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Colors of the Caribbean: Love, freedom, and diversity

  • By: Laura Martínez

The colors and faces of the Colombian Caribbean emerge with strength and pride. The diversity and mestizaje embrace each other in a visual dialogue that celebrates our identity and ancestral inheritance.

An illustration of an Embera Chami girl. The girl if surrounded by red, yellow, and green flowers. Her face is painted with traditional symbology. The illustration reads "Earth and Freedom", in Spanish.
UNABU: EMBERA CHAMI GIRL IN FIRE FLOWERS

Unabu means light in the Embera Chami language. Unabu is the light of the sun, the light of life that persists in Indigenous communities that are remote and affected by the armed internal conflict in Colombia. These communities continue resisting. 

Three women, representing Black, Mestizo, Indigenous and Trans communities, join in a deep hug to represent the threads of ancestral cultures and contemporary voices. The women are surrounded by a beautiful natural setting, with green mountains, purple flowers, and yellow birds. They are holding a book that titles What to do with gender identity?, in Spanish.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT GENDER IDENTITY?

This illustration intertwines the threads of ancestral cultures and contemporary voices. Blackness, mestizaje, Indigenous, and trans
communities. Together, they form a triangle of power, a celebration of the diversity and resilience of Abya Yala. This illustration was made in collaboration with RED HILA, an organization that promotes research on social realities from a gender perspective.

The illustration shows a women holding herself on her arms, with her torso open, and showing her spine made of red flowers. Over her head it reads "feeling a lot", in Spanish. The background is filled with green leafs.
FEELING A LOT

Feeling a lot is a revolutionary manifesto in the face of a world where we are required to abandon tenderness to give way to complete rationality. What do we do to prove that we are alive at birth? Cry. Feel.

Two mestiza women embrace each other in an intimate and loving hug. One of them has more Indigenous features, reflecting the diversity of her roots. Their clothes, instead of the original golden details, are adorned with multicolored beads and ancestral symbology. The legend reads “Love blossoms in the territory of freedom,” to encapsulate not only the love of a diverse couple, but also to spread a message about the right to freedom for all communities and their resistance in the face of violence. The illustration intertwines love, identity, and struggle.
“THE KISS,” A REINTERPRETATION OF THE PAINTING BY GUSTAV KLIMT

Two mestiza women embrace each other in an intimate and loving hug. One of them has more Indigenous features, reflecting the diversity of her roots. Their clothes, instead of the original golden details, are adorned with multicolored beads and ancestral symbology. The legend reads “Love blossoms in the territory of freedom,” to encapsulate not only the love of a diverse couple, but also to spread a message about the right to freedom for all communities and their resistance in the face of violence. The illustration intertwines love, identity, and struggle.

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About the Author

Laura Martínez was born and raised in the Colombian Caribbean and identifies as a sentimental artist. Laura’s work stands as a political challenge, where social criticism and protest art are the pillars on which the narrative is built. Laura firmly believes in the transformative power of art and in the capacity of each individual to contribute to social change. Laura has a clear commitment to what she loves and for that reason, she trusts in the building (for many utopian) of a better future. “The social function of the artist is to provoke and encourage humanity, that’s why I decided from full awareness that my task in this world is to CREATE instead of answering.”