Webinar: "Invisible Cities: Indigenous Resistance in Urban Colombia"

With stay-at-home in place, the professors of World Languages and Cultures have been seeking new ways to bring the world to their students. On April 22, Witness for Peace Midwest and the WFP Solidarity Collective hosted a Zoom webinar for UMD featuring Colombian activist María Violet Medina Quiscue, "Invisible Cities: Indigenous Resistance in Urban Colombia." María Violet is the General Coordinator for the Mesa de Pueblos Indígenas Víctimas del Conflicto Armado en Bogotá (Committee of Indigenous Peoples Victims of the Armed Conflict in Bogota), a grassroots organization representing 16 Indigenous groups currently living in conditions of forced displacement in the city of Bogota, Colombia. The committee works to protect the rights of indigenous people affected by the Colombian armed conflict through preservation of traditional education, healthcare, psycho-social support and human rights advocacy at the national and international level.

Approximately 75 people attended the presentation, which was co-sponsored by the UMD Alworth Institute, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Department of World Languages and Cultures. Professor Carol Wallace of the Department of World Languages and Cultures worked with the co-sponsors to make this event available to students in her Spanish 3042 course, "Civilization, Cultures and Communities in Latin America," as well as to other members of the UMD and Duluth communities. Professor Wallace is a member of the board of Witness for Peace Midwest.

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