Sobre el Proyecto | About
Guaqueras y Campesinas del Occidente de Boyacá es un proyecto de memoria digital que documenta las vidas y las labores de las mujeres que residen en los municipios esemeraldíferos de Colombia. El proyecto explora la notable resiliencia de las mujeres en medio de una economía esmeraldera históricamente extractiva y patriarcal mediante la co-creación de una colección en línea enriquecida con varias fuentes como entrevistas, fotos de artefactos y audio del trabajo de campo. La colección utiliza Dédalo, un sistema de gestión y patrimonio cultural gratuito y de código abierto, para almacenar, digitalizar e indexar todo el material original y presenta una selección de estos recursos a través de este sitio web estático. La colección quiere iluminar y honrar las contribuciones de las mujeres guaqueras (mineras artesanales) y las mujeres campesinas en la historia del occidente de Boyacá.
Guaqueras and Campesinas in Western Boyacá is a digital memory project chronicling the lives and labors of women residing in the emerald-producing municipalities of Colombia. The project explores women's remarkable resilience amidst a historically extractive and patriarchal emerald economy by co-creating an online collection enriched with various sources such as interviews, photos of artifacts, and audio from fieldwork. The collection uses Dédalo, a free and open-source Cultural Heritage and Management System, to store, digitize, and index all the unedited material and presents a selection of these resources through a static website. The collection intends to illuminate and honor the contributions of women miners (guaqueras) and agricultural women (campesinas) to western Boyacá’s history.
Este proyecto es un trabajo en proceso y el fruto de un esfuerzo colaborativo.This project is a work in progress and only possible thanks to a collaborative effort.
Gran parte de la investigación académica sobre esta región se ha centrado en los conflictos violentos por las minas y el comercio de esmeraldas, destacando casi exclusivamente figuras masculinas. Las historias de las mujeres que han vivido, construido y nutrido este territorio son poco reconocidas.
Much of the scholarly research on this region has focused on violent conflicts over emerald mines and trade, almost exclusively highlighting masculine figures. The stories of the women who have lived, constructed, and nourished this territory are scarcely recognized.
Al mismo tiempo, los conflictos por el comercio de esmeraldas implicaron una grave violación de los derechos de las mujeres y las niñas que han sido escasamente documentados. La colección entonces también quiere abrir un espacio para pensar estas experiencias y denunciar prácticas nocivas, siguiendo un enfoque de “Archivos lentos” (Christen & Anderson, 2019).
Simultaneously, the emerald trade conflicts involved severe violations of women's and girl's rights which have been barely documented. The collection also opens space for thinking through these experiences and denouncing harmful practices, following a “Slow Archives” approach (Christen & Anderson, 2019)
Documentar la vida de las mujeres rurales colombianas en un medio digital es otra forma de participar en el sueño más significativo de reexaminar partes de nuestro pasado conflicto interno e impulsar otros futuros posibles.
Documenting Colombian rural women's lives within a digital environment is another way to participate in the most significant dream of reexamining parts of our past internal conflict and propelling other possible futures.
Grupo | Team
Thanks to a collaborative effort with a larger team in Colombia, formal documentation of the women's stories began in April 2024. This working group includes two local researchers: Jimmy Rojas, an agronomy engineer, and Vanesa Rojas, a psychologist; and two members based in Bogotá: Paula Natalia Rincón, a political scientist and feminist researcher, and Juan Manuel Fajardo, an audiovisual producer. I, María F. Buitrago, have acted as the principal investigator, developed the collection catalog in Dédalo and the digital presentation prototype.
Local researchers, Jimmy Rojas and Vanesa Rojas have supported the process on the ground, encouraging the participants to assist to the workshops and open up space for women to share their knowledge and memories through the interviews. Jimmy Rojas, an agronomy engineer, has extensive knowledge on agriculture production in Western Boyacá and has hold different public office roles with the local government. Vanessa Rojas, a psychologist, has also work with western Boyaca's local government and currently lives in San Martín, a rural area of San Pablo de Borbur municipality
Taller Memorias y Objetos | Workshop
The formal process of collecting women's stories from western Boyacá started in April 2024 through a workshop . The workshop explored women'w memories regarding childhoods, daily labor, their work in mining and/or agricultural areas, and their perceptions of women's role. We utilized specific objects to evoke or represent the women's stories, such as kitchen implements, helmets, sugar cane seeds, photographs, etc. We also asked the workshop participants to bring everyday working items if possible.
During the workshop, the women were asked to describe, first in pairs and then in larger groups, what connections they might have with some of those objects and whether or not the artifacts sparked any memories or stories about their lives that were significant to them. Then, collectively, we discussed how those stories represented the women's relationships with each other, themselves, and the territory. After discussing and sharing experiences, we decided on three central and significant categories that grouped and organized our conversation: Territorio (Territory), Identidad (Identity), and Ser Mujer (Being a Woman).
Guaqueras y Campesinas del occidente de Boyacá
Colección digital para documentar las memorias y labores de las mujeres de los municipios del occidente de Boyacá, Colombia. A digital collection documenting the memories and labors of women from the municipalities of Western Boyacá, Colombia
Claudia Vargas, Martha Ramos, Rubiela Ruiz, Silvia Bernal, Yolima Cruz
Este proyecto es un trabajo en proceso. Buscamos documentar la vida de las mujeres que viven, nutren y protegen los territorios del Occidente de Boyacá pero no pretende ser una colección sistemática ni exahustiva. Más bien se busca crear un espacio para conocer y reconocer un poco de la vida diaria de las mujeres. Les invitamos a explorar fotos, entrevistas y objetos que muestran lo que existe más alla de, o a pesar de, el extractivismo. This project is a work in progress. We seek to document the lives of women who live, nurture and protect the territories of Western Boyacá, but it is not intended to be a systematic or exhaustive collection. Rather, it seeks to create a space to learn about and recognize some of the routine of women. We invite you to explore photos, interviews and objects that show what exist beyond or despite extractivism.