WINTER 2017

HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA DISPLACEMENTS

MUSIC EDITOR’S LETTER BY JUNE CAROLYN ERLICK

Not a Matter of Statistics

The sweet pure tones of a violin emanated through my grade school auditorium. Ten-year- VOLUME XVI NO. 2 old Florika, a refugee after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, was turning the warmth of once- David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies living wood into a powerful source of communication. Florika spoke no English. The strains of Director the music she played—a classical piece whose name I do not remember—still linger with me. Brian Farrell So does the anger I felt in my first awareness of displacement: how could our classmate, who Executive Director could not even say “good morning” to us, evoke such beautiful and emotional sound? And why Ned Strong had such a talented young girl been thrust into another country where she did not know the language or culture? In the words of my ten-year-old reaction, it was simply mean. ReVista Displacement is mean, I found out through my long experience with and in Latin America. Editor-in-Chief As a teenager, I lived in a Dominican neighborhood on New York’s Upper West Side. My June Carolyn Erlick neighbors were professionals in their homeland, but they were working as janitors and factory Copy Editor workers. They had fled the Trujillo dictatorship to start a new life in the United States. We Anita Safran exchanged English and Spanish lessons, and I got the better end of the deal because they were Publication Interns exhausted after their unaccustomed days of manual labor and switched to Spanish after the Isabel Espinosa Sylvie Stoloff “obligatory” hour of practice. Throughout my professional life as a journalist, I constantly encountered displaced Design Jane Simon Design people: Cubans in Union City, New Jersey, who taught me the word “luto” (mourning) as they expressed how they felt about their homeland; Chileans in Panamá fleeing from the Pinochet Printer P+R Publications regime and crafting images of Mapuche women in copper (one of which still hangs in my Somerville kitchen); Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Guatemalans escaping wars and repression. Contact Us 1730 Cambridge Street And then there was the little girl named Marilyn from Colombia’s Pacific Coast, who attracted Cambridge, MA 02138 me with her friendly, curious gaze, in my Bogotá neighborhood. Her father was trying to find Telephone: 617-495-5428 his way through the bureaucracy to enroll his daughter in a public school. Marilyn didn’t like Subscriptions, Back Copies and Comments Bogotá. It was cold and you couldn’t go fishing. Displacement is mean. [email protected] “Displacement” is the thematic emphasis this year for the David Rockefeller Center for Website Latin American Studies, and the reason we are doing this particular issue now. We decided to revista.drclas.harvard.edu add an “s” to “displacement” because not all displacement is political. Although much of this Facebook issue focuses on the thousands of people in Colombia, Central and Mexico, displaced because ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America of political and gang violence, displacement comes about from environmental abuses, land Copyright © 2017 by the President and grabs, mining and energy projects, sexual orientation, domestic violence. The list of reasons for Fellows of Harvard College. displacement goes on and on, and for reasons of space, we could only touch on some of these ISSN 1541—1443 themes. ReVista is printed on recycled stock. But the common thread of all these displacements is the incredible resilience of the men, women and children who are forced from home. They learn to forge their way in new com- munities in their homelands and beyond. They learn new languages and new trades. Some of them, like the displaced Chileans in Panamá, will learn to communicate their plight and longing through their homeland through the plastic arts. Others, like Florika of my elementary school days, will express themselves through music. The numbers of displaced people worldwide are horrific—65.3 million people worldwide This issue of ReVista is made possible in 2015, according to the UN Refugee Agency—what Florika taught me with the strains of her through generous support of violin is that displacement is not just a matter of statistics. Santander Universities Global Division.

2 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO BY HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA

WINTER 2017 VOLUME XVI NO. 2

Published by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Harvard University

DISPLACEMENTS

FIRST TAKE Displacements: A First Take by Jacqueline Bhabha 2 IN EVERY ISSUE

FOCUS ON COLOMBIA BOOK TALK A Nation Reconfigured by Displacement Black Lives Matter in Brazil Too by Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo and María Angélica Garzón 8 A Review by Edward Telles 79 Learning about Hunger by Julieta Lemaitre 11 Latin American and Arab Revolutionaries Voices from the Atrato River by Andrés Lombana-Bermudez 16 A Review by John Hughes 81 36 Hours (and More) in Cartagena A photoessay by Sahara Borja 20 Tracing Latin America’s Revolutionary Roots A Communitarian Contestation by Juan Ricardo Aparicio Cuervo 24 A Review by Julian D. Bishop 82 La Espina by Jota Samper and Tamera Marko 27 BUILDING BRIDGES FORCED FROM HOME Peace Education through Music A Search for Food Sovereignty by Karl S. Zimmerer 32 by Danielle Williams 84 Colombia’s Other Displacements by Aviva Chomsky 35 Indigenous Displacement in Southern Chile by Daniel Cano and Cristóbal Madero 38 Flight, Exile and Identity by Ivan Ramírez Zapata 41 ONLINE Look for more content online at CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO revista.drclas.harvard.edu Pain on the Border by Ieva Jusionyte 47 Displacement on the Border A Photoessay by Lorne Matalon 50 Fighting Displacement by Suyapa Portillo, Priscilla Cobian, Sona Patel and Luther Castillo Harry 53 Protecting Central American Families by Maggie Morgan and Deborah Anker 56 Urban Spaces of Internal Displacement in Mexico by Felipe Hernández and Irit Katz 58

EXPLORING THE ARTS Sculpture and Displacement by Mary Schneider Enriquez 62 Ana Tijoux’s Radical Crossing of Borders by Luca Istodor 65 ON THE COVER The Octopus, the Spider and the Braying Burros By Azriel Bibliowicz 67 Displaced (Dis) locations of Violence in Latin American Film by Paola Ibarra 72 By Stephen Ferry Displacement Here, Displacement Now by Sergio Delgado Moya 76 http://stephenferry.com/

REVISTA.DRCLAS.HARVARD.EDU ReVista 1 FIRST TAKE

Borders and the Displacements They Create are Human Artefacts By JACQUELINE BHABHA

ALTHOUGH ONLY THREE PERCENT OF THE Other persecuted minorities—Roma and These regimes recognize that much world’s population are international Jews most obviously—were the targets human mobility has been driven by the migrants, mobility is an essential part of of periods of intense discrimination, but search for opportunity—for new arable the human condition. From our earliest these did not always lead to exclusion land and resources, or, when no “empty origins—approximately 200,000 years from the territory. While some measures space” existed, for sites of conquest or ago—human beings have moved across resulted in expulsion by powerful sover- possibilities of cooperation and cohabita- land and water, in larger numbers and eign polities, others led to confinement tion. But human mobility has also always across greater distances as the technical within the territory, to ghettoes encircled been fueled by disaster—whether natural means enabling travel have permitted. in particular areas within polities. Both or man-made or both. People have been Archeological and linguistic research these measures—exclusion and ghet- forced to embark on distress migration attests to extensive, varied and intense toization—were, however, exceptions. for their very survival, or to achieve more migrations, originating out of the African Indeed, until the early 20th century, secure and rights-respecting conditions continent and leading, over the ensu- population influxes were considered ac- of life. This is the form of migration that ing centuries, to the hybrid, rich genetic cretions to sovereign wealth and power, a we refer to as displacement—whether it is from one’s depopulated rural village to a job-rich, domestic metropolitan center in Displacement implies some measure of compulsion Mexico, or whether it is from a war zone in the Middle East to a refugee camp in to leave home, when staying put, overwhelmingly a neighboring state or other destination the preferred default option, is no longer viable. involving international border crossing. Displacement implies some measure of compulsion to leave home, when stay- intermingling that peoples the surface of welcome enhancement of domestic labor ing put, overwhelmingly the preferred the earth today. force and national entrepreneurial spirit. default option, is no longer viable. But When we think of migration control Much more egregious than limitations on the division between opportunity and di- in today’s world, the images that might and exclusions of human mobility, were saster-driven migration is neither clear- come to mind are razor wire fences, their opposite: colonization by occupy- cut nor permanent, though the widely armed border guards, infrared body ing and exploiting regions on the one used popular dichotomy between “cho- scanning devices and walls set up by hand, and forced importation of popu- sen” economic migration and “forced” states to keep others out. Yet the states lations, most notably slaves and inden- refugee flight implies otherwise. The that we take as given today—the pri- tured laborers, on the other. This deep equally pervasive distinction between mary source of our contemporary global history highlights the arbitrary nature of legal and illegal migrants, widely con- migration control regime—are invented current migration control regimes, and sidered ontological categories, is also constructs, arbitrary mappings of people their implicit presumption that protect- difficult to sustain on careful scrutiny. onto place. No inherent, let alone “natu- ing national territory from “outsiders” or Both of these categorical distinctions are ral,” order justifies this framework, which “others” or “illegals” is inevitable or in- products of particular legal regimes and is evidence of nativist fear rather than na- herently defensible. their intersection with personal circum- tional legitimacy, weakness rather than Some state migration regimes are stances. And they are both amenable to strength. moving in a more inclusive direction, change. People may start their journey in Migration control, the policing of na- developing relatively open and positive search of opportunity and become refu- tion-state borders through exclusionary measures toward human movement. A gees sur place, on the spot (consider the laws and policies, is—from the vantage countervailing phenomenon to the en- case of Honduran migrant workers after point of global history—extremely recent. trenchment of the migration exclusion the 2009 coup), or vice-versa (think of Until the end of the 19th century, only se- toolkit is the increasing spread of region- anti-Castro Cubans). Migrants may enter verely stigmatized groups—criminals and al free movement regimes—first estab- a state with a legal immigration status prostitutes in particular—were systemat- lished in Europe but now also in evidence such as “student” or “visitor” and overstay ically excluded from sovereign territories. in West Africa and South America. or violate the terms of their visa, moving

2 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO OPPOSITE PAGE: STEPHEN FERRY HTTP://STEPHENFERRY.COM/ Indigenous people from the Wounaan tribe take shelter in a municipal stadium in Buenaventura after being threatened into leaving their ancestral territory by armed groups involved in Colombia’s internal war, 2013. from legal to illegal; conversely people by the very high death toll, estimated at those only directly affected by war as very may enter as undocumented migrants 220,000. young children. and benefit from a change in status such The material consequences of massive Because of the current dramatic hu- as an amnesty, the grant of a T visa as a displacement on Colombians are most manitarian crisis halfway across the survivor of trafficking, or an award of asy- apparent: impoverishment, family sepa- globe, in the Middle East, the Colombian lum status that renders them legal resi- ration, lack of access to basic resources displacement tragedy is sorely neglected. dents. such as food, health care, adequate shel- But the imperative of international atten- Where threats to survival are dra- ter and education for the displaced, and tion is as urgent there as it is in Syria, a matic and imminent, human displace- overcrowding, increased competition more recent conflict that bears much re- ment takes the form of whole population for jobs and infrastructure overload for semblance to past carnage in Colombia. exodus—the old, the young, the indigent the non-displaced. But at least as sear- Consider some of the similarities. Years and the sick accompanying able-bodied ing is the affective legacy. Brutalization of brutal conflict in Syria have generated family leaders and breadwinners. We are of communities, of families, villages and the mass displacement of half the popula- sadly familiar with this phenomenon. Af- neighborhoods, leaves members trau- tion of this highly sophisticated and rela- ter Syria, Colombia holds the record for matized, liable to terrifying flashbacks, tively prosperous country of more than the largest number of displaced persons to insomnia and anguished nightmares, 24 million people. Those who have the in the world—approximately six million, to post-traumatic stress disorder and, means (whether their own or supplied equivalent to one out of every eight in- for children, to bedwetting, fractured by monied and diasporic relatives) buy habitants. This scale of displacement has concentration, anxiety attacks, attach- forged visas and disguise the true pur- devastating consequences for the entire ment disorders and other mental health pose of their travel with elegant clothing, population, both those who are displaced pathologies. These products of exposure so that they are allowed to fly to safe des- and those who are not. It compounds to violent conflict and ensuing displace- tinations far from their homes, and then the catastrophic impact of loss caused ment may endure for a lifetime, even for apply for asylum on arrival.

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Those with less access to migration circularity. As a result, Mexican, Central have dangerously mounted to cross into resources endure much harsher jour- and Latin American migrant workers the United States, have attempted to neys—often multiple forms of internal who might have been inclined to move reunite with their undocumented par- displacement as a prelude to life-threat- between their families back home and ents in this way. The cumulative impact ening international travel. Families their jobs in el Norte stay put, even when of drug wars, gang violence and state pushing wheelchairs or gripping small the economic situation or family circum- collapse in parts of Central and South children as they negotiate barbed wire at stances do not warrant this. Millions America has exacerbated this pressure land borders, unstable dinghies in mid- thus become displaced, many of them to embark on hazardous and forced sea or muddy mountain paths through caught in a limbo of illegality and insecu- emigration for very significant popula- policed territories have become some of rity and denied the opportunity to make tions—inner city youth, family mem- the indelible images of the European re- use of flexible migration strategies which bers left behind by breadwinners in the cent refugee “crisis.” they once might have had. United States, displaced rural popula- Where social and political disintegra- Legal entrapment of this nature leads tions unable to see a survival strategy in tion is more gradual, not the situation in communities to despair of lawful family gang-infested cities in Central America’s Colombia or Syria, population displace- reunification and to embark on hazard- so-called Northern Triangle. Displace- ments tend to be more piecemeal. His- ous, irregular forms of border crossing ment has thus become the preferred torically, young adults, most often males, to end separation. Thousands of Cen- survival option for a significant popula- have forged the path of exodus, in search tral American unaccompanied minors, tion of Latin Americans. In just over a of safety and means of survival—some- whether through the maneuverings of decade, between 2000 and 2013, the times bringing family members to join exploitative coyotes or the self-propelled size of the Central American population them once they established themselves, risks of transport on “La Bestia,” the in the United States grew by over 56%, sometimes relying on circular migration transcontinental train that thousands to a total of 3.2 million. The three tiny to maintain family ties, so long as mobil- ity regimes permitted this. Eritrean, Af- ghan and Rohingya refugees are modern exemplars of this phenomenon. Some- times, able-bodied males flee predatory enemy attacks, preparing to arm them- selves and fight while their families act as buffers, absorbing the enemy onslaught as hostages, and enduring brutal physical and sexual violence. The infamous 1981 massacre at El Mozote during the Salva- doran civil war is a case in point. Today, the opportunity for circular migration to complement temporary or changing personal mobility trajectories is largely the privilege of the wealthy and entitled. Corporate executives can move freely to and fro, as can wealthy students, trainees or visitors. Other populations are constrained by harsh migration con- trol regimes which generate pressures towards permanent immigration or dis- placement, and militate against more flexible mobility arrangements. The situ- ation in the United States is a clear case in point. Where once political, economic or environmental hardships precipitated selective and temporary mobility—for safety, for work, for opportunity—now militaristic border patrols and punitive immigration policies militate against The community awaits the mine. Mining and nature resource extraction often causes displacement.

4 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO ABOVE COURTESY OF AVIVA CHOMSKY; PHOTO OPPOSITE PAGE BY IEVA JUSTIONYTE. FIRST TAKE

One of three official pedestrian border crossings between Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona. countries of the Northern Triangle—El on the Status of Refugees (as amended). ern or developed immigration destina- Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras— People who have not crossed an interna- tion state, is an egregious exception. Ac- thus represent 7% of the total U.S. immi- tional border (those who are internally cordingly, U.S. officials, whether customs grant population. Even more dramatic displaced, commonly known as IDPs) or and border control officers at the border is the recent escalation in the numbers those who, though displaced internation- or law enforcement officials within the of unaccompanied children from this re- ally, cannot demonstrate the requisite United States itself, are not bound by the gion arriving in the United States. In the fear, are not generally entitled to interna- “best interests” principle. This explains 15 months between April 2014 and July tional protection, though some regional why Central American children continue 2015, more than 70,000 unaccompanied legal systems afford a measure of protec- to be detained in secure facilities when children from the Northern Triangle tion (MERCOSUR, UNASUR and the they enter the United States without were stopped by the U.S. Customs and Cartagena Declaration are examples in a legal status, even when they are not Border Protection at the southern U.S. the Americas). charged with any criminal wrongdoing. border—74% of all unaccompanied mi- Special legal protections also apply to The prospects for legal status or mean- nors thus apprehended. Starker evidence some demographic categories. Children ingful international protection are much of the intolerable living conditions for in particular, defined in international dimmer for the remaining majority of the this most vulnerable of populations back law as persons under the age of 18, are displaced. They include the non-refugee home is hard to imagine. entitled to have their best interests taken displaced population—those trapped in- Among the millions of contemporary into account as a primary consideration side dangerous war zones or urban, arms- displaced persons, international legal in all matters affecting them—but only ridden deserts within their country; those regimes envisage protection for a rela- where the UN Convention on the Rights considered mere “economic migrants”; tively small minority. This protection is of the Child has been ratified by the rel- those fleeing persecution because of their reserved for those who cross an interna- evant state. This is the case for the over- politics or sexual orientation but unable tional border and who can demonstrate whelming majority of member states of to access competent legal representation a “well founded fear of persecution,” thus the United Nations, including all Central to prove their case; or those displaced en qualifying as refugees under the regime and South American states. The United masse following a natural disaster (such established by the 1951 UN Convention States, however, unlike every other north- as the recent Hurricane Matthew follow-

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to dangerous and exploitative migration strategies in their quest for safety. And once access to safety is secured, restric- tive immigration and work authorization policies, buttressed by opportunistic xe- nophobia and nativism, restrict opportu- nities for humane and just inclusion. On September 19, 2016, the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time in its history, addressed the question of large-scale movements of people as an urgent global matter. Whereas EU mem- ber states had pressed for an exclusive fo- cus on the European “refugee crisis,” the G77 group of states insisted on a more wide-ranging discussion. These momen- tous proceedings resulted in a consensus agreement to work towards the establish- ment of two new global compacts—one Wounaan indigenous people take shelter in a municipal stadium in Buenaventura, Colombia. on refugees and one on migrants. This agreement creates an urgent opportunity ing the devastating 2010 earthquake in documentary proof of nationality, access for those concerned with the vastly un- Haiti, Hurricane Mitch in Central Amer- to survival benefits, access to nurture equal access to mobility and migration- ica, the Chilean earthquake). and protection in the case of particularly related protection that the current status So much for legal access to protection. vulnerable populations including unac- quo instantiates. It enables state and From the humanitarian perspective, the companied minors, disabled migrants, non-state stakeholders in international protection and assistance needs of these elderly, sick, pregnant or otherwise at- migration—including migrant and refu- non-“refugee” populations are gener- risk populations. Beyond the immediate gee communities themselves—to iden- ally as great as the needs of populations rescue and entry phase, displaced popu- tify and press for minimum standards of holding legal refugee status. For the lations need access to shelter, to a legal shared responsibility. These standards overwhelming majority of non-élite mi- migration status, to family tracing, to the might acknowledge both the self-inter- grants, displacement may, at best, bring opportunity to engage in non-exploit- ested, demographic imperatives of pro- greater safety, some form of physical and ative and legal work and, in the case of moting human mobility again, as human psychological security and limited mate- children, to education and routine health society has done since its inception until rial assistance. This of course is the hope care, including vaccinations and for ado- the advent of twentieth century nation- that motivates so many to risk so much: lescents, sexual and reproductive health alism. They might also promote ethical certain death in acute conflict is worse care. obligations to avoid yet greater social, than the uncertain and risky prospect of Prevailing migration regimes mili- environmental and economic global in- survival. tate against the provision of such essen- equality and the devastating conflicts However, all too often displacement tial rescue and protection measures in and human displacements they generate brings with it new insecurities, vulner- a wide variety of ways. Exclusion mea- by developing flexible, safe and lawful abilities and traumas, compounding sures which intercept migrants before mobility options for that small minority those already generated by the pressures they reach state borders are one mecha- of the globe’s population who needs or to leave home. We know that displaced nism. Carrier liability and visa require- desires them. populations have urgent needs for a ment provisions that limit access to legal panoply of immediate resources—rang- migration opportunities (especially in Jacqueline Bhabha is a Professor of the ing from physical safety, to water and conflict zones) and that penalize official Practice of Health and Human Rights at food, to emergency health care (physical carriers who transport inadequately doc- the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public and psychological), to information about umented passengers are another. Harsh Health. She is also the Jeremiah Smith their immediate kin. We also know that border control enforcement, expedited Jnr Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law displaced populations have critical needs removal and punitive detention are yet School and the Director of Research at for legal and socio-economic protections, other, increasingly pervasive techniques the Harvard FXB Center for Health and including access to legal identity and that force displaced populations to resort Human Rights.

6 ReVista WINTER 2017 Opposite page: Displaced Embera Dobida group in Catrú, Chocó. PHOTOS BY STEPHEN FERRY FOCUS ON COLOMBIA

Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo and María Angélica Garzón A Nation Reconfigured by Displacement • Julieta Lemaitre Learning About Hunger • Andrés Lombana-Bermudez Voices From Atrato River • Sahara Borja Photoessay; 36 Hours (and More) in Cartagena • Juan Ricardo Aparicio Cuervo Displaced Persons and the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó • Jota Samper and Tamera Marko A Self-built Medellín Neighborhood and Its Lessons

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A Nation Reconfigured by Displacement Colombia on the Edge of Peace BY ANDRÉS SALCEDO FIDALGO AND MARÍA ANGÉLICA GARZÓN

ation lessened somewhat when she joined the local Pentecostal church. But she still dreamed of recovering her lands filled with cacao, fruit and plantains and hoping she could return home to build a house and give her children a decent life. Aurora’s story illustrates the efforts to survive of many Colombian men and women from the countryside who were expelled from their land and forced to flee to the cities and look for informal employ- ment to feed their children. As an Afro- Colombian, Aurora had suffered violence since she was born and raised in a histori- cally marginalized region in which guerril- las and paramilitary forces fought for con- trol of the territory. Forced recruitment, massacres and dis- placements have left a long trail in Colom- bian history. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Afro-Colombians fled slavery and work in the mines to begin a new life in isolated areas along the rivers of the Pacific Detail of a window in an abandoned house in San José del Peñon, Bolívar. Coast jungles. The indigenous population escaped from forced labor to isolated areas IT WAS JANUARY 2004. AURORA WAS STANDING back to Buenaventura, a city where the in the Andes and in the Amazon and Ori- at the traffic light selling dish towels in the paramilitary forces had carried out “social noco basins. In the 52 civil wars during the middle of a crowded Bogotá avenue. She cleansing” by killing young people. Threats 19th century, thousands of children and was living with four of her eight children and murders were constantly in the air. youth were forcibly recruited in the mar- in the Galán neighborhood on the out- To protect her older children, she fled to ketplaces to serve in different armies. A skirts of the city. Persecution and flight had Bogotá. She spent a few days at the Cen- process of dispossession, racial mixing and stamped her life indelibly. She was only ter for Attention to Migrants in the Bogotá migration began, leaving many to work as fifteen years old when she fled the small Archdiocese, and then moved from neigh- laborers on plantations and in cities while farm where she had grown up on the edge borhood to neighborhood on the outskirts others migrated to colonization areas. of the Mira River on the Colombian Pacific of the city. Much of the land on the indigenous reser- coast. She had watched as an uncle was Aurora found support in the city, but vations was divided up and sold as empty murdered because of a land dispute. In she also faced discrimination. Once the lots at ridiculously low prices through con- fear she hid in an aunt’s house in the small landlord of the house where she was rent- cessions and grants of property rights to city of Tumaco and later went to the larger ing a room locked her inside without a key export agroindustries. city of Buenaventura. She met and mar- to get out. She cried because she needed to During the first half of the 20th cen- ried a man there and they both returned pick up her children after school got out. tury, Colombia—anchored in the clien- to her land on the edge of the river to cul- She also felt humiliated when her photo telism of a sectarian two-party system— tivate rice. The guerrillas stole their cows appeared without her consent in a huge had a strong state presence in some areas and their rice crop and told them to leave poster for the Solidarity Network that stat- and virtually no presence in others. This the land. When Aurora’s husband refused ed, “We have everything in common with asymmetric and unequal nation-building to leave, they killed him. Aurora went displaced persons.” Her anger at her situ- process was reflected in the flourishing

8 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTOS BY JOSÉ LUIS OVIEDO FOCUS ON COLOMBIA

economies in the country’s central region lated zones, taking control over areas in After several failed peace attempts compared to the 75 percent of the territory which they replicated some of the state’s (1984, 1992), the guerrillas expanded their that was considered remote, backward and functions such as collecting taxes and fronts in zones that were strategic to the available to be colonized and absorbed administering justice and security services. country’s economy, and by the end of the by large estates. From the 1920s until the In 1987, armed drug traffickers rushed into 90s, they had taken control of around 60 1950s, peasants and indigenous groups the region, buying up 37 percent of the best percent of Colombia’s municipalities. The mobilized to demand land. By the middle land in guerrilla territory. They created government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002- of the century, the failure of land reform paramilitary groups to exterminate all the 2010) responded to this situation with a and the resurgence of violence between members of leftist movements, including military crusade backed up by paramili- the liberals and conservatives (1946-1957) political figures, activists, union leaders tary actions to do away with the guerril- caused another great exodus of peasants and teachers. Towards the end of the 90s, las. This resulted in local authorities losing towards zones that were being colonized or they expelled the Revolutionary Armed control and enormous swaths of land giv- toward the cities, provoking rapid urban- Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas en over for agroindustrial production and ization. from several regions and, organized as the large-scale mining. The most egregious Between 1960 and 1964, guerrilla United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, massacres and the greatest number of dis- movements concentrated in several iso- assumed the role of keepers of order. placements took place between 2000 and 2002, when around 412,500 were forced from their homes. Aurora’s story illustrates the efforts to survive FROM ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS TO of many Colombian men and women from the VICTIMS’ RIGHTS countryside who were expelled from their land and In the mid-90s, Colombia had become the scene of the largest humanitarian forced to flee to the cities and look for informal disaster in the global South. The Solidar- employment to feed their children. ity Network, initially created to attend the

Abandoned house in Mampujan, Bolívar.

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poorest and most vulnerable population in you, because of the prison-like conditions circuits downtown through the sale of pre- the country, changed its focus and became of the rooming houses and the humiliation pared food and fruit, as well as makeshift the principal entity to provide emergency of having lost everything and needing to barbershops in the market plazas. Some of humanitarian aid, as well as psychological rent a room, as happened to Aurora. For them reorganize and recreate their iden- and social support and programs for the those new arrivals, the urban reality meant tity in the forms in which the urban society return of displaced persons to their com- a rupture from their old ways; they had thinks of them to frame their livelihood in munities. In the year 2000, Plan Colom- imagined the future in another form. They terms of jobs associated with music and bia initiated 15 years of U.S. aid with close had to expend enormous effort to try to get the tropics. Afro-Colombian youth have to nine billion dollars destined for the war a real job and to make their way through managed to capitalize on that image, dem- on drugs, military support to regain state the bureaucratic formalities to get access onstrating certain abilities in rap or reg- territorial control, the demobilization of to health, education and food in spite of gaeton, dance and the Afro world music in paramilitary groups, and development being belittled in the process. fashion on the peripheries of Colombian projects. In the context of a vast and stratified cities. The focus of the Plan changed after world of urban contacts, many displaced courts made several constitutional deci- persons have managed to find comfort and LOOKING AHEAD sions in response to the pressure exerted acceptance in emotional support groups, In a country where much of the popu- by the displaced population who, occupy- religious circles or political parties. They lation has only known expropriation and ing offices. parks and plazas, demanded no longer focus on the barrage of threats expulsion, defense of the territory has more effective and timely help. A 2004 from their places of origin. Shortly after become a priority for the indigenous and court decision (T-025) declared that the their arrival, they usually make contact Afro-Colombian social movements of prolonged violation of the rights of the with people from their community of people who have exercised their right to displaced population was unconstitu- origin and slowly begin to build up lines decide their destiny on their own terms. tional, and two 2009 decisions (004 and of communication with those they left The most recent displacements have 005) required protection for indigenous behind. sparked a process of social, demographic groups “at risk of disappearing,” taking Some ethnic groups have found that and political reconfiguration without into account that seven percent of the their culture is more appreciated in Bogo- precedent in which displaced persons displaced population that year was indig- tá than in their provincial capitals. Old have found a voice in ethnic, women’s and enous and 17 percent Afro-Colombian. networks of distant relatives have been ecological movements that oppose the In 2009, a reparation policy was adopted activated and new inter-ethnic networks predatory and warlike mentality associ- through an administrative system that established through indigenous organi- ated with the armed conflict. The enor- recognized the importance of account- zations, which have gained recognition mous capacity of the victims to forgive was ability for damages caused by Colombia’s through the affirmation of cultural differ- reflected in the October 2, 2016, plebiscite armed actors. ences. in which they supported the signing of the Displaced persons did not want to be However, certain groups, like the peace accords to end not decades, but cen- seen by officials and neighbors as help- Embera-Chamí from Colombia’s western turies of abuse and arbitrary treatment, less victims from poor, backward, violent jungles, continue to be affected by the vio- while religious groups and conservatives regions. Displacement was challenging, lence and the asymmetry that shuts them voted against it, preventing the change but it had strengthened them politically. off from society: women go barefoot as they that is necessary for a reconfigured society. The victims had testified to the violent did on their reservations; they weave and acts that prompted their flight, but they sell necklaces and bracelets on the side- Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo is an Associate also described the world of land, relations, walks for the tourists in downtown Bogotá Professor in the Department of Anthro- work and experiences that had been torn while their husbands peddle clothes in the pology at the Universidad Nacional de from them. This was a way to regain a cer- bustling San Victorino market. They need Colombia. Contact: asalcedofidalgo@ tain respectability in the midst of precari- to make enough money to rent a room by gmail.com asalcedofi@unal.edu.co ousness and to reclaim the right to live a the day in rundown and marginal areas of dignified existence in a city where so many downtown such as San Bernardo and La María Angélica Garzón is a professor at victims of the conflict scrambled to make Favorita, where prostitution, petty traffick- the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica a living. ing and drug use are rampant. de Colombia and a doctoral candidate The Afro-Colombians who settle on the in Human and Social Sciences at the REMAKING THE CITY periphery of Bogotá’s south have found National University in Bogotá. Contact: Bogotá had been a city the newcomers their homes through organizations such [email protected] feared because of its enormity, because of as Afrodes and Process of Black Commu- the way people treat you and look down on nities. They also participate in economic

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Embera indigenous people have been displaced to Catrú, Chocó, because of armed conflicts between National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and the Gaitanist Self-Defense Organization, a neo-paramilitary group.

