"Literally Speaking"

Photo Journal No. 4

            A multitude of people are claiming freedom, peace, and respect for life. It is the common image of a march of peace in Bogota, Colombia. When people ask me, “Where are you from?”, I proudly answer Colombia, then they frown and say, “Oh cocaine”, “drug cartels”, “Pablo Escobar”, or ”It is dangerous there, right?”. In many respects, I can always answer “Yes, we are the number one cocaine producers around the world, but we are also one of the top five exporters of coffee, flowers, and emerald…. Of course, my country is as dangerous as any other place in the world.” For many years, my country has been flagellated for a huge dire of violent acts such as car bombs, explosives, murder, terrorist attacks and kidnapping of people.

The most painful of those things have been the kidnapping which has cost hundreds of innocents’ freedom.  Therefore, people in my country are getting together to complain against those who keep these martyrs in captivity. This image frame a street of Bogota crowded with people, all of them dressed with white t-shirt, and a yellow, blue, and red Colombian flags. They just transmit hope with screams of “Freedom to them”, and, “It is time…United for freedom of ALL hijacked.” They want to be heard, and let their relatives know that they are not alone. Just in this moment people in my country forget about status, religion, and political parties because it is only one cause, one scream, and one voice. Holding the pictures of the person they are missing: mothers, fathers, wife, children, and friends pray together for the soon liberation of their relatives. These rebels walk miles and whole hours, and in the air you can hear the clamor of freedom; meanwhile, in the depths of the Colombian jungle are the captives; chained, wounded, abused, whipped dead or alive. One day, these women and men were walking freely, now they have to resign to read letters, or hear messages of their relatives through the radio stations.

Thus, the martyrs pass day after day, year after year, counting hours and minutes, waiting for a rescue, or their liberation. Their bodies are suffering the most dangerous illness, and they are healed in precarious ways ironically by real doctors who one day decided to become part of the subversive groups, or better called “guerrillas.” They wanted to follow the idea of the revolution. The prisoners send survival messages to their families, in these videos where the abandonment is evident, they should tell to their families how they are, but behind them are the “guerrilleros” supervising what they should say. While their families walk for them in freedom clamor, as this picture illustrates, they are forced to walk through the jungle for hours, even whole days, and weeks. And, the hope stays there, in a branch where they mark with little lines day after day as making a calendar, to do not forget how many days of their life were stolen. But, for many of these people their live will finish there, in the middle of nothing without any right to be buried honorably.  

I am pretty sure that not all amount of people walking there have somebody in captivity, but those who do not have it, they are supporting, and expressing their solidarity to those who are passing through all the painful feeling that is caused for the absence of the member of the family. I had the opportunity to be in one of these marches a couple years ago when I did a documentary for my Graphic Audiovisual class, and it was very touching to me. I put my feet in their shoes, and for one minute I transported myself to those isolated places where the prisoners were, and I started to imagine how they feel. Now, this image just make me feel the same thing, I close my eyes, and clearly a can hear all the voices claim, “No more murders”, “No more violence”, “No more lies”, “No more kidnappings”, and “No more FARC” (FARC, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

            Contradictorily, what this picture shows, make me think about the result of this entire event afterwards. An immediate liberation would be ideal, but very unlikely. So, what they are pursuing through this march? I consider that they are trying to send a message to all of the leftist Paramilitary groups in Colombia. The former president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, had a personal goal to rid this beautiful country of all people who did not believe in a free society. President Uribe’s father was killed by acts of violence that these horrible groups inflict on their own countrymen. When the president of your country is spearheading a campaign to rid the country of these types of acts it makes it very simple to get out and support him. Even though, the President tried to help to the liberation, the guerrillas would not obey the law, thus it creates a long and complicated process for liberation.

            Once you pull yourself out of the situations at hand in the photo you also see beautiful green majestic mountains in the distance. The mountains are breath taking. When I see them I think of sitting on top of them looking down at the city and being able to see everything that is going on for miles. I can smell the peace, the freedom, and  the hope. The photo also shows that Colombia has modern architecture. Many Americans have a twisted concept of South America because of the lack of traveling there and movies, but many people think that we live in huts in the jungle without running water and the everyday necessities. When they come to realize in the photo that skyscrapers, buses, trains, taxi and many other forms of public transportation are just another piece of life in Colombia, they begin to realize that we are not as different as some people depict.

            The last but not least portion to this photo is that it is my Country of birth. It is made up of great men and women who have dreams and ambitions to be great. When I see the people come together to rid violence in the country it sends a clear message to other countries. Come to Colombia and see that we are great open hearted people just like you with a lot of history and culture. To find out what Colombia really has to offer get a plane ticket and come see for yourself the hospitality of the wonderful Colombian people. At first the glance, this photo is just a crowd of people in a larger city; however, it has whole history behind that.