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Today I’m reading in Arturo Escobar’s DESIGNS FOR THE PLURIVERSE the words of Francia Márquez. as she helped organize her Columbian village La Toma to march against destructive gold-mining threatening the land, river and people. In 2014 she said:
“Everything we have lived has been for the love of our territories, the love we feel when we see the plantain germinate, when we have a sunny fishing day ... Our land is a place where we dream of our future with dignity." She spoke and marched: "to create the conditions to take care of all life to privilege the life of all beings above all private interests and the interests of the transnationals. We started on this march to let you know that illegal mining is leaving us without our families robbing us from the possibility of continuing to live and the territory where our umbilical cords are buried.”
The march succeeded, illegal goldmining in the area was ended.
Not long after encountering her words, I open a mid-terms email from the Boston Review and read of the success of rewilding, indigeneous rights, human rights and the rights of nature in Brasil and Colombia countering fascism, globalization and racism. And I see the name Francia Márquez... Is this the same woman I was just reading for the first time? YES !! Francia Marquez is now the new vice-president of Columbia, elected in August 2022.