Colombia

Mm.

Recently there was an architecture student in Colombia which making an interview about, like, my ideal house, and then knowing me, I always come up with these things that, uh, basically I will make the zoo, botanic garden space-

Yes

... and then I will, I will put the house around it rather than the other way around.

But even with those resources to travel, he still made some mistakes, and you might be wondering why his approach didn't work.

Well, we spoke to another successful producer, Cristian Reyes in Colombia, and he told us a similar story to Diego's.

Cristian got involved in his family farm, Finca El Rodeo, about 10 years ago.

I, I decided to go full-time with my family on 2015.

Bueno, nosotros somos colombianos, de la ciudad de Pereira, del Eje Cafetero, sí señor.

I met Katherine at the World of Coffee Dubai, where she had a stand.

She's a producer from Colombia in one of the most well-known regions for coffee production in Colombia, the Eje Cafetero.

Now, being a producer there in the Eje Cafetero, you could very easily say, "Look, there are thousands of coffee farms around me.

Yeah, incredible talent.

He was playing for a club called Millonarios in Bogotá, Colombia.

Barcelona directors travel to South America, they scout him, and they agree to terms with River Plate in Argentina, who apparently still held his official FIFA rights to transfer him for 150 million Italian lira, which was roughly $200,000 at the time.

So Barcelona believes they have secured the best player in the world.

Yeah.

You probably wouldn't say lecturing the youth about 20th century Colombian literature.

No, you really wouldn't.

It is definitely not the first thing that comes to mind when you picture her brand.

Right.

Huh.

Why should you in 2026 care about Martha Stewart's reading list? Why should you pause your incredibly busy life to pick up a dense, challenging, multigenerational epic about a fictional Colombian town that requires a literal map to understand?

Because in an era defined by endless information overload, by the relentless exhausting algorithmic scroll of the feed, we are actively losing the capacity to take the time.

Yes.

And, and it's good to see like, oh my gosh, she's from Colombia.

She's from Venezuela.

She's from Guatemala.

Right? And when you do that, what's gonna happen is massive ins- ins- insurgencies all around, um, Latin America.

Okay? Maybe not Canada, but definitely in Mexico, in Latin America, in Venezuela, in Colombia.

Okay? And the reason, and the reason why is, uh, when Trump sends his buddies to Venezuela, it's not to make the Venezuela economy much more efficient so everyone can benefit.

It's just to be carpetbaggers.

Think of, um, ChatGPT, right? So everyone has a mic- has a microchip, um, a- and then the moment you're born, you are always on the path to righteousness, to virtue, right? Wouldn't that be the perfect world? So that's the, that's the world they're trying to create.

Um, so the Technate, um, this is a soul of the Technate, okay? The Technate, um, it g- also discusses the physical boundaries of paradise.

And so the Technate, um, believes the US has to be at the center of it, okay? This is the new Jerusalem, and the Technate also wants to absorb Canada, Greenland, um, and Latin America, extending all the way to Venezuela and Colombia.

If you look at this map, Trump...

This is followed by a gentle contrasting section that brings the piece to a gentle end on the harp.

Tracks three through five, George Barkos, born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1946.

His work, Piezas Intimas, from 1999.

The work combines South American rhythms, jazz influences, and European craftsmanship.

And so, yeah, I think the whole ability of our system to peacefully incorporate these new states that in another dynamic would have just split off and become independent countries.

Like you look at Central and South America after their independence from From the Spanish America, you don't get one big government of Gran Granada, you know, Colombia and Ecuador, Panama.

And, you know, you don't get that because they didn't successfully create a constitution that could do that work.

And so that is a different potential, you know, counterfactual.

Do you think it's possible to have a world language class where instead of teaching the language, the rules, and the vocab, you and your students use the language to enjoy learning about each other and the world? I hope your answer is a big yes, because that's exactly what you will discover inside Growing With Proficiency, the podcast.

My name is Claudia Elliott, a Spanish teacher born and raised in Colombia, who is as passionate as you are to support our learners to grow in their proficiency and cultural competence.

My goal is that in this podcast, you find clarity, strategies, ideas, and inspiration that you can bring into your classroom the next day.

Are you ready? Get comfortable while I grab my cafecito colombiano and let's start this conversation now.