Juan Manuel Echavarria
b. 1947, Colombia
Bocas de Ceniza: They who sing and composed these songs come from the margins of Colombian society. They are civilians from the countryside caught in a drug war that has raged for more than 25 years – a war between guerrillas, paramilitaries and the Colombian army. They have seen and survived the horrors of war. They sing as a catharsis to their suffering. In their songs there is not one word calling for more vengeance, for more deaths. Like these people, there are many others, perhaps hundreds, thousands of Colombians composing and singing their own songs. In ten years more the 2.5 million have been forcefully displaced from their homes and their lands.
(Text: give(a)way catalogue, 2006)
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