Women, Nature, and Tourism in Colombia Es Pasión Michelle Rocío Nasser / Grinnell College
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ENSAYOS Feminized Topographies: Women, Nature, and Tourism in Colombia es Pasión Michelle Rocío Nasser / Grinnell College Resumen inside because this is how you will really get to know who we are, how we act, and how we dream.” He then goes on to enumerate Este artículo analiza la campaña de turismo e inversión the many things that make Colombia a unique country and the internacional “Colombia es pasión” que comenzó en 2005. A ways in which Colombians are “ordinary people.” Finally, he través de una lectura detenida de tres aspectos de la campaña: reminds viewers that, although there are all kinds of people in el logo con forma de corazón, comerciales de la fase nacional y Colombia, most of all there are “good people, many, many good videos promocionales de la fase internacional, la autora analiza people.” la manera en que la campaña “Colombia es pasión” reapropia la terminología e imágenes de Colombia que circularon en la prensa It did not come as a surprise to me that the room—filled internacional en las décadas de 1980 y 1990. Esta reapropiación with Colombians and non-Colombians alike—erupted with resulta en una re-presentación de eventos de la historia applause at the end of the video. By highlighting images of colombiana que omiten imágenes de violencia. Como resultado, parents and children, of people involved in leisurely activities, of al re-presentar Colombia y su historia, la campaña “Colombia different Colombian cultural events and of successful athletes, es pasión” simplemente presenta otra imagen unilateral del país. musicians and writers, the video presents images of Colombia Ésta romantiza el país y sus ciudadanos, describiéndolos como that have not commonly circulated in the international media. fecundos, bellos, pacíficos y amables. It couples these images with the very clear message that most Colombians—like those sitting in the audience and participating Palabras claves: Colombia es pasión, campañas de turismo, in the pageant—are happy, hardworking, good people who feminización, naturaleza, riesgo have nothing to do with narco-trafficking. Colombians in the audience saw themselves positively represented in the video Abstract and applauded its message. Part of Colombia es pasión’s mission lies herein, presenting Colombians as “regular” people This article analyzes “Colombia es pasión,” the international divorced from images of narco-trafficking. The other part of tourism and investment campaign begun in 2005. Through a the campaign’s mission is to entice non-Colombians to visit close reading of three aspects of the campaign: the heart logo, Colombia. By presenting Colombia as an amicable, hospitable, commercials from the domestic phase, and promotional videos fertile, safe, and consumable country, which is moving away from the international phase of the campaign, the author from the old and toward the young and the new, Colombia es analyzes the ways in which “Colombia es pasión” reappropriates pasión stresses the idea that it is time for an alternative to images terminology and images of Colombia that circulated in the that have circulated in the international media since the 1980s, international media in the 1980s and 1990s. This reappropriation namely those of male-dominated violence and international results in a re-presentation of historical events in Colombia that drug trafficking. In order to achieve this counter-narrative, omits images of violence. As a result, in the re-presentation Colombia es pasión employs a three–pronged approach to of Colombia and its citizens, the campaign simply presents change perceptions of Colombia internationally. First, it appeals another unilateral image of the country. This image romanticizes to Colombians by engaging the country’s strongest “common Colombia and its citizens describing them as fertile, beautiful, metaphor” (Probyn) of women being part of the country’s natural peaceful, and hospitable. make-up; second, it retells events in Colombia’s history devoid Keywords: Colombia is Passion, tourism campaigns, of the facts and violence that characterize the events; finally, feminization, nature, risk Colombia es pasión lures foreign tourists to the country by capitalizing on the idea that Colombia may still represent some sort of risk. In this article, I do a close reading of the different The first time I saw a promotional video for theColombia elements that make up Colombia es pasión’s three-pronged es pasión (Colombia is Passion) campaign, I was sitting in a approach in order to demonstrate how, in its efforts “to close the ballroom in Houston, Texas as part of the audience of the annual gap between perception and reality” (www.colombiaespasión. Señorita Independencia de Colombia beauty pageant. This com) and to entice visitors, émigrés, and investors to come particular video from this international phase of the campaign (back) to Colombia, the campaign re-appropriates historical opens with images of coffee beans