Before you go to Colombia: eras, customs, phrases and what is still there

Eras in a line

Before 1492 (15000 BC–1492) — The central Andes, today's Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Chile, produced a long line of cultures before the Inca.
Empire and the colonial Americas (1492–1808) — Spain governed its American lands through viceroys who represented the king: New Spain from 1535 (Mexico City) and Peru from 1542 (Lima), joined in the…
Revolutions and new nations (1808–1898) — When Napoleon imprisoned the Spanish king in 1808, towns across Spanish America formed juntas to govern in his name.
Revolution, war and dictatorship (1898–1975) — After 1945 Latin America became a front in the Cold War.
Democracy and today (1975–) — Since 1990 almost every Spanish-speaking country has chosen its governments at the ballot box, though democracy has been tested by economic collapse (Argentina…

Carnaval de Barranquilla — Four days before Lent when a port city stops working: a queen who dances for six hours, a long-nosed marimonda, death chased off by the dancers, and a puppet…
Coffee: the finca and the tinto — Cherries picked by hand on a mountainside, a Willys jeep down to the village, the best beans exported and the rest drunk at home, and a cup that Colombians…

Cuatro días antes del Miércoles de Ceniza, Barranquilla deja de trabajar. — Four days before Ash Wednesday, Barranquilla stops working.
El café se recoge a mano, grano por grano. — Coffee is picked by hand, bean by bean.
La cumbia es la más antigua: mezcla tambores africanos, flautas indígenas y letras en español. — Cumbia is the older one: it mixes African drums, indigenous flutes and lyrics in Spanish.