Being Colombian, a state of mind!
When you arrive in Colombia, you immediately feel a little lighter. The Colombian people are characterized by their joie de vivre, friendliness and unfailing enthusiasm. In national opinion polls, nine out of ten Colombians say they are happy. The verdict? We're happier in Colombia than in France or the United States! We listen to music at every turn, while dance is the natural expression of happiness. A very Colombian expression sums up this state of mind: " gozadera pura ", which could be translated as enjoyment without restraint, living the moment 100%, to the point of losing all notion of time (a notion already quite different from our own!). Colombianidad, the Colombian art of living, appeals to tourists who encounter a welcoming, humorous and self-deprecating people, who are also hedonistic, hard-working and oh-so-patriotic! Colombians express their sensitivity and passion, constantly talking about love and their dreams, with their heads full of projects! The hechao pa'lante ("going forward") attitude is de rigueur for coping with everyday difficulties, in a blend of insouciance, courage and resilience.
Family first
Family is the most important thing in the heart of every Colombian. We may live in the same city, but we call or see each other every day. Several generations often live under the same roof, and people stay late with their parents. Abuelos (grandparents) look after their nietos (grandchildren) when their parents work. Day-care centers, like retirement homes, are rather rare here. The familia is a common topic of conversation, and when greeting people, we never forget to ask about each other. The family unit is a hotbed of mutual aid: in adulthood, in the absence of an efficient pension system, it is more often than not the children who help their parents. Going abroad is a real sacrifice for the person who will be sending money home every month(remesas), to pay for a child's education or a relative's rent. Marriage is a social institution respected and ardently defended in this practising Catholic country. People meet more on dance floors than on dating sites. The first child arrives around the age of 22, earlier in the countryside, later in the big cities.
A stratified society
A Colombian curiosity is the socio-economic stratification of housing. According to its number, theestrato (stratum) defines the social class to which every Colombian belongs according to the place where he or she lives, like a second identity of which everyone is aware. The urban population is thus divided into six levels, from the poorest(estrato 1) to the richest(estrato 6). The elite and affluent classes live in neighborhoods with well-kept parks, surveillance cameras and security guards, while in estratos 1 and 2, the streets are unpaved and children have no green spaces to play in. The cost of utilities (water, gas, electricity) is legitimately subsidized for the lowest social strata(estratos 1, 2 and 3), while strata 5 and 6 pay extra for the same services. The system was created in 1994 to help the most disadvantaged, but over time it has had a perverse effect: spatial segregation. Life opportunities largely depend on the number of theestrato, and it's complicated to move up from one stratum to another, since even the jobs you can apply for depend on the stratum to which you belong. Estratos have become part of everyday language for classifying people socially and ideologically...
¡A estudiar!
If you come during the school year, you'll quickly notice the smiling schoolchildren in their clean, well-ironed uniforms. The school system is made up as follows: preschool(educación preescolar), the equivalent of our kindergarten, for children aged 3 to 5; elementary school(educación básica primaria) from grades 1 to5, for 6-10 year-olds; secondary school(educación básica secundaria) from grades 6 to 9, for 11-14 year-olds. In principle, school is compulsory up to grade 9, but many children drop out as early as grade5 to work with their parents, especially in rural areas. Then comes the equivalent of high school(educación media vocacional), comprising grades 10 and 11, at the end of which the bachiller diploma is awarded. A great deal of time is devoted to sports, and there is little homework. The relationship between teachers and students is often more informal and friendly than in France. As for the university system, it comprises pregrado and posgrado. Semesters run from February to June and from July to November. The first universities were founded by Dominicans, Jesuits and Augustinians in colonial times, and many are still owned by religious institutions today. Access to universities is very expensive. For example, to study medicine at the prestigious Universidad de los Andes, or at La Javeriana, in 2023 it cost around 7,490 euros per semester (it takes 12 to 14 semesters to graduate as a doctor of medicine). This means that most students, or their parents, have to take on years of debt to finance their studies. This explains why only 42% of Colombians have access to higher education, and less than half graduate with a degree. The cost of education also explains why students of all ages can be found on university benches, and not just young people graduating from the bachillerato . The Universidad Nacional, located in the country's main cities, is the benchmark public university. It is (almost) free, or at least much cheaper than private universities. The selection process is tough, which is why it is recognized as one of the best universities in the country, if not the best. The standard of higher education is generally high, particularly in certain sectors such as ophthalmology, where Colombia has excelled for decades.