Learning about Hunger Colombian Displacement and Food Insecurity BY JULIETA LEMAITRE

IT IS DIFFICULT FOR A MIDDLE-CLASS an appropriate response, especially ensur- government and by NGOs, and worked professor to think at length about dis- ing interviews and workshops are always with two distinct groups and three small placed people’s hunger. The fact itself is accompanied with an abundance of food. NGOs in extended case studies. During pretty straightforward: after displace- But what about the persistence of hunger? this period of time I grew increasingly ment, people are hungry. But its implica- Between 2010 and 2013 a group of conscious of the presence of hunger, of the tions for research are hazy—how should graduate students and I interviewed more way it disappears for a few months only I react to the likelihood that the people I than a hundred internally displaced wom- to creep back when family fortunes take am interviewing are hungry? Is this rel- en, attempting to understand their uses of a dip, of the way it presses against every- evant for my research on their use of law, law. We also met them in dozens of par- day life with an undeniable urgency, of or not? Buying food for them seems like ticipatory spaces set up by the Colombian the comprehension gap it creates between

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poor women and middle-class research- ers, public officials and NGO workers who After the loss of loved have never been hungry. It is hard to see everyday hunger when ones, hunger haunts people don’t seem emaciated. I first saw the memories of it in the work meetings that involve poor people and are generally called “work- displacement, coupled shops.” Our work, the government’s work with the memory of a and the NGO’s work seemed to consis- tently involve workshops, and these work- past where food was shops, food. Consistently I saw the women plenty. we worked with carefully take the leftovers home in the large white styrofoam boxes that are a staple of workshops with poor on the northern coast. With the Liga we people across the country. How to think did a collaborative household survey, us- through the fact that these women are tak- ing both general questions we could use ing home the leftovers to feed their fami- to compare their situation to IDP (inter- lies? What could I say about the groups nally displaced persons) across Colombia, of small children that sometimes hover and specific questions the leadership was around the workshop, playing by them- interested in, such as the levels of partici- selves until it is time to approach the hot pation. The biggest surprise of the survey food in the styrofoam containers? How to was widespread hunger. More than 70% think through the disciplined sharing of answered yes to the three “hunger ques- Portrait of an the spoon between a small boy and girl as tions” included in IDP surveys in Colom- Awa Indian in their mother looks on, and waits? bia: have you or anyone in your family a shelter after threats by armed Hunger can be counted, however, and complained of being hungry in the last men following a often is. Between 2010 and 2013 I led an week? Have you or anyone in your fam- massacre in El in-depth study of displaced women’s legal ily skipped a meal because there wasn’t Diviso, Nariño. mobilization in Colombia. The research enough food to eat? Have you or anyone included several case studies, including in your family eaten less than you would one of the notable Liga de Mujeres Des- have wanted because you could not afford plazadas (League of Displaced Women) more food? Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Embera indigenous people have been displaced from their communities.

impossible task. Ana Luz Ortega, a dis- placed woman in the Liga de Mujeres In the field, however, women’s description of Desplazadas, described women’s special displacement is heavy with tales of food and its responsibility to feed their children as “the heaviest burden”: absence. We carry the heaviest burden when we arrive, because men get It is harder to represent hunger in in- cities only to discover that the poverty “aburridos” [bored] and leave or go terpretive studies, especially this kind of that awaited them was devastating in look for work somewhere else but we hunger that isn’t famine leading to death, unexpected ways. After finding refuge, have… (pause) we stay. We strug- but rather an uncomfortable presence. It food becomes the most pressing and ur- gle, we wash, we iron, we stomp the is particularly hard to represent hunger gent concern. Loss of home was usually earth. We do what it takes. Because in a study about displaced people in the also loss of the homemaking utensils they (pause) even if it is living off trash framework of human rights violations had accumulated over a lifetime: beds, we are here and we do our best be- and transitional justice. Hunger pales in chairs, tables, blenders, sheets, towels. All cause we have children here that ev- comparison to the harrowing tales of cata- must be rebuilt. The poorest of the poor ery day say Mami (pause) I’m hun- strophic events that led to displacement, have nothing; “una mano adelante y otra gry (pause). We are strong because and these make everyday challenges of atras” was the way one woman described our children say “we are hungry” poverty seem pedestrian. it, alluding to the feeling of arriving naked (pause). We find the way to bring In the field, however, women’s descrip- covering genitals with their bare hands. them aguapanela [sweetened wa- tion of displacement is heavy with tales Others more fortunate arrive with some ter], bread. But men, they can just of food and its absence. As they fled the furniture, some linen, perhaps cash. All say “where am I going to get food?” remote areas of the country where peas- brought with them memories of a previ- But we can’t. With patience we find ant women lived the war, they arrived to ous life where hunger was not a constant (food.) We don’t eat, no, perhaps the poorest slums of midsize and large companion, and feeding children not an a bite and then no more, and say,

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I will take food home because my to provide three meals for her children: more on her description, and on IDP mor- daughter, my son is there, and… (I “and that is there (emphasis) all the time. al images of life after the war. Minga was will bring it home) even if my own Knowing this is harming my daughters. used originally in the southern region of stomach is empty.” Knowing they are at a stage where (pause) the Colombian Andes to denote collective they need to eat well, they are in school. work done either for the community, or In the cash economy of the slums, there (long pause.)” for others in the community. Luz Dary’sß is a direct link between hunger and lack of As different women described their minga of the good life is not only a de- income. In terms of income, according to community organizing, they sometimes scription of actual or idealized practices. the last survey of the displaced that reports a significant improvement, 63.8% of IDP reflected on the ways the words, gestures It is also the articulation of an image of still live below the poverty line and, not and modes of being were embedded in what life could be and, more pressingly, of surprisingly 60.5% report severe food in- a collective ideal of the good life, where what life should be. It is a mode of think- security. Even those who have successfully food occupied a central place. Displaced ing through the aftermath of war in ethi- accessed subsidies for simple houses, to Buenaventura, Luz Dary Santieste- cal terms as a period when it is possible to health-care and school, and microloans for ban worked in two community organiza- transition to a good life defined as a life of entrepreneurship, are still income-poor, tions: in Madres por la Vida (Mothers for plenty and of collaboration. which translates into hunger. One very Life), she helped support families through By paying attention to hunger, I have successful leader said it succinctly when I mourning and finding loved ones lost to given my work on displaced women a new was admiring her Mocoa settlement: “you war and violence; in La Glorita, the other direction. I am now convinced that the see us and we seem to be fine but you open organization, she was part of a cooperative persistent tales of food were teaching me the cupboard and there’s nothing there.” that farmed nearby land. Describing La about the centrality of women’s aspirations Cash is scarce and mostly found Glorita she said with satisfaction: for a better life after displacement, chang- through selling merchandise, often food, When we think of another per- ing the story I initially thought I would tell in the streets and from their homes, gruel- son’s hunger, we are thinking as a about displacement, and about engage- ing work that involves their children’s help community. That’s why we have the ment with courts and women’s rights. I and facing police violence. But formal jobs food project at La Glorita. We are 23 now believe that this idea of the good life are not to be had. In addition to a general women and only 5 men, we have a represented in stories about food reflects dearth of formal employment in Colombia, fish farm, chickens, egg-laying hens, the cultural reality of women’s multiple displaced people are generally perceived as plantain, Chinese potatoes. All that responsibilities as mothers, and the way unemployable for various reasons: the ur- one could need, we have, and we still these responsibilities are confirmed by ban wage market has little if any use for need some 5 or 6 more people to go deeply held beliefs and shared moral val- adult and middle-aged peasants with ru- and help work the farm. ues, grounding a sense of self. Their roles dimentary literacy skills, not to mention in the community neatly dovetail cultural women with many dependents that need The description of La Glorita was em- responsibilities of women, which I define constant in-house care. bedded in her idealized memory of the as the stewardship of life: feeding families, After the loss of loved ones, hunger land they left when they were forcibly dis- caring for the ill and the infirm, and keep- haunts the memories of displacement, placed: ing homes clean and safe, keeping children coupled with the memory of a past where You always long for your river, off the street, keeping boys out of gangs, food was plenty. Some women described your land, your ocean. You know and keeping girls out of pregnancy, leading with relish the food they used to eat, re- why? Because the land is our pan- them to secure adulthoods. These respon- membered the piles of rice, shaped them try. As is the river. And the ocean. sibilities are linked to the material and in the air with their hands, smacked Collective farming is more than symbolic presence of sufficient food, an their lips remembering the fried fish, the survival (in Spanish: pancoger). imperative that makes women’s roles fea- stewed chicken. Others listed their crops, It’s where you give me the plantain sible and relates as well to cherished forms described planting and harvesting with and I give you the rice, you give me of community. At least this is what I am detailed recollections of the types of crops the fish I give you the bread. It’s the working on now, as I try to think through and seasons of harvest. They described minga of the good life that we lost. displaced peoples’ hunger and its signifi- sharing crops with neighbors in exchange cance for reconstruction after the war. for work, and exchanging crops and work Food is central to collective action in the collaborative work tradition known among poor people, and as Luz Dary Julieta Lemaitre is associate professor by indigenous people as minga. These aptly phrases, thinking as a community at Universidad de los Andes’ Law School stories always end with losing that land is thinking of the other person’s hunger; in Bogotá, Colombia. She writes about the of plenty, and ensuing hunger. Ana Luz responding to it is part of a minga of the intersection of law, social movements and also described the feeling of not being able good life. In my current work I reflect violence from a feminist standpoint.

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Voices from the Atrato River Digital Media and Internally Displaced People in Colombia BY ANDRÉS LOMBANA-BERMUDEZ

A TRADITIONAL PANGA BOAT WITH THIRTY passengers cruises the mighty waters of the Atrato River in the Pacific region of Colombia, doing a 142-mile route from Quibdó to Bojayá. In the stern of the boat, adult women and men protect themselves from the sun with big colorful umbrellas. Meanwhile, up front, a group of teenagers form a semicircle. Clapping, they make a beat for an improvised rap. One of the boys, standing in the middle, sings a politically conscious rhyme:

No más violencia en el Chocó aquí vivo yo y yo sueño con esta tierra Hiphop on the river. algún día poderla progresar y decir la verdad posed mostly of Afro-Colombians (87%), sheltering adults and children, killing 119 No more violence in the Chocó has been affected by these incursions, civilians. After the massacre, more than here I live suffering massacres, forced army recruit- 6,000 peasants from the mid-Atrato and I dream with this land ment, routine violence and displace- region abandoned their land to avoid the ment. Between 1985 and 2013, 279,507 multiple forms of violence generated by someday it will improve people, almost half the population of the the armed groups. Like the Afro-Colom- and tell the truth. Chocó was internally displaced, creating bian youth who sing in the video, many of a humanitarian crisis of massive pro- the internally displaced persons from this The Colombian department (state) of portions (Departamento de Prosperidad region migrated to Quibdó, the capital of Chocó lies between the Andes mountain Social, 2013). Chocó and the major urban center for the chain and the Pacific Ocean, with Pana- The Afro-Colombian youth, who were Chocoano internal diaspora. ma on its northern border. Ignored for rapping on that panga boat, are recorded centuries by the government in Bogotá in one of the videos published online by AN EMERGING FORM OF CITIZEN and rendered invisible by the mainstream Memorias del Rio Atrato, a digital media MEDIA: THE PROJECT MEMORIAS media, the Chocó has become in the past project developed by local Chocoano DEL RIO ATRATO two decades one of the main battlefields communities with the support of Alfabet- Eight grassroots social organiza- of an intense armed conflict. Paramilitar- izaciones Digitales, an initiative from the tions and community councils (Conse- ies and criminal groups, along with the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica jos Comunitarios) from the mid-Atrato the Colombian army and FARC and ELN in Colombia. Lucely Rivas Espinoza, a region have collaborated in Memorias guerrillas, have all engaged in bloody member of the project, created the video del Río Atrato since the project started confrontations in this territory. A stra- in 2014 using her mobile phone while in 2013. Members of these organizations tegic location, with many rivers, Chocó she was participating in Atratiando, a use digital media, particularly mobile serves as a corridor between the Atlantic non-violent protest commemorating the phones with multimedia recording capa- and the Pacific oceans. Illegal groups use massacre of Bellavista, Bojayá. The mass bilities, to produce and circulate their this territory for trafficking drugs and violence occurred on May 2, 2002, dur- own stories of resistance to violence, and arms, extracting natural resources such ing a combat between FARC guerrillas their own creative expressions among as gold and platinum, and cultivating and paramilitaries. A cylinder-bomb shot wider audiences. “We want to show coca crops. The local population, com- by the guerrillas exploded in a church that our territory has been violated and

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attacked in all its aspects,” Rivas told me. She added, “we want to show that our people have suffered and resisted to vio- lence, as well as that we can live in a dif- ferent and peaceful way.” Rivas, a 33-year-old Afro-Colombi- an woman who migrated to Quibdó as a teenager after being displaced from Buchadó, has worked with COCOMA- CIA (Consejo Comunitario Mayor de la Asociación Campesina Integral del Atrato) for eight years. She works at the community radio station, and docu- ments the activities of the organization while she travels across the mid-Atrato region attending meetings and events. As a member of COCOMACIA, Lucely actively participates in the Memorias del Río Atrato project, and has become one of the main administrators of the website, and a prolific videographer. She Jhonier Palacios Paneso sings one of his compositions. has participated in several workshops developed by Alfabetizaciones Digitales, received training in digital storytelling, Colombian youth act a collective Choco- and become a “virtual manager of memo- ano identity through hip hop culture, ry.” That is, she is a producer of multime- and are able to explicitly talk about their dia stories for the web and a contributor CHOCÓ utopia of ending the war and about the to the process of memory making. MEDELLÍN political issues of their region. Surround-

The project Memorias del Río Atrato BOGOTÁ ed by the tropical forest, cruising one of is an emerging form of citizen media. the wide serpentine curves of the river,

According to communication scholar COLOMBIA and without any signs of modern civiliza- Clemencia Rodríguez, citizen media tion, we listen to the rising youth voices: empowers citizens to name the world in their own terms and allows them to Vamos a la paz articulate identities that are connected y que se acabe la guerra to local cultures and achievable utopias no quiero mas muertes (Fissures in the Mediascape, 2001). The pa la gente de mi tierra multiplicity of stories that members tion of many members of the mid-Atrato of Memorias del Río Atrato have told rural communities, youths and adults Let’s have peace from their own perspective, using their from the areas that have connectiv- and end the war own voices, provides an account of how ity (Quibdó, Vigía del Fuerte, Bellavista) I do not want more death displaced persons can use digital media have been able to engage in the project. for the people of my land. to name their world, its problems, and They have leveraged the digital tools they hopes, and speak back to the center. The have at hand, and used them to tell sto- Other media texts published on Memo- creation and circulation of these media ries. By producing photographs, texts, rias del Río Atrato have a more personal texts is allowing displaced Chocoano audios, and videos, and publishing them point of view and tell a more subjective communities to elaborate narratives online on the community website, they experience. That is the case of “De mi about their territories and lived experi- have been able to create a space where Tierra No Me Quiero Ir” (“From My ences, and to contribute to the making marginalized Chocoano voices and iden- Land I Do Not Want to Go”), a video of of memory of the Colombian armed con- tities become visible and heard. a song that Lucely recorded on the river flict. The audiovisual record of the rap Munguidó, one of the 150 tributaries of Although lack of access to the Internet performance on the Atrato river, for the Atrato. In the video, Jhonier Pala- and electricity has limited the participa- instance, shows how displaced Afro- cios Paneso, an Afro-Colombian youth

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displaced from the town of Tagachí, sings one of his compositions. The song narrates the drama of Jhonier’s father, a peasant who abandoned his land in the countryside and moved to the city escap- ing the armed violence.

Y si va por la calle le dicen: “allá va el desplazao”, Y él no es culpable de todo lo que ha pasao, Si amor y su vida al campo se lo ha dedi- cao.

And when he strolls the street they say: “there goes the displaced” And he is not guilty of everything that happened to him With love and life he has dedicated him- self to the land.

Jhonier’s interpretation is full of emo- tion and reveals the resilience of dis- placed persons able to overcome violence. Following the rhythm of a chirimia, a popular Chocoano music genre, the song combines the nostalgia for peasant life with the feelings of a displaced person now in the city. After evoking local food such as bocachico, borojó and chontadu- ro, in the chorus lines Jhonier articulates the desire of displaced persons to stay in their native land.

De mi tierra no me quiero ir, De mi campo no me quiero ir, Yo de mi campo no me quiero ir.

From my land I do not want to go From my country I do not want to go I, from my land, do not want to go.

MAKING MEMORY, BUILDING PEACE The project Memorias del Rio Atra- by mainstream narratives of the armed We have made memory with our videos to has opened a communication space conflict, the media texts created and pub- and stories,” said Lucely, while reflecting where internally displaced persons from lished by Memorias del Río Atrato are on the impact of the project. the mid-Atrato region in central Chocó significant contributions to the construc- In a country where internally forced can speak up and become visible to tion of historical memory and to the col- displacement reached the shocking num- national and global audiences. Because lective understanding of the experience ber of 6,360,000 persons in 2014 (Inter- this population, like other victims of war of displacement. “I think the website and nal Displacement Monitoring Centre) in Colombia, has been made invisible the content we publish makes memory. and where the humanitarian crisis has

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not been fully addressed by society or and, ultimately, contribute to building Members of the Project the state, these kinds of citizen media peace. Memorias de Río Atrato travel projects have the potential to promote along the river in a tradi- tional panga boat, singing sociocultural understanding and change. Andrés Lombana-Bermudez is a and improvising rap music Making the narratives of the Chocoano Colombian post-doctoral fellow at the to express their identity as internal diaspora visible can help to raise Berkman Klein Center for Internet and displaced people from the Chocó region. The project is awareness, create empathy toward the Society and a research associate with the an emerging form of digital victims of war, rebuild the social fabric, Connected Learning Research Network. citizen media.

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36 Hours (and More) in Cartagena, from the Outside

A PHOTOESSAY BY SAHARA BORJA

I ARRIVED IN COLOMBIA IN AUGUST 2014 ON though aware of the situation, has found a Fulbright grant to research La Liga it difficult to find viable solutions. The de Mujeres Desplazadas (The League crisis deserves international attention as of Displaced Women), an organization much as during any other time over the formed in the late 90s in barrio El Pozón, half century of conflict. Cartagena. In 2003, after formalizing Most of the women I met came from their organization as a women’s rights places where subsistence farming was group with the help of a human rights key to a healthy, “rich” life: they would lawyer from Bogotá and a U.S.-backed often tell me that once, they’d had ev- grant, its members began the collective erything they needed. Many of these construction of their homes—and fu- women lived in areas overrun by armed ture—in Turbaco, south of Cartagena. groups (FARC, AUC/paramilitary, ELN, Slowly, La Liga built more than a hun- government armies, drug traffickers dred cinder block homes for themselves. and sometimes even big business). As All women, mostly single mothers and always, the victims are caught in the household heads, they were victims of crosshairs of greed-fueled violence and internal and forced displacement be- struggles for economic dominance. cause of the country’s ongoing armed These portraits and scenes of daily conflict, and had fled from all over the life were taken while getting to know country seeking a new life. Over the these courageous leaders and their course of about a year I met a number families, in communities and barrios of original members of La Liga who still far away from the bustling tourist zone live in the homes they built, as well as of Cartagena’s “walled” and “romantic” several other women leaders who belong colonial center. For these women, Carta- to other groups that meet, advocate, gena is no vacation. Every day they must and fight for the advancement of wom- forge ahead, put food on the table, keep en whose realities have been adversely their children (and themselves) safe, shaped by the ongoing armed conflict in and try to just “have a life”–against all Colombia. odds. These women seek humanitarian Some 220,000 people have lost their aid from the government, which rarely lives and countless more have been arrives; they seek out access to schools, maimed, abducted, and sexually assault- health centers and police protection in ed. Many have also been uprooted from their communities—a bureaucratic and their homes, the places on which their logistical nightmare—as well as access social and economic security—however to affordable housing on the outskirts humble—depends. The official num- of Cartagena. If one doesn’t register as a ber of displaced Colombians continues ‘victim’ in the system, one is not entitled to rise towards the 6 million mark, al- to anything, and even so, humanitarian though some sources say it has already aid is never timely. It was only in 2011 surpassed that figure. Internal displace- that newly elected President Juan Man- ment, as it is euphemistically called, uel Santos acknowledged the existence has overwhelmed large cities and small of millions of people who had been in- pueblos alike, and the government, ternally displaced.

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From top, clockwise: Neymar and Sebastian, two of Gavelys’ grandsons, taking a bath out back in Membrillal, a community of cinderblock and wood houses built by displaced people; Luz Marina, displaced from Bojoyá, Chocó, in Refugio la Carolina in Cartagena; Yuris from Onofre, Sucre, in El Centro, Cartagena, waiting for a victim right’s meeting to begin; A man walks around the dusty pueblo of El Salado, a town south of Cartagena that was the site of a hor- rific massacre at the hands of paramilitaries in Febru- ary of 2,000. The town is still recovering.

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I spent almost a year in various needs of daily life can be overwhelming to shooting and writing about “linen neighborhoods far outside of Carta- and often impossible. To paraphrase clothes,” ice cream, and gelato spots (“to- gena’s historical district: San Jóse de James Baldwin, it becomes very expen- beat-the-heat”). los Campanos, Membrillal, Refugio La sive to be poor. In the shadow of luxury tourism, Carolina, Villa Estrella. Ample money When The New York Times published daily life does not improve for those who is being spent on hotels and the tour- its “36 Hours In...” travel piece on Carta- are often left outside of the conversation. ism industry, while the needs of Carta- gena in September 2014, I noticed that While tourism rises, so does insecurity gena residents continue to grow every all of the photographs and video were in the city. Most of the women I worked day. The struggling working class, Afro- taken within the walled portion of El with arrived in Cartagena between the descendants, indigenous, the displaced Centro and just across the street from late 90s and early 2000s, forcibly driven and women are constantly swimming the Clock Tower in Getsemaní on Calle out from their various respective pueb- upstream without much infrastructure Media Luna; the writer and photog- los around Colombia. Many of them are or help from government agencies or of- rapher had had not gone beyond the also survivors of sexual assault, domestic fices. Finding solutions to the very basic “safe” area, and their time was dedicated violence, or the killing of people close to

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From far left, clockwise: Gavelys, one of 23 siblings, originally from Atanque, Valledupar, and her grandson Neymar trying to nap after lunch. Gavelys now lives in Membrillal, about an hour and fifteen minutes south of Cartagena’s El Centro. She is indigenous Kankuamo, and she continues to weave the traditional bags (“mochilas”) of her community, which she sells on the streets of downtown Cartagena; the skeleton of a makeshift shelter stands on the outskirts of the bus terminal to Cartagena; children are half the members of each household in Refugio La Carolina, but there is still no school or medical center in the immediate area. Here, a neighborhood girl sits outside a friend’s house.

them. All of these women live day-to- bers of ERPAC (Ejercito Revolucionario Sahara Borja studied photojournalism day; none have a regular, formal job. Popular Anticomunista/Antisubversivo at the International Center of Photography. Some rely on partners or family mem- de Colombia—paramilitary descendants) Photography has anchored her engagement bers, some sell perfume, or wash or iron as far back as 2011 and as recently as in community work, including that as a clothes. Many of these leaders could not 2015. The response time from the Office teacher with the Josephine Herrick Project, do the organizing work they do and also of Victims was four years, decidedly too a nonprofit based in New York City which keep a steady job. None plan on return- slow. uses photography to acclimate young ing to where they are from, even though The downtown colonial glory is not adults on the autism spectrum to their sur- some have also been targeted in the city Cartagena, entirely, although tourism lit- roundings. She has worked as an associate (as they reported to government entities erature might have you think otherwise. editor and contributing photo editor with in Cartagena) by other armed groups The historic walls and military fortresses a number of online outlets and recently who seek dominance of urban areas like built at the water’s edge to keep enemies returned from a Fulbright research grant Cartagena. Three women I met have all at bay now seem to do the same for their working with internally displaced women been sent personal text messages by mem- own vulnerable inhabitants. on the outskirts of Cartagena.

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A Communitarian Contestation Displaced Persons and the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó BY JUAN RICARDO APARICIO CUERVO

Three years after the massacre, we re- turned to the exact spot where the killings had taken place. The small chapel was filled with photos of Luis Eduardo taken at the many international meetings he had attended. The photos, a small altar with candles and a Catholic cross, and some flags from PACE, an Italian anti-global- ization non-governmental organization (NGO), were the only decorations in the chapel. Many of the people who gathered around the altar came from Italian and Spanish cities that had funded CPSJA and wanted to let their countries know about the Community’s desperate situation. Oth- ers were members of permanent monitor- ing organizations such as Peace Brigades International (PBI) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). The German orga- nization Chefs without Borders and some Germans who lived in Portugal rounded out the group. Father Javier Giraldo, a leading Colombian human rights activist, explained to the group what had led up to the massacre. The Community, he told us, had long been under siege by all of Colombia’s armed actors, guerrillas, army and para- WE FINALLY MADE IT. IN FEBRUARY 2008, AFTER We unpacked and set up our tents in a military groups. Father Giraldo recalled almost two days of long hours climbing clearing next to a small chapel hastily put that, according to some survivors, the day the steep, muddy paths of the Serranía together on February 21, 2005, in the place Luis Eduardo was killed, the area was oc- de Abibe mountain range, we got there where the body of Luis Eduardo Guerra, cupied by heavily armed men and there at last. Together with almost a hundred one of the leaders of the Peace Community was a tense feeling in the air. Just before people from national and international or- of San José de Apartadó (CPSJA), was dis- an armed group was about to stop Luis ganizations, we had come to the Urabá re- covered. He had been brutally assasinated, Eduardo, who was walking with a group gion in the northwest corner of Colombia, together with his common-law wife and of peasants, he got a group member to run historically known as “the best corner of 11-year-old son. These remains and the to inform their families about the presence South America” for its advantageous geo- bodies of other people were found by a CP- of armed men in the area, and most of the graphical position and abundant natural SJA search party. Blood-stained machetes, others managed to escape to a nearby vil- resources. Indeed, the desirability of this which very well could have been used to lage. That day, the 21st of February, was land made it the stage for an 18th-century carry out the horible massacre, were ly- the last time the peasants saw Luis Edu- imperial dispute, and to the present day ing on the ground. Soldiers from the 17th ardo and his family. Hours later, the same the Urabá region continues to be associ- Military Brigade were at the site. Hu- armed men arrived at the village. In an in- ated with political and structural violence man rights activists and solidarity groups terview a few days before his murder, Luis as an area on the periphery, far from the spread the news of the killings throughout Eduardo had predicted, “Today we are centers of power of the nation-state. the world. talking, tomorrow we could be dead.”

24 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTOS BY JUAN RICARDO APARICIO FOCUS ON COLOMBIA

I’d visited CPSJA over the years, but I’d never ventured far into the Serranía. The 2008 expedition was not only to com- memorate the massacre but to accompany ten displaced families finally returning to their abandoned homes. About ten years earlier, they escaped the fighting there and settled in San José de Apartadó. With their return, which CPSJA had been working on for almost six months, they proclaimed they did not intend to remain among the more than three million inter- nally displaced Colombians who had been fleeing their homes since 1985. Five years later, on February 8, 2013, in this very same place, on my fifth pilgrim- age toward the hamlet of Mulatos in the Serranía de Abibe, I found a sign that read: “Welcome to the village of Peace Luis Edu- ardo Guerra. A Neutral Zone.” This time I found a cleared pasture land with several wooden buildings, including some houses, Opposite page: This is a depiction of the massacre a school, a community kitchen and a li- at la Unión by local artist brary, where CPSJA housed publications Brígida Gonzales. The Span- about its history and development. It was ish wording says, “We are never going to forget.” such a contrast from my previous trip, in which the lone chapel stood surrounded Above: The Altar in Resba- by a forest that was beginning to be cut losa, a site of commemora- tion for the massacre there. down, but still invaded the houses that had been abandoned in 2000. This place Below: A sign displays the of devastation and death was returning to village’s internal rules and regulations and emphasizes life. The altar commemorating the deaths its commitment to non- seemed to be a central axis from which violence. new life projects were being started, proj- ects that had been interupted by the vio- lence. Nevertheless, while we were talking had been able to come to fruition: the (ACNUR) after World War II. The sec- with some of the local peasants in infor- approval of the 1997 Law 387, which cre- ond case, the emergence of CPSJA, is mation sessions after the ceremony cel- ated a normative and legal framework to connected to a long tradition of peasant ebrating the return of the displaced fami- protect internally displaced Colombians, groups in Colombia, struggling to obtain lies, strange new groups began to appear and the creation of the CPSJA on March their territories and autonomy, influ- in the zone. And there were new threats— 23, 1997. My aim was to grasp the specific enced by radical religious strategies and even today when Colombia is celebrating context of a situation, a point in time and development projects as well as wide net- the ceasefire between the government and place, which contained the multiple and works of international solidarity. guerilla groups. The reports of paramili- complex conditions that made these two Thanks to the confluence of diverse tary threats against the Peace Community events possible. The first event, the law factors, on March 23, 1997, some 400 dis- and its leaders still continue. and the treatment of displaced people, placed families gathered together in the This lived experience and many more exists within the wider context of human school in San José de Apartadó to form I have seen in my close work with the rights, humanitarianism and the rights a “peace community” that defended the CPSJA, together with the vast phenom- of refugees that have led to the founding right of the civilian population to opt out enon of displaced Colombians, have of the Red Cross in the 19th century, the of “a war that belongs to others.” The fami- inspired my research agenda in recent Nuremburg Trials in the 20th century lies signed a declaration that spelled out years. I wanted to understand how two and the creation of institutions such as the rules of conduct for people joining the very different but related developments the UN High Commission for Refugees community. In a rebellious and antagonis-

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A rustic gate and these posters clearly directs and designs a great portion of the separate CPSJA from “the outside world” humanitarian and human rights opera- and constitute a “different space.” From tions in Colombia. The CPSJA, although the hallways of some of the houses in it continues to interact with the state San Jose(cito) closest to the highway that bureaucracy, is generating alternatives leads to San José, one can see curious folk to serve “the suffering stranger,” in ac- looking at the posters and the flags, the cordance with the Geneva Convention, white jeeps and the two tall blond volun- liberation theology and the traditional teers who live just inside the gates. Some peasant struggle in Colombia. In a com- armed actors suspect that the separation plex environment filled with friction A welcome sign to the peace village is for the purpose of concealing some- and tensions, the Community has been thing, maybe arms or even soldiers from able to construct an autonomous space, tic spirit, the community rejected the gov- one side or another. Various government always threatened, that confronts the ernment’s paternalistic right to administer commissions have refused to enter the desires of the state and the (para)states and regulate these marginal populations; settlement without armed bodyguards be- to either massacre, displace or help the they said no to central control exercised cause they fear what might happen there. population. At the same time, through through various initiatives in contem- Without a doubt, the development great effort, the Community is building “a porary Colombia, such as passing laws, projects initiated as a result of the approv- communitarian economy” with the ben- establishing parks and memory commis- al of Law 387, together with the humani- efits fairly distributed among its people. sions, making plans for land consolida- tarian aid offered to the displaced popula- The CPSJA is bravely affirming a space of tion, and efforts to transform the victim tions, contrast jarringly with the attitude difference derived from a particular con- into a useful and productive subject. But of people who return to their communi- ception of what it means to be “human,” a in rejecting these well-meaning govern- ties on their own and the “communitarian difference that springs from the way peo- ment initiatives the community members economies” set up through work groups, ple relate to one another, a way in which also rejected leaving their homes to later communitarian days and the collective the dead like Luis Eduardo Guerra do not find themselves displaced and wandering benefits of the CPSJA. The tension be- disappear from their lives after burial, in the labyrinths of humanitarian bureau- tween the offers of help and preference but continue to participate in daily life cracy in the big cities. They stressed the for self-help brings up several questions. and with great models for mobilization. classic distinction between combatants How can we evaluate the CPSJA’s refusal and non-combatants, so fundamental to to have people flee to cities and wait in Juan Ricardo Aparicio is an associate modern legal rights in war zones, and they line for humanitarian kits? How do we professor in the Department of Languag- also determined the kind of economic, po- assess the fact that some peasants in “the es and Culture and the director of Cul- litical and social organization that would best corner of South America” have set up tural Studies at the Universidad de los govern life in the CPSJA. In other words, a space of their own through creative con- Andes, Bogotá. He received his master’s they articulated a hybrid conception of nections and widespread networks that and doctorate at the University of North humanitarian law and the moral worlds support the existence of a “non-combat- Carolina at Chapel Hill and was in the of the peasant. ant peasant community” in the midst of first cohort of graduates with a special- Today, in San José(cito) or Little San an armed conflict? What should we think ization in Cultural Studies at the Ponti- José, located less than a mile from San about the community’s unwillingness to ficia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá. He José de Apartadó, the place where the form part of the “administrative consen- is a member of the editorial committee of Peace Community moved to after the sus” of a probable post-conflict scenario in the Journal of Cultural Studies and of a 2005 massacre when it rejected the pres- Colombia? series of essays on Cultural Theory of the ence of a police station in the town, large, I’d say that it was fitting that pre- Iberoamericana-Vervuert. highly visible posters inform visitors that cisely here, in the “best corner of South they are about to enter “private property.” America,” a complex arrangement arose This article contains fragments previ- These posters also proclaim some of the in stark contrast to the treatment of in- ously published in Juan Ricardo Apari- founding principles of the Peace Commu- ternally displaced people under the 1997 cio’s 2012 Rumores, residuos y Estado nity of San José de Apartadó, including Law 387. That is, the experience of San en ‘la mejor esquina de Sudamérica’: una the group’s ban on giving any information José de Apartado gives us an example of cartografía de lo humanitario en Colom- to any armed actors. The signs also inform a complex and multidimensional variety bia, and the author’s 2015 article “El about collective work groups and commu- of solutions that go beyond the frame- Retorno a Mulatos y la Comunidad de nitarian days, and define the settlement work established by “a good government” Paz de San José de Apartadó.” Antípoda, as a “non-combatant peasant population.” and “state responsibility” that controls, No. 21, pp. 73-95.

