Public Project
2016 - Granizal
Blanca creció viendo trabajar a sus hermanos y padre en las bananeras en Mutatá Uraba. Su esposo Gustavo aprendió a trabajar la madera y heredo de su padre las herramientas y la destreza para trabajarla, se esposo con Blanca y tuvieron una linda hija. Ya se sabía que los Paramilitares estaban en la zona y a pesar de las amenazas nunca pensaron que la vida les cambiaria de manera tan drástica. Al terminar su jornada de trabajo un viernes en la tarde, Gustavo fue a dejar su motosierra donde su abuela, tenían planeado salir con Blanca y su hija ese fin de semana, esto paso en el año mil novecientos noventa y ocho. Partieron con advertencias de vecinos sobre las amenazas de muerte hacia la familia pero a la mano de Dios arrancaron los tres, las amenazas no eran algo nuevo, eran el pan de cada día, en realidad casi todos los habitantes tenía problemas con amenazas de este tipo, por eso la angustia no consumió esta familia. Al volver Blanca se encontró con el asesinato de sus dos hermanos en las bananeras, Gustavo con mucha angustia fue a casa de su abuela donde tenía su Motosierra, al llegar la encontró muerta, inmediatamente con la ropa que llevaban puesta tomaron rumbo hacia Medellín. Dos semana después sus hermanos lo recibieron muy angustiados diciéndole "Gracias Dios se fue, porque usted estaba en la lista". Con tan solo expectativa pero mucha fe Blanca, Gustavo y su Hija llegaron a un caserío que se estaba formando en las afueras de Medellín, allí formaron su ranchito y ahora, veinte años después me cuenta con tristeza lo ocurrido pero agradece estar con vida al lado de su esposa y su hija. Gustavo mantiene su familia con su motosierra y recuerda con mucho dolor su tierra y su familia.
Lizardo Correa tiene cincuenta y cuatro años, formó parte del noveno frente de las FARC y volarse fue su calvario, sindicalista desde que llego a Granizal, fue uno de los hombres que vio nacer esta Vereda, actualmente trabaja en pro de la comunidad y lidera planes sociales con el fin de mejorar la calidad de vida de todos sus vecinos que ya son como sus hermanos. A unas casas de allí vive Irma, su esposa, ella tiene dos hijos con los cuales llego a la vereda, huye del oriente antioqueño con toda su familia hacia Medellín ya que llega un panfleto a casa que dice "Absolutamente todos son informantes de la Guerrilla", el miedo la hizo abandonar su casa y se tuvo que asentar en el caserío que ahora se conoce como Granizal. Irma ahora con mucho orgullo se dedica a la costura, pero con la voz entrecortada me cuenta como casi pierde sus dos pequeños, su ranchito no tenía las condiciones adecuadas para vivir ni mucho menos como mantener bien a dos pequeños de brazos, el Bienestar familiar gracias a las acusaciones de sus vecinos por poco le quita sus pequeños, fue ahí cuando recibió una donación para dotar su rancho con un baño y una cocina, por esa época recibió ayuda de Lizardo y desde entonces han crecido juntos, cada uno vive en su ranchito pero juntos han visto el progreso y se sienten felices de haber sobrevivido a la ola de violencia que azotó sus hogares hace veinte años, con su linterna en mano Lizardo baja a visitar y a comer todas las noches en casa de Irma, la vereda no tiene luz así que los caminos los adornan las lucecitas por los caminos de las personas que los transitan, "Yo quisiera volver pero no hay plata, igual el miedo a uno lo persigue a todas partes" me dice con mucha nostalgia Irma. Lizardo no tuvo más opción que correr, ahora está en brazos en Irma y no deja de pelear y sacar adelante su comunidad, después de tener un fusil en la cabeza agradece a Dios, a la vida haber tenido una segunda oportunidad.
