Deconstructionism is a philosophy that has inspired many authors, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to name one. Thinking of a philosophical exercise one time I started to deconstruct the country I was born to try understand the thoughts behind these artist's great works.
Thinking of a philosophical exercise one time I started to deconstruct the country I was born to try to see the meaning behind the people and scenarios that inspired Gabriel Garcia Marquez to write down One Hounded Years of Solitude, Jorge Isaacs to write Maria, Enrique Grau to paint the beautiful African community of Colombia and many other artists. Artists that can see the beauty of this land even with all the problems this country has. Some people still smile and smile wonderfully because they see a better panorama in the future -- a panorama that probably is not going to be there soon.
One trait that I always found fascinating of Colombians is their happiness and optimism. Even though I am Colombian myself, I never understood why Colombians can be so happy and how these people are listed number two as the happiest people in the world. Sometimes I try to imagine where they obtain their optimism: hopes inside them even if they don’t have anything to eat for the night, maybe they find happiness with their friends or family in a night playing domino's or having a few drinks and remembering the highlights of the week, maybe happiness is in the collective as in the individual spending time by him or herself.
The music, the folklore, the monuments, the places to visit bring a new perspective in the search of the meaning of Colombia. Researching the food, the roots, the traditions, the arts, maybe the deconstruction lies in the traditions and who the people are. These people who can smile at adversity and turn on triumphant within any problem. Maybe the meaning of Colombia lay in the music of the Caribbean sea, or in a beautiful sunset in the mountains of Bogota. In thinking of all these things, probably the key of what the meaning of Colombia is lays with the people and their traditions. It is the same for any country in the world: the beauty behind every country doesn’t lay in the land, but in the warmth and happiness of the people.