26 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO, ABOVE, BY JUAN RICARDO APARICIO. OPOSITE PAGE BY RYAN CATALANI FOCUS ON COLOMBIA

La Espina A Self-built Medellín Neighborhood and Its Lessons BY JOTA SAMPER AND TAMERA MARKO

THE TWO OF US, LEADING AN EMERSON College international program, had just finished three weeks of round-the-clock work making a short documentary film with community members in Manantiales de Paz—Springs of Peace—a neighbor- hood founded by displaced persons in Medellín, Colombia. That’s when Claudia called. She was distraught. She had una espina, a thorn, in her heart, she said. Very soon we were to learn why this seemingly small feeling would prompt community leaders to bring our years of work together to a halt. And do so in the name of local and global peace process. Finishing up a summer session with Emerson College students to make the film, we were ready to present it to com- munity residents and leaders for their final input. These leaders had founded Manan- tiales de Paz seven years ago, built the first homes and roads and sewage and house- hold water channels with their own hands. They invited us and the students to docu- ment their neighborhood. They wanted to show residents and outsiders why and how a group of 14 families, originally dis- placed by violence from their hometowns across Colombia, founded this neighbor- hood. And explain what they need now to survive a sprawling urban growth and become an official (legal) part of the ur- ban infrastructure around them. Located near the top ridge of the Andes Mountains between the cities of Medellín and Bello, Manantiales de Paz is now home to more than 3,000 residents. Manantiales de Paz is an example of a larger condition of displacement in Co- lombia, a country with more than six mil- lion internally displaced people. Internal displacement means they were forced by violence to flee their hometowns, often with nothing more than what they could carry in their arms. For many that means clothes, a few supplies and photos in a satchel on their back and their children in their arms. Manantiales de Paz, where Manantiales de Paz—Springs of Peace—was founded by displaced people in Medellín.

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more than 80 percent of its population and maintain another building, the com- feet up the Andes and then a 40-minute had been forced from their homes, now munity kitchen (non-funded at the time). walk through other neighborhoods that has a neighborhood center, a field for soc- She had secured a new space and was had begun as informal settlements de- cer and other sports; it also has a church, looking for resources to make the kitchen cades before, until we reach the end of the library, computer lab and community work again, meaning funding for food. paved roads and thus the city limits and center that doubles as a soup kitchen and Our potential donor had suddenly opened walk in mud to then climb a set of slip- classroom. his wallet during our tour and asked pery steps the community members had Claudia’s espina started after a po- Tamera, whom everyone knows as Tam, built the height of a ten-story building. We tential donor spontaneously gave her a to translate for him; he wanted to give her arrived at Manantiales’ official neighbor- personal amount of cash. She was being that money to support her personal hous- hood public space, the central plaza. We accused of embezzlement and was call- ing so she could continue her community walked through the labyrinth that leads to ing us to help restore her good standing work. This caused much gossip and ac- the comedor and found two other commu- with the community. That past week, we cusations of embezzlement—and also for nity members with Claudia, her eyes swol- had brought two prospective donors to some community members who did not len and very red. It took more than two the community kitchen, a brick room in- know us well to look at us, as film direc- hours for all to arrive. The room was very side a maze of narrow mud-floor corridors tors, urban planners and story tellers, with tense. However, with each member who where Claudia and other community lead- distrust. arrived, there were hugs, kisses and small ers are struggling to feed children and el- So Claudia called for a community talk. Don Antonio, a tall robust black man ders. Community members explained to leader meeting to clear the air. The thorn from Chocó on the Pacific coast, entered the donors their role in founding this in- had taken root in her heart and that of with a beautiful smile. He took his time formal settlement and how they continue other community leaders. As Don Anto- saying hello to each of us, and then finally, living there after more than six successive nio, the community-elected president of sat at the table. He looked at the cookies evictions by police and local government the Neighborhood Association and found- we had brought, a small food item we al- agencies. They told the donors that the ing member of Manantiales de Paz, later ways contributed to each of our meetings. “paz” [peace] in the name of the settle- put it: “We have to remove this espina and Don Antonio ate one of them and made a ment is meant to send a message: while do so lovingly. Otherwise, the thorns will facial expression as if they were made of violence forced them to begin building take over our garden. Thorns will replace heaven. The chatter became more intense homes there as “squatters,” they are not the flowers, that is nuestra paz we have as more people arrived. Finally, we began. at war, and even though in the beginning worked so hard to build over the last seven Silence filled the room. Claudia again government forces razed their homes sev- years.” in tears explained her case, mainly the sto- eral times, they had nowhere else to go ry of how she received the donation and and so continued to rebuild there, and in that she was very sorry. Each person gave the process, to raise white flags in peace. his or her point of view regarding the do- Claudia wanted the two of us to ex- nation and its subsequent use, and so did plain to the rest of the community the we. The somber mood began to give way— context in which she had acquired funds rapidly—as other members felt happy they to fix her house. While we were in shock were heard by everyone involved. We then being in this uncomfortable position of moved to discussing how to resolve the somehow contributing to a situation in conflict. They agreed that if someone gives which a community member would be one of them money for his or her own use, inaccurately accused of embezzlement, we that this is acceptable and ethical. In the understood very clearly what was happen- end, they expressed they were happy that ing here. We, for years have been training Claudia had money to use for her house our students on how to deal with the issue and that we had brought someone who of donations to our community members, would have donated something to a mem- to make sure they do not create frictions The process of removing “la espina.” ber of the community. between them. Our potential donor in his But other espinas remained. Another visit through the settlement had become THE MEETING community leader, Ena, from Urabá, the emotionally attached to Claudia, a moth- At daybreak on Monday, we began our banana growing region of Colombia, had er of three who lives in a flimsy shack in journey up the mountain from Medellín worked with Claudia in the community which torrential rains routinely cause her to Manantiales de Paz: 40 minutes in two kitchen. She runs a restaurant on the walls and roof to collapse. Claudia, years metro lines, then a metrocable (like an porch just outside her wood shack house, earlier, had led a group of women to found enclosed ski lift structure) a few thousand which is where the donor’s gift took place.

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Ena could not attend our first meeting her heart. She cried as she said she just film project. So, under the glaring tropical because of a doctor’s appointment. So the was confused about how the money Clau- afternoon sun, hours since we entered the community leaders agreed we needed to dia received on her porch was being used. building under the cool blanket of fog, we meet again as a group to listen to Ena and She thought it should have gone to the told the waiting students they could re- then to collectively decide on a policy for children’s food and not Claudia’s house. sume their work. They began by coming money given by donors. She agreed a private donation should be into the community kitchen and filming used for private use. But she was reluctant us making white flags. to believe that that particular donation was to be used as such. Everyone around WHAT DOES LA ESPINA AS A the room spoke again about their inter- PEACE PROCESS TEACH US? pretation of the funds. Once agreement This story of negotiating a misunder- about the funds was reached, another standing among community members set of grievances emerged between the was a privileged opportunity to learn first- two women. This time it was about the hand the way this group of men and wom- fact that one had spoken badly about the en engage in conflict among themselves. other and the hurt feelings and distrust They trusted us, outsiders with cameras, this had borne. The community leaders to witness and deeply engage in the in- listened intently. Once the storm of words timate and private leadership process of and tears between the two women began maintaining peace under sometimes ab- THE SECOND MEETING to subside, Don Antonio leaned forward, ject poverty and relentlessly consistent We made the same 90-minute journey repeated slowly the policy regarding pri- marginalized living conditions. Storms up the mountain to Manantiales de Paz vate donations that they had collectively collapse their roofs, send rivers of con- early in the morning for the second meet- decided. “Do I understand this correctly?” taminated sludge flowing through their ing. The mood in the community kitch- he asked. All nodded slowly, si señor, yes. homes, making the steep climb in and out en, where the meeting was held, seemed Then he proposed a metaphor. He held of their neighborhood a toxic and danger- tense. Small talk. Tearful red eyes among up one hand and asked us, “How can ous drama of slipping and sliding through some. We waited. And waited. one hand possibly clap?” Then he put his the wet earth. To maintain peace, they col- Our students, heavy with camera two hands gently together, almost as if in lectively repair each other’s homes from equipment and suspense, were waiting prayer, and began to slowly clap and said: storm-induced landslides as seriously as outside in the plaza, kicking around a soc- “Together, we can bring happiness to the cer ball with the children or sitting and other. We have to join our hands. We have waiting. Only the elders were allowed at to be united in our community. If distrust this meeting. We were given word that comes between us, the community found- the last founding community leader was ers and leaders, if we as elders in our com- still in the shower. So Tam asked if anyone munity do not model peace, our peace will knew any songs and would like to sing to be broken. We will break.” pass the time. Were there any songs that Tam then asked them, to close the made them happy? Songs of peace? Songs meeting by telling the story about how of pain? The room erupted in song. The they put up white flags outside their first group all began to clap and sing and stomp ranchitos, makeshift shacks of wood piec- feet and laugh. A few women began shak- es and plastic to show the government, po- ing their hips in dance. The last commu- lice and military they were there in peace nity member arrived through the narrow and to please not destroy their homes. door and burst into full-bellied serenade. Jota, one of the other project co-directors, they collectively remove an emotional es- He had dressed very carefully for this had provided a few dollars in advance pina and the ensuing misunderstandings meeting, from newly dyed hair to shined of the meeting for sheets of white paper. and gossip. This negotiation helped us, as black shoes. He sang four songs and when Each member at the table, including us as filmmakers and urban planners, to under- everyone had eaten a cookie and was smil- film directors, made white flags and wrote stand how Manantiales de Paz, as a group ing (though a few still had red eyes), Don messages of love and peace on them. of people and as a neighborhood, has been Antonio opened the meeting. Tam asked if they would like us to sus- able to survive in the context of three criti- This time, we listened to Ena discuss pend filming until the process was fin- cal conditions that are negotiated by resi- her espina. She sobbed about children not ished. They all discussed it a moment and dents in informal communities through- having enough to eat and how that broke decided that no, we should continue our out Colombia and the world.

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(1) Displacement and informal with the same leaders for three years in settlements a row and thus understood more deeply Desplazados are forced to find hous- the problems caused by our very pres- ing through informal channels which ence, even (or especially) when contrib- puts them again at high risk. Displaced uting through donations of money, time by war, these population groups seek to and film, to the self-defined needs of the rebuild their lives in places that do not community. This was the deepest trust suffer armed conflict. They usually try to we had experienced between us and the move where they have local connections community members. We realized that it or potential for employment. Major cit- is not only our final product (film, urban ies often offer these social networks and plan, a community center, a grant pro- employment. The large population of posal) that is an alternative peace-mak- displaced people present problems for Discussing conflicts. ing force. Our process must also be an cities with increasingly scarce urban re- alternative peace-making force. Because sources, thus creating tension between by telling the story we become part of community settlement residents and the story and its outcome. Only now that government actors and the general pop- Desplazados are forced we have learned about thorns (espinas) ulation in the formal city. This tension to find housing through and how the leaders in Manantiales de tends to increase as the population of the Paz remove them, is it possible to truly informal settlement increases. informal channels revise this film into a story the commu- which puts them again nity leaders will identify as what they de- (2) The challenges of self-governance. sire and need. Only now can we as film- Founding an informal settlement is an at highrisk. makers and urban planners more deeply exercise of collective action to acquire understand the nuances of the everyday land and subsequent self-governance. negotiate and deal with these armed ac- peace process enough to attempt a nar- Communities that succeed in this collec- tors that challenge the rule of the state. rative bridge between here and there, tive action are defenseless and resource- Manantiales de Paz is dealing with that is from Manantiales de Paz to local less from the official state. Yet, the des- all of these conditions. This espina story, and outside audiences. plazados’ organizational capacity is fun- as simple as it sounds, taught us many damental to stand against state and pri- profound things about the hope and re- Jota Samper, Ph.D. is an Assistant Pro- vate actors who have legal rights over the silience of this community not just as fessor in the Program in Environmental territories that these communities oc- an idea, but as a sophisticated strategic Design, University of Colorado Boulder. cupy. This capacity is further challenged process that navigates peace across di- as their population grows, its needs di- verse geographical, cultural, racial and Tamera Marko, Ph.D. is a Senior versify and problem-solving decisions gendered identities among community Lecturer in the Department of Writing, become harder to make and enact. residents. Doing all this through tears, Literature & Publishing, Emerson Col- singing, stories, hugs and even systemic lege and Director of the Emerson College (3) Living amidst violence hunger is a kind of miracle. But it is a International Program Global Path- One emerging actor now challeng- strategic skilled miracle that communi- ways Colombia. ing the supremacy of the founding gov- ty leaders in Manantiales de Paz repeat ernance group are armed groups, first in every day and have done so for the last Together with communications designer the form of local gangs and later orga- seven years. and documentary filmmaker Ryan nized crime franchises. Thus, the larger In a context of a national effort for Catalani, they founded and co-direct a danger for these communities comes a peace agreement that would open a nonprofit that collaborates with artists, from within. Gangs, a product of the window to the end of the suffering of researchers, educators and community diversification of organizations, present millions of displaced populations in Co- members throughout the Americas to the greatest challenges for the develop- lombia, this particular moment taught document and circulate solutions to ment of these communities. In the ab- us that those who have lost the most and environmental and humanitarian cri- sence of an effective state, which in most continue to suffer the most can teach us ses. The documentary video, academic cases opposes the desplazados’ claim on the most on how Colombia can achieve articles and photographs about Man- the land, even razing their homes to the and sustain peace. antiales de Paz can be found on their ground over and over again, community This was the first time that we had website: members must find their own ways to been working in the same community http://www.mobilitymovilidad.org

30 ReVista WINTER 2017 ABOVE PHOTO BY RYAN CATALANI. OPPOSITE PAGE PHOTO BY CÉSAR CAMPOS MEDINA/OJOS PROPIOS. FORCED FROM HOME

Karl S. Zimmerer A Search for Food Soverignty • Aviva Chomsky Colombia’s Other Displacements • Daniel Cano and Cristóbal Madero Indigenous Displacement in Southern Chile • Ivan Ramírez Zapata An Overview of Peru’s Displaced Thousands

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A Search for Food Sovereignty Seeding Post-Conflict Landscapes BY KARL S. ZIMMERER

America and includes many indigenous and peasant families. Given its wide- spread importance, how has the informal seed sector operated in post-conflict con- texts in Latin America as well as amid ac- tive political and military violence? Nicaragua and Peru offer useful il- lustrations of the post-conflict seeding of fields and gardens. Seeds have played a pivotal role in the winding path of agrar- ian development and recent changes fol- lowing the Nicaraguan peace accords in the early 1990s. The country’s informal seed system, which is estimated to supply 83 percent of food-growers, has been re- invigorated through the strong coopera- tive and fair trade movements. Farmer- Seed networks have enabled the return to home in Peru’s post-conflict landscapes. managed seed and food sovereignty are also part of Nicaragua’s current goal of DISPLACED PERSONS IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIET- acknowledged as an integral part of post- social inclusion in sustainable agrarian ies throughout Central and South Ameri- conflict recovery. My GeoSyntheSES lab development. The accessibility of its in- ca have been finding an unusual source of group (http://zimmerergeosyntheses. formal seed sector is integral to programs support: seed networks of food-growers psu.edu/) is studying and supporting supporting poorer women smallhold- who seek to strengthen agricultural proj- these seed networks through collabora- ers who farm in marginal growing sites ects and urban gardens. tions with Bioversity International and across rural and urban fringe areas. These seed networks have operated other agencies on our field-based re- The seeding of post-conflict land- successfully to strengthen independent search projects in Nicaragua, Peru, Co- scapes in Peru began amid the weakening food production, known as food sover- lombia and Mexico. Recently one of the Shining Path insurgency in the mid- and eignty, in other parts of the world. For lab’s post-docs, Steve Vanek, compiled late 1990s. During its early stage immedi- example, the 15th Garden, a Syrian-Eu- the latest census data to gauge the share ately after 1980, the Shining Path insur- ropean network, supports the seed net- of seed coming from farmer-managed gency is said to have been sympathetic to works to provide food in war-torn Syria. sources, referred to as the informal seed the needs of poor peasant and indigenous The seeds can be regrown in the future, sector. In the countries where we’re farmers in the countryside. Within a few both amid the current conflict and even- working, our findings show it is robust in years, however, the heightened conflicts tually in the post-conflict phase. Food- various post-conflict and conflict regions, of these farmers with the increasingly vi- growers then can continue to obtain the with the informal seed sector supplying olent insurgents and the abuses of Peru’s needed seeds through their own cultiva- slightly less than one half to upwards of government security forces led to a pre- tion as well as personal exchanges and three-quarters of the farmers. cipitous and protracted agrarian decline. local markets. Displaced Syrians are also Smallholder farmers, those with the At least 250,000 persons were dis- active in the 15th Garden seed networks. most restricted land areas in each coun- placed from their homes in Peru, many Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Liberia offer try, are the most reliant on the informal of them farmers. The majority relocated other well-known examples where vigor- seed sector. According to our new esti- to the shantytowns of major cities in ous networks have been integral to the mates, more than 90 percent of this land- the Andes and on the Pacific coast, with seeding of post-conflict landscapes. poor group today depends on the use of some eventually returning to rural areas The role of robust farmer-managed informally sourced seed. Region-wide, and villages. Food-growers procured new seed networks is similarly vital to Latin the smallholder population numbers seed in various ways. The informal sec- American countries though generally less as many as 50 million families in Latin tor (currently estimated at almost half

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Choosing bean seed in a post-conflict landscape. of all Peruvian farmers) figured promi- Nariño (Tumaco), Valle del Cauca, Cauca, ful in returning to their lands following nently amongst the seed sources for the Norte de Santander and Chocó. A majori- potential peace accords. Such efforts also displaced populations. The sources were ty of these displaced persons in Colombia underscore the hotly contested question both local as well as long-distance since undertake some food-growing and would of the future viability of Colombia’s still procurement through social networks like to be able to expand and make more dynamic informal seed sector that is cur- and local markets can take place at dis- consistent these activities. To do so will rently used countrywide by 54 percent of tances of 30 to 60 miles or more from rely heavily on seed from local markets all farmers. Proponents worry how well the recipients’ homes. The seeding of and their social networks. it will fare amid unfolding new trade leg- post-conflict landscapes occurred also in The informal seed sector is already ac- islation and land grabs. Seed aid experts Peru’s shantytowns, since small fields and tive in Colombia in sites of displacement such as Shawn McGuire at the UN’s Food gardens abound in these extensive urban distinguished by the weaker presence and Agriculture Organization also point fringes. of civil society, government institutions out that poorly designed post-conflict ag- Colombia offers one of the largest and infrastructure. International and ricultural assistance can actually weaken prospects for seeding post-conflict land- national non-profit organizations, such the existing informal, farmer-managed scapes in Latin America. Many of the as the Red de Semillas Libres (Network systems. nearly seven million persons displaced by of Free Seeds), are seeking to address The informal seed sector of Mexi- violence in Colombia are from rural and the burgeoning need for locally avail- co is estimated to serve 45 percent of peri-urban areas where food-growing was able, affordable, and well-suited seeds the country’s farmers. This percentage a prominent activity. The most extensive for food-growing. They anticipate this underscores its dynamism in the coun- mass displacement events that occurred need will increase severalfold in Colom- try’s current conflict landscapes that are in 2014 were located in such places in bia if poorer citizens are to be success- being assessed by GeoSyntheSES lab

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These seeds are well-matched to the port- folio of existing foodways and livelihood capacities, and they contribute to the re- generation of the biodiversity of crops. The vibrancy of local seed systems, powerful food preferences and agrobio- diversity resilience raise hopes about the chance of strengthening food supplies during periods of turbulent conflicts and improving food sovereignty in post- conflict landscapes. Nor are these hopes confined to local communities or even to national boundaries. International net- works and institutions are vitally impor- tant, both in promoting farmer-managed seed and in addressing conflict and post- conflict situations. As Thoreau noted, convincing is needed about the viability of seed. Seed aid can provide a stop-gap measure un- der dire circumstances, but on the heels of this immediate relief should come the strengthening of the informal seed sec- tor. Farmer seed networks and local seed markets need to be recognized as pillars of food-growing whether amid persistent conflicts or post-conflict development. They require supportive policies and pro- grams such as seed vouchers, fairs for ex- changes, and scientific and technical col- laborations. The seeding of post-conflict landscapes is integral to the social and Choosing seed more securely in remote places. ecological sustainability of both food- growing and human rights in these geo- member Gabriel Tamariz. Poorer per- lages throughout Mexico has reinforced graphic spaces. sons in central and western Mexico rely this re-localization strategy. Additional heavily on these local seed sources, as the income helps to enable continued small- Karl Zimmerer, the 2016 DRCLAS previous infrastructure in rural areas and scale farming and local seed use. At the Custer Visiting Scholar, is a professor in in small towns and cities has eroded as a same time, the role of local seed has the department of geography at Penn- consequence of violence. also been elevated in other ways. The sylvania State University, where he also Resilience of the informal seed sector Zapatista movement strongly backs the directs the GEOSyntheSES lab. Zim- has served as a much-needed resource saving and exchange of seed in Chiapas merer’s seventh book (with Stef de Haan) to Mexico’s small-scale food-growers. It landscapes as part of everyday food sov- is Agrobiodiversity in the 21st Century: was already crucial in the 1990s when ereignty practices. Foundations and Integration for Sustain- international trade agreements resulted “I have great faith in a seed. Convince ability (MIT Press) to be released in 2017. in economic shocks across the Mexican me that you have a seed there, and I am He co-chairs the international scientific countryside and to the agricultural sector prepared to expect wonders,” wrote Henry forum on agrobiodiversity science and in particular. Flooding of the internation- David Thoreau in his essay “The Disper- sustainable agri-food systems. His new al and national markets with inexpensive sions of Seeds.” Good-quality, acces- findings are published as recent and maize led many smallholders to concen- sible, farmer-managed seed is needed to forthcoming articles across a wide variety trate on local markets, a process that has strengthen food-producing capacity and of scientific and scholarly journals. He been termed re-localization. civil society in post-conflict landscapes thanks DRCLAS and Tony Custer for Migration from small towns and vil- as well as in spaces of ongoing conflicts. their support.

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Colombia’s Other Displacements Mining and Energy Projects BY AVIVA CHOMSKY

OF COURSE, I KNEW ABOUT COLOMBIA’S SAD statistics on displacement, with the high- est numbers in Latin America and vy- ing with those of war-torn countries like Sudan and now Syria. I also knew that most of those displaced in Colombia were victims of the decades-long armed con- flict and its hyper-militarization—and in- creasing U.S. involvement—in the 1990s and 2000s. My first personal experience of a displaced community was in Tabaco, an Afro-Colombian village of about 700 people near the Venezuelan border on the northern coast of Colombia. I had heard about Tabaco earlier, but I learned a lot more in 2006, when José Julio Pérez, a leader of the displaced villagers, came to Salem. He wanted to see for himself the power plant that burned coal from the mine that had destroyed his village. Bulldozers prepare the terrain for the mine. Tabaco’s story was different from many of Colombia’s war stories—though not unrelated. The armed conflict that displaces Despite laws that look progressive on paper, people in Colombia is in many ways a struggle over land. Peasant communities the rights of indigenous and Afro-Colombian have stood in the way of ranchers, and in communities to have a voice in their own futures the way of local and U.S. investors seek- ing to build plantation economies based continue to be subordinated to the “rights” of on production of bananas and oil-pro- multinationals to make a profit—and the “right” ducing African palm. In a parallel, illegal economy, drug traffickers have sought to of first world consumers to cheap energy. control lands used to grow the coca leaf used to produce cocaine. But as we can massive machinery—and the rural popu- the destruction of villages in the interest see in the case of Tabaco, it’s not only the lations living in these territories have to of economic development projects. It’s illegal economy or the armed conflict that be removed. a little bit like eminent domain laws in displaces people. Tabaco is only one of dozens of rural the United States, which allow the gov- Coal is Colombia’s second-largest ex- villages in the coal mining region that ernment to infringe on private property port (after oil), and one that has devel- have been displaced, are in the process rights in order to build roads or other oped rapidly in recent decades. Most of of displacement, or are severely affected public projects. Except that in Colombia, Colombia’s coal is located in the north, by the industry and have been forced to the state removes people by force, and and is mined by major multinationals leave their territory even without being the beneficiaries are foreign-owned mul- based in the United States, Canada, and officially or violently displaced. Official tinationals and consumers in the United Europe. The technique used is open-pit displacement follows a Colombian le- States, Canada and Europe, whose ac- or strip mining, meaning that to get at gal procedure called “expropriation” by cess to unlimited cheap energy depends the coal under the ground, huge territo- which the government approves or even upon multinationals’ ability to displace ries have to be blasted and dug up with participates in the removal of people and communities like Tabaco. In fact, when

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state and company security forces ar- and cultural development.” For several Furthermore, in Article 15, the Conven- rived in Tabaco to drag the remaining decades, ILO 107 remained the only sig- tion accorded indigenous peoples special residents from their homes and bulldoze nificant international law concerning in- rights with respect to natural resources. the village on August 9, 2001, two Mas- digenous peoples. Governments are required to consult with sachusetts power plants, in Salem and As indigenous peoples and organiza- native inhabitants prior to implementing Brayton Point, were major importers of tions pressed for self-determination, sov- extractive projects in their territories, and Colombian coal. Today Tabaco has been ereignty, autonomy, and for their right “the peoples concerned shall wherever swallowed by the coal mine, and its in- to determine their own priorities and possible participate in the benefits of such habitants scattered in marginal, informal futures beyond assimilation, they chal- activities, and shall receive fair compensa- neighborhoods on the outskirts of local lenged the notion of “development” im- tion for any damages which they may sus- towns. posed on them from outside. Indigenous tain as a result of such activities.” Most of those forcibly displaced in Co- demands for a voice in the kinds of devel- The language used in the Convention, lombia are Afro-Colombian and indige- opment projects they wanted were incor- as in any law, is very important. ILO 169 nous peoples. The colonies and indepen- porated into a new ILO Convention, ILO states that Indigenous peoples can “de- dent countries of the Americas were built 169, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples cide” their priorities—but it does not say upon the displacement of their ancestors. that states have to respect their decisions. For centuries governments have violated It says that states must allow indigenous the sovereignty and land rights of indig- communities to “exercise control to the enous peoples. Finally after World War II Tabaco is only one of extent possible” over their development— international organizations began to ad- dozens of rural villages but it allows states to decide what extent dress these violations, and created a body is, in fact, “possible.” It mandates that of international law requiring states to in the coal mining states allow indigenous peoples to “par- recognize at least certain minimal rights region that have been ticipate” in decisions about the use of for populations belonging to the “fourth resources in their territories, that states world”—indigenous and other ethnic mi- displaced, are in the must “consult” with them before un- nority populations that have been histori- process of displacement, dertaking resource exploitation in their cally exterminated, exploited, marginal- lands, and that “wherever possible” they ized, and excluded from the process of or are severely affected should “participate in the benefits of state formation. by the industry and have such activities.” Thus ILO 169 still al- The centerpiece of this international lows states the ultimate decision-making law lies in two different agencies: the In- been forced to leave power over all resource extraction. ternational Labour Organization (ILO) their territory even The United Nations Declaration on and the United Nations (UN). The ILO, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN- formed in the aftermath of World War I, without being officially DRIP) of 2007 used much stronger turned its attention to Indigenous popu- or violently displaced. language. According to the UNDRIP, lations as it sought to protect the rights “Indigenous peoples have the right to de- of native workers in Europe’s colonies. termine and develop priorities and strat- With decolonization after World War Convention of 1989. egies for the development or use of their II, legal scholar Luis Rodríguez-Piñero ILO 169 acknowledged the right of in- lands or territories and other resources.” explains, the ILO understood “the per- digenous peoples to “decide their own pri- Furthermore, “States shall consult and sistent existence of indigenous peoples orities for the process of development as it cooperate in good faith with the indig- within postcolonial states as a ‘problem’ affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and enous peoples concerned through their inherited from colonialism” and in 1957 spiritual well-being and the lands they own representative institutions in order passed ILO Convention 107, “Convention occupy or otherwise use, and to exercise to obtain their free and informed consent Concerning the Protection and Integra- control, to the extent possible, over their prior to the approval of any project af- tion of Indigenous and Other Tribal and own economic, social and cultural devel- fecting their lands or territories and other Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent opment. In addition, they shall participate resources, particularly in connection with Countries.” As its title suggests, ILO 107 in the formulation, implementation and the development, utilization or exploita- incorporated a paternalistic perspective evaluation of plans and programmes for tion of mineral, water or other resources” inherited from colonialism, viewing the national and regional development which (emphasis added). The last provision has “integration” of indigenous peoples as may affect them directly.” Thus ILO 169 been abbreviated to “free, prior, and in- its goal and calling upon governments to emphasized the right of Indigenous peo- formed consent” or FPIC—emphasizing create policies for their “social, economic ples to set their own development goals. that according to the UNDRIP, it’s the

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Indigenous communities, not the state, that have the last word. If communities do not consent, the development projects must not be implemented. Colombia, like most other Latin American countries, quickly ratified ILO Convention 169; Colombia went beyond other Latin American countries in incor- porating its ideals in its 1991 Constitu- tion, and by codifying its ratification in Law 21 of 1991 that made the conven- tion’s provisions law in Colombia. Fur- thermore, Colombia extended these pro- visions to Afro-Colombian communities like Tabaco. Colombia abstained in the 2007 UN vote on the UNDRIP, but de- clared its support in 2009. The United States, in contrast, has not ratified ILO 169 and was one of only four countries— Village girls await the mine. the others being Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—that voted against the ILO 169 and the UNDRIP assume Despite laws that look progressive on UNDRIP. that states will carry out prior consulta- paper, the rights of indigenous and Afro- Although the UNDRIP contains much tions with indigenous communities to Colombian communities to have a voice stronger language in favor of Indigenous work together to mutually agree upon in their own futures continue to be sub- rights than does ILO 169, it shares with development goals and projects. In- ordinated to the “rights” of multination- ILO 169 an assumption that the exploita- stead, in northern Colombia as in many als to make a profit—and the “right” of tion of mineral resources is carried out by other mining regions, multinationals first world consumers to cheap energy. governments, with a general aim of the draw up their own projects, then carry Displaced Tabaco resident Samuel public good. Thus governments should out pro forma “consultations” that de- Arregocés, who has continued to lead engage in dialogue with Indigenous com- generate into haggling over details about the community’s still-unsuccessful fight munities in order to incorporate their displacement, rather than productive for relocation, recently pleaded for in- needs and perspectives as they develop discussions about what kind of economic ternational support. “We are communi- these projects. development Indigenous communities ties that have been suffering for thirty Most mining projects, though, in Co- want. In the case of Tabaco in 2001— years from the impact of what they lombia and elsewhere in the world, are which preceded the adoption of the call ‘development,’ but which for us are developed by foreign multinationals, UNDRIP, but should have been bound thirty years of suffering, thirty years of not by governments. National “develop- by the terms of ILO 169 and Colombia’s pain, and thirty years of uprooting from ment” goals take a back seat to corporate 1991 Constitution—no prior consulta- our communities.” The peace accords profit and maximizing shareholder value. tion took place. Now, under pressure signed by the Colombian government Moreover, many of these projects—like from local communities, international and the FARC in the summer of 2016 the coal mines in Colombia—operate in organizations and the Colombian gov- may bring an end to the armed con- remote regions with little state presence ernment, the mining company has begun flict, but the struggle over land in Co- to begin with. As they have for over a cen- to carry out what it calls “prior consul- lombia, and over who will benefit from tury, multinationals establish company tations”—but which consist primarily of economic development, is far from over. towns and take on many state roles—but informing communities of its expansion they privilege their own private, rather plans, and “negotiating” the logistical de- Aviva Chomsky is Professor of History than any public, interest. When states do tails of their displacement. If communi- and Coordinator of Latin American invest in these areas, it is often to fulfill ties refuse to come to agreement with the Studies at Salem State University. Her company needs. Since the 19th century, company and voluntarily displace them- recent books include Undocumented: Latin American states have built roads selves, the riot squads and the bulldozers How Immigration Became Illegal and and railroads, for example, to service are brought in, as they were in Tabaco on Linked Labor Histories: New England, export economies that primarily benefit August 9, 2001, and again in the small Colombia, and the Making of a Global landed elites and foreign investors. village of Roche on February 24, 2016. Working Class.