and emeralds, shows some events, common metaphors, and terminology used to negatively fauna, and moves to images of verdant fields and pristine beaches. describe Colombia. In doing so, as I argue, the campaign, The narrator, a young Colombian boy of perhaps 7-8 years of instead of complicating representations of Colombia(ns), returns age, speaks in English of the great diversity of people, talents, to the practice of using women (especially beauty queens) and panoramic vistas, climates, and topography present in Colombia. exploits commonly circulated perceptions in order to promote He explains that “[he] want[s] you to see [Colombia] from the tourism and economic expansion. This results, not in a new 16 FEMINIZED TOPOGRAPHIES: WOMEN, NATURE, AND TOURISM IN COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN image of Colombia, but rather in masking the country’s reality worst recession in its history. In 2000, its unemployment rate by presenting yet another unilateral image of Colombia. was nearly 20%, the worst in Latin America (Simons 255). A campaign started as a strategy to increase foreign tourism In the five-year span between 1994 and 1999, the number of and investment in the country, Colombia es pasión carries out its Colombian emigrants doubled from two to four million (Palacios goal by inviting people to take a second look at Colombia in order 214). Colombia’s Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad to see images that disassociate the country and its people from (DAS) estimates that between 1996 and 2003 over one and a half those of narco-trafficking and the related civil violence. In this million Colombians left the country and did not return. Half of 5 effort, however, Colombia es pasión fails to acknowledge the still these people emigrated between 1999 and 2001 (Bérubé, 2005). rampant and widespread occurrences of violence, displacements, Many of the emigrants included young adults from major cities 6 poverty, and general lack of opportunity for those people still in who emigrated in search of work and educational opportunities. the country.1 It also fails to acknowledge the permanence of the Referencing the increased emigration, Pedro Medina, founder of narco-trafficking stereotypes and stigma for the transnational Yo creo en Colombia (I Believe in Colombia), recalls a public Colombian community. While all of these facts inform my analysis, graffiti image that is said to have read “el último en salir, por they are not the focus of this article. Instead, my analysis centers favor apague las luces” (“the last one to leave, please turn off on the images presented in the campaign and on the messages the lights”) (www.yocreoencolombia.com). But even those who implicit in the campaign’s logo, commercials, and videos. In did leave did not escape Colombia’s reputation or the effects of interpreting the ways in which the campaign presents images of narco-trafficking. In their study on the fragmentation and mistrust Colombia that feminize, I draw on the work of Elspeth Probyn among Colombian immigrants in the United States, Eduardo and Sherry Ortner; in discussing the campaign’s strategies, I Guarnizo, Arturo Ignacio Sánchez, and Elizabeth M. Roach reference Slavoj Žižek. Before delving into the analysis, however, argue that international media’s heavy focus on drug-related I provide an abbreviated background of the images of violence issues, violence, and corruption resulted in the stigmatization of that Colombia es pasión engages as well as on the situation in Colombians in the United States (Guarnizo et. al 373). By the st Colombia beginning in the mid 20th century. beginning of the 21 century, the stage was ripe for a change in the lived experiences of Colombia and its citizens. From La violencia to Pablo Escobar Campaigns for Change The relative peace enjoyed in Colombia at the dawn of the 21st century stands in stark contrast to the overwhelming violence For many people, the answer to these issues was a change in that plagued its national image for most of the late 20th century. disposition, approach, and perception. Colombia es pasión began On April 9, 1948, the murder of presidential hopeful Jorge in August of 2005 with the goal of changing the way Colombia Eliécer Gaitán set off a period of mass rioting in Bogotá. Known was perceived domestically and internationally. The first as nueve de abril,2 these riots quickly spread to the surrounding organizing committee headed by Lina Moreno de Uribe, then- areas and, eventually, throughout the nation. Known simply as la President Álvaro Uribe’s wife; Luis Guillermo Plata, president violencia (“The Violence”), the period of civil unrest that ensued of Colombia’s national tourism and export agency, ProExport; is considered to be the most violent period of modern Colombian and Fabio Valencia Cossio, ex-ambassador to Italy, launched a history.3 However, it has not been the only period of extended two-pronged inauguration of Colombia es pasión. The first event violence. was a private cocktail at Colombia’s Museo Nacional (National Museum) in Bogotá.