By Carlos Macías

PorColombia celebrates with pride, passion, and hope Colombia's 200th Independence anniversary on July 20. As our country’s ambassadors living in a foreign land, that has welcomed us with open arms, Colombians rejoice about our rich heritage and invite people from all cultures to celebrate with us the anniversary of two centuries since we declared our independence and became a republic.

The Colombian government has organized 3 days of festivities, including a great national concert featuring over 200,000 artists performing simultaneously at 1,102 different localities. The goal is to play the nation anthem at unison nationwide at noon on July 20 and then enjoy the artists’ repertoires.

Here in the United States, the Colombian Diaspora also commemorates this democratic milestone with multiple cultural and social events across the country. Our friend in Facebook Colombianos en Estados Unidos has compiled a list of activities to be held in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina and more. Also, they’ve created a photo album in Facebook with flyers, photos, and logos related to the events and the independence celebration.

Download a PDF (in Spanish) provided by the Asociación Colombiana de Profesionales y Estudiantes Colombianos en el Exterior (PEXC) and Colombianos en Estados Unidos. Here it's the list of events happening from July 18 to August 1 (in English):

Since 2007, this website has evolved to serve our growing organization as the hub for everything PorColombia. But technology is moving faster that we can all grasp, and PorColombia.net will go through a needed and well-deserved redesign. We envision this website as a platform capable of inform our chapters, foster integration among our members, and be our flagship product to eventually produce revenue for the organization. Therefore, we are holding a PorColombia iPad raffle so all the proceeds will be used to the redesign of PorColombia.net.

February 9, 2010

By Julian de Lavalle

"Uno de los aspectos más bellos de PorColombia es que le estrecha la mano y une a todo tipo de estudiantes - desde el colombiano que vino a estudiar acá, al inmigrante, al que es segunda generación hijo de padres colombianos y hasta el que es Colombiano de corazón."  

Hace casi tres años, mí muy estimado amigo y ex presidente de nuestro capítulo en Georgetown University Orlando Sabbag se me acerco y me propuso la idea de organizarnos los colombianos de la universidad y unirnos a este proyecto llamado PorColombia. Cuando me hablaron de la organización, no dude un instante en unirme a los muchachos con los que fundamos el capítulo de Georgetown. Reflexionando hoy me doy cuenta que el formar parte de esta familia de PorColombia fue una de las mejores decisiones que he tomado en mi vida.

By Carlos Macías

We have excellent news from our Canadian chapter at York University. A fundraising party held on April 2 at Vida Lounge in Toronto bored excellent fruit. They raised $2036.00 to assist forcibly-displaced children in Colombia. These type of fundraising events are fine-tuned with PorColombia's philanthropic mission of fighting against forced displacement. Being one of our newer chapters, PC @ York has been quite active lately and was featured in ElHeraldo.com from Barranquilla for their formidable participation in a multicultural week at their campus in Toronto. Keep up the good work PC @ York!

February 9, 2010

By Carlos Gabriel Jara

"I am Peruvian with I great part of my heart given to Colombia; I am a PorColombian who loves the group as much as the other members do… maybe more."

The 2008 club fair at Baruch College marked a turning point in my life. I found myself there walking around in a college fair without agenda as any other transfer student. Among the hefty crowd, PorColombia's members were loud enough to stand out to hear them say, "join PorColombia!" They were determined to show their country is much more than coffee, flowers, and drugs. Luckily, this message seduced me to join them. Now, a year and four months have passed and my admiration and respect for each of its members has grown exponentially. In retrospective, I am now convinced that I was just in the right place at the right time.

We would like to extend an invitation to all PorColombians to become contributing writers for PorColombia.net. Articles must have a written element as a central part of the story but you may use any other mediums like photos, slideshows, video, audio, and interactive features to tell your story better.

One paramount goal of our organization is to uplift Colombia's image abroad and what a better way to do it than write about it.

Don't forget that toggling between your busy college life and extracurricular activities can be challenging at times. We will work with you while your story takes shape and until it is ready to publish.