A celebration of independence in my second homeland…
Veinte de Julio — Colombian Independence. Many of my readers know I spent many years in Colombia, South America, making many new friends, adding an international side to my family, and absorbing a culture that has influenced my life and my fiction (some of that “absorbing” came in liquid form, of course–cerveza and aguardiente became an important part of my Spanish vocabulary!). Colombia’s recent history, from La Violencia to the FARC, right-wing death squads, and the war on drugs, has been filled with struggle. The income gap there can make Americans stop and wonder what we’re worried about in the U.S. But these struggles have tempered the steel of the Colombian people, as it has in many Latin American nations. Let’s all salute the good Colombians on their day of independence!