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Indigenous Displacement in Southern Chile Building Bridges of Peace Through Education Exchange BY DANIEL CANO AND CRISTÓBAL MADERO

To the present day in the Araucanía re- gion, the Mapuche have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, domestic violence and illiteracy in Chile. The ter- ritories that were taken away from them now belong to lumber companies that have made huge profits for decades, and those profits do nothing to ease the eco- nomic and social conditions of the dis- placed Mapuche people. On the contrary, the activities of these lumber companies have caused irreparable damages to the local ecosystem, aggravating even more the marginality of the region’s indigenous families. At the same time, agricultural colonizers who benefited from the Mapu- che’s loss of territory by taking over large swaths of farmland have contributed to the radicalization of the century-long conflict. In his 2015 end-of-mission statement Philip Alston, then-UN Special Rap- porteur on extreme poverty and human During the final celebration of Kuykuitin, teachers distribute native trees to the hosts rights, declared that indigenous rights Mapuche families and the principals of the schools. are the “Achilles’ heel of Chile’s human rights record in 21st century” (http:// IN THE DAWN OF JANUARY 4, 2013, enous activists faced escalating persecu- panorama.ridh.org/onu-los-derechos- Werner Luchsinger, 75, and his wife Vivi- tion by the police; the most well known de-los-indigenas-son-el-talon-de-aq- anne Mackay, 69, a couple who farmed in are the murders of Alex Lemún on No- uiles-de-chile/). This situation has led the Araucanía region of southern Chile, vember 12, 2002, and Matías Catrileo on to almost daily armed conflict between were burned alive inside their home. January 3, 2008. Mapuche activists and the special police Mapuche communal landowners had set The conflict between the Mapuche forces. The “Luchsinger case,” neverthe- the house afire in an attempt to threaten people and the Chilean state goes back to less, stands out because the way in which the couple and force them to abandon the 19th century with the so-called “Paci- the elderly couple perished touched an their property. The arson attack marked fication—Occupation—of the Araucanía” emotional nerve in the Chilean society, a turning point in the so-called “Chilean- (1883) through which the Chilean Army especially because the couple had close Mapuche conflict.” The protests of the conquered the Mapuche territory, seiz- ties to elite circles in Santiago. Mapuche indigenous people displaced ing 90% of the indigenous territory and It was in this context that we (Cristóbal from their ancestral lands—a struggle the displacing the Mapuches to reservations. and Daniel), Chilean doctoral students indigenous people call anti-colonial and After the military defeat, the Mapuches living in San Francisco and Washington anti-capitalist—were now radicalizing. were left with only about a million acres DC, decided to enter a UC Berkeley “Big That same night, the Chilean intelligence out of the more than 12 million acres Idea” competition to create a project that service arrested the alleged arsonist, Ce- of their land. This forced displacement would focus on reconciliation in a coun- lestino Córdoba, the spiritual leader of condemned the Mapuche people to live try divided in regards to its indigenous the Mapuche community. Young indig- in poverty and socially on the margins. population. We imagined a program

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that would mitigate violence and eventu- grams. Thus, Tirúa was a community we mutual interest such as “good, and now ally resolve the Chilean-Mapuche conflict knew and that knew us. This shared his- that we have welcomed you here in our through the fields of education, history tory helped make people more willing to communities in Tirúa, when are you go- and media. We were both convinced that open their doors and accept these visiting ing to invite us to your schools there in the scarcity and poor quality of informa- teachers from Santiago. Nevertheless, the Santiago?” or “I’m not going to go to tion in the media concerning the violence process of acceptance was long and com- Santiago even if you force me to because in the Araucanía were one of the prin- plex. As victims of territorial displace- it’s very dangerous there and people get ciple causes of the conflict, especially be- ment, state repression, stigma and dis- attacked in the street.” And during our cause some owners of communications crimination, the Mapuche communities conversation, at that very instant, mili- media also owned lumber firms in Ma- of Tirúa were quite wary about sharing tary helicopters flew over us looking for puche territory. We firmly believed that their personal and community histories Mapuche activists hiding in the forests of the Chilean society should begin to edu- with the visitors. There were more than Tirúa and the surrounding area. Nervous cate itself interculturally to reach an un- enough reasons for the understandable laughter broke out among the attendees. derstanding of the historical roots of the defensiveness and extreme caution. Com- After eating breakfast with their in- armed struggle of the indigenous people munity leaders, school directors, munici- digenous host families every morning, displaced by lumber companies and large pal officials and Mapuche family mem- the teachers from Santiago would set off farming estates. bers with whom we collaborated would on foot or in a school wagon to the rural The project brings a group of his- comment, “People always come from out- Mapuche schools to learn about the way tory teachers from elite private schools side to study us and do their research, but in which Chilean history and Mapuche to experience Mapuche communities in they don’t give anything in return” or “If culture were taught in that context of conflict with the Chilean state. That is, it you come here to learn from us, what are violence. One of the teachers recalls that takes the teachers to a heavily militarized we going to learn from you?” However, “the first day we arrived at the school zone stigmatized by the violent “terrorist” once we all sat down at the same table, in Tirúa we were quite surprised. Used acts of some Mapuche groups. The idea we expressed our concerns and our de- to controlling and planning efficiently is to bring together two worlds totally sire to work together to construct ways in our schools in the capital, we had to unknown to each other and whose per- in which Mapuche and non-indigenous adapt and surrender to the new reality ceptions and opinions have been fed by Chileans could better understand each of the rural Mapuche school. We felt cul- the distorted images constructed by the other. Stereotypes and prejudices began tural barriers and resistence by both the media. Our hypothesis is simple. When to disappear and expressions of lack of teachers and the traditional rural educa- people meet face-to-face, eat together confidence were replaced by others of tors. They were full of prejudice against and look into each other’s eyes, they listen with respect as they exchange their life stories. Prejudices and fear begin to dis- solve, opening up a space for the creation of more fraternal relations that can lead to the reconstruction of the social fabric damaged by years of violence. This is how our Kuykuitin project began—named af- ter a word in the Mapuche language that means “building bridges.” We chose Tirúa as the place to begin the project. The coastal zone of Arau- canía is heavily populated by displaced Mapuche communities and is considered a focal point of “indigenous terrorism.” We both were quite familiar with the area. As a Chilean Jesuit, Cristóbal had an institutional link with the territory where the Jesuits were active and direct- ed aid programs for the Mapuche com- munities. Daniel had first come to the area more than ten years ago as a student volunteer in the Jesuit cooperation pro- The door of the local school.

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today,” the teacher observed. “The expe- rience also helped us to understand the importance of our role as educators and our responsibility in changing the biased attitude of many our students towards the Mapuche people.” At the end of the exchange, the teach- ers got together to evaluate the project and to discuss future possibilities for similar programs like this one. One of the teachers commented, “It was very worth- while to share and reflect every day on the week’s experiences. None of us could be indifferent to this immersion. It has left a profound mark. It is important for professors to get out of the classroom, to have experiences beyond book learn- ing. Several weeks have gone by since we came back and we have shared the expe- rience with our schools—school officials, colleagues and students—and we feel very optimistic about the idea of being a bridge for peace. We feel the responsibil- ity of supporting these communities that we have got to know personally in some Teachers from Santiago interact with the Mapuche community. way or other. To support them from the stance of admiration and respect that we feel for their necessities, experiences and Community leaders, school directors, municipal community life values.” Two additional projects are underway officials and Mapuche family members with in an exchange between Santiago schools whom we collaborated would comment, “People and those of Tirúa. But it is now indig- enous school communities who “visit” always come from outside to study us and do their their counterparts in Santiago with the research, but they don’t give anything in return” goal of constructing bridges of peace be- tween Chilean society and displaced Ma- or “If you come here to learn from us, what are we puche communities. going to learn from you?” Daniel Cano is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Georgetown University spe- us, but that prejudice dissipated as the Center of Family Health; Mayor Adolfo cialized in indigenous communities days went on. However, they ended up Millabur (the first Mapuche mayor) and in Latin America and co-founder of opening up their classes to us with the re- town officials. The group also met with Kuykuitin project. Contact: dac239@ alization that we were not there to evalu- the director of the Mapuche Museum georgetown.edu ate or to experiment. We just wanted to of Cañete, Juanita Paillalef, the Mapu- share as equals.” che poet Leonel Lienlaf, Jesuit priests Cristobal Madero is a Ph.D candidate In the afternoon, activities took place and indigenous weavers from the Relmu in Education at the University of Cali- outside the schools. One of the teachers Witral, Tirúa’s women’s handicrafts co- fornia, Berkeley studying teacher profes- observed that getting to know differ- operative. “All of them and their distinct sionalism in comparative perspective ent people from the community was an visions, together with those of our family and co-founder of Kuykuitin project. enriching experience. She recounted an hosts, gave us a broad understanding of Contact: [email protected]. intercultural event with traditional edu- the complexity of the so-called Mapuche For more information about the project cators and Mapuche officials from the conflict that our country is experiencing visit www.kuykuitin.org

40 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO BY MARCELA SALAZAR. OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTOS BY IVÁN RAMÍREZ ZAPATA. FORCED FROM HOME

Flight, Exile and Identity

An Overview of Peru’s Displaced Thousands BY IVAN RAMÍREZ ZAPATA

THE NEWSPAPERS WONDERED WHERE cartographers now wrote The Thousands. condition that still affects her health. She the thousands had come from. How we And we liked the name because numbers feels that people like her have not received had done it. And the radio asked as well, are all we ever had. much compensation for their suffering, and the television sent cameras, and little —“The Thousands,” Daniel Alarcón adding, “I go here and there with my tes- by little we told our story. But not all of timony, but what have we achieved? I it. We saved much for ourselves, like the Teresa lives in Ate, a working-class dis- haven’t achieved anything.” words of the songs we sang, or the content trict in Lima. Until 1984, she resided in a Teresa is one of the thousands of people of our prayers. One day, the government rural community in the department of Ay- displaced by Peru’s internal armed conflict decided to count us, but it didn’t take long acucho. That year, the terrorist organiza- from 1980 to 2000, a conflict involving the before someone decided the task was im- tion Shining Path killed her father-in-law, subversive organizations Shining Path and possible, and so new maps were drawn, one of the community’s wealthiest cattle the Revolutionary Movement Túpac Ama- and on the empty space that had existed farmers, right before her eyes. After that, ru, the Armed Forces and Police, and peas- on the northeastern edge of the city, the she was constantly anxious and stressed, a ant and Amazonian self-defense units.

A group of displaced people going to a neighborhood twenty minutes away must pass through land strewn with garbage.

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Displaced people attend a congressional hearing on internal displacement in 2012.

The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), which began its work in June 2001, estimated 70,000 dead, Given that civil society puts emphasis on 40,000 orphans, and more than 20,000 prosecuting human rights abuses, and widows as a result of the internal conflict. Some 430,000 to 600,000 people were displacement cannot be prosecuted, the result thought to have been displaced from their is that displacement is seldom at the top of the homes during that period. Displacement caused the greatest impact from the war in agenda of human rights groups. terms of numbers, but it also was one of the least visible. Thus, it is difficult to place I realized that we were displaced people.” through contacts with some organization it on the postwar agenda and use it to char- Since 2005, Peru has had a national pol- and the discourse of reparations based on acterize people’s identities—“displaced icy of reparations for those who suffered human rights and the kind of harm people persons” instead of “internal migrants.” damage and abuses during the armed suffered. conflict. This led to institutionalization Kevin, a community leader of displaced THE INVISIBILITY OF that, among other things, has adopted the people in Puno, has a similar story. He be- DISPLACEMENT language of human rights and has set up a gan to identify as a displaced person when It took Teresa quite a while to think of formal scheme of determining who was af- he encountered the word “displaced” in the herself as displaced. She recounts that “It fected by the civil conflict—including vic- 1993 law that created the Program of Sup- wasn’t until the gentlemen from repara- tims of displacement. Like Teresa, many port for Repopulation (PAR). He realized tions, from the NGOs, came to talk that people “have learned” they were displaced that the new regulations provided support

42 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO BY IVÁN RAMÍREZ ZAPATA. FORCED FROM HOME

for people like him. In fact, displacement some 60,000 people registered to date, has a long section about internal displace- was one of the themes related to the con- a figure much smaller than the 430,000 ment. The section mentions that displace- flict that initially received official atten- to 600,000 estimated displaced persons, ment comes about “as a direct reaction to tion. During the decade of the 90s, to talk and remains small even if we don’t count specific violations of basic rights,” such as about displacement was, for the most part, the 215,000 to 300,000 displaced per- “murders, torture, cruel, inhuman or de- to talk about “return.” That is, state policy sons who may have returned to their home grading treatment, violence against wom- was to try to get displaced people back to communities. It is quite likely that part of en, kidnappings, arbitrary detentions, ex- their communities of origin in the context the discrepancy can be attributed to un- propriations and destruction of property.” of a general strategy of pacification and seen displaced persons who have not had This phrasing suggests that displacement reconstruction. About half of the coun- contact with the discourses of reparations in and of itself is not a particular violation try’s internally displaced people did return or human rights. of a right, at least not in the sense of the to their communities, but it is estimated other ennumerated crimes. that only 21,000 returned with the help DISPLACED PERSONS The CVR report also points out that of PAR. After about ten years, PAR was AND VICTIMS normally “the causes of displacement consolidated into the Ministry of Women This invisibility has a particularly cru- cannot be attributed to a specific event,” and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) with cial subjective aspect within Peru’s post- which distinguishes it from other forms fewer resources and reduced capacity. conflict context. of abuse. Indeed, in cases such as torture, These bureaucratic contexts are fun- “The difference is that they are dis- rape or forced disappearance, there has to damental for mobilizing around the issue placed and I am a victim; I am the one be an aggressor who performs a concrete of displacement and closely related to the who was affected; my parents were killed. act of violence against a body. These con- work of the institutions that define and Displaced people have not lost anything; crete actions can even later be judged in regulate the concept of internally dispaced they have left their things behind; they court. It is not possible, on the other hand, persons, establishing a series of protocols have left in fear. I, on the other hand, have to prosecute cases of displacement in Peru to identify and provide service to them. lost everything. [They killed] my parents; (a few countries do permit this; Peru does In the quote at the beginning of this text, they burned down my house, everything. not). Thus, victims have more channels the narrative voice assumes the identity So I am a victim,” says Julia. She arrived than displaced people through which to of someone who fled because of the war, in Lima in the early 80s after surviving an seek justice. though not as “displaced,” but more con- attack by the Shining Path against her vil- Moreover, this complexity corresponds cretely as one of “the thousands,” whose lage in Ayacucho. Julia considers herself to what happens in civil society. Given that massiveness is an observable characteris- both a victim and a displaced person. The civil society puts emphasis on prosecuting tic. Because an individual is part of a float- conjunction “and” is important. Many oth- human rights abuses, and displacement ing population that doesn’t belong to any ers displaced by the conflict did not lose cannot be prosecuted, the result is that state or civil entity that might offer some close family members. According to Julia, displacement is seldom at the top of the type of assistance, the word “displaced” is the mere fact of being displaced does not agenda of human rights groups. The CVR meaningless outside the official contexts. make one a victim. and human rights groups pay less atten- Thus, many displaced people go on with This distinction is not in accordance tion to displacement because it does not their lives without assimilating their expe- with the main discourse of attention and fall neatly within the traditional agenda rience in these terms. reparation for those affected by the armed of denunciations and protection of human Related to this invisibility is the dif- conflict, which considers displaced people rights, even though the CVR does catego- ficulty of gathering statistics about dis- “direct victims,” a condition equal to those rize displaced people—at least technical- placed peoples. As Marc Vincent points who have suffered torture or rape or whose ly—as “direct victims.” Thus, this agenda out in the book Caught Between Borders family members had been killed or disap- has successfully incorporated as “victims” (2001), one of the obstacles in counting peared. That is, while the official discourse people who suffered torture, rape, forced displaced persons has to do with the “un- sees all of these categories as “direct vic- disappearance, among other crimes, but seen displaced persons,” that is, those who tims,” people in their daily reality do not has been unable to do the same with dis- have not entered into contact with human- see it the same way. placed persons, at least to the same de- itarian or rescue institutions—which usu- It is not only Julia who explicitly makes gree as these violations. In this way, the ally obtain the first information about dis- a distinction of this type. Such feelings do idea that separates victims from displaced placement. These displaced people mingle not come out of a vacuum. In Peru, as in persons is an unintentional result of the with the urban population or simply prefer many other countries, it has been difficult principal discourses about the conflict and to remain anonymous. Thus, the National to fit displacement in the same category as postconflict in the framework of human Registry of Displaced Persons, set up in victimization. The CVR final report is an rights and transitional justice. 2006 under MIMP responsibility, has example of this. Volume VI of the report Another complication lies in determin-

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ing what the difference is between dis- munities. To talk about displaced people can eventually be recuperated, but the placed persons and the rest of the popula- now is to talk of those who did not re- time consumed and the effort spent in tion living in situations of poverty and vul- turn. Moreover, several official docu- recuperating all that was lost because nerability. The difference exists: displaced ments stress that the programs of repa- of injustice cannot even begin to be persons have experienced flight and sur- rations and attention are targeting the compensated. César, for example, a dis- vival in the context of armed violence. non-returnee displaced population. This placed resident in the district of Lurig- But that difference cannot be seen. In the focus is somewhat arbitrary, for reasons ancho-Chosica in Lima Province, cannot mid-90s, a mission from the International we do not have the space to discuss here. pardon the necessity of flight from his Council of Voluntary Agencies warned It’s enough to say that at the level of in- community, leaving behind his younger that a dramatic corollary of displacement ternational discussion, return does not brothers and sisters. They all survived, is poverty. Almost twenty years later, Mex- constitute the end of the condition of be- but the years lost in separation stamped ican researcher Javier Lozano Martínez ing displaced. his memory with guilt and grief. asked in his 2014 book Desplazados por What is certain about the condition A popular saying affirms that the violencia en asentamientos humanos de of displacement is that it is a concrete loss of a dear one can never be recov- Huanta y Lima, Perú (Persons Displaced experience of flight and exile that has a ered. This pain is especially sharp for by Violence in Human Settlements in lasting, specific impact on subjectivity, those who have lost family because of Huanta and Lima, Peru) how many of the regardless of the difficulty of identifying the armed conflict. Many of the people poor people living in these cities were dis- as a displaced person and figuring in of- who were displaced did not lose family placed people that no one had registered ficial statistics. Displacement, in its most members, but it is worthwhile asking as such. That is, poverty is visible; dis- tragic form, means an interruption of life if there is also something in the nature placement is not. plans and an undesired loss of the world of displacement that cannot be recov- that made up one’s previous life. Teófilo, ered. The testimonies in the previous DISPLACEMENT AS a national leader of displaced people, re- paragraph suggest that is true, but the AN EXPERIENCE calls how after he was displaced, “I was uniqueness of the experience of being In the decade of 2000, especially after really angry because I had left my crops; displaced complicates the possibility of the CVR report, the emphasis on displace- I had left my family; I had left my politi- imagining this loss and expressing it. ment shifted away from return to the com- cal work, everything.” Yes, these things The displacement of thousands of Pe- ruvians is talked about little or not at all today. While in Colombia it is a theme of public relevance, in Peru it is only a footnote or a small chapter in the post- CVR agenda. Social scientists are also not interested in further investigations of this theme. Displaced people today are not neglected. The state has incor- porated them in its formal code of laws. Whether this incorporation is satisfac- tory or not is a matter for another con- versation, which must be held, but keeps being pushed aside. Thus, symbolic dis- placement has been added to geographic displacement: displaced from the com- munity, academic debate and the public discourse.

Ivan Ramírez Zapata is an anthro- pologist at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and a member of the Study Workshop on Memory. He was part of the curatorial team that put together the permanent exhibit of the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Two displaced community leaders on the road in Santa Cruz de Cajamarquilla. Inclusion.

44 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO COURTESY OF IVÁN RAMÍREZ ZAPATA; PHOTO OPPOSITE PAGE BY IEVA JUSIONYTE. CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

Ieva Jusionyte Pain on the Border • Lorne Matalon Displacement on the Border • Suyapa Portillo, Priscilla Cobian, Sona Patel and Luther Castillo Harry Fighting Displacement • Maggie Morgan and Deborah Anker Protecting Central American Families • Felipe Hernández and Irit Katz Reproducing Inequalities

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46 ReVista WINTER 2017 CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

Pain on the Border Fieldnotes from a Migrant Aid Center in Nogales, Mexico BY IEVA JUSIONYTE

NOT A SINGLE SEAT IS LEFT IN THE HUMBLE field research for my new book about they carry backpacks, their jeans and ten- dining hall decorated with murals of emergency responders along the U.S.- nis shoes are better suited for a walk in a campesinos harvesting corn in the fields. Mexico border, I volunteered as a para- city park than a strenuous hike across the Above rows of wooden tables ceiling fans medic with the Nogales Suburban Fire hostile terrain of the U.S.-Mexico bor- spin frantically, failing to disperse hot District and with the Tucson Samaritans. derlands, where everyone and everything summer air. Except when they raise their The Samaritans, appalled by the milita- conspires to kill trespassers: a blister or a hands to ask for more “agua”—a muddy rization of the border and the suffering sprained ankle could be a death sentence brownish drink of water with oatmeal— of migrants it has caused, have been go- if the injured can’t walk fast to keep up the men eat their breakfast quietly. There ing out into the desert to look for those with the group or if the guide decides to are women too, but they sit at a separate who may be hurt. They leave bottled wa- abandon them. More than 2,500 human table in the back, where the image on ter on popular trails in remote canyons. remains have been found in southern Ar- the wall portrays Jesus and the Apostles They roam the desert in SUVs carrying izona since 2001. Dehydration and heat- at the Last Supper. Some are here with first-aid kits. They install crosses at death stroke are common culprits. Nature here children. At least one is pregnant. Today’s sites. They pick up the trash—empty cans is incompatible with human life. meal consists of eggs with spinach, rice and wrapping paper discarded by those Many already know about the mortal and beans. Visible through the gap under forced to travel light. They collect socks dangers awaiting migrants in the desert. the tin roof covering this soup kitchen is and blankets for the shelters in Mexico. They also know about the cages mounted a green sign with an arrow announcing Taking turns with the volunteers from on the beds of the Border Patrol trucks, FRONTERA USA. No More Deaths, another humanitarian custom-made to be uncomfortable—dur- This comedor was started by the Mis- organization committed to stopping the ing rough rides on unpaved roads the sionary Sisters of the Eucharist before it deaths and abuse of migrants in south- captives bang their heads into the roof. Transparent bags with their names and their meager belongings that some de- The government also deployed state-of-the-art portees have brought to the comedor are tokens of their encounter with la technology to detect trespassing: from ground migra, a reminder of their time in de- sensors to stadium-style lighting to integrated tention. Between July 2014 and March 2015 more than one-third of the 7,500 surveillance towers and drones. migrants who participated in the survey at the comedor reported abuse or mis- became part of the Kino Border Initia- ern Arizona, they bring cell phones to the treatment by U.S. authorities, including tive, a binational humanitarian effort comedor so that migrants and deportees inhumane detention conditions, verbal named after a Jesuit who spent his life in could call family members in the United abuse, racial slurs, physical assaults. the Sonoran Desert before a Mexico and a States or in Latin America, free of charge. When they are apprehended and deport- United States—and a boundary between Samaritan nurses and doctors, mostly re- ed, migrants are frequently separated them—even existed. Twice a day, with the tired, provide medical aid to the sick and from immediate family members and help of volunteers, the nuns prepare hot injured. That’s how I got involved. This travel companions. Left without anyone meals to migrants who have been deport- was my first day. they can trust, they are more susceptible ed and separated from their families as Some of the people at the comedor to attacks and robbery in Mexico. well as those who are en route to el norte, have spent weeks or even months travel- Here at the comedor, the heat is al- fleeing violence, economic turmoil and ing north on foot, by bus and on top of no- ready suffocating at nine o’clock in the natural disasters. The comedor is where torious crowded freight trains—there are morning. Sarah and I sit by the shelf with the displaced meet. Last year alone the good reasons why they call them la Bestia medical supplies. Tags on transparent sisters served more than 42,000 meals. (the beast). They came from central and plastic boxes identify the contents: “feet,” The comedor is more than a soup southern Mexico, Honduras and other “wounds,” “pain,” “skin,” “allergies,” “blood kitchen. I first came to this aid center parts of Latin America. This is their last pressure,” “diabetes,” “stomach,” “eyes,” for migrants in June 2015. While doing rest stop before they try to cross. Though “gauze,” “ointments.” Sarah is training

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talks in a hushed voice. He shows me a bottle with prescription medications. “I have HIV,” he says. The pills are antiret- rovirals. Since he does not have a local address in Nogales, the doctors at the hospital could only give him one month’s supply. In Acapulco, Guerrero, where he is from, four encapuchados (men wearing masks) forced his father into a car and decapitated him. He is not going back. One of the volunteers is going to help him file for asylum. A former military man from Central America complains of lingering pain in his feet. He jumped off the train when the pandilleros—gang members—tried to rob him and injured both legs. He nev- er saw a doctor. He says he can manage the lingering pain with pills, and he is not giving up on his plan to cross the border. In the military, he tells us, he learned how to navigate the desert, how to use a com- pass. He is sure he can make it. We give him ibuprofen. A young woman is two months preg- nant. Three days ago she tried to climb the border fence separating Nogales, So- nora, from Nogales, Arizona, when she fell down. “It was just a meter and a half,” she explains why she did not go to the hospital. But yesterday she started having a pain in her lower back. We encourage her to see a doctor. She asks for medica- tion. We double-check the instructions: ibuprofen, which is all we have, is not recommended during the last trimester of pregnancy; consultation with a health professional is advised for use earlier in the pregnancy. But she doesn’t want to hear about going to the hospital or see- Protesters at a binational rally against border militarization organized by SOA Watch in ing a doctor. “Take one or two every six Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona (October 8, 2016); rescuers from Nogales Fire De- hours. Don’t take more than six in twen- partment helping a woman who fell off the border wall, fracturing her legs (May 18, 2015). ty-four hours,” I explain, as Sarah pours a handful of red tablets into a small plastic to be a nurse. She does not speak Span- cough drops, ointments and gauze only box. I read and translate the warnings on ish. Some deportees talk to us in English, deal with signs and symptoms. Since we the label, and she nods. but I conduct patient interviews with the can’t treat the political and economic A young man just deported from the rest in Spanish and translate. We clean conditions that have forced people to United States has a sore throat. But we infected wounds and advise how to treat leave their home and put them in harm’s are distracted by the bones in his fore- blisters. We send most people away with way, we can only supply a temporary arm—they are dislocated and sticking a few doses of ibuprofen and over-the- medical solution to cover up injuries of out at the wrist. He tells us he broke his counter cold remedies. It’s as much as we violent displacements. arm when he fell off the fence. He is from can do, even though we know that pills, A young man leans towards me and Monterrey but chose to cross in Arizona

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and not in Texas, because of the cartels. them young, are fleeing gangs that have The Border Patrol found him and he was instilled fear and unleashed violence flown by helicopter to Tucson, he says. He destroying their communities. The hon- shows us a piece of paper with a prescrip- dureños, their urban styles setting them tion for ibuprofen from one of the hos- apart from the rural folks in the comedor, pitals up there. His family lives in Wash- are on the run for their lives. A small ington, D.C. group of them is getting ready to cross Another man complains of toothache. later today. He lived in Phoenix for nearly thirty years Two men approach Sarah and me as until one day he was caught driving with- we are sorting the medical supplies be- out a license, spent three months in de- fore we leave: tention, and was deported. “I have noth- “Can you give us some pill that would ing in this country,” he says about Mexico. help us walk?” one asks. His wife and children live in Arizona. He “There is no magic pill,” I tell them. is waiting for a friend who expects to Migrants eating hot meals at the comedor I explain that they have to drink water, be deported to Nogales in the next few in Nogales, Sonora. that headaches are caused by dehydra- days. They will cross back together. He tion and that drinking enough water will can’t go through the desert, he explains, from the border have permanent check- prevent them. I also instruct the men to because of hypertension. But his buddy points, where federal agents inspect drink clean water because the water from knows the way through Ciudad Juárez. I vehicles for “illegal aliens” and illicit the cattle tanks will make them sick. give him ibuprofen. “This will numb your drugs. Instead of stopping unauthorized They listen, even though we all know that teeth,” Sarah says as she hands him a tube migration this strategy created a funnel it is impossible to carry out my advice. of Orajel. effect, as migrants began crossing far To survive in the Sonoran Desert an av- A young Salvadoran is feeling dizzy. from hyper-policed urban areas. In the erage person needs to drink more than a I invite him to sit down, wrap the cuff desert, where the reach of the law (and gallon of water a day—that’s more than around his left arm and measure his cell phone signals) is weak or absent, they migrants can carry for a trip that takes at blood pressure. He was in a hospital have been subject to assaults and extor- least three times longer. twenty days ago, where he received IV tion by criminals and left at the mercy of I give them several tablets of ibu- fluids. He shows us a prescription with deadly temperatures. Those who make profen for minor aches and pains. As I the Red Cross logo which contains a list it across—after three, four, five days of glance at the nearly empty bottle in my of medications for an intestinal infection. walking in the desert—can be so severely hand, I am relieved that no more patients He says he had been walking for weeks dehydrated that their kidneys and other are waiting to see us. and had nothing to eat for at least two organs shut off. By now most of the migrants have left. days. We have no glucometer to check for No wonder that such security mea- Many are on their way to the offices of the hypoglycemia. We worry about electro- sures made travelling back and forth too local Grupo Beta, a government service lyte imbalances and anemia. One of the risky. Undocumented seasonal workers, dedicated to assisting migrants in Mex- volunteers agrees to take him to the hos- who used to come to the United States ico; there, they can take a shower and pital. While he waits for the ride, he sips to find temporary employment in agri- get help finding shelter. We will probably an electrolyte solution. culture, construction industry or domes- not see them again when we return to Security build-up on the border began tic services and then return home, were the comedor next week—others will take in 1994, when the U.S. Border Patrol ad- trapped. Afraid that they would not be their seats at the long tables, eat a warm opted a policing strategy they called “pre- able to cross again, they stayed and saved meal, call their relatives, swallow some vention through deterrence.” In towns money to pay the coyotes to bring their pills to cope with pain and be on their adjacent to the international boundary, spouses and children across the border. way out. Recycling displaced lives. such as Nogales, El Paso and Tijuana, Compared to previous decades, many the height of the fence and the number of migrants traveling through Mexico on Ieva Jusionyte is Assistant Professor agents dramatically increased. The gov- their way to the United States today are of Anthropology and Social Studies at ernment also deployed state-of-the-art women and children. Some of them are Harvard University. She is working on technology to detect trespassing: from off to el norte to join their husbands and a book titled Threshold: Emergency and ground sensors to stadium-style light- fathers, who had already found a niche Rescue on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Field ing to integrated surveillance towers and in the undocumented workforce. But not research for her project was funded by drones. Despite continuing protests in lo- everyone has time to prepare for the per- the National Science Foundation and the cal communities, all roads leading away ilous journey. Those in a hurry, most of Wenner-Gren Foundation.