Sola con sus tres hijos Amanda de Jesús también dejo sus tierras para salvar su vida. Una noche llegaron unos tipos armados, gritaban y echaban tiros al aire, la vecina de Amanda era de las autodefensas y los guerrilleros de las FARC fueron esa noche a matarlos a todos. Amanda tenía un estanquillo en su casa, lugar donde vendía tinto !tocaron su puerta¡ "vecina para que nos colabore con aguardiente y tinto", después de escuchar los balazos en casa de su vecina, el pánico no dejo que Amanda y sus tres hijas salieran de debajo de su cama, de repente luego de tanto alboroto un incómodo y aterrador silencio se tomó las calles de la vereda en el Corregimiento de Dabeiba. Fue entonces apenas salió el Sol la mañana siguiente cuando Amanda y sus tres hijas emprendieron su huida hacia Medellín. Su actual esposo Luis Emilio, separado en aquel entonces y con un hijo ya mayor de edad, conocía en este corregimiento a Amanda, mirada va, mirada viene, pero nada más. Emilio tenía una hermana, por la misma época en que Amanda abandono sus tierras. Amenazaron a la hermana de Emilio, y sin pensarlo huyeron hacia Medellín también, la terquedad de su hijo no lo dejo huir con su padre y se quedó en Dabeiba conservando su trabajo y su casa. "Me mataron a mi hijo" me dice con llanto y dolor Luis Emilio, quien el miedo no lo dejo volver al pueblo, "yo no pude ir a ver a mi hijo”, “desde esa época yo no voy por allá". Después de perdidas, dolor y lágrimas Luis Emilio encuentra a Amanda de Jesús en Medellín, y fue allí donde desde entonces están juntos y llevan un negocio muy próspero en la vereda Granizal, bajo las incomodidades de la vereda dan gracias a Dios por estas vivos y contando esta historia.
Estas tres familias encontraron al Nororiente de Medellín un lugar en el cual asentarse y así no alejarse de la vida rural. Todo comenzó con un caserío de cinco ranchitos y ahora después de años es una vereda con aproximadamente cuatrocientas ochenta mil familias y dieciocho mil habitantes todos desplazados por la violencia. Un nuevo comienzo para muchas familias víctimas del conflicto armado en Colombia, Aproximadamente doscientas dieciocho mil personas murieron a causa de esta guerra y el ochenta y un por ciento eran civiles inocentes. Medellín fue uno de los municipios en estado crítico en el país. La Vereda el Granizal es un ejemplo de superación en Colombia, sus habitantes durante mucho tiempo llevaron odio en el corazón pues vivieron en carne propia la guerra y la barbarie de aquella época, perdieron sus tierras, sus seres queridos pero nunca perdieron la esperanza, ahora llevan perdón en su corazón. Lizardo, Irma, Luis Emilio, Amanda, Blanca y Gustavo son el testimonio de superación de una guerra que dejo mucho dolor en el país, dolor que fue superado por unos, pero que no dejo contar el cuento a muchos otros.
20 years ago the bullets were stained with blood, the FARC Guerrilla and the AUC Paramilitary groups terrorized the peasant population in Urabá Antioquia, the only option that the inhabitants of this district had was to leave their land and abandon everything they had. to preserve their lives. Between anger, sadness, broken voices and watery eyes these three families told me their stories, Doña Blanca and her husband Gustavo, Don Lizardo and his wife Irma and Doña Amanda de Jesús accompanied by her husband Luis Emilio.
Blanca grew up watching her brothers and her father work in the banana plantations in Mutatá Uraba. Her husband Gustavo learned to work with wood and inherited the tools and skills to work it from her father. He married Blanca and they had a beautiful daughter. It was already known that the paramilitaries were in the area and despite the threats, they never thought that their lives would change so drastically. At the end of his work day on a Friday afternoon, Gustavo went to leave his chainsaw where his grandmother had planned to go out with Blanca and his daughter that weekend, this happened in the year nineteen ninety-eight. They left with warnings from neighbors about the death threats against the family but at the hand of God the three started, the threats were not something new, they were the daily bread, in reality almost all the inhabitants had problems with threats of this type That's why anguish did not consume this family. When Blanca returned she found the murder of her two brothers in the banana plantations, Gustavo with great anguish went to his grandmother's house where he had his chainsaw, upon arrival he found her dead, immediately with the clothes they were wearing they headed towards Medellín . Two weeks later his brothers received him very anguished saying "Thank God you left, because you were on the list". With only expectation but a lot of faith, Blanca, Gustavo and her daughter arrived at a hamlet that was forming on the outskirts of Medellin, there they formed their little ranch and now, twenty years later, she sadly tells me what happened but is grateful to be alive by her side. of his wife and daughter. Gustavo supports his family with his chainsaw and remembers his land and his family with great pain.
