ABSTRACT
Colombia includes the Andes mountains, the tropical rain forest of the Amazon jungle, the grasslands of the Orinoco River, and other tropical rain forests on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. The Western Andean region includes the northwestern department of Antioquia, whose capital, Medellin, is the second-largest city in Colombia and the country's original industrial center. Economic inequality, linked with both race and gender, is the most salient characteristic of Colombian society and many Colombian leaders consider it the primary cause of violence. Colombians take great pride in their culture, often referring to Bogotá as the Athens of South America and arguing that the quality of the Spanish spoken there is the best in Latin America. Colombia has always been a country of many large cities, in contrast to the many Latin American countries in which one city dominates the nation.
