Virgelina Chará
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Virgelina Chará | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1955-03-19) 19 March 1955 (age 71) Suárez, Valle del Cauca, Colombia |
| Occupations | Human rights activist and seamstress |
Virgelina Chará (born 19 March 1955) is a Colombian human rights activist and seamstress.
Chará was born on 19 March 1955 in Suárez in the Valle del Cauca, Colombia.[1] She was the eldest of four children born into an Afro-Colombian family. From the ages of 12 to 18 she worked as a maid in Calí to support her family, then attended school in the evenings and graduated at age 24. After returning to Cauca, she worked supporting miners and peasants who were forced to sell their land for development projects.[2]
During the Colombian conflict, in 1985, Chará was forcibly displaced from Suárez by armed men, along with 6,650 residents from black communities in the local area.[3][4] The communities were displaced to facilitate the construction of the Salvajina Dam.[5][6] Her children were also recruited by paramilitary groups.[3] Chará fled to the District of Aguablanca [es].[7]
Between 2003 and 2013, Chará supported women and displaced families through the Association for Women and Work (Spanish: Asociación para la Mujer y el Trabajo, founded in 1994 in Cali).[1][8][9] In 2005, Chará moved to Bogotá, where she also worked as a legal adviser to the Cooperativa Multiactiva Interétnica Nuevo Horizonte Limitada, a cooperative focusing on human rights and the supporting victims of displacement.[2]
Chará is a member of the Union of Seamstresses, based at the House of Peace in Bogotá.[7][5][10] Alongside a group of fellow seamstresses, she weaved a cloth embroidered with the stories of Colombian people who died during the war, including marginalised individuals, such as people from the LBGTQ+ community and who lived on the streets. It was large enough to cover the entire Plaza de Bolívar square in Bogotá and was produced with the support of the Center for Memory, Peace and Reconciliation (Spanish: Centro de Memoria Paz y Reconciliación, CMPR).[11][12][13] The piece has been displayed as an act of memory and as a tribute to the victims of the conflict.[11]
In 2017, Chará was one of three women featured in the documentary film Por Que Cantan Las Aves (2017), produced by Alejandra Quintana and Adrián Villa.[14]
Awards
In 2005, Chará was named a Nobel Peace Prize 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe (PWAG).[2][3][5][15]
References
- 1 2 "Virgelina Chará- Defensora de los derechos humanos". asomecosafro (in Spanish). 20 September 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Virgelina Chará". PeaceWomen Across the Globe. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
- 1 2 3 Leguizamón, Andrea (9 November 2016). ""Hemos tenido que vivir con la marca de la guerra y el dolor": Virgelina Chará". Plaza Capital (in European Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2026.
- ↑ ""Con el lenguaje de las telas hemos logrado que mucha gente hable": Virgelina Chará, lideresa social". UNIMINUTO Radio (in Spanish). 28 February 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
- 1 2 3 Camargo, Adriana Fabiola Nino (18 December 2022). "Afro-Colombian activist among 1,000 women nominated for Nobel Peace Prize". Orato. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
- ↑ Colombia.com (6 August 2025). "Todo el que se oponía, era desaparecido": Virgelina Chará y la verdad tras la represa de Salvajina. Retrieved 25 March 2026 – via YouTube.
- 1 2 Battistessa, Diego (21 June 2022). "Remendar una Colombia rota a puntadas". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 March 2026.
- ↑ Pinzón, Blanca Yaneth González; Lillis, Theresa (13 May 2025). Memory and New Ways of Knowing: Narratives of the Armed Conflict in Colombia. Channel View Publications. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-1-80041-632-1.
- ↑ Junior, Joselicio (23 October 2025). Vozes Mulheres da Améfrica Ladina: Movimentos de aquilombamento (in Brazilian Portuguese). Dandara Editora. ISBN 978-65-88586-59-4.
- ↑ "Virgelina Chara – Global University – English". our-global-u.org. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
- 1 2 "Virgelina Chará". Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación (CMPR) (in Spanish). 10 December 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
- ↑ "En video | La mujer que quiere cubrir con telas el Palacio de Justicia en un llamado por la verdad". Semana - Últimas Noticias de Colombia y el Mundo (in Spanish). 15 March 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
- ↑ Uribe, Jairo Alberto Franco (29 June 2020). "Aprendiendo de Virgelina Chará a celebrar la eucaristía". Religión Digital (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2026.
- ↑ Lamb, Esther (13 December 2021). "Weaving place amidst violent geographies: afro-descendant women and the embodied politics of war in Colombia". CRASSH - Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
- ↑ "Desplazada y amenazada por policías y militares: la historia de la lideresa Virgelina Chará". Colombia.com (in Spanish). 4 June 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.