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“Resistance Unarmed: Colombian Communities Building Alternatives to War”
Photo Exhibit (March 17 – April 17, 2005)
Debora Upegui

This spring, the Graduate Center’s Exhibition Hallway became the home of a photographic exhibit that honored the courage, resilience, and commitment to building peace demonstrated by the inhabitants of three Peace Communities in Colombia: San Jose de Apartado, Cacarica and the “Balsita Community of Life and Work” near the town of Dabeiba. The exhibit was hosted by AELLA (Association of Latino and Latin American students at the Graduate Center) and was displayed from March 17 through April 17. AELLA raised over $2,000.00 in order to make this photo exhibit possible. Over half of that money will go towards financing further development projects in the communities depicted in the pictures by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

The exhibition explores three Colombian communities’ nonviolent resistance in the context of Colombia, a country torn by political and social violence. While the exhibit conveys the great obstacles these communities face, it also highlights these communities as a sign of hope. The exhibit features images from three different Colombian communities which have developed methods of nonviolent resistance as a way of challenging the cycles of violence created by war:

· The community of San Jose de Apartado formally declared itself a peace community in 1997 and refuses to support any armed group.
· Cacarica is, an Afro-Colombian community that was initially displaced to the coastal city of Turbo and has since returned to its home territory along the Atrato River. The community has established two “humanitarian zones” where no weapons are allowed.

· The Balsita Community of Life and Work, near the town of Dabeiba in the Department of Antioquia, has chosen a strategy of survival based on principles of nonviolence.

The photo exhibit is a collection of images by photographers who donated their work to the Fellowship of Reconciliation for the purpose of this project. Eros Hoagland is a freelance photographer whose work has appeared in major magazines and newspapers throughout the world. Betty Udesen is a staff photographer for The Seattle Times whose work has been honored by the Associated Press, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Jutta Meier-Wiedenbach studied photography in Berlin and has worked as a freelance photographer for German publications, Mexican human rights organizations, and former Fellowship of Reconciliation volunteer Karin Anderson. The money raised by this traveling exhibit will support the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s accompaniment and development projects in Colombian peace communities.

As academics, it is important to be able to remember that there are human lives and communities behind the countless numbers and facts we study. This was evident in the audience’s reaction to the main speaker at the opening reception of the exhibition on Thursday, March 17. Those who came out to the opening of the exhibit were inspired by the words of Renata Rendon, a Fellowship of Reconciliation human rights worker who had returned from San Jose de Apartado, Colombia the day before. Professor Laird Bergad, director of CLACLS, delivered a paper prepared by Professor Mary Roldan from Cornell University, author of Blood and Fire: La Violencia en Antioquia, 1949-1953 after some welcoming remarks by Debora Upegui, co-chair of AELLA and doctoral student in the Social/Personality Psychology PhD Program.

Renata Rendon’s testimony moved the audience to tears. This was the first time that Ms. Rendon was speaking in public about her experience in San Jose de Apartado where she witnessed the exhumation of eight bodies (including those of three children) massacred on February 21, 2005. She came to know these people personally, and as a Fellowship of Reconciliation accompaniment worker helped search for bodies.
Among the dead was the body of Luis Eduardo Guerra, one of the founders of the peace community of San Jose de Apartado. However, Ms. Rendon pointed out that the communities were hopeful, and had a strong will to remain alive and continue to struggle to live in peace in their land. As a celebration of that hope and commitment to peace, the folkloric music group, La Cumbiamba, serenaded the audience with Colombian rhythms from the Uraba region from which the communities hail.

By bringing this photo exhibit to the Graduate Center, AELLA members wanted to continue to support and praise these communities for their daily efforts to promote peace and sustain hope. In the spring of 2004, AELLA hosted a speaker from the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado who spoke about non-violent resistance to armed groups, including the Colombian army, attempting to enter their communities. The exhibit provided an opportunity for the Graduate Center community to learn about the armed conflict in Colombian and to see the faces and homes of those who are most affected by it, rural communities like San Jose de Apartado, Cacarica, and Balsita.
“I like it,” one history student said of the event. “I feel it is a very important topic and it is unfortunate that many people are unaware of what happens in other parts of the world.”

