Coffee, Cocaine, and Roller Coasters

The Making of Memory in Colombian Theme Parks

“Coffee, cocaine […] That’s what the tourists expect when they come [to Colombia],” offered Gabriel with a half-smile. A self-described hippie and lifelong resident of the region that hosts the Parque del Café, he has witnessed waves of tourists arrive in search of a country they thought they already knew: its rolling hillsides draped with coffee trees, the pastoral charm of campesino life, and the lingering, perfumed shadow of narcotic excess. One a celebrated patrimonial crop,…