IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 57

It is Afro-descendants who have lived
through the violence, social fragmentation, and forced displacement with the
greatest intensity. For Yasmany Sinisterra, one of Humanitarian Space’s leaders,
Buenaventura is a city punished by poverty; organized crime is a constant
source of a pain that was marked by the
social cleansing of the 70s and 80s. Paramilitarism empowers children and
youth; terror has imposed disdain for
human dignity. Death is increasingly
becoming a cultural cue for the black
population. “Our community is not only
threatened by forced displacement, but
also by the selective killing of our leaders, particularly women.

The Puente Nayero Humanitarian Living
Space is the wall that protects us against
so much impunity, a place in which to
protect our lives and our spiritual and
material culture,” she affirmed. Although I was among friends, I feel afraid
at hearing so much about the political
and social terrorism to which the AfroColombian population has been subjected for so many years. Yet, it was also
extremely interesting to get a feel for the
place.

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