Travels are often preceded by PTED (Pre-Travel Excitement Disorder) and my own Pre-Colombia Excitement Disorder was very much focused on Cartagena, Latin America’s oldest colonial city. I strongly disapprove of colonialism but I do love colonial architecture. Whenever, pre-travel, I would hit a low on dreich November days, all I needed to lift my spirits was a photo of a square in Cartagena.
But in Colombia, fellow travellers who have already visited Cartagena temper my ‘can’t wait!!’ expectations. In chorus, they repeat that Cartagena is very hot and very crowded.
It is true. It takes me a while to figure out how to cross the streets in Cartagena, given the endless stream of cars and the dearth of crossing points. In the end, I apply a technique I was taught in Rome: step off the payment with fierce determination and make clear that nothing will stop you. Essentially, be prepared to die every time you try to get to the other side.
Once I have figured this out, and bought a Panama hat, Cartagena’s beauty begins to reveal itself. Yes, the old town has reached that tipping point where the number of tourists brings out the worst in everyone But neighbouring Getsemaní is less overwhelmed by tourism, more bohemian, and full of the colour and street art I can’t stop talking about.
I am re-reading Love in the Time of Cholera (set in Cartagena), and once I have shaken off the jewellers that move in on you as soon as you enter the old town, I walk to García Márquez’s house near the old city walls and the sea. I expect sign posts, a plaque, perhaps even a literary tour —but there is nothing; somehow, the house has managed to slip through the sticky tourist net. Google has a rough idea where it is, and a guard at the door confirms it. The house is simple but defiantly modern — no colonial architecture for señor Marquez!
Apparently García Márquez used to enjoy sitting in the leafy Plaza Bolivar, where I find the Museo Historico de Cartagena de Indias. ‘It’s not about the inquisition,’ the person who sells me a ticket defensively informs me, unasked. I know why — I, too, have seen the online reviews that complain about this.
In the 17th and first half of the 18th century, Cartagena was Latin America’s biggest slave port. According to the former director of the Colombian national archives, over 1.1 million captive Africans entered the docks at Cartagena de las Indias, and many were sold on what during colony times was called Black Square, and what is now known as Peace Square. A tour of Cartagena narrates the history of slavery through 15 memorial sites.
The Museo Historico highlights the city’s Declaration of Independence in 1811 as a key moment in Cartagena’s history. An assembly in Cádiz, Spain, had agreed to full citizenship and equal rights for those of pure Spanish descent (the criolloelite)but not for pardos, the multiracial descendants of Indigenous Americans, Africans and other Europeans.
In the struggle for independence, Pedro Romero, a mulatto blacksmith , became a central figure. When, on 11 November 1811, Cartagena’s Council was debating the choice between increased self-governance and radical independence, Romero led his Lanceros de Getsemaní, a largely black, working-class militia group, on a march to the plaza outside the palace, ready to demand independence by force. This was a turning point, and later that day, Cartagena became the first place in Colombia to declare absolute independence and full equal rights.
There are no portraits of Pedro Romero at the Museo Historico because none were ever made. Today, the vast majority of the population in Cartagena is of African descent (up to 78 %, according to some sources), but the city only recently had its first black mayor.