¡A Camellar!
Camellar in everyday language means working hard for very little. In Colombia, the monthly minimum wage finally reached one million pesos in January 2022. In 2024, it will be around 1,160,000 pesos (280 euros) a month for a 48-hour working week. But in certain sectors, such as the hotel and catering industries, where informality is king, wages are even lower. Work is highly flexible, with a succession of fixed-term contracts over several years, and the possibility of being laid off (or resigning) overnight. The recruitment process is quite different, with some surprising questions asked during interviews, notably about your private life, such as who you live with (sometimes with visits to your apartment by a company psychologist), whether you take drugs, etc. The use of lie detectors (to check your identity) is also common. Lie detector tests (no joke!) are quite common, even for less "sensitive" positions. Unemployment is one of the highest in Latin America, between 10% and 15% depending on the year (11% in 2023), and labor law is one of the least protective in the world. For example, there are no unemployment benefits, and trade unionism is severely restricted, both by labor law and by the threats against their leaders. Since 1980, several thousand trade unionists have been murdered in the course of their work. Against this backdrop, it's easy to understand why so many Colombians prefer to be their own boss, even if it means spending the rest of their lives in the informal sector (56% of total employment, excluding agriculture). A business can start simply with a small stand sellingarepas on a street corner, or a mobile bicycle repair shop. There's a popular saying that no Colombian dies of hunger. If they don't have a job, they'll always invent something to survive. This is known as " rebusque colombiano", or the art of resourcefulness, an often ingenious activity that enables a family to live from day to day. As for retirement, the age is set at 62 for men and 57 for women (officially to compensate for the domestic work to which they are more subject). In practice, few people receive a pension, since half of Colombians work in the informal sector and less than a third contribute to the general pension system. As a result, people often work well into old age.
Gender issues
Women play a vital role in Colombia, in education (41% of women are heads of household), food security and conflict resistance. But they are also the most vulnerable. Colombia is a macho country, and this machismo is even more pronounced in rural areas. In the countryside, young girls often don't have the chance to study for very long, and many become pregnant before their 16th birthday (25% of women aged 15-19, compared with 15% in the city). In the big cities, the situation is different: women are often better educated, with university careers that they often combine with employment. They hold positions of responsibility, but continue to receive lower pay than their male counterparts, while suffering other forms of discrimination and sexual harassment. The #MeToo movement regularly echoes this in Colombia. The "Ni Una Más" (Not One More) movement is campaigning against gender-based violence and feminicide, with terrible figures: 622 cases recognized in 2021 according to Observatorio Feminicidios Colombia.
The persistent challenges facing the LGBT community
The status of LGBT people in Colombia has seen significant, positive progress over the past two decades, even if other challenges persist. It is, to the surprise of many, a very advanced country in terms of rights, particularly in South America: the rights of LGBT people are even seen as avant-garde on the continent. In 2011, Colombia's Constitutional Court handed down a landmark decision recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to enjoy the same legal protections as heterosexual couples when it comes to civil partnerships. Then in 2015, same-sex marriage was legalized, making Colombia the fourth Latin American country to do so after Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Also in 2015, Colombia's Constitutional Court established guidelines to facilitate legal gender reassignment for transgender people: one can therefore change gender on a simple manifestation of will in legal terms. These guidelines include the possibility of changing one's name and gender on identity documents without having to undergo gender reassignment surgery. In the same year, the country also authorized same-sex couples to adopt jointly. However, despite these legal advances, discrimination and prejudice persist in Colombian society, and further efforts are needed to guarantee full equal rights for LGBT people. There are, however, sectors of society that are recalcitrant to all these innovations, and do not accept the presence of LGBTI people in public life. Colombians remain very conservative because of the weight of religion, and the public health system decides on its own to operate transitions. Conservative Catholic society continues to marginalize and persecute them: between 2020 and 2022, 48 transgender women were murdered in Colombia.
