The #1 Colombia stereotype

What I think of it, honestly...

Your nationality many of the times plays a fundamental role at the moment of meeting people when traveling. If you start to get to know people and notice an accent, usually the icebreaker is to ask where do you come from or your background. And I used it too, an easy way to start to know somebody.

When Colombians are living or traveling abroad, everyone always knows that the stereotype we have, drugs and cocaine. And a big majority of Colombian get easily offended by it. To the point of starting fights or just stoping to talk with people because of that.

But at the end I believe stereotypes are held strong for a reason, its an easy way to navigate through life, mental shortcuts that are to build up by so many years of history and cultural expansion that inevitably they won’t go away.

Here is what I think, Colombians that take too personal and offended by the stereotype are just mentally weak and delusional.

Mentally weak because as soon as somebody mention drugs or Pablo Escobar, mentally they are blocked and assume their entire personality is based on their nationality. They are mentally weak because they assume everyone should know everything about the story about Colombia (the good things), and make the mistake of letting their nationality make a big part of what they are.

Delusional because, again, they believe everyone should know only the good things about Colombia. Should everyone know about it? Not really, I mean, Colombia is a great and beautiful country but their international influence is not that big. Plus keeping in mind that not everyone (almost nobody) really care of anything happen outside their own cities or countries.

My point is, letting you be offended or upset for the stereotypes of your country gives me the idea of how weak your personality is. Weak because even if the stereotype is strong, you know your personality is not that appealing or you are not interesting enough to people appreciate you for who you are, not from where you come.

Now, it is obvious that narcotrafic and drugs is and will be for the long run Colombia’s #1 stereotype. Because criminal and outlaw life will be always appealing to everyone, regardless from where it comes. How cool and interesting are the stories of American gangsters like Lucy Luciano, Al Capone, their influence is so big even a whole cinematic influence let them to create the best films in the world.

If you are Colombian, when somebody call you out right away for being Colombian and associates you with drugs, consider it a test to prove you have enough aura to make them remember you from how good of a person you are.

If you are not Colombian and the first thing you mention to a Colombian is cocaine or Pablo Escobar, be advice they probably will be mad at you. And take this advice from me, if you are trying to flirt with a Colombian girl, DO NOT mention anything about drugs or narcotrafic. You will fumble your opportunities, trust me, my Colombian friends tell me about it all the times how many guys blew their chances for just mentioning that.

For the rest, I can tell you that Colombia right now is a country where tourism is growing exponentially and many people are starting to consider it a new home. If you are interest in holidays or planing to move in here, you can have a chat with me here: