The story
Cartagena Independence Festivities in Cartagena
Cartagena marks November 11th, the 1811 date it became the first Colombian province to declare independence from Spain, with civic ceremonies and folk parades that extend into the Concurso Nacional de Belleza, the national beauty pageant founded in 1934 explicitly as a tribute to that independence, culminating in the crowning of Miss Colombia.
Cartagena holds a specific claim within Colombian history: it was the first province to declare independence from Spanish colonial rule, on November 11th, 1811, and the city has marked that date with civic commemoration and festivity ever since.