Jean Paul Betancourt

The following poem was originally written in 2007 (Age 16): Natural Creativity Written by: Jean Paul Betancourt In the wilderness of my dreams, I feel the warm lights of my sight, As I observe the leafy stems, That emerge from the roots, Of my consciousness. As I see the everlasting fruit, That are created in this nature, I step into the flowing river, And into my fountain of inspiration, And ask the sun of my devotion, To nurture these lush gardens, So that I may one day paint, On the canvas of creativity. 👑

The Muisca raft and El Dorado: Bogotá, D.C. The Europeans who came to America at the beginning of the 16th century brought a desire: they were looking for gold, the metal that in Europe was currency, the one they needed to pay for their ships, weapons and horses and, if there was excess, to become very rich. They were looking for Eldorado, a mythical place where everything is made of gold. And they found indigenous chiefs and chiefs who adorned themselves with nose rings, pectorals and "crowns" of gold; they plundered, plundered, mistreated, because in their century they could not see the value of what they were destroying in their wake. But they also heard about a cacique so rich that he did not want to wear carved ornaments, but to cover his body with dust of the metal sacred to him, to shine like the sun that symbolizes and makes life possible. Upon arriving in Bogotá, among the Muiscas, they learned that the Guatavita cacique was celebrating a ceremony thus covered in gol