Crisol (melting pot)

This project include images from other ones and some new. It is an attempt to fight against bigotry, racism and ignorance with what I do: art, education and culture. We are a country deeply racist from mass media to common day language, from political parties like the Centro Democrático and senators like Paloma Valencia to people in the streets. I want to believe that to know the others, to interact with them, to walk some meters in their shoes or simply take the time to look on their eyes or shake their hands will help us to see how awful and stupid is racism. This is a country full of amazing, beautiful and hardworking people and also 5.000 killings by the army under the last president, now a senator. We are trying almost with desperation to put an end to almost 200 years of wars, trying to fight against the ones who make profit of our pain and bloodshed. A hard and complicated road full of enemies inside and outside our borders. After so many years of war the truth is something so diluted, but for me there's still a truth: The common people are the main victims of all this, they are the ones who put the dead bodies, the tears, the sweat, the blood and they are the ones for who we have to pursuit the peace. I've compiled in some few photographs a small set of the diversity, beauty, wisdom and daily life of the people at the Cauca's department and doing it I'm making an small sample of this beautiful country. That's the reason why this project is called Crisol (melting pot): from paramilitar forces to guerrillas, from farmers to illegal miners, from disgusting corrupt politicians to good hardworking people, the Cauca's department -as all the country- includes a mixture of many contradictory elements.