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Displacement on the Border The Tale of Guadalupe

A PHOTOESSAY BY LORNE MATALON

GUADALUPE, CHIHUAHUA — A SHADOWY MIX OF in 2005. By 2010, that figure had fallen actors preparing for the start of oil and to approximately 6,500. Guadalupe’s gas production has spurred large-scale mayor, who declined to be interviewed land displacement here, allege hundreds for this story, claimed in local media that of current and former residents of the approximately 1,000 residents remain in Valley of Juárez. The case has spawned 2016. mass applications for political asylum in Physical evidence in Guadalupe sug- the United States. The Valley of Juárez gests that someone doesn’t want people hugs the United States-Mexico border here. Charred or completely burnt hous- southeast of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua es and shuttered stores line the streets. and El Paso, Texas. Though the area is Pockmarked and shattered windows known principally for agriculture, Mex- are everywhere. Very few people are out ico’s state-owned energy agency Pemex walking or driving. has drilled exploratory wells in the re- “The government sends people here gion, and pipelines, a major highway and to pressure landowners to get out of here, other infrastructure to support energy to say, ‘Go away, we don’t want you here,’” production are either planned or under said one resident of Guadalupe who, like construction. Several valley towns are others here, asked not to be identified for now near empty, including Guadalupe, fear of retribution. Chihuahua’s govern- where the Mexican army now patrols a ment denied that allegation. practically abandoned town. Analysts suggest buyers are arriv- The story is unfolding as the city of ing because the area shares geological Juárez actively promotes tourism, cel- characteristics with the Permian Basin ebrating crime rates that have declined of Texas and New Mexico, the highest- since the zenith of a drug war in 2010 producing oil field in the United States. and accomplishments such as host- “Obviously this land is being re-consoli- ing Pope Francis in February 2016. In dated in the hands of a few, ” said Tony a bilateral nod to the valley’s economic Payan, director of Rice University’s Me- promise, a state-of-the-art border cross- xico Center in Houston. “Many of these ing linking Guadalupe with Tornillo, politicians will have interests in the shale Texas, was inaugurated by Mexican development in the future and will likely President Enrique Peña Nieto and U.S. get ahold of that land no matter what.” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh The government’s narrative is that Johnson in 2016. Mexican soldiers were sent here to root Real estate in this sepia-toned, hard- out organized crime in a prime smug- scrabble slice of the borderlands has be- gling corridor to the United States and come valuable. The valley is littered with that the violence is generated by compet- stories about terrorized people fleeing. ing cartels. But residents said they be- Guadalupe is eight miles by curving road lieve soldiers are working with organized from the U.S. border across from Tor- crime, charging that no activity, legal or nillo, Texas, but a world away in terms otherwise, takes place without tacit gov- of security. According to the Mexican ernment sanction. “This valley is a law- census, nearly 10,000 people lived here less place, ” another man stated. “It’s the

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From far left, clockwise: A burned home in Guadalupe, Chihuahua. Homes and busi- nesses that lie in the path of proposed infrastructure development in the Valley of Juárez have been targets of arson; shattered glass marks the entrance to an abandoned dance hall in Guadalupe, Chihuahua.

Miguel Murgia’s wife was taken from a family gathering in Guadalupe four years ago. Murg- ia theorizes criminals were after his nephew who was related to a human rights activist. Both Murgia’s wife and nephew are unac- counted for. He is in the United States while his application for asylum is considered.

A family chart of the Josefina Reyes Salazar family. Josefina Reyes, a human rights activist, was murdered near Ciudad Juárez in 2010. Red under a name means a Reyes relative has been murdered. Blue indicates an asylum seeker; When former Chihuahua Governor César Duarte visited in 2015, the mayor ordered that vandalized homes on the main street be painted festive colors. One man said the paint is a metaphor for a smokescreen meant to cover up what resi- dents allege has happened here.

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sad truth. ” And when landowners leave FEAR IN THE JUÁREZ VALLEY: in Chihuahua. Llamas, who is also the and default on property taxes, the state A CASE STUDY state’s liaison with Mexico’s federal ener- can legally seize their land. After that, Martín Huéramo, a former city coun- gy agencies, said energy development in the government can legally sell the land cilor in Guadalupe now seeking asylum northern Chihuahua represented a boon to private interests. in the United States, told me in El Paso for valley residents that will ultimately Mexican authorities cited in media that he had received several threats. translate into lower electricity and gaso- reports say at least three hundred peo- Huéramo had opposed the mayor’s line costs. ple have been killed in Guadalupe since resolution that would allow the local gov- “It will help the entire country, not 2008—mayors, police, city councilors, ernment—rather than the state or federal just Chihuahua, ” he said. He claimed business owners and human rights ac- government—to expropriate land to sell to be focused on the valley. “It’s our re- tivists. People are learning hard lessons to energy speculators. The week after sponsibility to be sure laws are obeyed about real estate. Huéramo was granted permission to en- and that everything that must be done is “You know the rule. Location, loca- ter the United States pending his asylum done properly,” he said. He said he want- tion, location,” said Julián Cardona, a application, two women on the city coun- ed anyone with a complaint to contact his Mexican photographer based in Ciudad cil were killed. They had opposed the office in Chihuahua City. But few people Juárez. He described a slow-motion de- same resolution. alleging harm are likely to approach a population that’s taken place over the The year before, he told me two of his government they don’t trust. course of several years. “Every time there brothers-in-law were murdered. “Fami- “I think they [the residents] are now was a killing, every time there was a lies in the Valley of Juárez have lost loved realizing the value of their land,” said burning house, residents said the soldiers ones,” he said. “It’s a message saying they Cardona, the Mexican photographer. were a block away,” Cardona recalled. have to leave.” “Violence is linked to displacement of “The soldiers didn’t stop the killers or Residents say the murder of human their families.” the people burning the houses.” Others rights activist Josefina Reyes Salazar Cardona recalled a visit on June 24, recount soldiers searching homes, pur- in 2010 made the valley feel even more 2015, when former Chihuahua Governor portedly for weapons, followed by the ar- dangerous. She was shot to death by a César Duarte made a brief stop in Gua- rival of masked gunmen who then kill or masked gunman soon after she claimed dalupe. “The governor visited Guadalupe terrorize members of the household. the military was involved in the killing and the mayor ordered the empty build- Pipeline companies in Texas are his- of her son. Reyes Salazar’s brother, sister ings and houses along the main avenue torically granted the right of eminent and a sister-in-law were murdered the painted in bright colors; glowing yellow, domain, the legal right to seize private next year. In total, six members of the green, blue, pink. The fact the houses land because the transport of energy is family have been killed. were painted in bright colors is like a deemed to be in the public interest. “In Gabriela Carballo, an art gallery ad- smokescreen of what’s really going on, ” the United States, it’s a lawful eminent ministrator from Ciudad Juárez, compa- Cardona said. domain. In Mexico it’s outright violence,” red opposition to pipelines in Guadalupe As for Martin Huéramo, the former said El Paso lawyer Carlos Spector. He to the opposition by some Texas land- Guadalupe city councilor seeking asylum, represents approximately 600 former owners and ranchers to the Trans Pecos he said he would have no issue with ener- residents of Guadalupe now seeking asy- Pipeline that will ferry natural gas from gy production or pipelines if they did not lum in the United States. Texas into Mexico. involve, in his words, people being forced “Investors are getting very aggres- “As a Mexican I can say that we care out. He doesn’t believe government sive,” said Spector. “All they have to do is as much about the environment as any claims that laws are being adhered to. get a list from the mayor of a small town, one of these people that are fighting the Then unexpectedly, he said he be- who is under their control, as to who Trans Pecos Pipeline, ” said Carballo. But lieved one of the government’s claims. hasn’t paid the taxes. And if they can she said it’s difficult to take a stand under “The government says violence is down match up who hasn’t paid the taxes to the actual or perceived threat of retribu- in the Valley of Juárez.” he said. “I believe where the gas and the freeway is coming, tion. “If we speak out against it, we run it because there are no more people left then you go after that property. It’s very, the risk of our really extremely corrupt to kill.” very scientific.” government murdering us,” she said. People who remain in Guadalupe say There’s no way to verify such a claim. Lorne Matalon is the 2016-2017 Energy former neighbors who have fled are fran- And Mexican officials are quick to refute Journalism Fellow at the University of tically trying to sell their now-abandoned them. “Violence is minimal right now Texas at Austin. He is a staff reporter at land through middlemen for cents on the and no one’s been affected by plans for the Fronteras Desk, a collaboration of dollar because they’re too frightened to pipelines, ” said Arturo Llamas, a regula- National Public Radio stations focused even contemplate coming back. tor of pipelines and energy infrastructure on Mexico and Latin America.

52 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO OPPOSITE PAGE COURTESY OF SUYAPA PORTILLO. CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

Fighting Displacement The Popular Garifuna Hospital in Honduras BY SUYAPA PORTILLO, PRISCILLA COBIAN, SONA PATEL AND LUTHER CASTILLO HARRY

THE LONELY ROAD LEADING TO THE COMMUNITY of Ciriboya, in the municipality of Iriona, Colón, is one of the poorly maintained routes of more than 45 neglected Gari- funa communities throughout the north- ern coast of Honduras. Dirt paths with deep potholes lead to dwellings that lack electricity and potable water. The region’s poor infrastructure is a consequence of historical exclusion and institutional dis- crimination against the Garifuna people. However, on the outskirts of Ciriboya, a bustling yellow two-story building—the Popular Garifuna Hospital—is a place of hope, change and safety for Garifuna communities that are under constant threat of displacement from their land: developers seek to build tourist destina- tions; agribusiness seeks to expand the Af- rican palm plantations; and young people keep leaving by constant (im)migration to Scenes from the Popular Garifuna Hospital. nearby cities and the United States to find work, access to education and adequate The Popular Garifuna Hospital was graduate from the ELAM collaborated healthcare. Limited access to healthcare built by the community for the commu- with the local patronatos (elected officials has left the community members plagued nity. The Garifuna community, and es- in local towns), OFRANEH (an organiza- by common preventable illnesses. pecially its women leaders, have worked tion focused on the protection of ancestral The Garifuna people are an Afro- tirelessly to address the medical needs of lands) and women’s collectives such as the indigenous community residing on the people in various villages. Their efforts Single Mothers Association and the Aux- circum-Caribbean of Central America. range from finding solutions to the lim- iliary Nurses Association. Strong women They originally arrived in Honduras in ited access to healthcare in the poorest leaders, including Miriam Miranda of 1797 after being deported by the British communities of northern Honduras, to OFRANEH, Digna Bernárdez Sambula from the island of St. Vincent to quell creating the blueprints of the hospital, to and Mirna Ruiz, and many community their revolt on the island. Once in Roatan, mixing cement, laying brick and finding members worked on the development of Honduras, the Garifuna settled in small sufficient funding to serve every patient a healthcare plan for the communities, villages throughout the north coast, such that comes through the doors for free, creating a foundation, Luagu Hatuadi as coastal Ciriboya, where they still main- and in a culturally appropriate manner. Waduheñu (For the health of our people). tain their language, cultural practices Many of the hospital’s doctors are Gari- The foundation prioritized finding solu- and spiritual beliefs. Ciriboya is a small funa themselves, trained at Cuba’s Latin tions to inadequate healthcare for the hamlet nestled between rivers and the American Medical School (ELAM). Sto- region’s Afro-indigenous and indigenous Caribbean Sea in the easternmost part of ries of community members shed light on communities and in 2007, with commu- Colón, where most community members their healthcare system, the role of pov- nity input and women’s leadership, man- live off the sea by fishing and off the land, erty in limiting access to healthcare, and aged to secure 120 scholarships to study at by cultivating plaintains and manioc (a the importance of the Popular Garifuna the ELAM. These were for all Hondurans, tuber used to make cassave bread, a staple Hospital and the Garifuna doctors. but also benefited Garifuna students. The of Garifuna diet). The first class of Garifuna doctors to foundation was essential to the effort to

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build the hospital and staff it permanent- communities from all over Honduras and sound tests were not readily available to ly with Garifuna and indigenous doctors the diaspora in the United States have women in rural areas. According to lo- and Garifuna-speaking staff. The Hon- contributed to keeping the hospital open cal midwives like Bernárdez Sambula, duran Autonomous University (UNAH) and operational, a testament to Garifuna most Garifuna women also prefer home had only graduated one Garifuna doctor unity and transnationality, but also to births with traditional midwives, but since 1847; the Cuban program made all women’s networks. if a birth was going to be complicated, the difference. the midwife would understandably Women are at the core of the Garifuna CHALLENGES TO HEALTHCARE IN advise going to nearest hospital because cosmovision. Their leadership in the com- NORTHEAST HONDURAS of the risk of death to both mother and munity and within the family structure is In the easternmost villages, Garifuna child. When complications arose dur- critical to the wellbeing of the commu- people, especially women, children and ing childbirth, women would have to be nity. From the mid-20th century and on- the elderly, face huge barriers in gain- taken there by hammock, sometimes up wards, Garifuna communities have been ing healthcare access. Dr. Suyapa Cas- to 14 hours away. challenged by a long-standing emigration tillo tells of her own family experience, The lack of state investment in the of male workers from the region in search “I [have] always wanted to be a doctor. infrastructure as well as racism and an- of work and education, which has upset Because I’ve always [noticed the] neces- ti-bilingualism in schools has led many the social cultural balance and division of sity [of the] people. When I was little, Garifuna community members to migrate labor in the community. As Garifuna men when someone was sick my brother [and to larger cities and then to the United move in a constant cycle of internal and family members] had to go to Sangrelaya States. Most jobs are on African palm international displacement, women and because it was the only health center that plantations, which require few workers children stay behind. was nearby. Sometimes we would walk and provide poor welfare for workers and The Single Mothers Association, and other times we would ask a neighbors their families, as they are not unionized, formed to assist its members in voca- to lend us a horse to ride.” Previously, they nor does the business give back to the tional training and finding work, was had relied on traditional medicine and local communities. Migration is often fundamental to the construction of the healing methods, passed down through blamed for increases in HIV/AIDS rates, hospital. Digna Bernárdes Sambula, an generations, to treat their illnesses. Or often associating Garifuna communities auxiliary nurse and self-taught midwife they faced culturally incompetent care. with the disease. Although both popular who is the president of the health volun- The Honduran Ministry of Health does media and some scientific papers report teers and the Single Mothers Association not provide well-funded clinics with a high level of HIV/AIDS for which there in Ciriboya, remembers that the com- a culturally aware staff. The poor are is often NGO funding, no scientific lon- munity turned out en masse to a meeting forced to travel very far to access public gitudinal study exists to determine its with Dr. Luther Castillo and other Gari- hospitals and facilities. Transportation prevalence. At the same time the Gari- funa ELAM students in a local church to is limited between the villages, and the funa community has a larger prevalence form an executive board for the hospital nearest city, with one bus running out of upper respiratory illnesses related to project “with the strength of the commu- and another coming in, is a 13-hour bus cooking in smoky wooden stoves, as well nity.” Evangelista López Calderón, the ride from Ciriboya. Bernárdez Sambula as back problems from carrying large current patronato president member, ob- also remembers that before the hospital loads with firewood and vegetables from served, “because the hospital was built by was built, Garifuna people were forced to the fields. Water-borne illnesses such as the community, I joined and learned how travel many hours by foot or horseback to diarrhea are common because of the lack to mix cement, and since we were all in- see a doctor. Many community members of potable water. Preventable diseases volved in the creation of the hospital we report experiencing discrimination in have been overlooked, unfunded and of- consider it ours.” This level of participa- treatment by non-Garifuna medical staff ten untreated. tion by the local community has generat- in public hospitals, who did not want to ed collective pride and sense of ownership touch them because they were black. The AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL as well as a collective commitment to sus- other option, of visiting a doctor, was ex- The Popular Garifuna Hospital rep- tain the project. But women’s participa- pensive. Community members went only resents an alternative model of free pre- tion was critical. Dr. Suyapa Castillo, an when absolutely necessary, which meant ventative primary care by addressing ELAM graduate now working in Hondu- people sought healthcare when they were preventable diseases at no cost to the ras, explains, “the Garifuna woman is fun- walking a fine line between life and death. patient: diabetes, high blood pressure, damental; for example, if you come with a The Centers for Disease Control and high cholesterol, diarrhea, respiratory ill- mission [or] objective and need the com- Prevention list perinatal conditions as nesses and diseases related to poor water munity to participate, the leader has to one of the top causes of death in Hon- systems. This alternative model of health- be, [is going to be] a woman.” Garifuna duras. Crucial prenatal care and ultra- care is inspired by Cuba’s model of health-

54 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUYAPA PORTILLO. CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

care yet tailored to the specificity of Gari- funa communities and the region. Now, local Garifuna and Cuban doctors who understand the community engage with its members to implement solutions and creative ways to access clean water and purify it by boiling it. The doctors follow up with home visits. The Popular Garifuna Hospital also provides a safe place for women to give birth. With an observation room and ob- gyn consult, the hospital is key in bridging the gap between medical concerns and Scenes from the Popular Garifuna Hospital. access to culturally appropiate health- care. Women are able to receive prenatal and we use it a lot. Sometimes we have to support the initiative to build the hos- care, including ultrasounds and other the problem of not knowing what the pital, she committed to it, helping both screenings, as well as postpartum care herb is called here but if I show it to them in the physical labor of building it and as and care for their newborn. The hospital [or they show it to me], that breaks the president of the patronato. also provides healthcare, dental care and barrier. Here they use traditional medi- Since the 2009 coup d’état in Hondu- medication at no cost to the community cine a lot, and for years they have cured ras, when the building was besieged by members, and this year a new surgical themselves with this natural medicine.” the military, the hospital has been under unit was opened to provide free surgery. The Popular Garifuna Hospital differs threat. The political situation since then Census-taking provides doctors with from other Honduran hospitals, despite has affected healthcare throughout the information about family members’ its economic hardships and lack of fund- nation; most affected are the indigenous medical histories and health needs, in- ing, because its staff is attentive to cultur- people, Afrodescendants, and rural com- cluding information about living condi- al norms. Its workers take into account munities. To none of them has the cur- tions, nutritional challenges and water community needs and provide screenings rent conservative government committed availability for each household. ELAM that address patients’ behavior and nutri- any resources or increased access. Garifuna medical students participate in tion, respecting cultural practices, saving In the face of great hardships and cal- these census brigades during their breaks, lives, one household at a time, on a year- lous neglect, as well as the ever-present and Cuban doctors rotating in the hospi- round basis. danger of losing their lands to African tal and other communities keep up the palm growers or eco-tourism developers, census work during the school year. In WOMEN IN THE COMMUNITY Garifuna people, led by powerful women, this way, community members receive In Ciriboya and the nearby community recognize that working and organizing medical follow-up without the elderly or of Iriona Viejo, women run social welfare together can change their reality. The infirm having to walk very far to the hos- as much as they run the planting of man- work of the hospital suggests that the so- pital. One doctor explained how she and ioc and plantains for daily sustenance. lutions to fighting displacement can and her colleagues undertook the process of Many did not have formal schooling be- must come from within the community, completing the census: “We plan out who yond a primary education due to the lack and that nation states have to work with is going to visit whom, and since not ev- of funds. Access to any education in the community input and consent. erything is nearby, we plan who is close medical sciences or any other field was to whom, so that we can do the visits, and nearly impossible for members of an ear- whom we need to visit [follow up on]. We lier generation unless they moved to the Suyapa Portillo is an Assistant Profes- check how many hypertensives there are, big cities of La Ceiba or Trujillo. Bernár- sor of Chicano/a and Latino/a Transna- how many kids are nearby that I need to dez Sambula, for example, had to aban- tional Studies at Pitzer College. Priscilla visit. I plan the census accordingly so that don her nursing school studies for lack Cobian is a Pitzer College alumna, who I can also do my family visits.” of money and the need to raise her chil- majored in Sociology and Spanish. Sona This healthcare model is also cultural- dren and take care of her ailing mother. Patel is a student of history and anthro- ly appropriate, since doctors observe and Although she could not finish nursing pology at Pitzer College. Luther Castillo respect traditional Garifuna medicine school, the training enabled her to serve Harry is a graduate of the Harvard and spiritual practices. One Cuban doctor the community and to become the presi- Kennedy School (MPP) Program and a commented, “the dentist and I both have dent of the regional Auxiliary Nurses As- founding doctor of the Popular Garifuna master’s degrees in traditional medicine sociation. When she had the opportunity Hospital.

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Protecting Central American Families Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic BY MAGGIE MORGAN AND DEBRAH ANKER

ALL MARIBEL HAD WANTED WAS TO WORK IN Domestic violence is another intrac- a beauty salon in her home country of table problem with a staggering rate Honduras, maybe one day doing well across the Northern Triangle region. enough to open a salon of her own. Hair Many women find that cultures of ma- and nails, or maybe just nails since man- chismo and police indifference to vio- icures are her specialty. Maribel (not her lence against women make it safer to flee real name; all names in this article have the country than risk retaliation by abus- been changed to protect confidentiality) ers for seeking government protection. dreamt of using the money to put her There is little that Northern Triangle five-year-old daughter in a good school, residents can do to protect themselves and finally move into a two-bedroom from such pervasive violence within apartment of their own, far from the their countries. When our client, Lil- cramped room they shared in the two- ian, a devout evangelical Christian, de- room shack in the slums of Tegucigalpa. cided to preach to youth about the need But the beauty shop she was work- to resist the gangs, MS-13 responded by ing in had to close abruptly after gang threatening to kill her and her son. There members threatened to come shoot up Celebrating an asylum victory at the was no use in even contacting the police Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic. the place with the owner inside. The because everyone knew the police were owner’s crime had been to refuse to pay in the pockets of those same gang mem- a “war tax” to gang members who con- since its founding in 1984 by Deborah bers. trolled her neighborhood. Now forced to Anker, Nancy Kelly and John Willshire Another client, Dilia, a young mother look for work, Maribel was assaulted by Carrera. In the 1980s, our clinic began from El Salvador, went to the police af- gang members at gunpoint on her way representing many Central American ter her brother was murdered by MS-13 to job interviews. She went to the police asylum seekers who at that time were gang members. The police did not follow but they just ignored her, not even going fleeing civil conflicts in El Salvador and up. A few days later, a man rode by on through the motions of making a report. Nicaragua. Now most of our Central a motorcycle and told her he was going Maribel, fearing for her life, felt she had American clients are from El Salvador, to kill her son because she “defied” the no choice but to flee Honduras with her Guatemala and Honduras, small coun- gang. He was not scared of the police but young daughter. tries tucked into what is known as the rather angry that she went against the Several years later, sitting almost “Northern Triangle.” Asylum seekers gang’s authority. 4,000 miles away in a legal office, on a from these countries alone now rep- His language reflected a reality we see gray day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, resent the majority of the clinic’s total often in our gang-related cases: that call- Maribel related her story to her attorney caseload. ing the police to report a crime, an ac- in preparation for her asylum hearing. Much of the recent violence is inflict- tion that may strike some as unremark- She is one of many tens of thousands of ed by the region’s most powerful gangs, able, can be perceived as a significant act Central American women and children particularly MS-13 and Mara 18. Femi- of political resistance by the gangs of the who have fled to the United States since cide by gangs has skyrocketed in recent Northern Triangle, one that earns the in- 2014, seeking safety from the unrelent- years, according to news reports. Mari- formant a de facto death sentence. The ing gang and gender-related violence bel’s home country of Honduras current- payments that Maribel’s employer risked roiling their home countries. Our attor- ly has the world’s highest murder rate. El her life in opposing are labeled “war tax- neys and law students at the Harvard Salvador is right on its heels, at number es” not by accident. Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) two (along with the world’s highest rate Our clients do not make their deci- represent Maribel and many clients with of femicide). The large gangs control sions to leave lightly. The journey from similar stories from this region. significant territory within and across the Northern Triangle to the United HIRC, one of the first immigration borders and co-opt law enforcement States is dangerous, particularly for and refugee clinics in the United States, through bribery and the threat of vio- women. Up to 80 percent of women are has represented hundreds of immigrants lence. sexually assaulted at some point of their

56 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO BY INA SPAHO CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

journey, according to human rights orga- In this early stage of immigration nity-based advocacy in Massachusetts nizations. Cartels routinely kidnap and proceedings, legal representation is ab- and several victories in appellate courts hold migrants for ransom; we represent solutely critical but dangerously scarce on behalf of Central American children a 21-year-old Salvadoran woman who, along the U.S./Mexico border. Since and indigenous Guatemalans targeted when fleeing abuse in El Salvador at age 2014, HIRC has collaborated with a by brutal state-sanctioned violence. 17, was held for three days at gunpoint by number of non-profit organizations on HIRC has played a longstanding role gang members of Los Zetas in Mexico as legal and advocacy projects to help ad- in the expansion of protections for asy- a relative frantically tried to gather the dress this legal gap. We have saved in- lum seekers fleeing gender-based vio- $2,000 necessary to release her. dividuals from imminent deportation lence, a major source of harm for many And for children traveling without by successfully requesting re-interviews of our Northern Triangle clients. In the their parents, the perils are magni- of detainees when we learned that their mid 1990s, HIRC worked with the U.S. fied. In 2014, international newspapers credible fear interviews were improperly government to issue historic gender asy- widely disseminated images of children done or failed to reveal information vital lum guidelines, which helped pave the clinging to the tops of freight trains to a potential asylum claim. HIRC attor- way for greater protection from U.S. im- christened with ominous names like La neys Sabi Ardalan, Phil Torrey, Maggie migration tribunals for women fleeing Bestia (“The Beast”), el tren de la muerte Morgan, Nancy Kelly and John Willshire gendered harms such as rape and do- (“Death Train”) and el tren de los descon- have all taken teams of law students to mestic violence. ocidos (“The Train of the Unknowns”). represent families held in detention cen- At the same time that HIRC advocat- Many of our clients get tears in their eyes ters in South Texas or to provide human- ed for regulatory and legislative recog- even just remembering the trip across itarian relief to migrants attempting to nition of gender-based asylum, we also the border. cross hostile desert. Clinic staff have also worked to push the law forward through When Central American women and written amicus briefs and expert affida- “bottom-up” advocacy. This advocacy has children reach the United States (they vits to support federal litigation on be- often taken the form of direct represen- typically turn themselves over to border half of Central American asylum appli- tation of women fleeing gendered vio- officials), they are often placed into hold- cants seeking full access to due process lence, one case at a time. From the 1980s ing cells known as hieleras (“iceboxes”), of law within detention facilities. onward, HIRC successfully brought notorious for their extremely cold tem- But the heart and soul of the Clinic’s dozens of gender-related asylum claims peratures. Though these facilities are mission is working with Boston-area asy- before local asylum offices and immigra- intended to be used for stays of a few lum seekers. HIRC has two offices in the tion courts, years before higher courts hours, some of our clients have report- metropolitan area: one at Greater Bos- had recognized the legitimacy of such ed being there for as long as a few days, ton Legal Services in Boston and the oth- claims. Decades of grassroots advocacy mothers and their children often forced er on the campus of Harvard Law School from organizations across the country to sleep on concrete floors or benches be- in Cambridge. At both sites, HIRC’s paid off over time, particularly in 2014, cause cells don’t have beds. clinical instructors supervise dozens of when the Board of Immigration Ap- Most urgent for recent arrivals is the law students each year. Students spend peals—an administrative tribunal which need to avoid immediate deportation. hundreds of hours preparing asylum decides appeals from the lower immigra- Immigrants apprehended at the border cases, which involve interviewing clients tion courts—finally recognized domestic have fewer due process rights than those in detail about their lives, drafting legal violence as a basis for asylum in the prec- already living in the United States. Indi- affidavits and briefs, and preparing to edential case, Matter of A-R-C-G. HIRC viduals at the border who express a fear advocate on their behalf before immigra- contributed an amicus brief for the case of returning to their home countries have tion judges and asylum officers. and continues to push for other legal the right to an interview to determine In recent years (and for many years precedent helpful to advancing gender whether they have a “credible fear” of re- prior), HIRC students have successfully protections within asylum law. turn. If they receive a positive decision, represented numerous Central Ameri- Many of our Central American clients applicants can stay in the country while can asylum seekers, including clients who arrived in the United States in the they apply for asylum or other relief. If like Maribel, Delia and Lilian. Without summer of 2014 or soon after have now not, they can be deported within days. decades-long advocacy by dedicated been granted asylum. Some have even Some are deported before they have a lawyers and activists at HIRC and else- received green cards, while others are chance to present their stories to immi- where, these wins would not have been eager to apply soon. There have certainly gration officials. One estimate states that possible. HIRC’s John Willshire Carrera been hardships along the way. Many up to 50 percent of Central Americans and Nancy Kelly have helped advance abuse survivors suffer symptoms of post- deported in recent years may have had the rights of Northern Triangle asylum traumatic stress disorder or depression, valid asylum claims. seekers through their years of commu- which can be exacerbated by the need to

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repeatedly recount their trauma histo- ries when preparing their cases. Hours recounting painful details of past harm often cause clients like Maribel to suf- fer severe headaches or insomnia during the course of preparation. But the asylum process can be em- powering as well. HIRC is fortunate to have social worker Liala Buoniconti on staff to ensure that clients are linked up to social services, including therapy if they are in need. After receiving access to these resources, many clients gradu- ally start to feel a stronger sense of safe- ty. Often clients begin to feel much more confident in coming out of the shadows and becoming active in their communi- ties. It is truly amazing to watch clients who just a few years ago felt isolated, de- Residents of El Verano, Tamazula, Durango, who had to leave their homes after being attacked pressed and even suicidal, take charge of by the Mexican Navy during the search for drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, 2015. their lives by enrolling in English classes or degree programs, or devoting their free time to help other abuse survivors come forward to tell their stories or lo- Urban Spaces of Internal cating resources to help them cope. The recent presidential election in the Displacement in Mexico United States has rattled the immigrant community in Boston as it has elsewhere Reproducing Inequalities across the country. Some clients who are BY FELIPE HERNÁNDEZ AND IRIT KATZ parents worry that they will be deported with their children back to countries in which their lives are in imminent danger WHEN NEWS CAME THAT THE DRUG DEALER JOAQUÍN GUZMÁN, EL CHAPO, HAD ESCAPED by gangs. Children complain of stomach from a Mexican prison in July 2015, memories about cocaine cartels and urban aches triggered by nightmares that they gangs creating havoc in Colombia came quickly to mind. The tunnel that El Chapo and their families will be dragged from used to escape, the exceptional conditions of his prison cell and the very capacity their homes. In this time of widespread to coordinate an escape while in the custody of the Mexican authorities, were rem- fear and uncertainty, we at HIRC and iniscent of La Catedral, the prison where Colombian drug dealer Pablo Escobar across the immigrant rights community spent a little more than a year before he escaped in 1992. Such events often inspire believe it is more important than ever to movies and telenovelas because they spark the imagination of the public; they also continue our zealous advocacy to pro- tend to fade quickly, disappearing under other exciting news. The impact that the tect and advance the hard-won rights of drug business has on the communities displaced by its criminal violence and on the women and families to be safe from gang physical and social fabric of cities, however, is largely overlooked. and gender violence. The perfect climatic conditions and lush terrain of the mountainous region of Sierra Madre in Sinaloa, Mexico, have made it an ideal site for opium poppy and Maggie Morgan is the Albert Sacks marijuana production. This is where El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel has flourished to- Clinical Teaching and Advocacy Fellow gether with the ongoing violence of its drug industry, leading to counter-violent at the Harvard Immigration and Refu- tactics of government forces and to the mass exodus of the ones trying to avoid gee Clinic. it. Since the start of the Mexican Drug War in 2006, tens of thousands of people have been affected and displaced by violence. According to Mexican government Deborah Anker is Clinical Professor of statistics, 47,000 people were killed as a result of this intense violence, while other Law at Harvard Law School and Direc- estimates put the figure at 100,000 in 2015. Displacement of civilians was also a tor of the Harvard Immigration and significant result of the drug war in Mexico; according to the Internal Displace- Refugee Clinic. ment Monitoring Centre (IDMC), 123,000 people were internally displaced in

58 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTOS BY FERNANDO BRITO CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

A rented room located in a house at the El Mirador neighborhood of the Sinaloan state capital, Culiacán, shared by two displaced families.

