Significados del lugar/espacio, comunidad y empoderamiento desde una perspectiva de género. Experiencias de mujeres afrocolombianas desplazadas del Pacífico colombiano

Abstract

his document is about the meanings of place, the processes of displacement, community building, and struggles for empowerment narrated by Afro-Colombian women community leaders in Cali, Colombia. The section Reforma Rural Integral of the peace agreement signed by the Colombian government and the FARC-EP defines the place as an economic asset restricting it to its physic meaning in contrast to the definitions given by the women who also attached to place symbolic and social meanings. Three research questions guide this article: What are the social and symbolic meanings given to the places left behind and newly inhabited, by displaced Afro-Colombian women? How women narrate their belonging to different places and communities, and their struggles to establish new life after displacement? How are gender and ethnicity/race embedded in these narratives?Based on participant observation, in-depth interviews, and a thematic analysis, it was possible to demonstrate how, through individual and collective political struggles, these women build their roles within the new communities in Cali by following or challenging patterns of gender identity. What allows them to create a place for themselves, through intersections of gender, race, age, and family, as well as through loss and struggle.

Keywords

• Place
• space
• community
• empowerment
• Afro-Colombian
• displacement