Our own, proudly our own

The Colombian Pacific is the birthplace of men and women who have written important chapters in different scenarios of the country's contemporary history. For the Quibdó Africa Film Festival, they are a living heritage for new generations. A legacy that allows us to affirm that the region is full of magical characters and stories. Protagonists of subjective films that do not need the big screen to shine and leave their mark.

Francia Elena Márquez Mina

France Marquez, dignity has become a common practice!

On Sunday, June 19, 2022, at 4:35 pm, a deafening cry of joy and happiness was heard in unison in Colombia. What had just happened was historic: Francia Elena Márquez Mina, social activist and environmental leader, lawyer graduated from the Universidad Santiago de Cali, native of Suárez (Cauca), had been elected Vice President of the Republic.

There were plenty of reasons to celebrate: it was the first time that a woman of African descent had reached such a precious political position. A place where the echo of the nobodies and nobodies, those ethnic and social groups excluded for decades, would resound with enormous force. Márquez's motto, a phrase that amounted to a commandment, perfectly summarized an ideal of life and a possible dream for all:

Until dignity becomes a commonplace

Márquez's arrival at the Casa de Nariño was a collective victory. With heartfelt emotion and tears in her eyes, she affirmed it in her speech of gratitude that same Sunday at the Movistar Arena in Bogota with her mother and her two children. As she spoke, Francia lent her voice and her ideals to single mothers, peasants, indigenous people, Afro-descendants, victims of violence and members of the LGBTIQ+ community, to name a few groups that decided to support her with absolute conviction.

Standing in front of those who accompanied her unconditionally in her electoral journey, the woman who dreamed of being a singer in her childhood and who turned her voice into an instrument to defend her community from illegal armed groups and extractive companies, had achieved something wonderful: to cherish the dreams and ambitions of Afro-descendant girls, adolescents and young women of the Colombian Pacific and other regions of the country.

That meant a lot. Now, they could proudly say that they had a Vice-President of their own ethnicity and with a fascinating life story. In other words, Francia's leadership and empowerment became an invaluable legacy for an ethnic group that historically struggled with structural racism and discrimination.

In Francia's emotional gaze, we could admire the dreamy and playful girl; the teenager dressed in sudden adulthood who exchanged notebooks for mining work to face the vicissitudes of motherhood; the young woman who earned the respect of her community by heart and the woman determined to study law to protect her homeland. A human being who defended equality and equity in a Colombia that was privileged for some and complex for others.

It was pertinent to travel to 1997 and visualize one of the most admirable images of his subjective book: the tireless body, always ready in spite of fatigue, dedicated to his leadership in the Black Communities Process, a school of life where Marquez has contributed to the organizational strengthening of the Afro-Colombian communities in Northern Cauca.

It was also worth recalling the memorable chapter that took place between 2002 and 2010, years in which there was a pitched battle to preserve the rights to life with dignity, prior consultation and the defense of the territory of the ancestral community of La Toma, when mining exploration titles were granted to multinational companies.

In this journey of captivating pages, the reader should stop at those written in 2014. Historic moment in which Francia, determined to change the future of her people, and the Association of Afro-descendant Women of Yolombó organized the Mobilization of Black Women for the Care of Life and Ancestral Territories; a journey that took them to Bogotá to demand their rights. As a result of this peaceful protest, 27 Community Councils of Northern Cauca were recognized as subjects of collective reparation within the framework of Decree Law 4635 of 2011.

Before leaving the biographical reading, it was necessary to shift the curiosity to the chapter written in 2016, a transcendental year for the social and political history of the country. In the framework of the dialogues for Peace between the National Government and the FARC-EP, Márquez was crucial for the participation of ethnic peoples. This is how the Ethnic Chapter of the Peace Agreement, one of the most important chapters of the document, was drafted.

Those who sow with love reap good fruits. Our Vice President-elect could attest to this: National Award for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia (2015); National Award as Human Rights Defender from the Swedish organization Diakonia (2015); Goldman Environmental Prize (2018) and top 100 most influential women in the world (2019).

Forbidden to forget her mythical speech in the auditorium of the San Francisco Opera House, that April 23, 2018:

"I am an African-descendant woman. I grew up in an ancestral territory that started in 1636. From a young age we are taught the value of the land. We know that the territories on which we build our community and recreate our culture are not a gift, as it cost our elders many years of work and suffering in the mines and slave plantations. The upbringing in my community is based on values such as solidarity, respect and honesty. We are taught that dignity has no price, that to resist is not to endure. We are taught to love and value the territory as a living space, to fight for it, even at the risk of our own lives".

To tell the truth, without those awards, the mighty rivers of her potential and leadership did not diminish. Francia Márquez was already a winner. In the traces of her social journey, both physical and intangible traces, lived the victory of a proudly black woman who changed the history of her beloved Suarez. A warrior of peace who never stopped fighting for a single moment for an economy for life and a Colombia where living a tasty life was a right. Francia Elena, the woman who defended those nobodies that Eduardo Galeano portrayed in his poem:

The fleas dream of buying a dog and the nobodies dream of getting out of poverty, that some magical day good luck will suddenly rain, that good luck will pour down; but good luck does not rain yesterday, nor today, nor tomorrow, nor ever, nor does good luck fall from the sky in a drizzle.

It was worthwhile for the nobodies and nobodies of a hopeless country to dream again. It was worth believing that it would be possible. That cry that resounded in unison in Colombia on Sunday, June 19, 2022, at 4:35 pm, delivered a clear and forceful message:

France Marquez, dignity has become a common practice!