Another history student was excited that so many people were present at the opening. He added, “You usually don’t get many people coming to events in the Graduate Center. It was exciting to see so many people from outside of the Graduate Center be there. There were high school students, undergraduate students, people from the community, activists, etc. It was a great mix.”

One anthropology student said that, “The most important thing was that in this academic environment people are accustomed to hearing about things in a distant manner. The moment [the FOR speaker] started to read his quote (see below) she couldn’t help but start crying. It eliminated the space between a violent situation in a faraway country and this academic environment. It brought it home for people, and made it easier for us to connect to her experience. I am glad I was there.”

An Environmental Science student explained that although she was informed about the conflict in Colombia, the armed groups involved and Plan Colombia, she did not know about the Peace Communities. She was excited to learn about these non-violent initiatives. “I think it is great to have students do this kind of activism at the Graduate Center,” she said. “It’s especially good to appropriate such spaces that are rarely available to students,” she added.

After the exhibition, the members of AELLA started a letter-writing campaign to call on the US Department of State to pressure the Colombian government to investigate the massacre and to protect the peace communities from any future retaliation. A great number of people from the outside community and from various activist networks come to the Graduate Center specifically to see the exhibit. AELLA members received calls from people coming from Philadelphia, New Jersey and Long Island. They hosted a guided tour for a group of high school students from Utah who were in town for a seminar with the United Methodist Seminar. A group of 25 students were guided by AELLA co-chair Debora Upegui, and later spoke with her about the context and the current situation in Colombia. One of the students was excited to see some of the communities she had read about in her research about Plan Colombia.

This important event enjoyed the collaboration and co-sponsorship of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, the Human Rights Seminar, and the Doctoral Student Council of the Graduate Center. Outside the Graduate Center, the project found sponsors in: the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College; the Disarm Education Fund, Violy & Company; Susana Torruella-Leval (former Director of El Museo del Barrio); and Michelle Fine and William Cross (faculty members of the Social/Personality Psychology PhD Program at the Graduate Center).

AELLA is a DSC-chartered student organization at the Graduate Center. AELLA is a broad-based organization of students interested in Latin America and the Caribbean. AELLA wants to increase the visibility of Latino and Latin American students at the Graduate Center, promote Latino and Latin American Studies, and lobby for increased funding for Latin American and Latino students and studies. AELLA combines academic and political concerns with a wide range of social and cultural interests. AELLA sponsors events throughout the semester including parties, movie nights, talks and workshops.

Debora Upegui is a student in the PhD program in Psychology and co-chair of AELLA.

“We have always said, and we are clear about that, that we are here today, resisting and our project is to continue to resist and defend our rights. We don’t know for how long because what we have lived throughout history is that we may be here talking, and tomorrow we may be dead. Today we are in San José de Apartadó, tomorrow the majority of the people may be displaced because there may be a massacre of 20 or 30 people,… this is not impossible. Here, in this region everything is possible. ” (Luis Eduardo Guerra, January 11, 2005, Interview by Emilia Bolinchesin Pueblos: Revista de Información y Debate, trans. Debora Upegui) For information on how to bring the traveling exhibit to your organization, email: Rebekah Waldron at rebekah@forusa.org For more information about the situation in Colombia, Peace Communities and how you can help go to: Fellowship of Reconciliation www.forusa.org Peace Communitiy San José de Apartadó www.cdpsanjose.org Latin American Working Group Education Fund www.lawg.org Center for International Policy www.ciponline.org Washington Office on Latin America www.wola.org U.S. Office on Colombia www.usofficeoncolombia.org