Muy Antioqueno

One of the things that I love about my new home is the Antioqueno Heritage. This past Monday, Sandra and I took a trip up into the mountains to the pueblo of Santa Elena. I felt so at home with the wind “whispering” in the pine trees and the crisp clean air that it was somewhat disappointing to go back down into the valley and back into the city.

Let me explain further. I am from a small town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and grew up listening to the wind whispering in the pine trees and the gentle quaking of the aspen trees, which my father called “quakies” for as long as I can remember. Our little trip started off as kind of a research project for a children’s book that I’m writing called, “Huey and the Parade of Flowers”. The historical background for the story was to see firsthand how they make the silletas (literally a chair that is carried on the back with a strap across the forehead and shoulders), which they use to carry flowers in the parade on the last Sunday of the Flower Fair of Medellin. While visiting one of the fincas (small farm), and getting a great presentation about the work that they did in order to create the silletas covered in flowers that would be carried in the parade, we ran across this already finished silleta. My wife insisted that I take a picture with it. “You are muy antioqueno,” she said. I gave her my one eye-brow raised look, which is multi-lingual and did as I was told, wearing the poncho that we had bought in Santa Elena folded properly over my shoulder. Later, I came to understand the significance of what she was telling me by placing me in front of that particular silleta. The Antioquenos (more commonly referred to today as Paisas), were the mountaineers and early settlers of the area around Medellin and the Department (state), of Antioquia. They were well known for their humble honesty and strong work ethic, something that reflects precisely the same attitude of the Gunnison country where I was raised. Therefore, in honor of my family, friends and heritage in Gunnison, as well as, in honor of the Antioquenos of my new home, I stand with my cowboy hat and poncho combining the symbols of the two.