The Paisas are a people who inhabit a region over the northwest Colombia in the Andes.[1]
The region is formed by the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío. Some regions of Valle del Cauca Department (north) and Tolima Department (west) belong to the cultural identity of paisas. The main cities are Medellín, Pereira, Manizales and Armenia.
The name of Paisa derives from the Spanish apocope of Paisano (one from the same country), although they are also known as "Antioqueños" (those from the old Antioquia that included the other Paisa provinces and that was a single administrative body until the creation of the Caldas State in 1905.) Although many refer to Paisas as an ethnic group (raza antioqueña or raza paisa), they are a part of the Colombians and Latin American peoples.
Paisas can be found in other regions of Colombia and the Americas where they have migrated. They have a particular way of speaking Spanish to the point that some writers refer to it as "español antioqueño".[2]
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The Paisas have been considered a genetically isolated population according to scientific studies.[3] As evidenced by the analysis of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomal markers, the initial founding of the Paisa population occurred through the admixture of Spanish males and Native females.[4] Subsequently, within the emerging colonial society, marriage with individuals of Spanish ancestry was encouraged over marriage with individuals of Native ancestry, leading to the predominantly European ancestry of today's Paisa population.[5] The mountains contributed to isolate the population until the end of the nineteenth century when it enters its own industrial revolution. The nineteenth and early twentieth century also brought European and Middle Eastern immigrants to the region notably from Spain, Italy, Germany, Lebanon, and Eastern Europe. Most of these immigrants ended up intermixing with the Paisa population.
Their first ancestors are primarily Spanish immigrants from Extremadura, Spain (16th century). The first colonizers were Extremaduran like Gaspar de Rodas of Trujillo, who was the first colonial governor of the region. Several towns, cities and places in the Paisa Region are also Extremaduran: Medellín for Medellín of Badajoz; Cáceres for the Province of Cáceres; Valdivia for conqueror Pedro de Valdivia.
Some conquerors from Andalusia like Marshall Jorge Robledo of Jaén, came also with the Extremadurans during the sixteenth century. However, during the seventeenth century a group of Andalusian migrants is said to have settled the region.
The presence of Basque ancestry in the Paisa Region has been proven especially to the proliferation of Basque surnames[6] and even some scholars point that it is maybe one of the regions of Hispanic America with most concentration of ancestry from that Iberian region.[7] The Basques arrived to Antioquia during the seventeenth century.[8]
During the seventeenth and eighteenth century Basque families from Northern Spain settled in the Aburrá Valley where Medellín and Envigado are located, as well as small towns in eastern Antioquia, such as Marinilla, El Retiro and El Santuario. This part of Antioquia reminded these families of northern Spain.
It is a matter of debate of the presence of Jewish ancestry in the Paisa people.[9][10] It has been possible that Spanish Jews (known as marranos) fleeing the Cartagena de Indias Inquisition took refuge in the Antioquian mountains during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Some Colombian authors like Jorge Isaacs and Miguel Ángel Osorio claimed that Paisas have Jewish ancestry. Several Paisa surnames are of Jewish origin like Alvarez, Espinosa, Pérez and many others. Some scholars agree that the presence of Sephardic Jews in the ancestry of Paisas is a fact, but it does not mean that all Paisas come from them, as proven by their origin in other groups like Basques, Extremaduran, Andalusian and Catalonian.[11]
Although the facts of the presence of Catalonian people in the origins of all Colombians have been a matter of studies, the Catalonian genetic and influence in the Paisa Region has been also of particular analysis, especially in the way Paisas use their Spanish language and elements of the traditional customs and surnames.[12]
Although the expression "Paisa" is of popular use as apocope of "Paisano" (one from the same country; countryman), the origin of the expression goes back to a separatist movement that brewed through the region in the mid nineteenth Century. Those politicians that secretly supported secession would refer to the new country as "Pais A", short for Pais Antioquia. The moniker eventually was fused to create the word "paisa". Consequently, "Paisa Region" is the region where the Paisa people live. A more ancient expression is Antioqueño (Antioquean; one from Antioquia). This one is more official, especially during the Colony (16th - eighteenth centuries) and the nineteenth century after the Independence of Colombia. All the region made a single body as "Province of Antioquia" first and "State of Antioquia" after. In 1905 was created the Caldas Department from the southern part of Antioquia, making that the world "Antioqueño" remains only for those of Antioquia, while "Paisa" became a more cultural one.
Although some sources argue that the American Indians that populated most of the Paisa Region were extinguished through European diseases and fights against the Spaniard conquerors, it is not fully demonstrated.
Francisco César made an expedition in 1537 from Urabá to the Cauca River to the lands of Dabeiba, but his troops were rejected by the Nutibaras. In 1540 Marshall Jorge Robledo founded Cartago. In 1541 he founded Arma in what is today the south of Antioquia, near today Aguadas and Santa Fe de Antioquia, at the banks of the Cauca River. This last town would become the provincial capital in 1813.
The first colonial governor was Don Gaspar de Rodas (1518–1607).[13] The mountains of Antioquia attracted the Spaniards for its gold and lands for cattle, The first towns were located near gold mines and rivers. Although that, the region did not attract a population interested in create important centers for the Spanish civilization like Cartagena de Indias, Popayán or Bogotá and it remains almost isolated from the rest of the colony. This fact is the main element of the cultural identity of the Paisas within the Colombian national context.
Since the seventeenth century and until the end of the nineteenth centuries, Paisa families moved to the southern regions of Antioquia, in what is today the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis or the "Viejo Caldas" (Old Caldas). This constant internal migration is known in history as the "Colonización Antioqueña" (Antioquean Colonization). Most of the cities and towns founded in the Old Caldas (Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío and some towns of the north of Valle del Cauca and the west of Tolima) are from that time.
