Cultivating Colombian traditions

　　Thanks to a campaign sponsored by UNESCO, Colombia has turned the spotlight on safeguarding its intangible cultural heritage.

　　A commercial aired in prime time recently on Colombian radio and television begins with a murmur, which is gradually amplified until several languages can be distinguished. Some sound as if they are related to Mandarin, others to the very marked phonetics of Slavic languages. Then, in the midst of the babble, one can recognize a poem in Spanish by the great Colombia poet José Asunción Silva. It's at that point the audience grasps that all the languages just heard were indigenous.

　　The ad ends with a message underlining that Colombia is a multicultural, multilingual country. Another spot stars the Mohán, a sylvan spirit of rivers and forests that farmers used to fear; yet another depicts pise (rammed earth) wall-building technique, a legacy of the Amerindians. Even the Pusandao, a Pacific Coast stew prepared with manioc, yams, fish and coconut milk, is the subject of an ad.