A few months ago, we shared this video above with you, coupled with a series of reflections by Miguel Macias. Miguel is a youth media producer, MADRE volunteer and an assistant professor at the department of Television and Radio at Brooklyn College--and many of the videos we've been showing you this week are the result of his guidance in leading a multimedia workshop with youth in Bogota.
Miguel reflected on his experience, saying:
Memory is a funny thing. I am fascinated by it. Perhaps because my own memory is always influencing what I do. Teaching these young students from Bogota I wonder about their memories. And I wonder about how those memories shape who they are. One of the people I met in Bogota told me: "I've met people who have gone through horrible things, and they are fine. No psychological consequences... that I can see". But can it be that these young people are immune to the kind of things they went through? Some of them certainly look like it. That is... assuming that the kind of things they went through are actually horrible and traumatic for them. Maybe these realities are just the norm for them. Maybe they grew up with them and never saw this environment, this political violence the country has been involved in for so long, as extraordinary. Nothing extraordinary.
Earlier this month, the Youth Radio website posted some additional reflections from one of the young people who helped produce this video:
In Colombia people take advantage of the chaos to survive. But the characters you’ll find in this video piece are different from the displaced citizens who found at a traffic light what they could not find in the places where they came from when they were violently pushed out. The characters you’ll see in this video are people who have their basic needs satisfied. They work at the traffic lights because they enjoy it, because they love art. You can find them at any Bogota street, full of happiness and magic. Their dreams live on the streets for a short period of time. The streets, which are a different world. It is there where you can witness the solidarity, the proof that there are good people who hustle, who found in this informal employment, the way to keep going.
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