Lizardo Correa is fifty-four years old, he was part of the FARC's ninth front and flying was his ordeal, a trade unionist since he arrived in Granizal, he was one of the men who saw the birth of this Vereda, he currently works for the community and leads plans social in order to improve the quality of life of all its neighbors who are already like their brothers. A few houses from there lives Irma, his wife, she has two children with whom she came to the village, she flees from eastern Antioquia with her whole family towards Medellin since a pamphlet arrives at home that says "Absolutely all of them are informants of the Guerrilla ", fear made her leave her house and she had to settle in the village that is now known as Granizal. Irma now proudly dedicates herself to sewing, but with a broken voice she tells me how she almost lost her two little ones, her little ranch did not have the right conditions to live in, much less how to keep two little ones well in her arms, the Family Welfare thanks to the accusations of his neighbors he almost took away his little ones, it was there when he received a donation to equip his ranch with a bathroom and a kitchen, at that time he received help from Lizardo and since then they have grown up together, each one lives in his ranch but together they have seen progress and are happy to have survived the wave of violence that hit their homes twenty years ago, with his flashlight in hand Lizardo goes down to visit and eat every night at Irma's house, the sidewalk has no light so the paths are adorned with little lights along the paths of the people who pass through them, "I would like to go back but there is no money, maybe fear follows you everywhere" Irma tells me very nostalgically. Lizardo had no choice but to run, now he is in Irma's arms and he does not stop fighting and moving his community forward, after having a rifle to his head, he thanks God, to life, for having had a second chance.
Alone with her three children, Amanda de Jesús also left her land to save her life. One night some armed guys arrived, shouting and shooting into the air, Amanda's neighbor was from the self-defense groups and the FARC guerrillas went that night to kill them all. Amanda had a small shop in her house, a place where she sold red wine! They knocked on her door "neighbor to help us with brandy and red wine", after hearing the shots in her neighbor's house, the panic did not let Amanda and her three daughters out from under his bed, suddenly after so much commotion an uncomfortable and terrifying silence took over the streets of the village in the Dabeiba District. It was then as soon as the sun rose the next morning when Amanda and her three daughters began their flight to Medellín. Her current husband Luis Emilio, separated at that time and with a son of legal age, knew Amanda in this village, look goes, look comes, but nothing more. Emilio had a sister, around the same time that Amanda left her land. They threatened Emilio's sister, and without thinking they fled to Medellin too, his son's stubbornness did not let him run away with his father and he stayed in Dabeiba keeping his job and his house. "They killed my son" Luis Emilio tells me with tears and pain, who fear did not let him return to the town, "I couldn't go see my son", "since that time I don't go there". After losses, pain and tears, Luis Emilio finds Amanda de Jesús in Medellín, and it was there that they have been together ever since and have run a very prosperous business in the village of Granizal, under the inconvenience of the village they thank God for being alive and telling this story.
These three families found in the Northeast of Medellín a place to settle and thus not be far from rural life. It all started with a hamlet of five small ranches and now, after years, it is a village with approximately four hundred and eighty thousand families and eighteen thousand inhabitants, all displaced by the violence. A new beginning for many families victims of the armed conflict in Colombia. Approximately two hundred and eighteen thousand people died because of this war and eighty one percent were innocent civilians. Medellín was one of the municipalities in critical condition in the country. The Vereda el Granizal is an example of overcoming in Colombia, its inhabitants for a long time carried hatred in their hearts because they lived first-hand the war and the barbarism of that time, they lost their lands, their loved ones but they never lost hope, now They carry forgiveness in their hearts. Lizardo, Irma, Luis Emilio, Amanda, Blanca and Gustavo are the testimony of overcoming a war that left a lot of pain in the country, pain that was overcome by some, but that did not let many others tell the story.
Blanca grew up watching her brothers and her father work in the banana plantations in Mutatá Uraba. Her husband Gustavo learned to work with wood and inherited the tools and skills to work it from her father. He married Blanca and they had a beautiful daughter. It was already known that the paramilitaries were in the area and despite the threats, they never thought that their lives would change so drastically. At the end of his work day on a Friday afternoon, Gustavo went to leave his chainsaw where his grandmother had planned to go out with Blanca and his daughter that weekend, this happened in the year nineteen ninety-eight. They left with warnings from neighbors about the death threats against the family but at the hand of God the three started, the threats were not something new, they were the daily bread, in reality almost all the inhabitants had problems with threats of this type That's why anguish did not consume this family. When Blanca returned she found the murder of her two brothers in the banana plantations, Gustavo with great anguish went to his grandmother's house where he had his chainsaw, upon arrival he found her dead, immediately with the clothes they were wearing they headed towards Medellín . Two weeks later his brothers received him very anguished saying "Thank God you left, because you were on the list". With only expectation but a lot of faith, Blanca, Gustavo and her daughter arrived at a hamlet that was forming on the outskirts of Medellin, there they formed their little ranch and now, twenty years later, she sadly tells me what happened but is grateful to be alive by her side. of his wife and daughter. Gustavo supports his family with his chainsaw and remembers his land and his family with great pain.
Lizardo Correa is fifty-four years old, he was part of the FARC's ninth front and flying was his ordeal, a trade unionist since he arrived in Granizal, he was one of the men who saw the birth of this Vereda, he currently works for the community and leads plans social in order to improve the quality of life of all its neighbors who are already like their brothers. A few houses from there lives Irma, his wife, she has two children with whom she came to the village, she flees from eastern Antioquia with her whole family towards Medellin since a pamphlet arrives at home that says "Absolutely all of them are informants of the Guerrilla ", fear made her leave her house and she had to settle in the village that is now known as Granizal. Irma now proudly dedicates herself to sewing, but with a broken voice she tells me how she almost lost her two little ones, her little ranch did not have the right conditions to live in, much less how to keep two little ones well in her arms, the Family Welfare thanks to the accusations of his neighbors he almost took away his little ones, it was there when he received a donation to equip his ranch with a bathroom and a kitchen, at that time he received help from Lizardo and since then they have grown up together, each one lives in his ranch but together they have seen progress and are happy to have survived the wave of violence that hit their homes twenty years ago, with his flashlight in hand Lizardo goes down to visit and eat every night at Irma's house, the sidewalk has no light so the paths are adorned with little lights along the paths of the people who pass through them, "I would like to go back but there is no money, maybe fear follows you everywhere" Irma tells me very nostalgically. Lizardo had no choice but to run, now he is in Irma's arms and he does not stop fighting and moving his community forward, after having a rifle to his head, he thanks God, to life, for having had a second chance.
Alone with her three children, Amanda de Jesús also left her land to save her life. One night some armed guys arrived, shouting and shooting into the air, Amanda's neighbor was from the self-defense groups and the FARC guerrillas went that night to kill them all. Amanda had a small shop in her house, a place where she sold red wine! They knocked on her door "neighbor to help us with brandy and red wine", after hearing the shots in her neighbor's house, the panic did not let Amanda and her three daughters out from under his bed, suddenly after so much commotion an uncomfortable and terrifying silence took over the streets of the village in the Dabeiba District. It was then as soon as the sun rose the next morning when Amanda and her three daughters began their flight to Medellín. Her current husband Luis Emilio, separated at that time and with a son of legal age, knew Amanda in this village, look goes, look comes, but nothing more. Emilio had a sister, around the same time that Amanda left her land. They threatened Emilio's sister, and without thinking they fled to Medellin too, his son's stubbornness did not let him run away with his father and he stayed in Dabeiba keeping his job and his house. "They killed my son" Luis Emilio tells me with tears and pain, who fear did not let him return to the town, "I couldn't go see my son", "since that time I don't go there". After losses, pain and tears, Luis Emilio finds Amanda de Jesús in Medellín, and it was there that they have been together ever since and have run a very prosperous business in the village of Granizal, under the inconvenience of the village they thank God for being alive and telling this story.
These three families found in the Northeast of Medellín a place to settle and thus not be far from rural life. It all started with a hamlet of five small ranches and now, after years, it is a village with approximately four hundred and eighty thousand families and eighteen thousand inhabitants, all displaced by the violence. A new beginning for many families victims of the armed conflict in Colombia. Approximately two hundred and eighteen thousand people died because of this war and eighty one percent were innocent civilians. Medellín was one of the municipalities in critical condition in the country. The Vereda el Granizal is an example of overcoming in Colombia, its inhabitants for a long time carried hatred in their hearts because they lived first-hand the war and the barbarism of that time, they lost their lands, their loved ones but they never lost hope, now They carry forgiveness in their hearts. Lizardo, Irma, Luis Emilio, Amanda, Blanca and Gustavo are the testimony of overcoming a war that left a lot of pain in the country, pain that was overcome by some, but that did not let many others tell the story.
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