Colombia 2009

Not only did the Spanish conquerors bring with them their architecture influence, but they also brought their religion, Catholicism. Before the big Spaniard movement, there were many Spaniards that came to Cartagena attracted by the gold. These were all different kinds of people, so at first many different religious orders settled in Colombia wanting to spread their religion. One conqueror, Pedro de Heredia Fernández arrived with a group of Franciscans and Dominicans. It was the Franciscan monk in this group that held the first Christian mass. From this point on, plans were made and designs were drawn up to construct a Christian community made up of lots, city plazas, and streets as well as chapels. This is a perfect example of the Spaniards exerting their influence with their culture, specifically their religion. Their religion is so tightly tied in with all aspects of their lives that it even directly effects their designs for the city. Through the many, many years to follow, Catholicism continued to have a strong following and this all makes sense because the Spaniards were being sponsored by not only the King and Queen of Spain but also the Catholic Church. This also caused the names of streets and buildings to follow the Spanish religious tradition.
This influence of religions was really seen by our group all throughout the historical district tour on that first full day. Religion was everywhere in the historic district. A plaza, which we know were designed by the Catholics, would pop up so often as we wandered through the skinny, cobble-stone streets. Not to mention the amount of churches, chapels, and bell towers we saw. We toured a big convent with a monastery which sits on the highest point of Cartagena, allowing us to experience a view of the entire city.
The impact of the religion of the city also was really represented in the service work we did. I am pretty sure that every one of the schools we worked with had a religious aspect to their school or the school day. I always noticed signs and pictures on the walls of religious sayings or pictures of Jesus, displaying a very strong belief in God. The children at Villa Gloria even greeted us with signs such as, "God loves you." The Fundación de Jesus that we visited on the last morning had a definite emphasis on religion and the children also sang songs about Jesus for us as a part of our welcome presentation.
I found it interesting and very inspiring how the importance of religion was shown so strongly by both the wealthy part of the city (the historic district) and the very poor women and children we worked with throughout our service work. While I did not notice any churches in the very poor areas, this did not matter because their love of God and their religion was shown in so many different ways. It seemed that no matter how well off the person was, their passion for God was made clear in one way or another. Living in America, we are so used to seeing all different religions around us and being accepting of all of them. While I know that there are people in Cartagena that celebrate other religions too, it seemed to me to be a very united city in its Catholicism and I found this interesting. It is very clear how much the Spaniards so many years ago influenced so many people all these years later, just by introducing them to a certain religion. While it may have been the Spaniards actions so many years ago that have led to so much divide in economic status nowadays, it is ironic that the religion they introduced is what is keeping people of all different economic statuses happy and thankful to be alive.
On another note, I do not remember seeing very much influence of religion from the Carvajalino's, one of our local partner's family's. While I did not ask, and just may not have noticed, it is interesting to note that I am not sure whether religion played an extremely important role in their lives. To me this is important to note because the girls in this family, all teenagers, are pretty well off and attend an international school that is probably secular.