I had to live a war that wasn’t mine. I could see, I could hear, but never talk. Every time I saw another orphan, another widow, the pain and the tears would bubble up again, it was something that was consuming us slowly but surely. I survived, I don’t know how, but here I am, thinking about all the people that I had to bury, some I knew, some I didn’t. How are their families now? Do they know where their loved ones ended up? But the truth will set us free, or at least I believe so. I will never forget how I was a prisoner in my own land. I will never forget who I am now, a survivor and a dignified campesino.

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Photographs and text by Leidi Johana Agudelo Higuita