Artistic career
Cobo has lived and worked in places ranging from his native Cali and nearby Bogotá to Quito, Chicago, New York, Tucson and Madrid, something which has given him a broad vision of art. His work has been featured in both group and individual exhibitions since 1977, in Colombia and around the world.
In recent years, he has also edited and directed the online Latin American cultural magazine, Primera Plana - www.primeraplana.co. In 2005, he called upon a number of writers and poets from Latin America and Spain to produce a literary anthology about the topic of violence and how it affects women, a particularly significant issue in recent Latin American history. The result was a book titled MUJER, Soledad y Violencia (Literally "Woman, Solitude and Violence"), which he subsequently illustrated.
Estanislao Zuleta was a Latin American philosopher, writer and professor from Colombia. He was known especially for his works on the universities being a professor for all his life. More important than his writings, Zuleta is remembered by his conferences that were carefully recorded by his colleagues and pupils and published several times during his life and after his death in 1990. He dedicated especially to philosophy, Latin American economy, psychology and education. He let treaties on ancient and modern thinkers of a rich social and historical analysis over the Latin American cultural context. He was an adviser in the United Nations, the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture, the Colombian Institute for the Agrarian Reform (Incora), an adviser of former president Belisario Betancur Cuartas and a writer for Crisis Magazine of Medellín. He was rewarded by the Honoris Causa in psychology of University of Valle in 1980. The Estanislao Zuleta Foundation is the institution that keeps and promotes the legacy of the Colombian philosopher.
The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana is a private university in Colombia founded in 1623. It is one of the oldest, most traditional, and prestigious Colombian universities, directed by the Society of Jesus, with its main facilities in Bogotá and a second campus in Cali. "La Javeriana", as it is known by its students, has traditionally educated the Colombian elite. It is one of the 33 universities entrusted to the Society of Jesus in Latin America and one of 167 around the world.1623.
Aníbal Villacís was a master painter from Ecuador who used raw earthen materials such as clay and natural pigments to paint on walls and doors throughout his city when he could not afford expensive artist materials. As a teenager, Villacís taught himself drawing and composition by studying and recreating the illustrated ad posters for bullfights in Quito. In 1952, Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, former President of Ecuador, discovered Villacís and offered him a scholarship to study in Paris.
Alejandro Jesús Obregón Rosės was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.
María Rosa García García, better known as Niña Pastori, is a Spanish flamenco singer (cantaora).
Ricardo Cobo is a classical guitarist, considered one of the leading guitarists of his generation. He gave his professional debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá at age seventeen. Cobo was the first Latin American to win the Guitar Foundation of America's International Concert Artist Competition according to the foundation's website, and to date, only one other Latin American-born guitarist has won the prestigious award.
Colombian literature, as an expression of the culture of Colombia, is heterogeneous due to the coexistence of Spanish, African and Native American heritages in an extremely diverse geography. Five distinct historical and cultural traditions can be identified, with their own socioeconomic history: the Caribbean coast, Greater Antioquia, the Cundinamarca-Boyacá Highlands, Greater Tolima and the Western Valley. Colombia produced one of the richest literatures of Latin America, as much for its abundance as for its variety and innovation during the 19th and 20th centuries. Colombian intellectuals who forged the literature of this period also contributed decisively to the consolidation of Latin American literature.
Jesse A. Fernández was a Cuban artist, photographer, and photojournalist. He was an art director of Visión Magazine in New York City and a photographer for the Revolución newspaper in Havana, Cuba. Fernández was granted the Cintas Foundation Fellowship for painting in 1967 and 1975.
Ángela Becerra Acevedo is a Colombian writer. She has won several awards such as the Premio Fernando Lara de Novela in 2019, the Planeta-Casa de América Award in 2009, the Azorín Prize in 2005 and four Chicago Latin Literary Awards, as well as the Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa. Her works have been translated into 23 languages and published in more than 50 countries. She is one of the most widely read Spanish-speaking authors, the most read Colombian writer after Gabriel García Márquez, and considered the creator of the Magical Idealism.
