The Origins of the Paisa People

Abstract

The author presents a summary of the book El Paisa y sus Orígenes (The Paisa and Their Origins), which recounts the history of the diverse population that inhabited the territories now making up the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío, Valle, Tolima, Chocó, and other neighboring areas. This large region was home to at least 35 ethnic groups with different languages and cultures, whose study has been limited, for now, to a span of about forty centuries. The extensive research presented in the book was carried out based on anthropological and historical data, iconography, comparative archaeology, and analysis of accounts from chroniclers who lived in the region. It reveals the many genetic and cultural influences that shaped the people known as "paisas," reflecting a richness that the conquistadors, blinded by their thirst for gold, could not even have imagined.