Colombia: A Concise Contemporary History by Michael J. LaRosa and Germán Mejía (review)

The book by Michael J. LaRosa and Germán Mejía is well-written and covers effectively most of the important events of "modern" Colombian history, defined by the authors as the years since 1800. They clearly state their goal: to offer "a fresh interpretation of Colombian history based on the multitude of facts, historical events, and circumstances that have come together to form that history" (p. xvii). The authors aimed to have a new work of history that would be bold, energetic, and innovative, not focusing on the catastrophic vision of the country or theoretical constructs from the developed world. Rather, despite all the mayhem the country has experienced, they wanted to explore a central question: "How is it that the nation stays together?" (p. xx).

To that end, the authors take an unusual approach in the organization of their book. After an account of the independence movement and the years up to 1830, they present the history by topic rather than in a standard chronological account. Wisely anticipating that this approach would lead to some repetition, they approached Colombia by describing its people, the development of its political system, the most important institutions (political parties and the Roman Catholic Church), conflict, economics, infrastructure development, culture, daily life, and foreign relations. In mid-book the authors have included a photo essay of 16 images, with a paragraph describing each.

This is a valuable book for several reasons. First, despite all that people in the United States hear about Colombia when the question of illicit drugs is raised, there is very little written in English about the country and its history as a democracy. Yet, with the exception of only four years of military rule in the twentieth century, Colombia has chosen its leaders through elections, albeit flawed in many ways. It has never had a socialist government like Cuba, Chile, or Nicaragua, nor one controlled by the military like Argentina, Brazil, or Chile. Second, this book includes many of the positive parts of Colombian history, such as the cultural contributions of author Gabriel García Márquez, the plastic art of Fernando Botero, and the delights of the distinct food dishes from different parts of the country. Finally, it does contain all the information that one needs to know about Colombian history.

There is room for argument about some of the information that the authors present, and some areas should be mentioned, granting nonetheless that there are definitional and factual problems in Colombian history. Was the National Liberation Army formed in 1962 as the authors state, or was it in 1964? While we might argue about whether paramilitary groups emerged in the early 1980s as new actors or whether they existed before that, the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia as a national organization was not founded until 1997. While we can disagree about the dates of the terrible period of La Violencia between the Liberal and Conservative parties, the dates should at least be consistent in the book. We have "late 1940s and 1950s" (p. 75), "1946-1960" (p. 86), and the statement that the April 1948 death of Gaitán "is often blamed for ushering in the undeclared civil war in Colombian known simply as La Violencia" (p. 206). Finally, many Colombian scholars would disagree that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia provides only protection for the drug trade (p. 88).

My concluding concern has to do with how people reading about Colombian history for the first time will interpret this book. As one with more than 40 years of studying Colombia, I had no problem in following it, but I wonder if it will be a good "first book" for students of this marvelous, multidimensional country. If they find it confusing because of the lack of chronology, I suggest that they search elsewhere for chronological accounts so that they do not miss...