‘LA TIERRA LLAMA:’ COMMUNITY (RE)CONSTRUCTION IN COLOMBIA’S CARIBBEAN By JUANITA DUQUE A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2017 © 2017 Juanita Duque To Anita, ya que todo es por y para ti ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Quisiera primero dedicar este trabajo a la gente de Las Palmas, Bolívar; un pueblo que vive por voluntad propia. Sus transcursos dan vida a las siguientes páginas. I want to thank the Center for Latin American Studies not only for accepting the proposal for this project and funding its research, but also for fostering community and creating a place where other worlds are possible. I am infinitely grateful for the guidance and mentorship of the center’s faculty, particularly that of Dr. Philip J. Williams, Dr. Susan Paulson, and Dr. Richard Kernaghan. On a more personal note, I would like to thank my family—the three Guillermos, my tia-mamás, Karen Cardona Zapata and Moisés Moreno-Rivera—por su lucha constante y su cariño incondicional. Last but not least, I want to dedicate this work to my life-partner, Jorge L. Garcia. For patiently listening, advising, reading and re-reading every (re)construction of this work. Gracias, amor. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: PUNTO DE PARTIDA ................................................................. 9 2 METHODS AND KEY CONCEPTS ........................................................................ 13 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 13 Un Momento Para Reflexionar ................................................................................ 14 Key Concepts ......................................................................................................... 16 Ethnographic Techniques ....................................................................................... 25 Participatory Action Research ................................................................................. 29 Geospatial Analysis ................................................................................................ 31 3 ANTES: A[N UN-EVEN] CO-CONSTRUCTION ..................................................... 35 Y Así Salimos de la Casa de Palma ....................................................................... 35 Tobacco Cultures .................................................................................................... 40 Time of Combat: Botas y Caminos Embarrados ..................................................... 46 Conflictive Lifestyles ............................................................................................... 51 Hubo Separación .................................................................................................... 57 Desplazamiento: Life in the City ............................................................................. 61 4 RETORNO .............................................................................................................. 65 Pies Descalzos ....................................................................................................... 65 (Re)Naming the Quotidian: Nicknames, Identification Cards and Aliases .............. 70 Caminos: Un Día en la Maracuyá ........................................................................... 73 Paths to (Re)construction ....................................................................................... 76 5 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 84 APPENDIX: REFERENCE MATERIAL ......................................................................... 87 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 93 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 99 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page A-1 Geography .......................................................................................................... 87 A-2 Aerial Image, 2003 ............................................................................................. 87 A-3 Aerial Image, 2004 ............................................................................................. 88 A-4 Aerial Image, 2015 ............................................................................................. 88 A-5 Sanchez de Ávila: Neighborhood Deliniations .................................................... 89 A-6 Transect Map, Las Palmas ................................................................................. 89 A-7 Transect Map, La Maracuyá ............................................................................... 90 A-8 Transect Map, San Jacinto ................................................................................. 90 A-9 Displacement Map .............................................................................................. 91 A-10 State Nomenclature, Las Palmas ....................................................................... 92 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AUC Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defenders of Colombia) CAVIDH Centros de Antención a Víctimas de Violencias y Graves Violaciones a Derechos Humanos (Care Centers for Victims of Violence and Human Rights Violations) CNMH Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (National Center for Historic Memory) CNRR Comisión Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación (National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation) ELN Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (National Liberation Army) FARC-EP Fuerzas Armadas Rvolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People’s Army) GIS Geographic Information Systems GPS Global Positioning System IGAC Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codacci (Agustín Codacci Geographic Institute) INCORA Institutio Colombiano de Reforma Agraria (Colombian Institute of Land Redistribution) OPN Observatorio Nacional de Paz (National Peace Observatory) REAP Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedure SENA Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (National Service of Learning) 7 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts ‘LA TIERRA LLAMA:’ COMMUNITY (RE)CONSTRUCTION IN COLOMBIA’S CARIBBEAN By Juanita Duque May 2017 Chair: Philip J. Williams Major: Latin American Studies How do members of the community of Las Palmas engage in the socio-physical (re)construction of place after their retorno to the hamlet? The aim of this thesis project is to understand how place and space are transformed by habitual practices that work to build community, belonging and solidarity. Its focus is on identifying the processes through which members of the community of Las Palmas in the department of Bolivar, Colombia, (re)construct and re- appropriate spaces. Taken together, my attention to practices, relations and socionatural spaces highlights the processes through which territories are co- constructed. This project focuses on the ways in which communities mitigate the effects of this violence, and on how they re-appropriate the spaces in which armed organizations transgressed against them. The focus on quotidian practices is important to understand and assess ongoing processes of return particularly now that the Colombian state and the FARC guerrillas have negotiated an end to the decade-long conflict, and as negotiations with the ELN advance. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: PUNTO DE PARTIDA The aim of this thesis project is to understand how place and space are transformed by habitual practices that work to build community, belonging and solidarity. It will focus on identifying the processes through which members of the community of Las Palmas in the department of Bolivar, Colombia, (re)construct and (re)appropriate spaces after periods of displacement. Colombia has experienced six decades of armed conflict intertwined with constant elements of, and attempts at, building post-conflict environments (García- Godos and Andreas O. Lid 2010). The different armed actors engaged in the conflict have employed forms of terror in order to consolidate their control over particular terrains—economic, geographic, political, and social—amongst which are displays of violence in public spaces that are central to community life (as the plaza, see Low 2000; Poniatowska 2015; Rosenthal 2000; Vincent 2014). Fear and intimidation, as the cleansing campaigns through which the paramilitary transformed social spaces, have become instruments with which people are displaced, hence distanced from their lands, homes and communities (Civico 2015; CNRR 2010; Escobar 2008; Molano 2005; Oslender 2008; Tate 2015; Taussig 2012). Accounts of the massacres and the threats made against the people of Las Palmas have been well documented through transdisciplinary projects carried out by the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (CNMH) and the Comisión