Heritage: A Place We Call Home

Long before Spanish culture bled into our country, indigenous groups had already settled here for thousands of years, teaching our land how to be reaped and sowed, whispering their tales and legends under the stars, drinking warm cups of chicha under serene skies.

However, what follows is a tale as old as time, something every Colombian child gets taught dozens of times in school; Cristopher Columbus, sponsored by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs, discovers the New World, sending Spain into a Golden Age of Discovery where it profits off the gold and fertile land of the Americas.

When the Spanish colonized and evangelized these lands, the indigenous, once masters of these territories, dwindled in number, stricken by diseases, persecution and violence. Their numbers became smaller and smaller as Spanish settlers took over these lands, prioritizing the expansion of their own culture.

Sadly, knowledge and traditions from these prehispanic cultures that lay the foundations of our country are long gone; whether it be from Spanish oppression, massive demographic collapses, or conversion and forgetfulness, many cultures and ideas are lost to time now.

Colombia, as many countries are in Latin America, is a victim to hispanicization, and we can see the results in our modern country. The majority of our population is descended from Spanish relatives, replacing the indigenous that once roamed freely through these lands.

This is why it's so crucial to recognize the efforts of communities such as Karmata Rúa, an indigenous reserve located in Jardín. They focus on preserving, maintaining and teaching their ancestral knowledge, fighting tooth and nail to defend their own rights as the descendants and keepers of the first inhabitants of these lands.

They are proud of their own autonomy, and are proud defenders of their native tongue, and they fight every day to keep it alive. They strive for balance within the earth that they hope to restore with their ancestral knowledge. They teach their leaders how to guide their community, permitting them the knowledge and duty that comes with defending indigenous rights.

Although visiting Karmata Rúa is only available through an agency at this moment in time, we, as Herencia Viva, wish that in some point in the nearby future, visits to Karmata Rúa are directly managed by the community itself. We feel that empowerment comes through management and administration, and are positive they will be able to administrate their beautiful reserve successfully, opening up to visitors of all kinds and leading an enriching cultural exchange.

Karmata Rúa is a beautiful tribute to a culture that is still alive, that no matter who oppresses them, who has threatened them or who will, their priority is their traditions and their history, no matter who tries to tell them the opposite.