Patronato multicultural

David Alan Harvey:  Oaxaca, Mexico (1992)

The Paisas are a sub-ethnocultural group of the Colombian people traditionally inhabiting the areas of the present-day departments of Antioquia ,Risaralda, Caldas, and Quindio.

As other regions in Colombia they have their own distinct culture, history, and ethnic/racial makeup. The majority of Paisas have been considered a genetically isolated population according to scientific studies. As evidenced by the analysis of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomal markers, the initial founding of the Paisa population occurred primarily through the intermixture of European Spanish males and Colombian Amerindian females. The reason for this is because the majority of the native Catías, Nutabes and Tahamíes of the region were wiped out by the Spaniards and those who survived, mostly women, were taken as wives for the Spaniards who initially came without their wives to Colombia. Subsequently, within the emerging colonial society the area was settled by more waves of Europeans, which included both men, women, and families. Thus marriage with individuals of European ancestry was encouraged over marriage with individuals of Native ancestry, leading to the predominantly European ancestry of today’s Paisa population The mountains played a role in isolating the population until the end of the nineteenth century and the area’s industrial revolution. The nineteenth and early twentieth century also brought European and Middle Eastern immigrants to the region, notably from Spain, Italy, Germany, Lebanon, France and Eastern Europe. These immigrants ended up assimilating and many intermixed into the colonial-descended Paisa population. For this reason the majority of Paisas these days are racially classified as either Mestizo (a mixture of Native and European) or white,

The Feasts of San Pacho

Late September to early October marks a period of great festivities in the costal city of Quibdó, the capital of Colombia’s Chocó department. During this time, the people of Quibdó take part in celebrations in honor of their patron saint Francis of Assisi, who they affectionately refer to as San Pacho.

Chocó is the department with the most black Colombians per capita, with around 90% of the population identifying as Afro-Colombian, descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the pacific coast of the country to work in gold mines during the colonial era. The region unlike many others in Colombia was never viewed as a suitable area for settlement by Europeans, mainly due to the vast jungles surrounding it. For this reason the black population of Chocó have been able to preserve much of their African traditions and remain relatively unmixed. The preservation of these ancestral traditions has lead to a syncretism between Catholicism and African animism, an example of this syncretism is clearly present throughout the festivities of San Pacho.