2010, a number that has increased stead- ily, reaching 287,400 in 2015 (see Inter- nal Displacement Monitoring Centre, According to Mexican government statistics, http://www.internal-displacement.org/ 47,000 people were killed as a result of this database/country/?iso3=MEX, accessed November 10, 2016). In environments intense violence, while other estimates put the with much criminal violence, people are figure at 100,000 in 2015. made to move for multiple reasons—di- rect physical threats, deterioration in the quality of life and shrinking livelihoods. are left to manage on their own in new do Internally Displaced People (IDP) Overall, the number of people leaving vi- environments in which they are exposed live? What is the socio-political meaning olent municipalities in Mexico is four to to new difficulties, risks and threats. of these new spaces of displacement? five times higher than that of those leav- Many reports on displacement in Mex- ing non-violent municipalities with simi- ico and other parts of Latin America focus GLOBAL SPACES OF DISPLACEMENT lar socioeconomic conditions. on a wide range of socioeconomic issues. More than 65 million displaced people Drug cartel violence in Mexico creat- For example, displaced poor rural com- worldwide find refuge in various types of ed a de facto humanitarian crisis; this is munities tend to suffer more drastically spaces such as camps and urban areas. a non-international armed conflict that than the urban population; the rural poor Whether displaced globally or internally, meets most of the criteria of the Interna- often lose the land that provides their sus- some of the forcibly displaced people live tional Humanitarian Law even though tenance. Once displaced, they find it dif- in refugee camps, where their basic needs its armed forces are not motivated by an ficult to find work—especially those who are provided by governments, humanitar- ideology or a political agenda. Yet neither end up squatting on the outskirts of cit- ian agencies or non-profit organizations. the Mexican government nor the interna- ies. These are important issues, yet while These camps, meant to provide care and tional humanitarian agencies have fully forced displacement is also fundamentally control, too often become spaces of ne- acknowledged this crisis of mass displace- a spatial issue, questions about the spaces glect and violence, where people’s lives are ment. No mechanisms exist to support related to this displacement are left unat- suspended in a state of enduring tempo- the forcibly displaced populations, who tended. Where, and in what conditions, rariness for years and sometimes for gen-

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erations. However, as the world becomes nomic exploitation. The fact that statis- cities, these new urban spaces of internal urbanized, we increasingly see the urban- tically most displaced people in Mexico displacement form contested sites of po- ization of refuge; currently more than six- (indeed, in other countries in Central and litical struggles which are grounded at ty percent of the world’s displaced people South America too), the rural poor, are the very core of their societies. The city live in cities, many of them in informal indigenous, mixed-race or Afro-descend- itself indeed does offer a sanctuary to the urban settlements. ants is striking evidence that there exist internally displaced; however, the urban While internally displaced people in sustained modes of systemic marginaliza- forms of welcoming clearly tend to be Latin American cities form an integral tion. Similarly, discussions about coloni- highly conditional and repeat segregat- part of the broader global politics and alism, which had been largely avoided by ing patterns which limit opportunities practices of urban informality and its Latin American intellectuals, now occupy and maintain violent relations. ever-changing relationships, the urban centre stage in academic debates, reveal- Where, and in what conditions, inter- spaces which they occupy and use also ing the colonial origin of contemporary nally displaced people live is not a ques- have specific characteristics and meaning patterns of racial exclusion. tion that can be answered simply by sum- in which old and new local, national and Racial exclusionary patterns reappear marising statistics or by looking at the continental politics of race and violence in the geographies of racial distribution provision of basic services such as schools, become inseparable. in most Latin American cities. Since medical support and adequate housing in the foundation of cities in the 16th and the settlements they occupy. Nor is it sim- URBAN SPACES 17th centuries, black and indigenous ply a matter of poverty alleviation through OF DISPLACEMENT IN MEXICO populations have occupied different ge- income generating initiatives. The under- Recent studies in Mexico and other ographical positions from the colonizer’s lying social and political issues are more Latin American nations show that the centrality. That is why the conditions of complex and surpass the superficiality settlements formed by internally dis- exclusion and marginality that we see of this kind of simplistic approach. Can placed people, in and on the outskirts today in most Latin American cities are internally displaced people occupy oth- of cities such as Culiacán, the capital of magnified expressions of a pattern of er areas of the city? Can they receive in- Sinaloa state, have a greater tendency urban growth initiated by the Spanish creased humanitarian support? Can in- to become insecure, and often violent. and Portuguese with their segregationist ternally displaced people attain greater These settlements are occupied by people approach to urban planning during the political representation? Space refers to from different rural origins, who often do colonial period. It is no coincidence that a physical (geographical) as well as an in- not know one another and resent living these two socio-ethnic groups, black and tangible (socio-political) position, both of in conditions of deprivation alongside indigenous populations, remain poor, which influence the conditions of life for the urban poor, who are city-savvy. Un- under-represented and excluded from everyone in the city. The new urban en- able to get and retain formal jobs, feel- the dominant economic system, and they vironments of those displaced by violence ing unsupported by the state, and under are the main victims of drugs, guerrilla seem to continue the cycle of violence and threat from urban residents, displaced and paramilitary conflicts throughout reproduce it in other spaces and forms, groups form ethno-regional alliances for Latin America. As such, these are the rather than offering support, assistance self-protection. Thus, mutually defensive population groups which are mostly dis- and comfort for the ones escaping it. groups regard each other with suspicion placed and their consequential urban re- and distrust, which causes urban public settlement patterns sustain the colonial Felipe Hernández, an architect and a spaces to be perceived as dangerous and, ones. Senior Lecturer at the Department of Ar- therefore, uninhabitable. Violence breeds The urban spaces of displacement in chitecture University of Cambridge, has more violence just in the same way that Latin American cities are therefore not published extensively on Latin America. the various forms of social exclusion that merely the backdrop to the lives of the He is Chair of Cities South of Cancer, a are at stake in these conditions exacerbate internally displaced people. Rather, their research group working on urban issues segregation. conditions of insecurity, uncertain eco- in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Bangla- The effects of internal displacement nomic and legal status in their new loca- desh and Indonesia. in Mexico and Latin America and its tion, as well as the inability, or unwilling- never-ending cycles of violence have ness, of the authorities to deal with the Irit Katz is an architect and a researcher brought important questions to the po- problem, reflect a situation of fundamen- at the Department of Architecture Uni- litical agenda. The question of racism has tal inequality and neglect which is deeply versity of Cambridge. She studies the re-emerged, along with debates about embedded in the colonial origins of pol- spatial, social and geopolitical aspects of marginalization as a systemic condition itics in Latin America, including spatial migrant camps, refugee camps and other of inequity that allows the perpetuation politics. By reproducing the old patterns spaces of displacement in historical and of a system of political control and eco- of race-based discriminatory divisions in contemporary contexts.

60 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO OF ANA TIJOUX OPPOSITE PAGE, BY JAY CONNOR EXPLORING THE ARTS

Mary Schneider Enriquez Sculpture and Displacement • Luca Istodor Ana Tijoux’s Radical Crossing of Borders Azriel Bibliowicz The Octopus, the Spider and the Braying Burros • Paolo Ibarra (Dis) locations of Violence in Latin American Films • Sergio Delgado Moya Displacement Here, Displacement Now

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Sculpture and Displacement Doris Salcedo, The Materiality of Mourning BY MARY SCHNEIDER ENRIQUEZ

WHEN I BEGAN WORKING ON THE HARVARD Art The importance of Doris Salcedo’s Museums exhibition “Doris Salcedo: The work lies not only in her remarkable Materiality of Mourning” five years ago, I skills as a sculptor, but also in the socio- could not have anticipated that the open- political themes that she addresses and in ing would come just after the unexpected the challenges that she poses to materi- defeat of Colombia’s historic peace ref- ality and to the viewer, whom she dares erendum, which set off political tumult to study her evocative works deeply and and soul-wrenching in Colombia and the thoughtfully. At the time of this writing, United States. The following week, right the continuing crisis of civil violence; the before the exhibit, President Juan Man- widespread displacement of thousands uel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace of people fleeing conflict; the persistent Prize. In response to these events, Salce- attacks targeting public places such as do organized a public act with more than schools, parks, and theaters; and the 10,000 volunteers in the Plaza de Bolívar alienation and economic disparity divid- in Bogotá. They covered the sprawling ing communities around the world has plaza with 7,000 meters of white fabric, lent further poignancy to Salcedo’s proj- made up of 1,900 pieces, each bearing the ect. Art will not solve these problems; name of a victim of the civil war, hand- however, it can make a statement and sewn together by volunteers in an act of create a space where, as Salcedo herself mourning and peace. Salcedo arrived in remarked in an April 23, 2013, talk at the Cambridge just days after completing Harvard Art Museums, it “can inscribe in this extraordinary communal gesture our life a different kind of passage, that with Colombians of all ages and back- is from suffering to signifying loss.” Art grounds. She was emotionally and physi- can help us acknowledge and learn from cally exhausted, but determined to install Art can help us the injustice that has occurred and is oc- the exhibit in the days before the divisive acknowledge and learn curring in this world—work that must be U.S. elections. As it turned out, this ex- done if we are to move forward for the hibition opened at a moment in which from the injustice sake of humankind. it pointedly spoke to issues simmering that has occurred and In addition to my respect for her com- within the current socio-political land- mitment to tackling some of the most scape of the United States and elsewhere is occurring in this pressing sociopolitical concerns of our in the world. Political violence, civil un- world—work that must time, the weight of which she comes to rest and the far-reaching repercussions understand personally through extensive of societal ruptures inform the work Sal- be done if we are to interviews with the victims, my keen in- cedo painstakingly creates. move forward for the terest in Salcedo’s work stems from her This exhibition of Salcedo’s sculptures ability to create pieces of remarkable presents in spare, quiet but hauntingly sake of humankind. aesthetic complexity that address these powerful installations, a means for us to issues with quiet but forceful physicality. mourn and contemplate, to address and sized tapestry, or by fusing one unlikely She stretches the capacities of materials, come to terms with human loss and the material with another, such as wooden constructing a materiality that is diffi- unsettling uncertainties of our homes, furniture filled with cement—is about cult to comprehend and at times seems society and world when people choose defying expectations by creating the pos- impossible: the sutured rose petals that to divide on issues central to the nation’s sible against all odds and by finding the don’t wither, the cement-filled furniture, ideals. Ultimately, Salcedo’s practice—the enduring human spirit within the bleak. ABOVE, DORIS SALCEDO. PHOTO BY DAVID HEALD; © impossible challenges she sets for herself We mourn, we remember, we continue GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NY; COURTESY OF ALEXANDER by creating sculptures of temporal mate- to believe. And above all, we endeavor to AND BONIN, NEW YORK. OPPOSITE PAGE, HARVARD ART MUSEUMS; © PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD rials such as rose petals sewn into a room- create and realize what must be. COLLEGE.

62 ReVista WINTER 2017 EXPLORING THE ARTS

Clockwise from far left: Figure 2, Installation view of untitled chair work; installation view of A Flor de Piel (detail); installation view of Disre- membered IV. All are installations in the exhibit Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning, on display November 4, 2016-April 9, 2017 at the Harvard Art Museums. © Doris Salcedo.

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the crumpled steel chairs—these pieces materials, and demonstrate Salcedo’s abil- unnerve and compel the viewer to con- ity to transfer this materiality from the im- front the immensity of the injustice that mense solid presence seen in her furniture has transpired. There is nothing easy or works, to the vivid yet hauntingly evocative readily accessible about her sculpture. rose petal shroud, to the ethereal, specter- They are difficult works, but from early on, like needle shirts that seem to float over I was certain that Salcedo’s project matters Fig 1. Installation view of two untitled works. the wall. Her desire to make visible those immensely, because she pushes the me- lost to civil violence fuels her choice of ma- dium, she pushes the art of handwork, she terial challenges. Salcedo speaks about her pushes the accepted definition of the space Her titles often reference work “Palimpsest” in the book Doris Sal- that a sculpture should or even could in- cedo, edited by Julie Rodrigues Widholm habit, and she pushes the means by which historical or literary and Madeleine Grynsztejn (Chicago: Uni- a powerful socio-political statement can be sources rather than versity of Chicago Press; Museum of Con- expressed. temporary Art, 2015, p. 217). Salcedo also reimagines the way in contemporary events; but She tells us “An aesthetic view of which we mark remembrance. Her sculp- her works unequivocally death reveals an ethical view of life,” and tures are not memorials—static, heroic adds, “and it is for this reason that there monuments situated in a public site; artic- address the need to mark is nothing more human than mourning.” ulated in the traditional materials of stone, the societal loss wrought marble or steel; impervious to climate. A version of this essay was first published Instead, she takes materials that are rec- by violence. in Mary Schneider Enriquez, Doris Salce- ognizable as part of the everyday, touched do: The Materiality of Mourning (Cam- by human hands or feet, such as furniture to mark the societal loss wrought by vio- bridge, Mass.: Harvard Art Museums, and cement, but transforms them in such a lence. It is up to the viewer to take the time 2016), 137–140. © President and Fellows way that the resulting visual effect inspires to look closely, confront, and ponder what of Harvard College. The exhibition Doris one to pause, remember, and mourn the she has created. In Salcedo’s words, “I hope Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning absence of those taken from this life. She that my work can cross through history to is on view at the Harvard Art Museums creates objects and installations that are make present the extreme experiences that through April 9, 2017. at once familiar and hauntingly changed. lay forgotten in the past.” Rather than build a statue of a leader, mar- Monumentality is conveyed in Salcedo’s Mary Schneider Enriquez is the Hought- tyr or victim whom we acknowledge as a work not only through the large scale of on Associate Curator of Modern and specific participant in the violence, she cre- many of her sculptures and public installa- Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art ates a sculpture that conjures associations tions (see Fig. 1), but in the enormous effort Museums. She curated the special exhi- and provides a space for contemplating of the labor she undertakes to make her art bition Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of what and who was lost. by hand and in the materiality that results Mourning. She also curated the recent ex- Salcedo’s memorial is a work mourn- (Fig. 2). While many contemporary artists hibition Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals ing; it is sculpture that, as the artist said employ fragile and/or everyday materials in (2014–15), and played a major role in the in her April 2013 talk at the Harvard Art their work, Salcedo has chosen to focus on reinstallation of the modern and con- Museums, “attempts to give back the materials both unexpected and especially temporary galleries in the renovated and sense, meaning, and form that violence complicated to manipulate, form, and pre- expanded Harvard Art Museums, which took away from its victims, the unmourned serve in perpetuity. From her early use of opened in November 2014. She directed the dead of the past.” Consequently, her works cement, wood, and stainless steel with in- commission and installation of a public spark differing thoughts, associations, and clusions of fabric and hairs, to her decision sculpture, Carlos Amorales’s Triangle emotions in each viewer, turning the tra- in recent years to construct works with soil Constellation, currently on display in ditional idea of the memorial on its head. and grass or thousands of sutured rose pet- the museums’ central courtyard. She has Usually no individual names are given als, to her latest challenge—the mutability contributed essays to numerous exhibition nor specific histories cited (Salcedo’s new- of water—she has tested the possibilities catalogues, and has written extensively on est work, Palimpsest, is an exception, as it of materials. Time and again she creates contemporary art for ARTnews and Art- presents the names of victims that appear, a materiality that defies expectations. Her Nexus magazines. She received her Ph.D. disappear and then reappear). Her titles most recent works, including those pre- in the Department of History of Art and often reference historical or literary sourc- sented in the Harvard Art Museums’ spe- Architecture at Harvard, with a disser- es rather than contemporary events; but cial exhibition, experiment with the physi- tation focused on the work of Colombi- her works unequivocally address the need cal lifespan and visual qualities of organic an artist Doris Salcedo.

64 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO CREDIT: ABOVE, HARVARD ART MUSEUMS; © PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE; OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTO BY JAY CONNOR. EXPLORING THE ARTS

ANA TIJOUX

Ana Tijoux’s Radical Crossing of Borders Interpreting Displacement and Transnational Justice BY LUCA ISTODOR

THIS SUMMER, I WAS AN INTERN IN SANTIAGO’S practice room, I found her in front of a Displacement seems to be at the core Museum of Memory and Human Rights, full-scale jazz band. of Ana Tijoux’s crossing of borders and the museum dedicated to the victims of You could barely hear her usually very genres. The Chilean singer manages to Pinochet’s dictatorship. Since I was in powerful vocals as they were covered use displacement as an opportunity rath- Chile, I decided to take my chances and by the sound of saxophones, trumpets, er than a burden. Her parents were in ex- try to contact Ana Tijoux, the world- guitars and basses. I was genuinely sur- ile in France since the start of Pinochet’s famous French-Chilean contemporary prised. I knew her musical expressions dictatorship in 1973. Tijoux was born musician—an acquaintance had given were diverse, but I had never heard her there in 1977, although she says she never me her manager’s e-mail. He responded take her songs to an entirely different completely fit in. The most interesting ef- quickly. She only had a few days in Chile genre. When I came in, they were playing fect of her upbringing in France, as she before leaving on a tour in Europe: “we’re Tijoux’s autobiographical “1977.” After recalls, was her intercultural exchange trying to avoid the Chilean winter and hearing it a few times, as they perfected with different immigrants in the coun- head to the European summer.” Thus their synchronization, I reexamined my try. “They were Algerians, Canadians, my only chance to see her was at a re- reaction. As they went on to one of her Moroccans who were in the same situa- hearsal she had before her last concert most recent songs, “Somos Sur,” I real- tion as me: I’m French, but I don’t look in Santiago. A few days later, I was told ized that in the context of Tijoux’s work French,” she states in an article in the to come to Juegos Diana—a popular in- and life, what I was hearing should be far Chilean newspaper La Tercera. door amusement park in Santiago. As her from surprising. Indeed, every jazz song In interviews, she often rejects France manager walked with me to a small room I heard and sang along to, every jazz in- and says she wouldn’t want her children in the back with a few vaguely unsettling strument and every variation from the to live in such a “decadent” country, yet old-fashioned children’s games and rides originals I otherwise knew by heart made she praises her upbringing for putting in faded colors, I could hear jazz music complete sense. Ana Tijoux does not fol- her in contact with Africans and their increasingly louder. I didn’t give it much low the borders imposed by genres, just cultures in France. During her childhood, thought at first, because I knew Tijoux as she doesn’t follow the borders between hip-hop played an essential role in cop- always sang rap, but when I got to the countries and cultures. ing with this constant feeling of not be-

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ers] was/ And forgetting, for some time, oppression: “Dream big so that the em- that half/ Of my family is very far away.” pire falls/ [...] Africa and Latin America “When someone asks While proudly urging people to remem- are not for auction.” In this song, Ana Ti- me what district I ber their origins, the song clearly has a joux and Shadia Mansour call for all colo- transnational sense inspired by displace- nized countries to fight against their colo- represent?/ I tell ment itself—a sense of a unity of coun- nizers, in the most active and immediate them that I truly do tries and cultures beyond traditional way possible: “This is not utopia, this is concepts of borders: “When someone a joyful dancing rebellion.” And breaking not understand/ The asks me what district I represent?/ I tell the borders seems the only way to suc- feeling of being tied to them that I truly do not understand/ The ceed in this collective struggle. This song feeling of being tied to a neighbourhood.” is perhaps an epitome of her biography a neighbourhood.” “Rosa de los Vientos” and Tijoux’s Makiza and work. It includes her parents’ desire period seems nothing more than the logi- to escape the authority of the dictator- longing: music became a land “for those cal continuation of her childhood: a loud ship; her childhood connection she val- who felt landless.” Tijoux believes in hip- affirmation of her origins, of the impact ues so much with the African immigrants hop’s power to make the displaced feel of displacement and of a transnational in France; a symbolic connection be- restored. It is thus displacement which identity. tween Latin America and Africa; her go- brought her to hip-hop in the first place After leaving Makiza, it wasn’t just na- ing back and forth from Chile to France and made her music truly transnational. tional borders that Tijoux crossed; it was and thus experiencing both Europe and It is enough to look at some of her lat- also jobs, aspirations and musical genres. Latin America; the feeling of displace- est albums to notice collaborations with For a while, she went back to France. ment and the empowerment of rap which singers from all around the world. From She worked as a secretary in an adver- connected the members of Makiza; her the Uruguayan Jorge Drexler in “Sacar tising agency, a high-school inspector, a transnational social justice work against la Voz” to the British Palestinian Shadia nanny. She then wanted to spend time all types of oppression. Mansour for “Somos Sur,” the influence of in China, yet finally decided to go back When viewed in the proper context, her childhood becomes evident. to Chile, where she released her first solo the fact that Tijoux was singing jazz that The dictatorship ended in 1990 and album, Kaos—a mixture of pop and rap. day in Santiago shouldn’t be a surprise. Tijoux was able to go to Chile, her par- Her next two albums, 1977 and La Bala, Her music is about crossing borders and ent’s homeland, and, in a way, her own. seem to focus more on her own process of genres. Whether she sings rap, jazz or By the time she turned twenty, she be- growth as a person (1977) and on Chilean pop, her music is about uniting people came the only female rapper in the hip- problems (songs like “Shock” and “Des- to fight against oppression. It goes from hop group Makiza. Apart from hip-hop, clasificado” talk about education and the solving national Chilean problems to what connected the group was that all of socio-political situation in Chile). worldwide women’s liberation. In this its members had grown up in different These two albums seem gradual steps sense, Ana managed to turn her experi- countries: Gastón Gabarro had grown up towards the more large-scale, global is- ence with displacement from alienation in Canada, Seo2 was raised in Switzer- sues she addresses in her latest album, to a constructive deeper, global under- land and Dj Squat had spent a lot of time Vengo, released in 2014. “Antipatriarca” standing of the world, its issues and its in Africa. As a group, they would sing so- could serve as an international feminist people. And whether next time it is in cial protest songs, often against Pinochet anthem. For its video, Tijoux asked all the Juegos Diana or another old amusement and his dictatorship. people she knew in feminist and women’s park in a city on a different continent, I One of their most famous pieces, “La organizations around the world to send know that if I see her rehearse or sing in Rosa de los Vientos,” (the Rose of the videos of themselves dancing and sing- concert again, her constantly evolving Winds) speaks particularly about dis- ing her song. The result is both a celebra- music might be different, yet it will ad- placement. The intense feelings of being tion of diversity in women’s voices and a dress the same essential, transnational torn between two places on earth, not call for justice. Its lyrics “Not submissive, issues. belonging to the place where you were not obedient/ A strong insurgent wom- born: all these are present in the song’s an/ Independent and valiant/ Breaking Luca Istodor is a sophomore at Har- lyrics: “If you knew what it means/ to the chains of indifference” represent the vard College studying Women, Gender be divided, not to know what your land worldwide struggle for women’s libera- and Sexuality Studies and a queer is”; “Sometimes I wish I had wings like a tion. activist from Bucharest, Romania. His bird/ fly in time where Lautaro [one of On the same album, the song “So- work in social justice often intersects the leaders of the indigenous Mapuche mos Sur” encourages the countries of the with his passion for filmmaking, art resistance against the Spanish coloniz- Southern Hemisphere to unite against and literature.

