loves the city
As the journalist and writer Juan Gossaín assures, the Caribbean is a mass of people, of those who have arrived and have fallen in love with magic. So since we are from the land in which we were born and which we love, Dora Giraldo, Darío Quintero, their children and grandchildren are more Cartagena than Kola Román, the picós and the “ahá”.
To know Dora is to fall in love with her warmth, hospitality and eloquence. She is a woman who makes conversation a family moment, as happy as the city she calls her own, where she arrived with her husband and two oldest children, 24 years ago, for one of the best adventures of their lives. Read here: The love story hidden in the oldest house in Espinal
…they will talk about Cartagena de Indias as that noble and popular corner of their grandparents, those with a green-gold heart.
“My husband and I always talk about our town and how nice it would be to return. That’s where Cartagena comes in and there’s always a ‘but’ to not leave,” says the woman who, with tears, recalls the first time she saw the imposing Cerro de La Popa, the same one who looks at each day as a reference to give thanks for everything he has experienced.
From San Vicente, Antioquia, a quiet and clean town, to a popular neighborhood of Cartagena, where the picó plays from Monday to Monday and people talk at such a loud volume that everyone knows everyone’s experiences. That peculiar and deafening thing is what, at times, Ana María Quintero, her daughter, misses when she looks around her and is aware that her children grow up in another environment, one very different from the one in which she lives. child. Read here: La Heroica, a jewel of the Caribbean through the eyes of tourism
Many natives claim that the Picó are “corronchos”, incapable of recognizing the cultural heritage they have. Dora, faced with these imposing and powerful musical reproduction systems, did not hesitate to instruct her children under the parameters of the Caribbean and from a young age she took them to the picó plays until this activity became a family tradition.
In Cartagena there is no monotony, every day is different and I like my children to grow up with that mentality.”
Ana María Quintero.
Dora is an intelligent woman, she never tires of learning about the city’s tradition. She tells me how Cartagena inspired the national anthem and patriotic symbols. She wants to know everything and tell her grandchildren the history that highlights her land. Her love for La Heroica is so great that one of the plans she organized when Transcaribe arrived was to take her offspring throughout the city on articulated buses, from pole to pole. Read here: Cartagena preserves tradition with these street sports that are still valid
“In this city you live in absolute amazement. For example, it is wonderful to see and hear the ways in which street vendors market their products. The people of Cartagena are incredibly inventive and when I left La Esperanza I thought I was not going to listen to them anymore, so when I see them from my balcony, I get excited.”
My Cartagena is the popular one, the one in my neighborhood La Esperanza.”
Dora Giraldo.
In absolute amazement
For Dora, Cartagena de Indias enchants with its speech, with its unique, peculiar, humorous and emotional dialect: “it is a language that not everyone learns to speak. For example, it has been difficult for us, but our children have an Antioquia accent mixed with Cartagena idioms. And my grandchildren who live in Turbaco, have their own language of their environment.”
He states that the true Cartagena de Indias is the popular one, the one that gets up to work every day and that is made up of tireless, ingenious and innovative people. The Fantástica that she met in La Esperanza, where she always returns and spends much of her daily life. The one that converges with Cartagena tired of the bad intentions of many. Read here: Daniel Vellojín: “Big dreams, Big Leagues”
There, in the midst of admiration, Ana María says that her mother has said it all, but she belongs to a generation that has experienced evolution, that has seen the reality of other cities and countries. She is the present that raises the future.
For us there is no other team. We are from Real Cartagena to die.”
Dora Giraldo.
“It is a blessing to educate my children in this city because, although there is evil, you do not see the malice of big cities. In Cartagena there is no monotony, every day is different and I like my children to grow up with that mentality. Human warmth and the cock’s bottle is something I grew up with and I want them to take ownership of its roots. There is no way to get bored here.” Read here: Real Cartagena DOES dream big: sold out ticket office and festive atmosphere
But just as they love, they understand that they have to be firm and critical to move forward and return the title of ‘The Jewel of Colombia’ to Cartagena. For this duo, the city needs to be intervened from the most abandoned neighborhoods, with good infrastructure, especially, human work that teaches us a sense of belonging, love for heritage, tradition, a comprehensive education that reaffirms the identity of the people of Cartagena, by birth and adoption.
More Cartagenas than Real Cartagena
“Just as we love our city, we love all its artistic, cultural and sports representations. We go to all of Real Cartagena’s games since I can remember,” says Ana and narrates that in the match against Tigres, “I went in a motorcycle taxi and when the driver heard me, he very contemptuously said: “Oh, a paisa who goes to the Hummock”. I responded very calmly: ‘Of course, I support my city’s team.’ Real is Cartagena and we are all, I don’t understand why at home they don’t teach the little ones to love the team.” Read here: Kymbalá: 10 years of tradition and love for dance in Cartagena
In this city you live in absolute amazement. For example, it is wonderful to see and hear the ways in which street vendors market their products.”
Dora Giraldo.
Dora sits at the table and emphasizes that in her house we only talk about the heroic because they are “from Real Cartagena to die.” “For us there is no other team,” she says. Read here: This is Marion.Ve, the inspiring artist behind the Sonríe graffiti
In the future, when their grandchildren gather to tell stories until dawn and evoke the stories of their childhood, they will speak of Cartagena de Indias as that noble and popular corner of their grandparents, those with a greenish heart.
