Portuguese Colombians

Portuguese Colombians (Portuguese: Luso-colombianos) are Colombian citizens of Portuguese descent or Portuguese-born person residing in Colombia. There has been a historical presence of the Portuguese in Colombia since the 17th century, many of them were missionaries, doctors and craftsmen.

History
Despite the Portuguese-Spanish Treaty of Tordesillas, the Portuguese were traders, craftsmen, mercenaries and artists. Their luck in the Spanish assigned parts of South America, including in today's Colombia.

Portuguese slave traders were present in Colombia, where they sold slaves from Africa. At this time also a series of words in the everyday language of Colombia, which are of African origin. The place names like Quebrada de Portugal in the district Barranco de Loba in the Departament of Bolívar refer to the presence of Portuguese.

In 1607, the Portuguese physician João Mendes Neto described in Discursos Medicinales the natural medicine that he applied to the Spanish, Portuguese, Blacks and Indians alike The Spanish-language manuscript of Discursos remained unpublished until 1989. Neto came from the Portuguese Miranda do Douro and went after the study of medicine at the Spanish University of Valladolid to South America, where he settled in Cartagena de Indias on the Colombian Caribbean coast.

The Kingdom of Portugal concluded on April 9, 1857 a first trade and shipping treaty with the Republic of New Granada, from which in 1863 developed the United States of Colombia, in 1886 adopted the current name of Colombia.

Culture
The Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões is present in Colombia, in addition to various collaborations, each with a lecture at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the private Universidad de los Andes.