Which is the importance of knowing our own culture?

By: Valentina Osorio Osorno, Diego Saldarriaga Galvis

The loss of cultural identity directly influences the sense of belonging we have of
our cultures. Colombia is a place with many diversities in many aspects. For
example, we were colonized for Spain people and we had native blood. This
relationship has born new forms for being, think, and act. Was like this adopt
different expressions, new words, music, traditions, gastronomy, habits, art, and a
new social system. The main idea of knowing our own culture is recognizing and
accept our native ascendance making a cultural appropriation. In this way, we
generate a sense of belonging which allows us to embrace our history.

The world has generated a very large globalization. The Internet has opened the
field of knowledge and has allowed us to learn about other cultures around the
world. This has also led to a deculturization with the use of Anglicism; very
common among us Colombians. It is of vital importance to recognize that the loss
of identity of a people leads to the disappearance of its historical memory. If we
lose our historical memory, we lose our identity and this leads to the continuous
disappearance of our roots. For understand this topic is important recognize the
definition about 'culture'. We define culture like a set of specific and representative
aspects. Important! We need to learn that nothing is more characteristic of a
culture than those who participate in it, since our needs end up being molded to the
needs that each society has, according to its lifestyles and principles.

Colombia have many cultural diversities. Our country was considered like one of
the most and multicultural environments around the world. We have five biggest
regions, this means that the culture varies from one place to another, but they are
not very far apart. In this place we can find more than a hundred indigenous
cultures, Afro-descendant groups and even gypsies. The five biggest regions are
Andean, Amazonian, Pacific, Caribbean and Orinoquia. Each of these five major
regions has unique and representative aspects such as its gastronomy, music,
dances, beliefs and cultural heritage. Probably, for us Colombians it is difficult to
identify these aspects because we tend to detach ourselves from what represents
us; adopting postures and behaviors from other places around the world.

Today we have a very big cultural rupture. Young people are adopting expressions
from other countries as a way to be cool. This is worrying because culture can be
seen as an expression of art from each of the places where it is born. It is the seal
of identity of each one of us who are part of a place or space. With this we are not
saying that globalization has broken each one of the cultures with the benefits it
has brought in the connections but it has generated in some people a greater
interest in foreign cultures than in their own culture. While this interaction has
allowed to generate advances worldwide in relation to global cultures, it has also
caused people to abandon and forget all those roots that we have as Colombians.

The preservation of culture should be a topic that everyone should talk about and
give it the importance it deserves. It is important to let us know as Colombians that
more than protecting those cultural characteristics that make us unique, the ideal
would be to reinforce them, to make them last in time, to strengthen them in future
generations, without having to leave aside the influences that other cultures can
bring but without losing our essence, because losing our cultural identity would be
the same as forgetting who we are.