Memoria Viva Movies

Hello Folks,

Dropping the first videos from Colombia.

Check out a little street video of Bounce, Makila and Yoshi.


Street of Cali Colombia from Trust Your Struggle on Vimeo.


In addition, here is the little video of the project Memoria Viva. Thanks to Mikey, Migs and Pablo for helping Yoshi make her first video.


Univalle Mural - Memoria Viva from Trust Your Struggle on Vimeo.

This mural is at Univalle, the public University in Cali, Colombia. It is the first in a mural series painted with the theme Memoria Viva. Memoria Viva is a project to remember the people who were displaced, disappeared or assassinated who were apart of a political party called the Unión Patríotica (UP).

This mural was a collaboration between survivors and family members of the violence in the UP, students and Maintenance Personnel at the University (special thanks to James, Camilo, Mauricio and Carlos), and artists: Bounce, Makila, and Yoshi. It is a Trust Your Struggle Production sponsored by Reniciar.org.

History of the UP:

In 1984, the FARC had peace negotiations with the government and out of the negociations a political party was created that represented the people. They emphasized one of the
problems was there was not a political party that represented the progressive left so many people didn't have a voice in the government. So the outcome of the negotiation was the beginning of the political party called the Unión Patríotica , the UP. The FARC agreed to a cease fire in 1985 as a result of this negociation. The party grew very fast over the next few years gaining
political power. They won many mayorships, control of local
municipalities, and the party grew very large in numbers. Many people
remember this as an amazing time, one of hope. Though the idea of the Party came about from the negociation, the UP was started by leftist philosophers, professors, artists, and regular folks who became politicized.

In 1986 because of the fear of growing power of the UP, the government and the military started secret assassinations, disappearances and displacement of the members of the UP. The two of the major military plans were called the "Red Dance" and "Plan Return." The government created paramilitary teams whose jobs were to search out members of the UP to assasinate and disappear them. This effort destroyed the party and by 1987 because of the masacres, the
FARC stopped the cease fire. Over five thousand of its members who were killed or disappeared. Colombia is now the largest country with internal displacement, recently surpassing Sudan. Over 4 million people have been internally displaced. And it is funded by the United States, over $6 billion
have filtered in and over 1000 U.S. personnel are in Colombia... this what the "War on Drugs" has funded...which has actually increased the amount of cocaine coming out of Colombia.