During the wars for the independence of Colombia, the most important Paisa figure was General José María Córdova. He was from Rionegro and fought important battles to free the region from the Spanish regime under the orders of Simón Bolívar, who never went to the region. During the Bolívar's campaign to liberate New Granada, Córdoba participated in the Battle of Boyacá and was entitled "Lieutenant Colonel" by the Libertador, although his young age (he was only 20). Then he was in charged by Bolívar to defend the Province of Antioquia and in fact he defeated the Spaniards during the Campaign of Nechí between the end of 1819 and the beginning of 1820.[14]
In 1826 Medellín was declared the capital of the Province of Antioquia. In 1856 a Federalist Political Constitution created the State of Antioquia and it faced some civil wars among Liberal and Conservatives. In 1877 the president of the federal state was Pedro Justo Berrío, who was one of the most prominent political leaders of the region at the end of the century and developed an active politic in education, transportation to communicate the region with the rest of the country like the train (1874) and economical development.
In 1886, with a centralized Political Constitution, it was created the "Department of Antioquia". Although the region was not affected directly by the Thousand Days War (1899–1902), it produced one of the main characters: General Rafael Uribe Uribe at the side of the Liberal Party rebels.
The progressive government of General Rafael Reyes (1904–1909) was of benefit in the development for the region, but one of his projects was the creation of new departments. One of the them was the Caldas Department to be taken from the southern part of Antioquia in 1905. During the twentieth century both Paisa departments (Antioquia and Caldas), would continue their development in industry, mines and agriculture. In 1966 the Caldas Department is divided in three parts: Caldas itself, Quindío and Risaralda.
At the end of the century the region faced the crisis of the growing of drug traffic mafias, paramilitary groups and guerrillas, especially in Antioquia with the Medellín Cartel and the north of Valle del Cauca. However, development has proved to be a Colombian model in regions like the Metropolitan Area of Medellín according to the Inter-American Development Bank.[15][16]
Although what is known as "Paisa Region" is a cultural entity and it is not defined by administrative divisions, it is possible to locate some areas as the natural space of the Paisa people.
Although they are very attached to their country land, Paisas have been always promp to migrate in search of better opportunities. This fact has been of great benefit for the development of some regions in Colombia, first during the "Antioquean Colonization" of the Colombian Coffee Axis between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and currently to other regions of the nation like the Llanos Orientales (East of Colombia). They keep their traditions and love for commerce, agriculture and mines wherever they go. In the Llanos Orientales, for example, several haciendas of cattle are owned by Paisa families. They are one of the main Colombian groups to migrate to foreign countries, especially to United States, Spain and some Latin American countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Mexico and Argentina.
Paisas are distinguished in Colombia for their natural love and abilities for business and commerce. The Paisa Region coincided with the important economic centers of Colombia like the Metropolitan Area of Medellín (textile, industries like appliances, automobiles and chemicals, services like health care and fashion); the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis in agriculture and other economic activities like flower growing, cattle, gold and coal mines, tourism and others.
The way Paisas speak Spanish is distinctive within the national cultural context. It is also known as "Antioquean Spanish". This dialectal Spanish belongs also to the Americas Dialectal Voseo regions as a regionalism. Paisas speak Spanish fast and soft. They have many local and regional expressions that must be translated to a standard version even for Colombians from other regions. Out of the rural Paisa dialect, comes a popular and urban version called as "Parlache" as well.[20]
Paisas are very attached to their families and land. As their natural cultural space is on the mountains, it is also a symbol of their land. They give a great importance to surnames and ancestors. They even associate surnames to towns ("los Pérez son de San Pedro de los Milagros", the Pérez [family] are from San Pedro de los Milagros). Though the patrilinear character is very important for families, Paisas keep a strong matriarchal culture.
Paisas are well known in Colombia for their kindness and welcoming aptitude to persons from other regions and visitors. They are promptly to jokes and exaggerations that create enjoyable conversations, though can confuse those who are not used to their talking. They speak proudly of their land, towns, cities, history, traditions and abilities in commerce. It is common that Paisas do not use their local demonym (for example, "medellinenses, manizalitas, etc), but they refer to themselves as "Paisas".
The Paisa cuisine is very influenced by their traditional rural background of the mountains. It belongs to the Colombian Andes cuisine with abundance of beans, rice, maize, pork and cattle meat, tropical fruits, potato and several types of vegetables.[21]
The Paisa Region is center of different genres of music among traditional, modern and adopted. The most important instruments of music by tradition are the tiple and the guitar.
Roman Catholicism in Colombia arrived in the region with the Spaniard colonizers at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Franciscans settled along with colonizers and built churches and monasteries in the towns founded by the Spaniards. There is a theory that Spaniard and Portuguese Christian converted Jews arrived to the region as well. Roman Catholicism became the predominant religion and Paisas remained devout and churchgoing. The 1991 Colombian Political Constitution that decreed freedom of religion opened the gates to other religious denominations, though Paisas are considered Catholics by culture. The theory of Jewish origins has benefited the Jewish communities in the region as well. The two first Colombian persons recognized by the Catholic Church as blessed or saints are from the Paisa Region: Laura Montoya (from Jericó) and Mariano de Jesús Euse (from Yarumal). A Paisa prelate from Tolima, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, was closxe to the John Paul II.
Several Paisa personalities have been famous in regional, national and international contexts in every field of science, sport, music, technology, economy, politics and even crime. Some of the most notable in an international context: