Voices of Victims - Mama Chila.

The first in a series of interviews with victims of urban violence in Medellin, Colombia.

This series of interviews was carried out in June 2014 as part of my research for my dissertation towards completing my masters degree. As I was only able to use excerpts from these interviews I have decided to include them here so that the voices of these amazing people can be heard in full. Practically every single one of the victims expressed their desire to be heard so this is my part towards that and please also share so that these people can be heard far and wide. These are stories of resilience and strength and not of weakness and victimisation. Hopefully they can serve to change the image of victims of violence.

This first interview was with the inspirational Mama Chila, a woman who has worked against the adversity of extreme violence, who has seen many of her family killed and yet continues to educate children in the neighbourhood of Moravia, which was originally built on a rubbish dump and which still today faces many problems of violence, discrimination, stigmatisation and poverty. She now works in the Cultural Centre of Moravia which was designed by Colombia's best known architect and which is a source of great pride for the neighbourhood. Recently a school was built and is named after her in recognition of her great work. This is her story.

"I’ve lived in this community for more than forty years now. When we arrived, with my family, we lived in el Valle. Before that, the place was countryside. There were country houses and farms here. We weren’t a rich family but we had our place. In the 70’s the municipality began dumping the rubble from the construction of the metro and then later the more common rubbish from the city and of course, with so many displaced people coming to the city at that time due to the war in the countryside, the people had no work or education. They didn’t know how to live in a city.

They were country people and they had no option, some of them, than to work in recycling and the dump was the perfect place for them. So the families came and the parents would work there and the kids wouldn’t go to school and they would run around the dump also. they watch themselves or shower. They were smelly and I was afraid they would cause disgust to others. We had a car. And since I always had this feeling towards people I went out to the streets to help them. And I started to become something of a mother and I started to have a lot of anguish for the community and began to teach the nuns how to go up the 'morro' and began to teach the people how to live together. And together with the nuns we began to give out bibles. And I began to build a reputation amongst the community. I had to raise two children from the street that weren’t accepted in any school. I had to teach them how to read and write. I gave them food. 

Then they killed the husband of one woman who had five children. After that I began to feed them also, and have them in my house and wash their clothes. I learned a lot about children and other people. I also began to take care of the senior citizens of the community who were very messy and disorganised and filthy. So I started with that group and after 22 years I had a group of 300 kids. I don't know where I got so much strength or where I learned to teach them. I have photos of them all. I have trophies that they want, holy Communion dresses and we participated in a a lot of events. My daughter also worked with me.

Were you involved in the design of the cultural centre?

Yes, we needed to have a space because we had to meet wherever we could find, in the street or in someone's house. We had to buy stretchers and wheelchairs to transport the elderly people. There was not enough space in my house for all of the politicians, people from the church etc. With all of the nuns the meetings became very large so we said to ourselves that we needed our own place. We needed a house of culture. For all of the social groups and artistic groups such as theatre and dance groups. In this area dance was very important. There were also martial arts groups. And at that time to have an artistic event we had to go to the football pitch. The other space was outside of the barrio and it is a very small space. We also have events outside the church. There were not a lot of public spaces for so many people. This was the reason why we wanted to create this space. So that these groups could have physical space, somewhere to keep their instruments, their clothing etc. Also to have a space to practice and have shows. I am a crafts person.

As a leader of the community, did the idea of the space come from you?

Yes and from the necessities.

What did it mean to you to have a space designed by one of the most famous architects in Colombia?

Imagine. It was like a gift from God. Imagine having someone so important. From the Minister of culture to the mayor, they were all involved.

But before that Rogelio Salmona heard about the project and liked it. Also another family who had a lot of money helped to make this space possible. So, they all came together to make his dream come true. I remember we were in a meeting and we were talking about how we see Moravia in 10 years and I said I wanted to see the streets changed completely with infrastructure, flowers in the streets, and if you walk down the streets today you can see all those flowers. That was my dream. To see gardens everywhere and to see the community organised and tidy. I wanted to see the community with everything that it needed.

In relation to the violence, does the neighbourhood feel safer now since the construction of the centre?

Yes. It has changed completely. Now we don't have all of those people like before. I personally had to leave and go to Cordoba. The dead were coming and going. The violence was very strong. The armed groups had community in its clutches. The violence was terrible. Now today it has changed. You can walk safely. Thank God. Before nobody would enter the Barrio. Taxis wouldn't enter. Now there are fighting to come.

Has the price of the land increased because of that?

That is something else. The people here don't have much money. The house where we used to live, where they built the new ‘Mama Chila’ school, they offered us 70 million pesos (37,000 dollars) and we left when they killed my son. So we bought ourselves a regular house in another place. They killed my son and then we returned here. It was very difficult. They killed my son. My life has been very difficult. Society has not treated us well. They killed the husband of my daughter. I'm tired. That was between 1986 and 2010.

Most of the leaders of the community seem to be women.

That's true. Us women are more constant, we can put up with more. Because men are more lazy. Also women are better for education. I have 23 certificates. And more to come. In turn the men just work and work so they are tired. Women fight and fight and fight. There are a lot of women here that have been very active. Women have that strength but also a lot of the men were killed.

I do a lot of courses here in the centre. I learned to dance, theatre, music and more. I think all of us, all people, have the ability to keep learning. There are women in this community with 22 children that they have to raise and teach.

Did the architect consultant you or the community when he was designing the centre?

No. We were involved in the project of until the point when the money was available to build the centre. But I imagine that you consult with other members of the community. There was another group of leaders that intervened at that time. There were a lot of different moments. The group of leaders that I was involved with word involved in the project at the beginning. We set out the spaces that we needed. Of course we hadn't imagined it as Salmona did. And since we were involved in the macro project planning of the entire community some days we were involved in four meetings and in various meetings at the same time. There were readings about housing, the economy and other things. So since we were so busy we decided that it should be a group of young people, the ones who would use the space and enjoy the space, that will take part in the design so that the continue occupying the space in the future. So we took a back seat. And when construction began there was another group created called the Cultural Network of Moravia. This social projects and activities began before construction began.