Throw away the images of a country run by corrupt drug cartels -- that's what Ana Maria Gomez Lopez will tell you after spending the summer in Colombia researching political activism.
The College junior found that much of the political power in the country stems not from terrorist drug lords, but from grassroots organizations of peasants and natives demanding economic support from the government.
With a grant obtained through Penn's Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, the Anthropology and Philosophy major spent six weeks this summer shadowing and interviewing grassroots activists. By using strategic and massive action, these groups have greatly impacted the Colombian government in the last few years.
"They have pressured the Colombian government in countless ways," Gomez said. "In November of 1999 in the Colombian media there was a lot of coverage of the blockade [by these groups] of the Pan American highway... to pressure for basic economic needs. To me this was incredible, that 50,000 people could come together for 26 days with no support."
Gomez lived with and studied two groups that worked in tandem; one was comprised of peasants while the others were indigenous peoples. The groups she studied were from Cauca, the province that claims the highest population of both indigenous and peasant people.
The region is an extremely poor and rural area where subsistence farming has become the most common way to survive.
"They barely subsist," Gomez said. "Although most of the province is rural, there's barely any market [for agriculture] -- so they eat what they produce."
Yet the region has become not only the poorest but also one of the most politically important in the country, as activist groups have asserted their strength both in spite of and because of their poverty. Gomez spent her time in the field interviewing group leaders, visiting their bases of operations and attending events and meetings of the organizations.
Gomez had worked with both activist groups previously through another organization, and she said she found the activists to be "very welcoming" to her research. And as a native Colombian, Gomez was already familiar with many of the issues at hand.
"All of Colombia is pretty volatile," Gomez said. "All of Colombia is permeated with the conflict, which is primarily an economic conflict."
She found that the groups' actions did appear to cause significant results, from the publicity gained through the blockade of the Pan American highway -- the single major land route joining North and South America -- to the recent election of the first indigenous Colombian governor.
"These two groups can together constitute a social movement," Gomez said.
And the consequences of the groups' results are not just limited to Colombia either, she added, comparing the grassroots activity there to social movements in the United States.
"It relates to a lot of places in Latin America and here in the United States where economically marginal populations pressure the government to give them what they need to survive."
Gomez's research on these activists is the result of an ongoing senior thesis project she began more than a year ago. Along with 25 other undergraduates, she received a grant through CURF by submitting a proposal for independent research.
