{"id":1197,"date":"2011-08-24T16:34:10","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2013-05-10T11:31:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T16:31:17","slug":"top-5-colombian-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2011\/08\/top-5-colombian-icons\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Colombian Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You may remember a while ago on our humble Colombia Travel Blog that our beloved JL posted something about the potential for tourism in Colombia, and the need for an identifiable<a title=\"The Icon Colombia Needs\" href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2011\/07\/the-icon-colombia-needs\/\"> icon for Colombia<\/a>. Well today we&#8217;re focusing on icons too, but in a completely different way. From dancing queens to the just plain mean, we&#8217;re taking a look at our Top 5 Colombian Icons of the human variety: characters that have shaped the way we look at Colombia, both for good and bad, and that have firmly imprinted themselves on modern culture. So here they are, in absolutely no order at all:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Shakira<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1198\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1198\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/3949352308_71680bd5e1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1198\" title=\"Shakira\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/3949352308_71680bd5e1.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/3949352308_71680bd5e1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/3949352308_71680bd5e1-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1198\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shakira Shakira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hailing from Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira is one of the world&#8217;s most famous pop musicians. She&#8217;s worked with the likes of Beyonce, <del datetime=\"2011-08-25T12:29:56+00:00\">is married to<\/del> is dating Barcelona FC superstar Gerard Pique and has more hit singles to her name than I&#8217;ve had arepas. She may not be flavor of the week all the time in Colombia and thanks to her blonde hair most people don&#8217;t even realise she&#8217;s Colombian, but, to be fair, but she wears her history on her sleeve (just check the lyrics to &#8216;Hips Don&#8217;t Lie&#8217;) and <a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/eye-on-colombia\/shakira-helps-lay-foundations-for-new-school-in-cartagena-de-indias\/\" target=\"_blank\">does a great deal to help her home country<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Juan Valdez<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In terms of iconic it takes a lot to out-do the moustachioed coffee-worker that adorns the Juan Valdez coffee brand. The idea of Juan Valdez and his loveable mule, Conchita, is to distinguish pure Colombian coffee from rival sources. Perhaps now most famous for the chain of coffee stores in Colombia that carry the Juan Valdez title, the man has nonetheless had time to appear alongside Jim Carrey in &#8216;Bruce Almighty&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qqQW3GimwQQ\" height=\"345\" width=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Pablo Escobar<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1199\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1199\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pablo-Escobar_1440846c.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1199\" title=\"Pablo Escobar\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pablo-Escobar_1440846c.jpg\" width=\"460\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pablo-Escobar_1440846c.jpg 460w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pablo-Escobar_1440846c-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1199\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pablo Escobar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It may not please a lot of people, but there&#8217;s no question that Pablo Escobar is one of Colombia&#8217;s most defining icons. Now a figure of cult celebrity status in the Western world thanks to the popularity of gangster genres in film (the Escobar character appears in such films as &#8216;Blow&#8217;, starring Johnny Depp), Escobar left behind him a trail of\u00a0devastation\u00a0and atrocity but, despite this, remains a complicated figure. He worked hard to construct a &#8216;Robin Hood&#8217; image, giving a great deal of money to local communities to build schools, hospitals and more. Nevertheless, the man once featured in the list of 100 Richest Men In The World remains a topic of intense bitterness for most Colombians.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Carlos &#8216;El Pibe&#8217; Valderrama<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1200\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1200\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/carlos-valderrama.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1200\" title=\"carlos-valderrama\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/carlos-valderrama.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/carlos-valderrama.jpg 300w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/carlos-valderrama-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1200\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The hair alone gives him iconic status<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In Colombia people often ask me what my impressions of Colombia were before I came here. My answer is a huge blonde afro and a masterful command of footballing technique. I refer, of course, to Carlos &#8216;El Pibe&#8217; Valderrama, Colombia&#8217;s most famous footballer and the most instantly recognizable. Part of the famous &#8217;94 team that demolished Argentina 5-0, Valderrama gained plaudits thanks to his slick passing game and has gone on to be considered one of the all-time greats in terms of passing technique. Not bad for a lad from Santa Marta.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Gabriel Garcia Marquez\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ggmarquez.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1204\" title=\"Gabriel Garcia Marquez\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ggmarquez.jpg\" width=\"237\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>More than Botero or any other Colombian artist, Marquez has gained both critical and commercial recognition throughout the world. His most successful books, such as &#8216;100 Years of Solitude&#8217; and &#8216;Love In The Time Of Cholera&#8217; are recognizable titles even to those without interest in literature. &#8216;Love In The Time Of Cholera&#8217; is particularly famous thanks to the film adaptation starring Javier Bardem. Marquez&#8217;s style is constantly changing, but he is universally recognized as the most popular exponent of magical realism, a pillar of <a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/tours\/cultural\/\" target=\"_blank\">Colombian culture<\/a> and one of South America&#8217;s most important novelists.<\/p>\n<p>Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may remember a while ago on our humble Colombia Travel Blog that our beloved JL posted something about the potential for tourism in Colombia, and the need for an identifiable icon for Colombia. Well today we&#8217;re focusing on icons too, but in a completely different way. From dancing queens to the just plain mean, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[115,97,73],"tags":[58,289],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.4 (Yoast SEO v18.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Top 5 Colombian Icons - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2011\/08\/top-5-colombian-icons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top 5 Colombian Icons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may remember a while ago on our humble Colombia Travel Blog that our beloved JL posted something about the potential for tourism in Colombia, and the need for an identifiable icon for Colombia. 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His first trip was to Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina and it was there, wading in some waterfalls near Mostar with just a litre of cheap beer and some bread in his belly, that he was bitten by the travel bug. After many more trips and a spell working in London, Paul relocated to Buenos Aires for some months before moving to Colombia. 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