NOTES
2 Jorge Eliecer Gaitan (1898–1948): Leader of the Liberal Party and presidential candidate, famous for his talents as an orator. His assassination on April 9, 1948, split Colombian history in two, and for many is the origin of the violence the country would experience during the rest of the twentieth century.
10 Simon Bolivar (1783–1830): Known in Latin America as The Liberator, Bolivar is the most notable of the leaders who led the Latin American colonies to independence from Spain during the first decades of the nineteenth century. He died in Santa Marta, Colombia, and his final journey from Bogota is recounted in The General in his Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
11 Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1900-75): General of the Colombian army who, after taking power by means of a coup d'etat, installed a dictatorship that lasted from 1953 to 1957.
11 Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1908-94): Liberal politician. Minister of the Treasury between 1942 and 1944 and President of Colombia from 1966 to 1970.
20 SCADTA (Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aereos): Colombian-German Air Transport Society. One of the first aviation companies in Latin America, founded in 1919 by Colombian and German partners. During World War II, the fact that there were German citizens among the shareholders was a source of concern to the Colombian and U.S. governments.
21 Enrique Olaya Herrera (1880–1937): Liberal politician. President of Colombia from 1930 to 1934.
30 Lucas Caballero (1914-81): Colombian writer, journalist, and caricaturist whose opinion columns, published under the pseudonym Klim, were among the most read of the time.
41 Los Tres Elefantes: Department store with branches in several Colombian cities. In 1990 the branch in the Niza shopping center in Bogota was the target of one of the bloodiest terrorist attacks committed by the Medellin Cartel, leaving twenty people dead.
41 Centro 93: Bogota shopping center. It was the target of a terrorist attack in 1993, attributed to the Medellin Cartel, which killed eleven people.
57 Troco (Tropical Oil Company): U.S.-owned petroleum company that operated in Colombia from 1921 to 1951, when its concession reverted to the Colombian state.
140 Buss und Bettag: Wednesday, eleven days before Advent, observed in Germany as a day of penance.
146 La Voragine (The Vortex): Atmospheric protest novel concerning the Amazon rubber industry, by Jose Eustasio Rivera (1888–1928), published in 1924. It is probably the most important Colombian novel prior to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
147 Emil Pruefert: Head of the Nazi Party of Colombia from 1936 to 1941.
148 German Arciniegas (1900-99): Renowned Colombian historian and essayist. He was Minister of Education in Eduardo Santos's government, from 1941 to 1942, and again during Alfonso Lopez's second government, from 1945 to 1946.