Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. Zahira Somada, three years old, Luz's niece. For Luz and Luis the great difficulties encountered at the transfer. Bogota was the main language and crime.
Thanks to the unity of the family they have faced adversity without forgetting their traditions
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.Luz and luis take turns working so that one of them can be with their children.
They live off the sale of typical handicrafts, on Sundays they sing in the street typical songs from the book "myths of the legend" handed down by Luz's mother.
In 2013, due to 6 kidnappings of relatives of Luis, still missing, the family had to flee again to Bogota.
In these movements Lus lost a son.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.
Lus and Luis House.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. Ana, drawing, and Gisela, playing hide and seek.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. The area where the family of Luz lives is in the extreme south of bogota, 3 hours from the centre, the area boasts of five boarding schools for children.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. Luz Melida forty-three years old, mother of the family while drawing typical face paints.In the Embera chamì tradition, the mother has the central role in the family and is the main guide of the children: Give them the language of origin that all family members speak, teach them the use of medical herbs, they are a symbol of family unity and its resilience.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023Ancestral tales according to which emberachami families learn teachings are passed down verbally from generation to generation. Luis meticulously recopies all of them in a quatrefoil notebook. The family has collaborated with the University of Bogotá to document these writings.
One of their biggest concerns after the unity of the family is to transmit their culture and preserve it even in an environment far from the traditional Embera imagery.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. Luis Hernando Douisama, 43 years old, father of the family.
Luis's original tribe descends from the mountains, he says that his family found rich fertile ground but due to the presence of veins of gold they were targeted by the Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN.
They were forced to move to Mistrato in a more violent situation.
in the life of the tribe Luis was a sinner.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.John Esterin Dovigomen, 17, a rap enthusiast wants to enroll at the university, where he works as a volunteer, to help his family.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023.
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. Luz and Luis are Catholics, in a form of Catholicism adapted to Embera beliefs. Luz recounts that upon arrival in Bogota, in conditions of profound poverty and hunger, she and her family were saved by a "white angel". A woman seeing their condition offered them shelter for one night, the next day with the help of the Red Cross they were taken to a state shelter
Bogotà Colombia, August 2023. after paying the share owed to the state for the apartment, Luis and Luz dream of saving money and buying a small piece of land outside the urbanization to cultivate and live on.
