Antioquia colonization and daily life Colonización antioqueña y vida cotidiana

The migrations of poor families that left Antioquia towards the southern lands to tear down pieces of jungle and settle as peasants is known as Antioquia colonization. Around 1820, the person who participated in the founding of the colony or village was called a colonist and the one who cleaned up a piece of jungle and built a shack for the family was called a colonizer; the most common synonyms were explorer, settler, farmer, neighbor, highlander, and peasant. The colonists moved along the banks of streams, rivers and the back of the mountains to orient themselves and study the landscape, that is why the colonization roads cross the terrain through impressive heights and, apparently, take useless detours. The selected land should have four basic elements: water, wood, fruit trees, and a rich fauna that offered edible meat; in addition, colonists tried to ensure that the region had a good climate and preferred cold lands over hot ones. In a process of one hundred years, poor peasants from different regions took over the Central Cordillera, faced the jungle, cut down trees, built farms, roads, taverns, and inns. They also founded colonies that became villages and towns, and created an internal market. It was not easy because they had to face the action of the business owners of vacant lots and land concessions, but they “imposed” an agrarian reform. Today the old Caldas is known as the coffee heart of Colombia, an ecoregion located between the Central and the Western mountain ranges, with a system of protected natural areas and hydrographic basins that offer the necessary environmental services for the maintenance of biodiversity and productive activities.