Leticia: A Story of Resilience and Bravery

The Consequences of Armed Conflict

Leticia Bonivento had to flee Colombia 20 years ago due to the armed conflict. She lived in La Guajira, was newly married, and studied at the university. It was around then when paramilitary violence struck and murdered their brother-in-law, so she and her family decided to migrate to avoid more deaths. Leticia and her family migrated to Maracaibo, Venezuela where they “started off pretty well,” says Leticia.

To support her family, she began selling arepas with cheese, which she did not know how to prepare but over time she learned and mastered the basics. From this she went on to fast food, then she started a fruit and vegetable business, and she ended up selling meat and cheese (high-consumption products in Venezuela), to finally ask for a loan and be able to start working differently. Progressing from vendor to consultant and then to distributor helped them improve their

situation, and her husband also got a job. Leticia got to have her big store and her husband a brick factory. But "when the country’s economy collapsed, our assets also fell," Leticia said, as the store collapsed and they stopped paying rent for their properties.

Due to this, they had to make the decision to return to their country, Colombia, where they did not know where to go or what was waiting for them. The family decided to return to the ranchería, Leticia’s native community, but it was quite painful and difficult to leave Venezuela and the people who helped them. However, the most difficult thing was to leave their daughter who died of an illness. To get to their land, they had to go through some difficulties due to the illegal crossing of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. The little they had they had to give to the paramilitaries to be able to continue. When they arrived, the family waited for them with open arms. Leticia again wanted to be part of her Wayúu ethnic group, so she participated in all the activities and programs in her community. “In order to integrate again, we had to adapt to the system. If we just longed for what we had, we were not going to be happy. You have to try to laugh in the midst of the circumstances and move on,” says Leticia. After a year of arrival, Leticia and her husband run a motorcycle parts store and warehouse, and they also re-established the brick business.

After learning about Leticia's story, narrated by herself, the constant worry and hardships of having to escape from where she once thought she was safe are evident. Having to migrate is a shock in a person's life and has a range of effects: it means complete life change. As you can see, Leticia had to start her life again, starting from scratch. When Leticia migrated, she found a completely different culture from hers; she had to change her customs, her work, her hobbies, and in short, her entire life. She had to flee not only her country and start a new life far away, but also again from the new country that had opened its arms once.

It may sound easy to "go back", but this means forgetting your "new" customs and leaving your new life and again having to re-integrate into another lifestyle. As Leticia’s family went through

these circumstances, different feelings or sensations arose, such as fear of a new beginning and when they returned, the anguish and insecurity of not knowing what to expect. First having to leave their community behind, and then having to face the farewell of a loved one and more that of their daughter, what could be next? Nevertheless, this experience made Leticia a stronger woman, capable of finding solutions to difficult situations and to proving that she could get ahead and be happy again.

By Laura Gómez, 10B