María Blanchard was a Spanish painter. She was known for developing a unique style of Cubism.
Leila Cobo is a Colombian journalist, writer, novelist, pianist and television show host. She is noted for her coverage of Latin music for Billboard where she is currently the Chief Content Officer for Latin Music and Español, overseeing the brand's coverage and development of Latin music across all its platforms. These include billboard.com and billboardespanol.com, which Cobo launched, podcasts and video. A Fulbright Scholar with degrees in music and communications, Cobo also contributes frequently to other publications and speaks frequently at conferences and universities around the world. She also an acclaimed author and novelist who has published five books, including two novels and most recently, a history of Latin music, "Decoding Despacito," which was selected as a New York Times Summer Read pick. Prior to Billboard, she was the pop music critic for the Miami Herald and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Also known for her lifestyle writing, Cobo also served as director of content for Nexos, American Airlines' Spanish and Portuguese in-flight magazine. As an author, Cobo has published two novels. Her most recent book, "Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music" (Penguin), published in English and Spanish, has been widely acclaimed as an essential guide to the history of Latin music. She also published a musical biography on the late Jenni Rivera, also in English and Spanish ("La Increible Historia de Una Mariposa Guerrera" and a book on the Latin music industry also on Penguin. She also collaborated with Puerto Rican star Ednita Nazario in her memoir "Una Vida," which was published in 2017 by Penguin.
Women in Paraguay is a group of women whose rights are challenged in the country of Paraguay. Faced by socioeconomic inequalities and gender pay gap, they experienced significant cultural changes since 1990 as a result of constitutional and legal expansions of women's rights and evolving cultural attitudes. The legal and government institutions currently existing in Paraguay were developed in part through the efforts of feminist organizations in the country that held significant awareness-raising campaigns during the 1990s to formalize the guarantees of women's rights. UN Women supports the Paraguayan State in the challenge to extend women's rights, to fight for gender equality, as well as women's empowerment. It also ensures that women's voices are heard and create more opportunities for women.
Lucy Tejada Saenz was a Colombian contemporary painter. She is the sister of Hernando Tejada, another famous Colombian artist.
The Museo Botero, also known as the Botero Museum, is an art museum located in La Candelaria neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia. It houses mostly works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, however it also includes artwork by other international artist that were of Botero's own private art collection.
Miguel Ángel Rojas is a Colombian conceptual artist born in Bogotá in 1946. His work includes drawing, painting, photography, installations and video and is often related to the sexuality, the marginal culture, the violence and problems involved with drug consumption and production.
Soledad Cazorla Prieto was a jurist and the first Spanish prosecutor against gender violence. She directed a network of fiscal specialists who worked in this field in Spain after the creation of the 2004 Integral Law against Gender Violence. She held the position for a decade, from 2005 until her death. Remembered as a defender of equality, her professional career was closely linked to the development of this law.
Karen Lamassonne is a Colombian American artist. Throughout her career Lamassonne has explored a plethora of disciplines such as film, printmaking, painting, graphic design, video art, and music. Lamassonne’s work is notable for reflecting this combination of several different studies, most noticeably that of her paintings having a very cinematic vision behind them. Noteworthy works of Lamassonne’s all contain this sense of multifaceted technical skills put into them. A majority of Lamassonne's work contains motifs of sensuality from a woman's perspective, specifically she includes sexuality from her own perspectives and experiences. Moreover, her signature combination of feminine-led sexuality and a frank expression of true life have led to both Lamassonne and her work being the subject of criticism via censorship.
Adriano Adolfo Fernandez Nicot is a Cuban-American painter and poet based in Miami, Florida. He is known for a distinctive Neo-Expressionist style and is closely associated with the prominent Cuban artists Antonia Eiriz, Manuel Vidal Fernández, and Hilda Vidal Valdés. After becoming established in Cuba, Nicot relocated to the United States in the late 1990s. His work has since been featured in several books and exhibitions in the US and in Latin America.
