Fernando Botero's self-identification as a man and an artist from and of Colombia is the single most outstanding characteristic of his art. In fact, one could cite works in virtually every genre and analyze them according to the specifically Colombian elements present in them. We have seen already how in his religious compositions, such as Our Lady of Colombia, the flag connotes national identity. Banners with the national colors rise from the Virgin's feet, and the Christ Child holds a tiny Colombian flag. National flags make their appearance in many other works by the artist, and there are numerous instances in which the national colors are introduced in more subtle ways. In the 1989 Man with a Dog, for example, the sitter stands within the courtyard of a colonial house of the type that could easily be seen in any village or town in Colombia - or in the colonial district of Bogota known as La Candelaria. Its tiled roof, green woodwork and banana trees instantly locate us within a specific ambience. Yet when we further observe the man's clothing, we realize that his shirt and tie echo the red, yellow and blue of the Colombian flag. In the 1983 painting entitled La Colombiana (Colombiana Woman), a woman in a yellow dress stands just inside the door of a house which could also be located anywhere in the country. Her voluminous red hair is piled high on her head. Hands with perfectly manicured nails painted red hold a cigarette and a cigarette box, seemingly offering one to the viewer. Over her left ear there is a tiny bow which also bears the red, yellow and blue colors. While not creating individualized portraits, the artist is instead fashioning a picture of a national - or a national 'type' - which is as alive in his imagination and as representative of Colombia as any famous political, artistic or literary superstar.

Even in his images of significant historical individuals as well as in his artistic paraphrases, Botero will include seemingly incongruous references to Colombia. In the 1990 canvases of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI , the eighteenth-century French monarchs stand outside a house on a typical Colombian village street. A tiny green bird perches on the hand of Marie Antoinette, and both of the rulers are flanked by Colombian flags, which also serve to frame the scene, and suggest that the pictures might represent theatrical performances.

It is, however, the timeless and endlessly repetitive life of the small towns of the interior of the country that provide immeasurable fascination for Botero. Although he grew up in Medellin, he and his family would spend parts of the summers in a village at some distance from the city. This place, El Escorial, remains today fairly similar to its aspect of the 1930s. In many of his paintings Botero recalls both the mundane and the extraordinary events of life in such a town. In a painting such as the 1995 House, a woman stands in her doorway observing the passing scene. Nothing seems to change, but we know that any instant something amazing - wonderful or horrifying - could happen. In a 1994 composition we observe just such an occurrence. The Woman Falling from a Balcony portrays a young woman, dressed only in a green slip and green highheeled shoes, flying through the air as she is observed by a man standing below. Does this represent a terrible accident, a suicide or a vision of the observer? We can only know the ultimate outcome in our imaginations. In paintings such as this Botero seems to be creating visual analogues to the extraordinary imagination of Gabriel García Márquez who, in his novels and short stories, has created a world that may be described as both banal and wondrous. The imagination of the painter, like that of the writer, conjures up fantastical happenings in village settings in which, seemingly, little or nothing changes throughout the years.