66 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO, OPPOSITE PAGE BY LUIS GAITÁN /CROMOS EXPLORING THE ARTS

The Octopus, the Spider and the Braying Burros Bogotá and Displacement BY AZRIEL BIBLIOWICZ

COLOMBIA HAS LONG BEEN A COUNTRY OF CIVIL wars. From the 1810 cry of independence to the early 20th century, the country had suffered a series of armed conflicts be- tween traditional political parties. The 19th century ended with the Thousand Days War, which left its mark on the beginning of the 20th century. Now, in the first decades of the 21st cen- tury, we have not been able to end the 20th-century wars. We live as in the Mi- ddle Ages, when cities had become shel- ters from the wars. In 2003, the National Museum of Colombia organized an exhibition called “Times of Peace,” a somewhat ironic title since the exhibit focused on the country’s various armed conflicts. Perhaps it got its name from featuring several peace trea- ties signed between 1902 and 1994. The exhibit included objects and pho- tos from the Thousand Days War and from the 1928 banana massacre, which Gabriel García Márquez described in a painful, unforgettable way in A Hundred Years of Solitude. Other unhappy episo- des continued to mark Colombian his- tory—the assasination of popular leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán on April 9, 1948, and the subsequent looting of Bogotá, leading to the period in the 1950s, known as La Violencia, in which liberal and conserva- tive guerrillas battled each other in the countryside. That period gave rise to the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán greets the crowd in Bogotá, Colombia. communist guerrillas of the 1960s, fueled in turn by the cold war; to the creation of peasant self-defense groups as a res- All these forms of violence constantly stories, Sobre la Faz del Abismo, I com- ponse to the communist guerrillas; then spawned displacement from the country- pare the country’s violence to the biblical came the paramilitary groups, product of side to the city. In a span of fifty years, be- legends of the Old Testament. It seems the Army’s dirty war, and the war against tween 1936 and 1986, Colombia changed that a person living in Colombia is ex- drugs—in which the United States also from being predominantly rural to urban. posed to a primal reality similar to many participated—then we suffered kidnap- More than 70 percent of the population of the problems encountered in the He- ping as a form of financing the various ended up in the cities—today calculated brew Bible. We confront crude, primitive, armed actors and, finally, the culture of at 75 percent. and contradictory circumstances—rou- hitmen and widespread delinquency. In the prologue of my book of short gh, inconceivable and incredible. The

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violence in all its forms imposes itself the 30s, the landowners, in exchange for with an extraordinary force that is diffi- the work of the peasant and his family, cult to ignore and at times to understand. rented them a small lot for basic suste- It’s no coincidence that recent Colom- nance crops such as yucca, beans and bian literature has focused on the theme corn, but the peasants were not permi- of violence and armed conflicts. Violence tted to grow coffee, since that crop was is an undeniable circumstance that im- considered land improvement. prisons us. But the big question we wri- During this decade, the theme of land ters are always asking ourselves is how to ownership became critical, above all in treat the reality of violence in a literary the center of the country. The land law manner. was an affront to the conservatives, who In 2001, several anthologies were forced the peasants to abandon the coun- published dealing with violence and dis- Putting out the fires. tryside. It is important to point out here placement, including Lugares Ajenos: that many of the peasants were of indi- relatos del desplazamiento and the an- these displacements. Classism and con- genous heritage. Because of this, in my thology edited by Peter Schultze Kraft, tempt for indigenous people, on the one novel El Rumor del Astracán, one of the La Horrible Noche: relatos de violencia y hand, and anti-Semitic xenophobia, on most painful scene occurs when Ruth, the la guerra en Colombia. These and other the other, were two sides of the same coin Jewish immigrant and the novel’s prota- works by artists and writers show how and came from both the liberal and con- gonist, says to Alicia, a displaced migrant the conflict has been played out on the servative parties. and coworker, that because they are both body of the peasant. Without a doubt, the Between 1886 and 1930, Colombia displaced, “she trusts her because being violence seeks to stamp its contempt for had been governed by a conservative he- poor one understands many things. Their life on the body of the Other, this Other gemony made up by a landowning class condition makes everything equal.” Ali- that the society relegates and transforms totally disconnected from the reality of cia replies, “My señora Ruth, excuse me, into invisibility. the peasants. This elite considered the fu- but you perhaps do not have money right When I began to research Bogotá’s ture of Europe to be German and Italian now, but, believe me, you are not going to history for a novel I was writing about the facism. The conservative party, suppor- be poor your entire life. But we do not get city, a coincidence caught my attention: ted by the Catholic Church, spearheaded ahead no matter how hard we work. You from 1936 onward, two migratory waves the opposition to the land law, the first get rich. We remain an Indian.” transformed the capital, one from abroad agrarian reform in the 20th century. It Racism, lack of social mobility and and the other from within the country. accused the López Pumarejo government contempt for the indigenous have always Jewish migration into the city—al- of being Bolshevik and wanting to elimi- characterized Colombia. A detailed and though never more than 5,000 peo- nate private property. important study by Carl Henrik Lange- ple—had an significant impact on the The land law (Law 200) declared that baek, Los Herederos del Pasado: indíge- city’s commerce and development. My property ought to fulfill a social function. nas y pensamiento criollo en Colombia own family, like so many who came from The reform gave the nation power to exa- y Venezuela, analyzes and develops the Eastern Europe, began their migration ppropriate abandoned land that had been complex and contradictory relationship fleeing from pogroms and the advent of fallow for more than ten years. It also as- with indigenous people from indepen- World War II. serted that the peasant could become the dence on. It’s important to note that the But 1936 also marked the violence in owner of the land if he had worked it for vernacular maintains these contemp- the center of the country and the begin- thirty consecutive years and could show tuous attitudes. To call someone an In- ning of forced displacement of peasants he had made improvements. dian is considered an insult in Colombia. to the city, as an outcome of the land re- Social researchers liken the situation It was not until reading Franz Fanon form law of the Alfonso López Pumarejo of the Colombian peasants in the 30s to that I ended up understanding that all government. “the curse of Tantalus,” a Greek myth in racism is one. In his words: “It was my While studying the different waves of which the son of Zeus was punished by philosophy professor, a native of the Antil- newcomers to Bogotá, I found that 1936 standing in a pool of water surrounded by les, who recalled the fact to me one day: was a turning point, and that even if great fruit, but without ever being able to reach ‘Whenever you hear anyone abuse the differences existed between these two ex- the fruit or drink the water, suffering Jews, pay attention, because he is talking periences of rootlessness, they also had a from hunger and thirst; the Colombian about you.’ And I found that he was uni- lot in common. Both migrations confron- peasant lived surrounded by coffee, but versally right—by which I meant that I was ted racism, classism, contempt, mistakes, was not allowed to cultivate it for himself answerable in my body and in my heart confusions and perplexities that underlay or reap the benefits of ownership. During for what was done to my brother” (Black

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Skin, White Masks New York: Grove, darity possible, but the xenophobic policy With the April 9, 1948, assassination 1952). of the government considered all those of of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, the city was con- When I wrote El Rumor del Astracán, African and Asian origin to be abject and sumed in total chaos; the stores and co- I faced the challenge of how to show how loathsome degenerates, and evidently the mercial establishments along Seventh anti-Semitism, as well as the discrimi- Jews, no matter their country of origin. and Eighth Avenues were looted; more nation against blacks and indigenous in However, Colombia has been seen as a than 140 buildings were burned down the 30s, formed an integral part of the country that may wink at the rules—they and the streetcar tracks torn up. And the Colombian reality and reflected official are acknowledged, but not necessarily Bogotá elite began to ask, “Where did policies. It was not a coincidence that the implemented. So the Jews and foreigners these people come from?” Colombian government shut its doors to who arrived in the country and managed The answer was in the overcrowded immigration and particularly to Jews. We to enter, even with falsified documents, rooming houses. Displaced people had know today that more than 25,000 Jews were never deported. Contraband has been living for years piled up in the back asked for visas to immigrate to Colombia always been part of the reality of the of stores and in subhuman conditions—in and were refused. Many of them died la- country; the only thing that changes is rage and despair that exploded in 1948. ter in the Nazi extermination camps. the product. As Fabio Zambrano Patoja recounts in In the novel, I used a historically ba- From the 1930s on, discrimination La Historia de Bogota del Siglo XX, be- sed but imagined anecdote to explain and classism in Bogotá have defined the tween 1936 and 1948, Bogotá doubled its how the Foreign Affairs Ministry shut the city. In those years, the population not population, from 350,000 inhabitants doors to immigration. The story recounts only was differentiated by skin color, but to more than 700,000. Moreover, in the arrival of some British subjects to the by clothing. Those who wore a three-pie- 1958, ten years after the April 9 magni- Cartagena port. The British government ce suit and leather shoes were of the doc- cide, Bogotá tripled its urban area. And had previously requested visas for them. tor class, and those who used wool pon- the population would double more or less The Colombian government, thinking chos or shawls and walked barefoot or every ten years. Thus in 1958 more than they were Englishmen with white skin, in espadrilles were ruanetas, indigenous a million people lived in Bogotá, and in approved the visas. Rumors began to cir- people or peasants. When the Jews arri- 1968 the city had around 4.5 million. The culate in Cartagena that Lord Mountbat- ved, they extended a type of credit that city expanded in a disorderly manner like ten’s nephew was among the passengers, made it possible for the most humble and an octupus with many tentacles. but that for reasons of protocol, the go- insolvent to dress like “doctors.” As for- In 1951, architect Le Corbusier was in- vernment wanted to protect his identity. mer president Alberto Lleras Camargo vited to draw up a city plan. But his pro- The rumors flew and more than one fa- explained in an article, this transforma- jects coincided with the military dictator- mily was offended that they had not been tion of the credit habits of the city caused ship of General Rojas Pinilla, who turned invited to a supposed welcome banquet. what he called “a humble revolution, a his back on any proposals for regulating When the boat arrived, it “was greeted by change in the face of a nation of peasants the growth of the city. Instead, Rojas Pi- a band and a fleet of national warships. into something better, less picturesque, nilla approved the creation of a special First ‘God save the King’ was played and more uniform, but also more egalitarian.” then the [Colombian national anthem] People could no longer be distinguished …the mayor with the keys to the city was by what they were wearing. the first to climb the stairs.” Bogotá of the 30s was a cold, isola- A few minutes later he furiously ran ted, rainy, closed-off and provincial city down the stairs, shouting, “The British with a poor population fleeing from the subjects are Jamaicans. The boat is full violence. The displaced people—whether of Jamaicans! The British subjects are a peasants or Jews—ended up in crowded bunch of Negroes.” rooming houses. It is not a coinciden- The mayor did not let the passengers ce that among the well-known literary get off the boat and sent them back home. works of that period were those of José Because of that event, immigration to the Antonio Osorio Lizarazo, one of the first country was closed off, and resident visas writers to describe urban life in Colombia prohibited until further notice. in his novel La Casa de Vecindad, which This imaginary incident allowed me portrayed the squalid conditions of these to demonstrate that immigration restric- rooming houses. This awful reality was tions in the 30s were not just aimed at the later portrayed in a 1994 prize-winning Jews. Without a doubt, at that historic movie, La Estrategia del Caracol, direc- moment they needed all the human soli- ted by Sergio Cabrera. A destroyed church in Bogotá.

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district and annexed a series of munici- they controlled urban transportation. In ced descampesinación is taking place: palities, casting aside any plan for territo- the 50s, a series of bus routes prolifera- peasants can’t be peasants if they have no rial order. The integration of Usme, Bosa, ted toward the south and west. Farms land, and twenty million acres had been Fontibón, Engativa, Suba and Usaquén like the huge Vuelta del Alto were bought taken by force out of productive agricul- resulted in the urbanization of thousands by developers to construct working-class tural use. of acres of farms that once cultivated neighborhoods. The Ontario Bernal y One of the consequences of forced wheat, barley and other products. In the Hermanos farm owners dried up a lake displacement has been the theft of land face of the number of displaced peoples and urbanized the land clandestinely and from peasants and the concentration of who continued to arrive in Bogotá from illegally, turning it into the working-class large landholdings. Nowadays 0.4 % of the countryside in the 50s because of the neighborhood El Carmen, which was le- landowners own 46% of Colombia’s rural violence, the need for housing sparked galized finally forty years later. The clan- land. speculation with the land which, in turn, destine developers depended on bus lines In 2009, between forty and fifty fa- got in the way of organized planning. The to open paths and to take residents to milies arrived in Bogotá daily, some 203 farms were divided up and sold as lots their jobs throughout the city. persons, of whom 70% were displaced. ln without much state control. Moreover, With the swelling population of dis- 2014, about 13 million Colombians lived Fenalco (the National Merchants Fede- placed rural people and lack of housing, in poverty and eight million in extreme ration) and the Association of Urbanizers some developers simply turned over lots poverty. Reduction of inequality remains and Parcel-Makers fomented this urban without sewage, drinking water or light, stagnant. chaos. In the following decades, the lan- and people built their own houses. Many The sprawling growth of the city also downers of the plains surrounding Bogo- families could not rent rooms in rooming required constuction materials such as tá found a new form of wealth, and many houses because they had too many chil- gravel, clay, sand and stone, and in the ci- of their farms were “planted” with bricks dren, but if they found steady work, they ty’s south, brickworks sprang up, emplo- instead of crops. could buy a lot on credit. These displaced ying many child workers. The movie Los And even though the state was not rural people felt they had to have a bit of Chircales, made between 1965 and 1972 responsible for this division of land and land to plant their gardens and did not by Jorge Silva and Martha Rodríguez, out-of-control growth, it did play a role in want to continue to pay rent, in spite of was one of the first documentaries to de- the stratification of the city to foment evi- the complete absence of social and mu- nounce this exploitation of child labor. dent and marked class differences. The nicipal services on the plots. Those who The mountains surrounding the city south was officially chosen as a place for bought lots dreamed of constructing two were also exploited by serving as quarries. the working class and the north for the floors to rent one out and guarantee an And in many cases this was done in a wealthy. After April 9, when downtown income. clandestine and illegal manner, leaving was perceived as dangerous, the Bogo- In many cases, the new plots were an open scar in the city’s southwest sec- tá elite began to flee “from the horrible outside Bogotá jurisdiction. A close rela- tor. Slowly, the city’s wetlands began to riffraff—guacherna.” The phrase brings tionship existed between the bus compa- disappear. Bogotá originally had more out the prejudices in the language of the nies and the clandestine property develo- than a million acres of wetlands or lakes, city. Guache means “man” in the Chib- pers, many of whom became city council- now they are down to 1,616 acres, and cha indigenous language, and guaricha men and promised to get basic services still continuing to dry up from blatant means woman. However, in the dictio- for the area in exchange for votes. misuse. The city has paid an enormous nary of Colombian terms, guache appears Only in 1974, twenty years after this environmental cost, and the resulting as a shifty man and guaricha as a pros- erratic sort of settlement began, did mi- gullies permeate the southern areas. titute. Without a doubt, a classist and se- nimum regulations for urbanization and Illegal squatters continue to invade gregationist attitude dominated the envi- services get established. However, the the southern mountain slopes of Bogo- ronment, feeding the repudiation of the fact that the rules had been written didn’t tá, where part of the displaced popula- displaced population. mean there was a will to carry them out. tion and other poor people have settled. To understand the tentacular expan- It is not mere chance that 51% of the city The illegal invasions are very complex, sion the city was suffering, it is impor- will end up being a product of these spon- because the poverty-stricken include tant to point out the role played by the taneous and informal urbanizations. displaced people, the needy, beggars and bus companies in this process. On April Colombia is now said to have the omi- bandits. Land invasions and the variety 9, streetcars were burnt and rails dug up, nous number of six and a half million of shady business by different groups which I doubt was mere coincidence, as displaced people, the second in the world of dispossessed in some cases reminds the private bus companies had already in displacement after Syria. Among Co- us of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Three Penny begun to compete for control of trans- lombia’s displaced people, 87% come Opera.” portation. After the Bogotazo of 1948, from the countryside, and it is said for- Claims resulting from land invasions

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Over time, the “spiders” begin their work—connections made from hoses that take water illegally from the aqueduct. Neighbors organize to make the connec- tion with plumbers they’ve dubbed “en- gineers.” To be sure, older neighboring communities complain, and the illegal connections lead to confrontations with the police. In 1970, it was calculated that the amount of water stolen by clandesti- ne urbanizations and squatters was 20% of all the water provided by the Bogotá Aqueduct and Sewage Company. In the beginning, the invaders lighted their shacks with candles which, on more than one occasion, caused a fire. That let up when another kind of “spiders” showed up to make illegal connections to electric lighting through makeshift cables and wires to electrical posts. The number of people displaced by the violence just kept growing. The in- difference of the political class and the weakness of the state left them to get by as best they could to resolve their pro- The people took to the streets, looting, ransack- blems. All this fomented Bogotá’s inequa- ing and setting fires after lity and class segregation. The war, com- the 1948 murder of populist bined with the lack of a policy for integral leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. Streetcars were a special tar- rural reform and the permanent opposi- get, with attacks instigated tion of the landholding class, has created by bus companies. runaway urban growth and poverty. However, the story of the Sadly, the “spiders” and the “braying rapid growth of Bogotá does donkey fleet” will continue their rounds not begin in 1948, but in providing the newcomers and the displa- 1936, when rural Colombians fled partisan violence to find ced people the basic necessities of life. refuge in the big city. And as we said in the beginning, even more sadly, the wars of the 20th century in Colombia have not come to an end in people continue and cause all these first decades of the 21st. If this vio- types of social problems as they lence doesn’t stop, forced displacement surround the city with belts of will continue to spiral out of control. misery. Because of the lack of social Azriel Bibliowicz is a novelist and are accumulating in the courts, which services and the needs of the professor at the National University in are so slow that they can take up to 12 people, the “spiders” and the “braying Bogotá, where he was one of the found- years and thus have ended up legalizing donkey fleet” have begun to thrive. The ing professors of the School of Film and many occupants. Mayors in each locality donkey fleet is a procession of burros, Television. He also created and then di- must initiate the processes of restitution one after another transporting water to rected the Master’s in Creative Writing for these lands, showing that the state the huts of the recently arrived squatters. program there until 2012. He obtained is the owner of the property and cer- Every three weeks, the burros carry wa- his Ph.D. from Cornell University in tifying that it is for public use, but this ter-filled plastic jugs originally used for 1979, and has been a visiting professor happens quite seldom. The invasions cooking oil to the makeshift neighbor- in sociology and literature in the United and the increasing number of displaced hoods for modest prices. States and Europe.

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(Dis) locations of Violence in Latin American Film Displacement and Visual Representations BY PAOLA IBARRA

TRANSITIONING BACK TO COLD IN BOSTON invites me to a weekend of movies on Netflix. A curiosity self-justified, as re- search interest cascades into shameless binge watching of two seasons of Nar- cos, followed by a re-watch of El Patrón del Mal. “Because you watched Narcos,” Netflix points me to La Reina de Sur, El Cartel de los Sapos and El Capo. Inevi- tably, I find myself going back to other violence-related films such as Blow (Ted Demme, 2001), Traffic (Steven Soder- bergh, 2000) and Sicario (Denis Vil- leneuve, 2015). No matter the format— television series, telenovelas, movies— these productions somehow reduce and somewhat glorify specific characters and episodes of Latin America’s recent histo- ry of crime and violence. They all share a common thematic focus: the region’s problematic relationship with the drug trade. But this is only part of a bigger picture—both of violence and its repre- Cuban artist Ana Mendieta, Sweating Blood, 1973. Stills from super-8mm film transferred to sentation in the visual arts. high-definition digital media, color, silent, Running time: 3:18 minutes. Since the 1960s and 70s, displace- ment and violence in Latin America perience of that character on close-up, engages the body—her own body: as ac- have been represented widely in cinema, and missing visual access beyond the tual presence, or as shadow or silhou- video art, and—later on—in television frame. Thus, the relation between story ette—with blood, fire, water, and earth. series. Film in particular is a fitting form and spectator is, in many ways, a medi- Mendieta’s work is deeply personal and, to portray violence since there is, in a ated and incomplete experience. In ad- at the same time, a definite expression way, a double rupture in the expression dition, the narrative elements, images of what Howard Oransky describes as of violence through film. Violence as and sounds are continuously re-shuffled “a larger collective experience, which such, is not experienced in a structured from one scene to the next—despite the included the dislocations characteristic manner—it implies a break in the sense perception of continuity, in film, essen- of the modern era: personal, cultural of personal or collective narrative. Simi- tial discontinuity exists even at the sole and political displacement” (Covered larly, the dislocations between text, im- level of images. These ruptures push the in Time and History: The Films of Ana ages and sound are inherent to film as spectator’s gaze and overall experience Mendieta, University of California Press, a medium. For instance, when a charac- in different directions—just like the con- 2015). Her exile from Cuba as an ado- ter faces the camera in a close-up, there crete fact of displacement. lescent, and a shared human condition are several ruptured elements: his visual The work of Cuban artist Ana Mend- of instability (product of mortality and field (whom or what is he seeing?), the ieta with her multidisciplinary art (as our constant facing of time) are equally imageless voices and sounds around him, per her own dodging of categorization), expressed both in material (i.e. physical) and so on. The spectator is, at the same moving between performance, sculp- and temporal terms. time, in the position facing the character ture, photography and film, carried this But in Mendieta’s films, the con- on the screen, sharing the auditory ex- sense of displacement even further. She nection with time goes a step further.

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While they retain the evocative tone of exposed the historic and prevalent con- of oppression. But contemporary films her photographic work (evocative of vio- ditions of the colonized: collective and from the 21st century deal with matters lence, displacement, time lost, the body, national experiences of poverty, inequal- of violence and displacement in a less nature), in film, the subtle pace adds to ity, displacement, violence and other explicit, but not less compelling and a heavy silence, heightening a sense of forms of oppression. Some films from committed manner. imminence, of a violence that doesn’t Latin America of this period include: explicitly materialize. In Sweating Blood Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomas THE OTHER: THE HEADLESS (1973), the camera captures a motion- Gutierrez Alea, 1968), Black God White WOMAN less close-up of Mendieta’s face, her Devil (Glauber Rocha, 1964), The Hour Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Wom- eyes closed. Slowly, blood starts flow- of the Furnaces (Fernando Solanas and an (Argentina, 2009) is a story of a ing from the top of her head, down her Octavio Getina, 1968), and Barren Lives road accident and its psychological af- face. The face remains still, while the (Nelson Pereira Dos Santos, 1963). termath: events misremembered, guilt, blood puddles up. Another film, Blood Third Cinema led not only to making complicity, and, in terms of style, bodies Writing (1974), shows Mendieta with films, but also film theory and criticism half shown or seen in passing, repeated her back to the camera facing an exte- in texts such as Glauber Rocha’s Aesthet- gestures and haunting sounds. rior white wall. Slowly, with blood taken ics of Hunger (1965) and Toward a Third The story is minimal: Veronica, a from a container, she spells out with Cinema (1969) by Fernando Solanas and middle-class woman, is distracted by her hand the words “SHE GOT LOVE” Octavio Getino. Rocha, in Aesthetics of her ringing cell phone and runs over on the surface. Her shadow remains on Hunger, brings up the European nostal- something (or someone?) on the road. the wall after she leaves the scene. Mi- gia for primitivism in Latin American This is the same road from the opening rage (1974), in contrast, sets a complex art: “… while Latin America laments sequence, where three kids—the class mix of elements and sense of narrative: its general misery, the foreign observer gap apparent—were carelessly running a landscape, a mirror, the image in the cultivates a taste for that misery, not and playing with a dog. At first para- mirror of a nude pregnant woman, and as a tragic symptom, but merely as a lyzed, while a cheerful song plays on the an almost accidental—although very formal element in his field of interest.” radio, she puts her sunglasses back on, much intended—over-the-shoulder shot, Displacement is crucial as theme and as fixes her hair and turns on the engine. As presumably of the artist. The motionless form, not only in the films, but also in she drives away, the camera moves to a pregnant woman’s image builds tension, the theoretical framework that connects long shot of the road and what, at a dis- intensified by the subtle movement of these works beyond their national and tance, looks like a dead dog. The film has grass surrounding the mirror. After a regional bonds. been running for only six minutes. The pause, she brings out a tool and cuts Later Latin American films are also rest relates to Veronica’s mental swings her belly open. Out of the womb, come highly aesthetically complex, political, between denial (confusion, avoidance, handfuls of feathers, repeatedly. In all and crucial in a discussion about vio- attempts at normalcy) and guilt (self- these works, stillness fades gradually, lence and displacement. For instance, doubt, emphatic confessions). But the confronted by dislocating elements. Vio- Patricio Guzmán’s masterpiece The details insist and accumulate: hand lence is presented, although not present. Battle of Chile (Chile, France, 1975) and prints on the car window, phones ring- In feature films—to distinguish from Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story (Ar- ing, Veronica’s hair, the wrecked car, the experimental films in the visual arts, gentina, 1985) are key representations hospital, the hotel where she spent the such as Mendieta’s—through the 1960s of the region’s history of dictatorships, night, and the kids from the first scene— and 70s, filmmakers mainly from Latin forced disappearances and other forms minus one. What is relevant? Moreover, America, Africa and Asia developed an independent movement with its own aesthetics, production methods, and po- litical voice: a “Third Cinema.” Highly influenced by Italian neo-realism, but also by other experimental trends such as cinema verité and the French New Wave, this movement meant a break with Hollywood and other commercial and mainstream traditions, including the European art film. New technolo- gies allowed for a revolutionary (i.e. political and experimental) cinema that An image from the movie La Mujer Sin Cabeza (HEADLESS WOMAN).

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in the end, the status quo is restored, precisely, in the details. Traces from the hospital and the hotel are gone, the car is fixed, the missing child is replaced, and Veronica’s hair goes back to dark. The accident is startling and the no- tion of the dead child (regardless of whether he was hit or he drowned) is disturbing, but nothing graphically vio- lent really happens. The most palpable violence in Martel’s story is class related. Not only in the premise that the poor are replaceable and their absence solved by “handling” traces, but also in trivial in- teractions at home, with vendors, and so on. In a casual conversation at the swim- ming pool, the women mention not get- ting their heads in the water, in case it’s contaminated—a seemingly banal state- ment, but full of meaning. Additionally, Martel formally creates a disorienting atmosphere through sound, camera movements and odd framing. For in- stance, in the opening scene, the road is shot from a tilted perspective, the curves half hidden, while the kids’ bodies move in and out of frame, stressing their vul- nerability. Also, disassociation is en- hanced as Veronica moves out of frame Top and 3rd photos Madam Satã. 2nd photo, from The Embrace of the Serpent. Opposite page from El Patrón del Mal. when she gets out of the car after the ac- cident. Sounds such as the phone, a ball hitting a fence and the turning wheels periencing of “self’ in Madam Satã. competitor’s dancing suit, or in several of the car wrecked in the accident are Raúl Peralta is a fictional character, an sloppy sexual encounters. brought back to insist and make us impersonator of Saturday Night Fever’s Madame Satã, on the other hand, is aware of the existence of the other, even protagonist, Tony Manero. Set in 1978, based on a real character from Brazil- if we (that is, Veronica and the specta- in the midst of Pinochet’s dictatorship in ian popular culture, João Francisco dos tor) have to suspect having killed some- Chile, Larraín’s film is not explicit about Santos (1900-1976), a drag performer one. The normalizing elements leave no historic events, but is doubtless politi- who became known as Madame Satã— space for normalcy. cal, a fog which constantly permeates inspired by a 1930s film by Cecil B. the atmosphere. Raúl’s cultural iden- DeMille. So this movie, as well, is the SPECTACLE AND MARGINS: TONY tity appropriation symbolizes a form of representation of a representation. Be- MANERO AND MADAM SATÃ involuntary complicity with the United sides his stage persona, João Francisco Pablo Larraín’s Tony Manero (Chile, States and, thus, with the oppressive is an outlaw, street fighter, unpredict- 2008) and Karim Ainouz’s Madam Satã regime. Resistance, on the other hand, able (sometimes madly laughing, then (Brazil, 2002) are stories in which dis- arises from secondary characters’ clan- enraged) friend and father, elegant man placement is explored through identity: destine propaganda handling, as well as and gay lover. In Rio de Janeiro’s under- characters split between marginal life scattered allusions to a context of scar- world of the 1930s, issues of race, class, and a spectacle persona. But, despite city, crime and secret police. Acts of sexuality and crime come together in sharing the focus on individual experi- violence in this film are plentiful, some this extremely dynamic film that switch- ence and identity, the search of Tony graphic, some merely allusions: a few es times, formats (documentary and Manero’s protagonist for the “other” (that murders and thefts, plus random events fiction), settings, and various compel- is, imitating the American cinema icon) such as Raúl’s feeding an old lady’s cat ling characters. Dislocation is revealed differs from the complex and multiple ex- after killing the woman, defecating on a through contrast: the fights and explo-

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sive reactions, the ecstatic body move- the land and cinematography, with the business, or a wedding turned into a hell ments, and the frustrated attempts at horror brought by exploitation not only of knives and mad sex. Asides from the being loved, accepted and even paid for of the territory and its indigenous tribes, explicit consequences, violence is ex- work. The stunning body that wins sev- but also of indigenous boys and tribes pressed in humorous and styled scenes eral carnival competitions is also, as per abused by white religion-linked figures. of repressed tension turned, finally, into the authorities verdict, the vehicle of “re- Questions about self and other are also brutality. The episodic format of the film pulsive and criminal acts, an individual raised in Lucia Puenzo’s The Fish Child, formally enhances the atmosphere of harmful to society.” only from the point of view of modern daily, fleeting rage. Equally powerful, these two films class domination. The colonized figure, Displacement has many faces–vio- also have different aesthetic approaches. in this case, is a lower class Paraguayan lence, migration, oppression, among Tony Manero conveys a calculated dark immigrant in a love relationship with others—and so does its representation, and unpleasant atmosphere. The heavy pace, raw acting, oppressive settings, and unattractive bodies are met, formal- ly, by the instability of a handheld cam- era and gloominess of the film’s grainy shots. In contrast, in Madame Satã rage and violence clash with the film’s over- all beauty. High-contrast photography, frenzied movement and meticulous compositions deliver a lively and allur- ing mood. Ainouz makes the body a focal point: mainly the protagonist’s body that moves, sweats, glitters, fights, seduces, and physically changes between macho, thug, beaten-up murderer, and beautiful queen; but also others, among them the very effeminate Taboo, or João’s hand- some lover, Renatinho.

OTHER DIRECTIONS: the daughter of her Argentine upper- especially in a medium as complex in COLONIZATION, MIGRATION, class employers. Migration from Argen- its aesthetic possibilities as film. Unlike AND MODERN LIFE tina to Paraguay grants the two a blank mainstream representations of acts of Portrayals of displacement and vio- slate to escape the police, but also to violence and other forms of abuse and lence in Latin American film are fre- come together as a gender and class de- repression, displacement in some of the quent. A few additional works about fiant couple. Also, this movie touches on works discussed here is hinted at or in- colonization, migration and modern life issues of sexual abuse and, more briefly, directly explored. The aesthetic limits of struggles follow, to open a larger discus- human trafficking. these films are pushed in different direc- sion in the future. Finally, Damian Szifron explores the tions–some more visceral, some extreme- The Embrace of the Serpent (Colom- dislocations and stress of everyday life, ly calculated. In addition to the narrative bia, 2016) is Ciro Guerra’s beautiful in Wild Tales (Argentina, 2014). Us- content, atmosphere and imminence take black and white movie, with quasi-eth- ing a very different register, this dark the place of graphic presentation. Thus, nographic imagery. Two journeys—sepa- comedy consists of six short films about displacements are not only thematic, but rate in time, but connected through the characters pushed to the limit by highly also an aesthetic that becomes particu- characters—explore commercial and relatable situations: love and work rela- larly powerful in the choice of medium. cultural exploitation in the Amazon, tions gone bad, financial ruin, road rage, with the last Cohiuano tribe survivor bureaucratic abuse, high class impunity, Paola Ibarra directs regional and and a European white explorer moving and a wedding. These encounters end thematic initiatives in Cambridge at across the territory in search of the yak- up in outrage and depression levels that DRCLAS at Harvard University. She runa, a sacred plant. The central themes lead to over-the-top reactions such as holds an ALM in English from Harvard are colonization, plus relations between a deliberate plane crash, bloody fights Extension School, and an MSc Develop- colonized and colonizer, and migration. and a deadly car explosion, detonation ment Studies from the London School of The movie puts at conflict the beauty of of explosives in front of a car-towing Economics and Political Science.

