By Andrés Gómez. Photography: Manuel Ortiz. Terra360
She had learned to work the land since she was a child. She was strong and brave, say those who knew her. She dreamed of owning a small piece of land and seeing it flourish alongside her daughter. That is why, when Carmen Velasco Tombé remembers Flor Alba, she does not speak first about politics or territorial disputes; she speaks about shattered dreams. Flor Alba Tombé Velazco died on May 21, 2026, in La Ensillada*, a páramo located between the Misak reservation of Guambía and the Nasa reservation of Pitayó, in Colombia’s Cauca department, where a historic dispute over land ended up pitting two sister Indigenous peoples against one another. She was 28 years old and left her daughter, Lisbet, in the care of her mother, who still finds strength by remembering the young woman who dreamed of moving forward in life.
She was a farmer; she worked in agriculture. She was very brave when it came to work; my daughter was brave in everything (…) She loved her daughter very much, and she had dreams of moving forward, and she dreamed of having her own little piece of land, she recalled.
(más…)