Published: March 21, 2008 04:12 pm         

Music is news in Idol's ancestral homeland

By David Wilfong

Herald-Banner Staff



Following last week’s program in which Jason Castro told America that his family came here from Colombia, I received a phone call from Bogata.

A reporter with El Tiempo, Colombia’s largest newspaper, was looking for assistance in gathering news for a story. Apparently, the revelation was big news in the Latin American nation.

Timing is odd sometimes, because while a first-generation Colombian-American is making news in the world of music — music itself was making news in the world of Colombia.

For those who do not keep up with the latest headlines from down south, Colombian governmental forces recently scored a major blow against the FARC with a military raid that took out a key FARC leader.

Unfortunately, that raid actually took place on Ecuadoran soil — and Ecuador was not very happy about it (slight understatement).

Ecuador was joined in protest by Venezuela. Colombia returned fire with accusations of governmental support for the FARC by Ecuador. That was followed by Ecuador and Venezuela massing soldiers at the Colombian border.

Not good.

But something really neat ended up happening.

On Sunday, latin pop singer Juanes was joined by fellow spanish-speaking superstars Miguel Bosé, Juan Luis Guerra, Ricardo Montaner, Alejandro Sanz, Juan Fernando Velasco and Carlos Vives on a bridge linking Cucuta, Colombia, and San Antonio del Tachira , Venezuela for a concert of unity between the two peoples.

The concert began with a children’s choir comprised of 35 Colombian and 35 Venezuelan children. The singers were all clothed in white, with white flags surrounding the stage. The concert drew approximately 70,000 who mingled together on both sides of the border.

It was a way for the people to send a message to their political leaders that they were tired of, and not in support of, the latest round of high-level sabre-rattling.

The Stabroek News in neighboring Guyana on Wednesday ran an editorial which began, “A huge rock concert on the Colombia-Venezuela border has signaled the end of the apparent threat of military conflict which seemed to overshadow the relations between the three countries over the last few weeks.”

Rock on.