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Displacement Here, Displacement Now “EL HAMBRE DE MI CORAZÓN” BY SERGIO DELGADO MOYA

IN THE AMERICAS, AND IN LATIN AMERICAN AND and writers have grappled more forcefully ger of the Heart]. The exhibition, which African-American poetic traditions in par- with this layered notion of landscape than opened in September, will remain on view ticular, there exists a practice of subverting Raúl Zurita, the acclaimed Chilean poet until next spring. The poems selected for notions of landscape as beauty in favor of and last year’s Robert F. Kennedy Visiting it are representative of Raúl Zurita’s larger more nuanced, historically informed, po- Professor at Harvard. body of work: poetry that broaches themes litically incisive renditions of the natural Earlier this year, as spring turned to of pain, death, redemption and hope. His environment. Chilean poets and artists summer, I began to plan an exhibition of acts of writing poetry in landscapes across have been at the forefront of this politicized Zurita’s monumental poetry in collabora- the Americas—from the skies of New York understanding of landscape, re-inscribing tion with Marcela Ramos, program man- (La vida nueva) to the desert of Atacama it in ways that make apparent the traces of ager for ARTS@DRCLAS, and in con- in Chile (Ni pena ni miedo)—are the de- conflict, violence and displacement so of- versation with the poet himself. It was he parture point for this exhibition. In walls ten erased from the more idealized, more who suggested the evocative title of the and nooks scattered through the offices pastoral renditions of nature. Few artists exhibition: El Hambre de Corazón [Hun- of Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for

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Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), we showcase the work of one of the most reso- nant voices in poetry from the Americas, temporarily placing it in the heart of a dy- namic center of scholarship in a style and proportion that plays on the monumental- ity of Zurita’s landscape poems. This layered notion of landscape is present from his very first works, epigram- matic and somberly visual poems printed on plaster slates resembling tombstones. These and other poems by Zurita use beau- tifully terse language to give voice to the experience of political oppression: voice to the people, the communities, and the nat- ural environments that have succumbed to state violence. The poems featured in the exhibition, while evocative of displace- Raúl Zurita reading from his poetry. ment and forced disappearance during the military dictatorship in Chile, are written tion of this slate, rendered in a mix of plas- Colectivo Acciones de Arte (C.A.D.A.) used in a voice resonant enough to conjure oth- ter and cement to make it more durable. light airplanes to drop thousands of leaflets er instances of state oppression, both past The poem is notable for its use of the blank over the city of Santiago (¡Ay sudamérica! and present, distant and close to home. spaces on the writing surface—in “Peces,” 400.000 textos sobre Santiago), part of a The centerpiece of the exhibition is voids on the writing surface become mean- series of cunningly defiant interventions in the wall of glass panels that rises from the ingful elements of the signifying whole. public space completed during the years of entrance of the building where DRCLAS Evocative of concrete poetry, masterful in dictatorship in Chile. is located. This wall is visible from every its economy of verbal resources, “Peces” Rigorous in its brevity, Zurita’s writing floor in the building, and it anchors the conveys the politically dense notion of in the Atacama Desert boils down to a sin- atrium common to all three floors. A se- landscape that would become a hallmark gle verse, a micro-poem at once succinct lection of poems from Zurita’s Canto a su of Zurita’s general oeuvre. It is reproduced and monumental. It reads ni pena ni mie- amor desaparecido (1985), his grim tribute in this exhibition for the first time since its do, “no shame no fear,” and strikes a defi- to the missing victims of state violence, is original publication in 1975. ant tone at a time of reckoning, in the years arranged strategically on the glass panels Since the early 1980s, Zurita has been following the end of military dictatorship of this wall. The brief poems reproduced at the center of public poetry projects ex- in Chile. In 1993, each of the words in this on these panels mimic file cards in their traordinary in their ambition and reach. poem was bulldozed into the ground of the language and in their brevity. In print, on Each of these projects has aspired to turn desert, over a length of about three kilome- paper, they are graphically arranged so as three distinct features of the natural land- ters. It is legible from above, from the sky, to resemble niches. The rectangular shape scape—the sky, the desert, sea cliffs—into and can be viewed on Google Earth. of the glass panels in the exhibition echoes actual writing surfaces, surfaces where po- The last of Zurita’s monumental poetry this resemblance, and once the poems etry can be written and read on a monu- projects, titled Verás, is yet to be realized. were placed on them the wall took on the mental scale. Video documentation and It consists of the projection of verses from aspect of a monument or a columbarium, a large-scale photographic reproduction a ship onto the walls of sea cliffs along the reproducing in real-life scale the architec- of one of these projects provide visitors to north coast of Chile. The projection is con- tural motif that organizes the layout of the the exhibition with a glance of what each ceived to begin right before dusk, in such poems in their original, printed-page plat- of these projects looks like, a feeling of the a way that the words projected onto the form. kind of intervention each makes in the sea cliffs become brighter and clearer as “Peces,” included in the exhibition, is one landscapes on which they were inscribed. the darkness of the night sets in. At dawn, of Zurita’s earliest poems first published in For the first of these projects in 1982, these words made of light vanish gradually, the critically celebrated single issue of the five planes flew in formation over the skies erased completely by the light of the rising magazine Manuscritos. It was originally of Queens, New York, spelling out in white sun. For the exhibition, we used video doc- published as a photograph of a plaster slate smoke the words of Zurita’s verses. In 1981, umentation of sea cliffs surveyed by Zurita where the poem itself was printed. For the a year before the writing in the skies took as possible sites for Verás and projected exhibition, we commissioned a reproduc- place, Zurita and others members of the it partially on the ceiling of a conference

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room, in deference to the room’s function- software that can guide migrants to water of resisting the “privilege of unknowing,” is ality as an everyday working space and as posts, rescue sites, and other resources crit- most called for. a gesture that places the moving images of ical for survival in the trek across the desert. In a world so relentlessly defined by sea and sea water upwards, in the space As mapped by the “Desert Survival Series” utilitarian reasoning, by expedient think- where we usually look for the sky. poems, the Sonoran desert is restaged, or ing, by prose language and by vicious On Thursday, October 27, 2016, in the rather, re-screened, from appearing as the speech, poetry is decisively out of place. atrium where his poems are on view, Zuri- entryway of furtive migrants to being the Displacement, though, is what accounts ta read fragments of his Canto a su amor site of ghastly, excruciating deaths num- for poetry’s extraordinary capacity for desaparecido to an audience of students, bering in the thousands. meaning. Relieved of the duties of rou- faculty, staff members and members of The double reading of poetry on Oc- tine communication, released from the our community. As a way of activating the tober 27, staged on site at the exhibition, onerous burden of serving as utilitarian insistent, historical substance of Zurita’s revealed—if only for a moment—the des- vehicle of messages, poetry is free to soar poetry, a group of faculty and students ert in particular and landscapes at large in and rove, revealing sublime sights (sights performed a reading and a dance chore- all their terrible contradiction: as places of of tremendous beauty, sights of great ter- ography based on a series of poems that, magnificent beauty and scenes of countless ror) seldom, if ever, accessible to prosaic inspired by Zurita’s works, also seek to deaths, sites of unspeakable violence. For language. Raúl Zurita taps into this free- intervene a landscape, though one much a moment, nourished by the words of the dom in poetic language, this liberty from closer to the geopolitical crossroads of greatest living poet in the Americas, those the constraints of language that is only our nation: the U.S.-Mexico border. These of us present at the reading felt moved and useful. He does so to reveal landscapes of poems, titled the “Desert Survival Series” strong, bolstered enough to witness togeth- affect and love so violently effaced from and written by the U.S.-based poet and er as one and the same thing all the beauty the historical record makes his poetry all scholar Amy Sara Carroll, are included in and all the pain of the environments that the more compelling. the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a design surround us. For a moment, it felt as if we project conceived around the idea of dis- had the power to resist the erasure of pain Sergio Delgado Moya is Associate tributing inexpensive, GPS-enabled cell and violence that sustains the most neces- Professor of Romance Languages and phones among migrants planning to walk sary of illusions: the dream of living in a Literatures at Harvard University. He across the desert that straddles the United land of liberty, the dream of being in a free is the author of Delirious Consumption: States and Mexico. The phones come load- world. It was a moment to be cherished, es- Aesthetics and Consumer Capitalism in ed with poems, a key feature of their de- pecially here, especially now, in times when Mexico and Brazil, 1950s-70s, forthcom- sign. They are also outfitted with locative the work of remembrance, when the work ing with the University of Texas Press.

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Black Lives Matter in Brazil Too A REVIEW BY EDWARD TELLES

Getting Respect: Responding to in Brazil. There is now a and indexes of average social Stigma and Discrimination in the consensus that racism is interaction suggest that it is United States, Brazil and Israel prevalent, talk about race becoming more like Brazil by Michéle Lamont, Graziella and racism is no longer (although racial inequality Moraes Silva, Jessica S. Wellburn, silenced, and affirmative remains well below Brazil’s), Nissim Mizrachi, Hanna Herzog action is now mandated at all making the comparison a and Elisa Reis. 2016. Princeton federal universities. Social slowly moving target. Despite University Press science facts have shown some differences, race and us that racial democracy is racism continue to bedevil When I first arrived in indefensible, except perhaps social relations in both Brazil in the 1980s, I quickly as a goal. We have learned countries. learned that race in Brazil that race matters quite a bit. Michelle Lamont and was not important there. The For example, we know that her collaborators go beyond country that once had by far the average income of blacks the historical and survey- the largest slave population and mixed-race Brazilians is based analyses, which have in the Americas—several roughly half of white income. characterized most Brazil- times more than the United in South Africa and especially Moreover, we now know that United States comparisons, States—was considered a the horrors of genocide in there has been much social to examine the personal “racial democracy.” It was Nazi Germany. Much to mobility in Brazil since at experiences of racialized an exceptional country UNESCO’s s surprise, some least the 1960s, but whites minorities in confronting where race mattered little Brazilian scholars, including have improved their status racism. We get to hear what or not at all, especially Florestan Fernandes, showed much more than nonwhites Brazilians themselves have when compared to the that racial prejudice was over the course of the 20th to say about race. Certainly, United States. To prove it, a alive and well in Brazilian century. Much of Brazil’s there have been interview- Brazilian colleague pointed society. However, he also upper-middle class, which based studies of race in Brazil me to its extensive race concluded that racial is virtually all white, is only and the United States, but mixture, which he claimed prejudice was transitory as two or three generations this book’s comparative and I could observe in everyday class was the deep underlying away from poor immigrant systematic focus and a superb interactions at nearby bars, structure that gave it ancestors. theoretical framing about and by the presence of a life. Unfortunately, that On the other hand, how minorities experience large mixed race population, influential scholar moved on Brazil’s steep racial racial exclusion make its presumably revealing much from his studies of race. For inequality coexists with contributions noteworthy. racial intermarriage. For several decades until the end porous social boundaries. Some issues are completely analysts of Brazilian society of the millennium, Brazilians Social interactions new, such as how ordinary at the time, class determined would continue to defend between whites and blacks, people understand and one’s status in life. Since their racial democracy, measured as interracial react to incidents of racial little social mobility existed although a couple of social marriage, friendships and exclusion. in Brazil, they claimed scientists had challenged its residential integration, are In particular, Lamont that blacks remained central tenets with hard data, greater than in the United and fellow authors interview poor because their recent and a small black movement States. That had been the 150 African Brazilians in ancestors were poor slaves. denounced racial democracy (limited) evidence for racial Rio de Janeiro, 160 African Indeed, in 1949, UNESCO as nothing more than a fig democracy. Yet greater is still Americans in the New York commissioned a study of leaf covering a deep-seated far from the level at which area, and 137 members of Brazil’s exemplary model of and pernicious racism. race does not matter. At three racialized groups in race relations, seen then as Since then, I have the same time, the United Israel about incidents of an antidote to segregation in witnessed a profound States is no longer extremely stigma (being assigned low the United States, apartheid change in the status of race segregated as it once was, status/“assault on worth”)

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and discrimination (being Brazil. Middle-class African Silence was common in distinguished scholar Elisa deprived of resources) that Brazilians, who are frequently Brazil, where there is often an Reis of the Federal University they experienced. While the only ones in white spaces, ambiguous understanding of of Rio and the Brazilian discrimination has been often suffer from being calling out racial insults, even Academy of Sciences, advance much discussed in American stereotyped. Black women though the victim commonly our understanding of race sociology, we know much are frequently confused with understands the abuse in Brazil, not to mention less about stigmatization maids, nannies and even and suffers nonetheless. race generally. Whereas race in regards to race, even prostitutes while men are That silence also reflects studies in Brazil have been though both contribute to the feared as physical threats and a hesitation to describe a marginalized in its academia process of racial inequality associated with criminals. situation as racial and is in recent decades, the fact everywhere. The authors Brazilian respondents sometimes accompanied by that such distinguished contend that North American also commonly reported a polite exchange to educate Brazilian scholars have led analysts of race probably receiving poor service, which racists, which the authors the Brazilian team of this focus on discrimination they sometimes contrasted call “peaceful confrontation.” important international because it denies the with the positive treatment Although they tended to project shows just how important American right received by well-to-do blacks be critical of the racial important race studies have of equal opportunity. At the in the United States. Finally, democracy idea and were become in the Brazilian social same time, they often neglect several African Brazilians proud of being black, African sciences. stigmatization, which is reported experiencing racial Brazilians would often Today, racial inequality generally protected by the jokes or being insulted on downplay racism, using class remains high and is likely to First Amendment, although racial grounds much more and race mixture narratives. grow in the current recession, it is condemned in Brazilian often than in the United To strengthen their and incidents of racial and other legal traditions. States, even though the comparative conclusions, discrimination continue The importance of class latter is considered a serious the authors also examined to be all too common. On thinking in producing racial crime in Brazil. They often three racialized groups the other hand, affirmative inequality is prominent employed narratives of in Israel: Mizrahi Jews, action policies may begin to in the accounts of the race mixture as making the Ethiopian Jews and Arab diversify the middle class. Brazilian respondents. The Brazilians more tolerant and Palestinians. The Israeli Most Brazilians are now common association between humane. case adds more layers of conscious of racism and race blackness and low status, The authors also examine complexity to understanding is becoming mainstream the strong affirmation of how these persons confronted racial exclusion and gives in Brazilian academia. equality and universalism their stigmatizers. The further leverage to the book’s Although race is likely to and the strong rejection responses often sought to approach. The authors claim long remain a central feature of cultural differences avoid confirming racial that Israel is often treated in Brazil’s system of steep between Brazilians of stereotypes; sometimes they as an exception, something inequality, at least we have different color leads to used humor or they simply that was long touted for the gone far in analyzing its the common sense that chose to ignore the incidents. Brazilian case. One could causes and consequences. incidents of discrimination, How they responded to argue that the United States Brazil is clearly not a racial unless blatantly racist, their abusers as well as is the exception, but really democracy, though that is a are not due to race alone. the incidents themselves all countries and cases are worthwhile goal. Middle-class Brazilians tend were clearly shaped by exceptions. to be more certain than their respective national This book would have Edward Telles is Distin- working-class Brazilians ideologies, institutions and merits merely on the basis guished Professor of Sociology that they have experienced the acceptable cultural of the Brazil-United States at the University of Califor- racial discrimination or repertoires available to comparison. Indeed, nia, Santa Barbara. He is the stigmatization, yet they them. The book’s authors Lamont and the others, author of Race in Another sometimes employed found confrontation to be such as Brazilian co-authors America: The Significance of class explanations in their most common in the United Graziella Moraes Silva of Skin Color in Brazil and Pig- accounts, as in assuming States, where there is a the Graduate Institute mentocracies: Race, Ethnicity they were mistaken for poor shared understanding of civil Geneva and former head of and Color in Latin America, people. rights and a legal context that the Sociology Department which he recently co-authored Stigmatization is strongly discourages racist of the Federal University of with scholars from Brazil, particularly common in speech. Rio de Janeiro and the very Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

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Latin American and Arab Revolutionaries Hands Across the Ocean?A REVIEW BY JOHN HUGHES

Latin American Revolutionaries a somewhat pragmatic on the one side, and Nasser and the Arab World by Federico leader who had gained his and Ahmed Ben Bella on the Vélez (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, “revolutionary credentials” by other. But as I know from my 2016, 198 pp.) nationalizing the Suez Canal. own diplomatic experience, This difference came through such words are more often The presence of an Arab in their last meeting. pro forma than necessarily diaspora in Latin America is In March 1965 Guevara meaningful. reasonably well known. Step explained to Nasser that he A case in point is Hugo forward Shakira! was going to the Congo to Chávez. I knew Hugo Chávez But relations between help the revolution: “I have fairly well during the early Latin America and the revolutionary activities and years of his presidency. He Arab World have not organization and I think the was an intelligent leader with been well covered in the situation is ripe in Africa.” that crucial ingredient called literature; let alone more And the reply: “You vision (whether you shared specific relationships among astonish me…I don’t want to it or not). Chávez knew that revolutionaries. Step forward interfere, but if you want to be a Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Federico Vélez, also a another Tarzan, a white man Pérez Alfonso, had been one Colombian, teaching at Zayed coming among black men, of the founding fathers of the University, UAE. a summarized version of leading them and protecting Organization of Petroleum In writing this book Vélez events such as the Cuban them…It can’t be done.” Exporting Countries (OPEC) is open about his objectives: Missile Crisis to provide As Vélez admits, Nasser in 1960. In 2000 Chávez to tell “…the story of a series context to his main focus: the was correct. The Cuban travelled to the Middle East to of encounters between interaction of Latino and Arab intervention turned out to be meet all those heads of state Latin American and Arab revolutionaries. a complete failure. whose countries were OPEC revolutionaries as part of Most space is given to At the same time, Vélez members. His motivation the broader global history of storytelling. Vélez writes well. shows that there was some at the time, as he explained the twentieth century and And he also paints on a large substance to, for example, to me, was pragmatic. He beyond.” canvas: the Cuban Revolution Cuban and Algerian wanted to hold only the And “… to contribute to and Egypt; Algeria and Cuba; cooperation. The Cubans second-ever OPEC Summit in the debate regarding the the Cuba-Nicaragua and sent military help to Algeria Venezuela and raise the price ideological and political Palestinian Movements of in 1963 while Algeria was of oil. It worked. autonomy of those actors 1968-89; Venezuela and the embroiled in a border dispute Subsequently, as Vélez on the periphery of the Arab World. That’s more than with Morocco. In return, the shows, Chávez used his international system by a fifty-year time span—from Algerians acted as a conduit success with that OPEC arguing that these actors have the Suez Canal crisis to the for Cuban arms being sent summit to build a deeper been far more independent Arab Spring. to Argentina and Venezuela relationship with certain in their actions and political The storytelling is often during the 1960s. Arab leaders. But Chávez’ convictions than we had illuminating. A colleague of The difficulty is that initial foray into the Middle previously assumed.” Gamal Abdul Nasser recalls a despite his best efforts, Vélez East was basically about Vélez has undertaken number of meetings between can’t show that there was a oil and talking to all OPEC some original research (as Che Guevara and Nasser in great deal of substance to the heads of state, revolutionaries would be expected of a the period from 1959 to 1965. relationship between Latino and conservatives. In that book drawing on a doctoral Neither their first nor last and Arab revolutionaries. context, were the rhetorical thesis at the Tufts University meeting went well. Why? Yes, there was certainly much outpourings of the later years Fletcher School of Law Because one was a convinced, mutually supporting public of the Chávez presidency in and Diplomacy). Even so, somewhat romantic rhetoric by leaders such as praise of certain radical Arab the author rightly gives revolutionary and the other Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez leaders as important to them

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and him as raising the price objective of the book? War. Vélez correctly notes that remained unexplored for a of oil? Here, I admit to being during the Cold War Cuba long time. In that sense, it is an Underlying this assumption somewhat perplexed. In my had rather more freedom of addition to scholarship. is the question that Vélez view it is rather jargon-ridden maneuver than most Eastern neither asks nor answers. and unclear in its meaning. European states in relation to John Hughes is Visiting Pro- Who are the revolutionaries? How does one prove that the Soviet Union. Otherwise fessor in Practice and Board How has he chosen them? some states on the periphery and fortunately, not much member of the London School The book would have been (defined in Cold War terms) of the book is devoted to of Economics’ foreign policy better if he had spelled out had more independence than answering this rather woolly think tank, LSE Ideas. Previ- how and why he chose these “… we had previously assumed question. ously, he was a member of the specific “revolutionaries,” (undefined)”? In any case, it Notwithstanding these British Diplomatic Service for some of whom were elected could not apply to Chávez, points, Vélez has written a 35 years including serving as democratically and others not. who came to power many useful, readable book, looking Ambassador in Venezuela and And what of the second years after the end of the Cold at relationships that have in Argentina.

Tracing Latin America’s Revolutionary Roots A REVIEW BY JULIAN D. BISHOP

The Tupac Amaru Rebellion by court documents to lovers’ soon-to-be rebel leader was Charles F. Walker (The Belknap intimate correspondences. well educated, particularly Press of Harvard University Press, Walker presented the initial in theology, and fluent in 2014) arguments of the book at both Spanish and Quechua, the Harvard Andeanist the native vernacular. In On May 18, 1781, Spanish workshop several years ago. that language Tupac Amaru authorities in Cuzco executed Right away Walker made invoked his Inca ancestry as José Gabriel Condorcanqui it clear that one can’t hope he declared his grievances to Noguera, also known as Tupac to understand the rebellion people from the church steps Amaru, in front of thousands without understanding Tupac of cities and villages. of onlookers. Claiming to be Amaru himself and the many Surprising to me as a the rightful heir to the last larger-than-life individuals student with a “Western” Inca emperor, Tupac Amaru involved, who include family education and perspective, I (1545-1572), José Gabriel members, business partners, the book reveals how called for the abolition of la political rivals and religious underrepresented the mita, the labor draft, and officials, all firmly fixed in the rebellion is in global history. other policies that oppressed colonial Spain. social system put in place by The rebellion and its the indigenous population of Moreover, this conflict the Toledo Reforms roughly aftermath cost more than what was then the Viceroyalty was not between believers two centuries prior. 100,000 lives and shaped of Peru. By invoking his royal and non-believers. Devout The book’s introductory political landscapes in Europe Inca blood, Tupac Amaru Christians led both sides of scene is indicative of Walker’s and the Americas. Walker galvanized indigenous what became total war. In understanding of the racial, gives the conflict a degree support that would shake the fact, Tupac Amaru acted in religious, and political of analysis that reflects its Spanish colonial system to its the name of King Charles III, dynamics of the time. He magnitude. core. However, to call this an always maintaining devotion shows Tupac Amaru with Though many historians indigenous uprising would to both the crown and church. Antonio de Arriaga, the have tackled the subject of be an oversimplification. Charles F. Walker’s The corregidor in charge of the the Tupac Amaru rebellion, Indigenous troops fought Tupac Amaru Rebellion labor draft, at the house of few offer as clear, nuanced on both sides of the conflict, is a captivating historical Carlos Rodríguez, the priest and intricate an approach and its complexity reflected narrative derived from sources of Yanaoca and Tupac’s as Walker; he avoids the infamous caste system of ranging from legal and childhood teacher. The the simplified messianic

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explanation of Tupac Amaru their separation from the Diego Cristóbal, Mariano Walker’s The Tupac Amaru as a god-king trying to usher Iberian Peninsula. Though Tupac Amaru and Andrés Rebellion is rich in detail and in in a new age of the Inca. Walker occasionally settles for Mendigure, were just 26, 18 vivid in language. There is This explanation captures describing the conflict’s many and 17 years old respectively. ample material from which to the passionate reverence of complexities as complexities Numerous royalist accounts draw parallels to the region natives for Tupac Amaru, rather than breaking them noted their troops’ problems today. Colombia and FARC’s along with the Inca belief down, one must recognize with weather conditions and recent peace agreement in the cyclicality of time, the limits of source material extreme topography. The is a perfect example of a but it overlooks many of the and reliable documentation suffering and violence caused guerilla force that utilized intricacies of the conflict. One that he has overcome in the divisions between soft-liners comparable tactics to those is that indigenous fighters, writing of this book. and hard-liners on both sides. demonstrated by Tupac both voluntary and coerced, One of the work’s most One of the most interesting is Amaru and Tupac Katari constituted the majority of striking attributes was the power struggle between especially. While guilty of forces on both sides; another its attention to logistics, the hard-liner visitador drug-trafficking and violence, is that both parties blamed especially military logistics. José Antonio de Areche and FARC also called for changes mestizos for many failures. Detailed accounts of supply a more subdued viceroy, similar to those of the Tupac Racial and social dynamics chains, troop movement and General del Valle. Amaru movement, such as throughout the conflict were financing offer clues as to the Though the Spanish the redistribution of land. very fluid, adjusting to factors conditions of the rebellion. eventually repelled and Royalist hard-liners would ranging from socioeconomics One of Walker’s most subdued the rebellion then demand harsher punishment, to geopolitics, from interesting depictions is that led by Tupac Katari, Walker much like visitador Areche, personal life to propaganda. of Micaela Bastidas, the rebel notes that they failed to while soft-liners such as Scapegoating and genocide leader’s wife. Various accounts “white-wash” the memory of Bishop Monsoco called for are two terms that come to describe her as more terrifying Tupac Amaru. He remains concessions and peacemaking. mind. Walker tackles the task and authoritative than her a prominent figure today, After much debate and of unraveling these knots, husband. While Tupac as both a legendary and deliberation, tentative treaties meticulously but excitingly Amaru followed his forces for revolutionary figure. Modern were signed in both cases. taking the reader from person hundreds of miles, Bastidas guerilla groups have invoked Charles F. Walker’s to person and place to place remained at their home and the rebel’s name, such as the knowledge of the region so as to provide the rich and headquarters in Tungasuca, Túpac Amaru Revolutionary is impressive, a product of invaluable context that marks overseeing payment, supplies Movement in Peru and the rigorous research. The Tupac his work. and intelligence gathering. Tupamaros in Uruguay. Even Amaru rebellion, though Similarly, many have The work describes numerous the prominent rapper, Tupac often marginalized, shaped viewed the rebellion as sieges, particularly that of Shakur, was named after the much of Latin America’s an attempt to subvert the La Paz, that tested logistical last of the Inca. political landscape, and one colonial system altogether. prowess and grit. I was Tupac Amaru is a figure would be pressed to find a Walker is careful to note that shocked by grim depictions that is often overlooked. better historical guide than this is not necessarily the case. of cadaver-filled streets and The revolution he spurred Walker. Again, Tupac Amaru keeps his cannibalism. was costlier and covered allegiance to the crown and Moreover, the work is full more ground than the Julian D. Bishop is a current church throughout the entire of personal stories, ranging contemporaneous American sophomore undergraduate conflict as he seeks to abolish from Juan Manuel Monsoco’s revolution. Pillaging and student at Columbia Uni- and adjust aspects of the (the Bishop of Cuzco’s) raping were not only versity, studying economics, colonial system, particularly excommunication of Tupac commonplace but were political science, Latin Amer- la mita. Ultimately, however, Amaru to love stories. One described in letters as vital ican studies, and sustainable Tupac Amaru sought to of Walker’s most interesting to the war effort. Micaela development. A research assis- create a multi-racial and analyses is that of divisions and Tupac recognized and tant at Global Americans, a Christian community. He within the groups. After lamented the burden that non-profit research organiza- recognized the legitimacy the royalists captured and their forces placed on the tion in New York City, Bishop of Spanish authority, but executed Tupac Amaru, some local communities, yet they is particularly interested in argued that the authorities of the most brutal stages of remained steadfast in their renewable energy and Latin became mired in greed and the rebellion followed. Those belief that they acted for God America. He can be reached at corruption, partially due to who took over the reins, and Charles III. [email protected].

REVISTA.DRCLAS.HARVARD.EDU ReVista 83 BUILDING BRIDGES

Peace Education through Music A REVIEW BY DANIELLE WILLIAMS

AS MY PLANE GLIDED DOWN our mission to educators by diverse forms of direct the teachers engaged their toward the sea, I looked outside our discipline? and structural violence. I students in peace education out from my seat at the When I became a student conducted twenty interviews competencies. I learned beaming afternoon sun at the Harvard Graduate in Rio de Janeiro and Sao that the students often eclipsed by the rising School of Education, I Paulo with fifteen Brazilian viewed their music space Corcovado hill upon which enrolled in a course called orchestras working with as a refuge and I witnessed stood the mighty Christ the “Peace Education”, the name students age 6 to 18. My young musicians interact Redeemer. Each time I had of a pedagogical philosophy guiding research question with immense creativity, come to Rio de Janeiro, I used around the world in was the following: How confidence and fellowship. smiled to see this statue communities recovering do Brazilian youth music Most evident, however, was diligently watching over from violence or seeking programs implicitly and the joy that both teachers the bustling city. As a to prevent it. The main explicitly teach peace and students expressed, composer, conductor, and objectives of this approach education principles? knowing that they were music educator, I had first are to prevent atrocities and These interviews using their music as a tool to fallen in love with Brazil’s war from occurring, to bring allowed me to see that effect change. enchanting musical styles, about reconciliation and a there was a wide range of genres, and traditions transition back to normalcy ways in which these music Danielle Williams is a in 2012 and returned to following a conflict, and programs incorporated multi-instrumentalist, Rio twice to learn about to integrate non-violent peace education principles. composer, conductor, and Brazilian music education methods of social change Some explicitly employed educator who uses experi- initiatives. I discovered that into the school curriculum. peace education in their ences she’s had around the numerous organizations Though I saw how peace curriculum, setting world to shape her music, were providing free education was integrated aside time to have group inspire new projects, and fuel music education as a way into science, math, history, discussions with students cross-cultural collaborations. to improve the lives of or literature curriculum, about community challenges, Her passion to use music Brazilian youth, spur social there was something notably violence, and ways that as a tool for social change change and transform the lacking: integration into students can be agents of has led Danielle to describe city’s poorest communities. the arts, specifically music. change. Teachers told me her role in the world as a As I grew in my identity I quickly made connections about their focus on student “Musician for Peace.” She as an educator and between peace education leadership, social justice, graduated from the Arts in witnessed the beautiful and the music programs I shared responsibility in the Education program at the work these musicians were had seen in Rio de Janeiro. ensemble, citizenship, and Harvard Graduate School doing in impoverished areas I knew that these orchestras personal skills like anger- of Education in 2016. This of Brazil, I felt a growing were incorporating peace management. Students project was funded by the need for a new vocabulary education practices including were also improving in David Rockefeller Center to describe what they were teaching teamwork, critical teamwork, creative thinking for Latin American Stud- teaching, discovering and thinking, conflict-resolution, and responsibility, as well as ies Summer Travel Grant. demonstrating through democracy, and social justice. other skills. Email:Saw364@mail har- music making. What is it In January 2016, I was I was eager to see these vard.edu we were aiming to do when delighted to receive my first ensembles in action. Thanks DanielleWilliamsMusic@ we invite young musicians DRCLAS grant, allowing me to a second DRCLAS grant, gmail.com into these “safe spaces” we to research ways in which I was able to return this past call the orchestra? What peace education principles June to work with five of To read the thesis describing are our long-term goals and are incorporated into the programs in Rio. There, this work and researching objectives when we put a Brazilian music education I played side-by-side with findings, visit www. violin into the hands of a programs, particularly those the youth orchestras and DanielleWilliamsMusic. child? How do we explain situated in areas affected observed ways in which com.

84 ReVista WINTER 2017 PHOTO OPPOSITE PAGE STEPHEN FERRY HTTP://STEPHENFERRY.COM/ LAST LOOK Embera indigenous mourners pay their last respects to a governor who died in Catrú in exile from his homeland.

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CONTRIBUTORS

56 Deborah Anker is Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and of Architecture University of Cambridge. 11 Julieta Lemaitre is associate Director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic. 24 Juan Ricardo professor at Universidad de los Andes Law School. 16 Andrés Lombana-

Aparicio is director of Cultural Studies at the Universidad de los Andes, Bermudez is a Colombian post-doctoral fellow at the Berkman Klein Bogotá. 2 Jacqueline Bhabha is a Professor of the Practice of Health and Center for Internet and Society. 38 Cristobal Madero, a Ph.D candidate Human Rights at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. in Education at the University of California, Berkeley, is co-founder of

67 Azriel Bibliowicz is a novelist and professor at the National University Kuykuitin project. 27 Tamera Marko, a Senior Lecturer in the Department in Bogotá. 82 Julian D. Bishop is a current sophomore undergraduate of Writing, Literature & Publishing, Emerson College, is Director of the student at Columbia University. 20 Sahara Borja recently returned from a Emerson College International Program Global Pathways Colombia. Fulbright research grant working with internally displaced women on the 50 Lorne Matalon is a staf reporter at the Fronteras Desk, a collaboration outskirts of Cartagena. 38 Daniel Cano is a Ph.D. candidate in History at of National Public Radio stations focused on Mexico and Latin America. Georgetown University and co-founder of Kuykuitin project. 56 Maggie Morgan is the Albert Sacks Clinical Teaching and Advocacy 53 Luther Castillo Harry, a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School (MPP) Fellow at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic. 53 Sona Patel is a

Program, is a founding doctor of the Popular Garifuna Hospital. student of history and anthropology at Pitzer College. 53 Suyapa Portillo 35 Aviva Chomsky is Professor of History and Coordinator of Latin is an Assistant Professor of Chicano/a and Latino/a Transnational Studies

American Studies at Salem State University. 53 Priscilla Cobian is a at Pitzer College. 41 Ivan Ramírez Zapata is an anthropologist at the Pitzer College alumna. 76 Sergio Delgado Moya is Associate Professor of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. 8 Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo is an Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Universidad

8 María Angélica Garzón is a professor at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Colombia. 27 Jota Samper is an Assistant Professor in the y Tecnológica de Colombia. 58 Felipe Hernández is an architect and Program in Environmental Design, University of Colorado Boulder. a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architecture University of 62 Mary Schneider Enriquez is the Houghton Associate Curator of Modern Cambridge. 81 John Hughes is Visiting Professor in Practice and Board and Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museums. member of the London School of Economics’ foreign policy think tank, 79 Edward Telles is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University

LSE Ideas. 72 Paola Ibarra directs DRCLAS regional and thematic of California, Santa Barbara. 84 Danielle Williams graduated from the Arts initiatives in Cambridge (MA). 65 Luca Istodor is a sophomore at Harvard in Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2016. College studying Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. 47 Ieva Jusionyte 32 Karl Zimmerer, the 2016 DRCLAS Custer Visiting Scholar, is a professor is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Studies at Harvard in the department of geography at Pennsylvania State University.

University. 58 Irit Katz is an architect and a researcher at the Department FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHERS: Sahara Borja, Stephen Ferry, Lorne Matalon