The journey of making Torah Tropical began in 2021, in the midst of Colombia’s historic civil unrest. Despair at the Duque government’s policies and botched implementation of the Peace Process boiled until erupting into the tumultuous National Strike of April 2021. The uprising was the defining moment for a generation of young Colombians, a time those of us in the streets remember as an expression of hope, of a shared dream for a just society where a young person can aspire to a fulfilling, violence-free life.

So, this week, we speak to Ezra Axelrod and David Restrepo about this new documentary and what making it meant to them and where it took them and the protagonists in terms of the great questions in life, religion, identity and place.

Description of the Documentary:

In a tropical paradise turned dystopian by the Drug War, a struggling Colombian family in the city of Cali, reinvent themselves as Orthodox Jews who believe God is calling them to the Promised Land. Over the course of year in which reality and religious parable collide, they risk everything in an attempt at making Aliyah to Israel, putting their faith and family to the ultimate test.

Torah Tropical tells the universal story of searching for identity and belonging in the face of adversity. Through Isska and Menajem’s struggle to give their daughters a better life, the consequences of economic, racial and religious exclusion are explored with poetic intimacy, inviting audiences to fall in love with a family that defies stereotypes and inspires us to find hope in the middle of the world’s cruelest intersections.

https://www.torahtropical.com

'Romantic, adventurous and thrilling ... remarkable' Telegraph

 'Vivid, fast-paced and wonderfully ambitious … Patria teems with alternative stories of a continent’s life and peoples' New Internationalist

In late 1869, Richard Francis Burton stepped ashore in Southampton, fresh from a sightseeing tour of bone-strewn South American battlefields. The most lethal conflict ever fought on the continent was still stumbling to its gory conclusion. But if the celebrity adventurer expected to be mobbed with reporters, he was disappointed. Burton was ‘mortified’ to perceive how oblivious his fellow Britons were to ‘perhaps the most remarkable campaign fought during the present century’. Tales of Dr Francia – Paraguay’s dour, iron-willed dictator for almost thirty years – had once piqued the public’s curiosity. But the country had since ‘dropped clean out of vision. Many, indeed, were uncertain whether it formed part of North or of South America.’ He found ‘blankness of face’ whenever Paraguay was mentioned, ‘and a general confession of utter ignorance and hopeless lack of interest’.

Over 150 years later, the amnesia persists. If South America is a forgotten continent, Paraguay has fallen off the map altogether. Foreigners often confuse it with Uruguay, in many ways – a secular, liberal, World Cup-winner – Paraguay’s opposite. The world takes Paraguay’s drugs, beef, soybeans, migrant labourers, cleaners and midfielders, but has blanked out their distant source. In London, Madrid or New York, this might be understandable. But Paraguayans have long felt isolated and ignored even by their neighbours. In an aphorism so often repeated it has taken on the character of a curse, Augusto Roa Bastos – the country’s most famous novelist – described his nation as ‘an island surrounded by land’.

So, we discuss and end up philosophising about Latin America's place in the world, Lawrence's adventures across the region, Colombia, Paraguay and his new book, "Patria, Lost Countries of South America."

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/435719/patria-by-blair-laurence/97818479246…

It has become a cultural phenomenon in Colombia, beginning first in Bogota before branching out to Medellin, Cali, Lima (Peru) and now Cartagena...everyone knows all about Gringo Tuesdays.

So, this week, coinciding with the launch of Gringo Tuesdays in Cartagena, we speak to co-founder Travis Crockett about how the business has grown, the differences in running events in each location, how they survived Covid and where they plan to expand to next...hint, two more overseas locations.

This is a good news story about some entrepreneurs that took a punt on an idea and it worked, becoming one of the most unmissable nights for language exchange and then latin-style partying in Colombia.

Tune in to hear about "bio pong," yes, you read that right, not "beer pong," but "bio pong," and other anecdotes from 13 years of running Gringo Tuesdays.

 We wish them all the best on this next venture in Cartagena.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan. 

https://www.gringotuesdays.co
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After nine years away, Tim Buendia, has made it back to the town of Aracataca - birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - and it seems timely with a new series based on the author's opus: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" due to be aired on 11 December 2024 on Netflix.

Tim, an adopted son of Aracataca, is perhaps singlehandedly responsible for his tireless work in bringing international tourism to the birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author. And it was all falling into place with tours, a steady stream of visitors and significant press coverage...and then he left. 

We discuss what this return to "Macondo" or Aracataca means to Tim, how he has been working diligently in the interim years to continue promoting Aracataca, about his poetry and a new art gallery he is inaugurating in the town. Check out the website: https://www.thegypsyresidence.com

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.