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In a short story written by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, he describes a meeting between a Norwegian woman and a Colombian university professor in York:

- What does it mean to be Colombian?
- JI do not know, I answered her. - It is an act of faith.
- This is also to be Norwegian, she nodded.

Un acto de fe (act of faith). We may say the woman was partly right in her response, however the depth of her response is lacking. Colombia’s great writer William Ospina phrased it this way in an interview:

“What unites us in Colombia is the language – it is the foremost factor that unites us – and it is the very idea of Colombia. It is an idea that came from the outside. Before the arrival of Europeans, Colombia did not exist. This is very different from Mexico and Peru, which had ancient civilizations long before the arrival of the Spaniards. There are more than 120 countries that exist today who previously had no concept of creating a centralized state. The idea of a center came from Europe! In this sense, we are a modern nation, we were born with the discovery of America, very different than Mexico and Peru. That does not mean that there is no story, but that the idea of ​​a nation is a new idea. "

Brassband spiller den typiske porro på Fiesta de 20 de enero (Las Corralejas) i Sincelejo, Sucre.

First and foremost, Colombia and Colombian culture are defined by diversity and variation: a result from centuries of gradual integration between the indigenous people, and those who came from Europe and Africa. Additionally the vast natural barriers of Colombia assisted in establishing the freshly created ethnic mixtures.
“Colombian culture” thus consists of many different ways of life, for example the people of the Amazon region maintain millennia-old customs and myths; In the east the cattle people of the vast Steppe country of Los Llanos continue their traditional harp music consisting of epic songs and poetry; the European presence is most notable in Antioquia, with its distinctive poncho and tango music; the small fishing villages of the African descendants on the Pacific coast who produce different musical rhythms typical of this particular region such as the sound of the marimba de la chonta (a kind of xylophone), drums, and Tambor cununu and rythm isntruments guazá and carángan.

Med tambor, millo og guache lager man cumbia - en rytme fra La Costa som har blitt en av Colombias store kulturelle eksportartikler.

Og i resten av landet er det ytterligere 300-1000 musikkstiler, avhengig av hvordan en definerer rytmer og sjangere. Og Charles de Gaulle klaget over at det var vanskelig å styre et land med 240 osteslag? Noe av denne overveldende kulturelle rikdommen har naturlig nok flytt opp til overflaten og blitt emblematisk for Colombia i et internasjonalt perspektiv. Vallenato-musikken fra Cesar og La Guajira, Cumbia fra karibiske La Costa, el Sombrero Vueltiao fra Cordoba… På disse sidene vil vi både prøve å dekke disse mest kjente kolombianske kulturuttrykkene såvel som å gjøre enkelte dypdykk ned i den sydende gryten av alt det lokale og ukjente. Lokale og ukjente kulturutrykk som vel å merke i våre dager kontinuerlig fortsetter å mutere: med salseros fra Cali, punkere fra Pasto, elektronikahoder fra Bogota og reggeatonfolk fra Barranquilla og emoer fra Barrancabermeja. Hva det vil si å være kolombiansk avhenger fremdeles av hva du tror på – en troshandling. Men mangfoldet er Colombias egentlige religion.