Ayanna Legros
DRECCA (Fundacíon para el Desarrollo y Reivindicacíon Etno-cultural de las Comunidades Afrodescendientes)
Cali, Colombia
“Did you hear about Donald Trump?! What a crazy man!” stated the taxi driver taking me throughout the streets of Bogota. It was suddenly no secret that America is not a place free from discrimination. A couple of people asked me, “So America is still doing the same old racist stuff, huh?” Yet, the ironic thing is that Bogota, which was buzzing about Trump and his openly xenophobic discourses towards Mexicans, is the place I felt least comfortable in all of my travels in Colombia.
Bogota, similar to most major cities in Latin America, has the smallest number of Afro-descended communities. Seeing an Afro-descended person in Bogota was like seeing a unicorn. After spending a week there doing research for DRECCA, the foundation I was working with, I was ready to go back to my second home, Cali. After speaking with members of the DRECCA staff and telling them about my experiences of micro-aggression in Bogota, many of them replied that they are not surprised. Yet, they countered the idea that the United States is a space that is “more racist” than Colombia.
It was interesting to witness the number of Afro-Colombians willing to comfort themselves with the notion that Colombia does not have the same race problems as the United States. My Afro-Colombian friends, on the other hand, shared intimate and painful stories about family members chased by skinheads in Bogota while waiting for public transportation. These stories were painful to listen to but were necessary to further challenge the notion that Colombia is a racially harmonious space.
Upon my return to Cali, I was able to experience Petronio, a festival dedicated to celebrating Afro-descended peoples and cultures from the Pacific Coast, a space that has experienced brutal violence due to the civil conflict and unrest. Petronio, with its local musicians and seafood, was a highlight of my time in Colombia. It further confirmed the necessity of having spaces that re-vindicate Afro-descended cultures and practices.
![people at concert at night](https://wp.nyu.edu/gallatin_human_rights_fellows/wp-content/uploads/sites/935/2015/09/IMG_5579-225x300.jpg)
The festival pushed me to think about the ways in which Black or Afro-descended peoples have come to be celebrated without a political, social, or economic context. Despite this shortfall, the festival was a wonderful experience, and working with young Afro-descended women in Cali, Colombia, has inspired me to create a group in the United States dedicated to economic education for women of color.