This project is an initiative of the ‘Maravilla Collective’ at the Belén de los Andaquíes Audiovisual School, Caquetá, Colombia. The members of the ‘Maravilla Collective’ are:
Helka is an anthropologist from the city of Tunja, Colombia, and a graduate of the National University of Colombia. She holds a postgraduate specialisation in Conflict Resolution and a master’s degree in Law. For the past 32 years, she has worked as a national and international consultant specialising in forced disappearance and forensic anthropology, across judicial, extrajudicial, humanitarian and academic settings.
Throughout her career, she has engaged with the complex human dimensions of violence, working with the remains of those who have lost their lives, their families, the authorities responsible for investigating, prosecuting and sanctioning crimes, and individuals involved in perpetrating violence.
She has published academic articles in various fields of anthropology and served as rapporteur and coordinator for two reports published by Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory (CNMH): Textos corporales de la crueldad (Bodily Texts of Cruelty), published in 2014, and Caquetá. Una autopsia sobre la desaparición forzada (Caquetá: An Autopsy of Forced Disappearance), published in 2018.
Alirio is a self-taught creator, communicator and audiovisual producer from the department of Caquetá, Colombia. In the 1990s, he founded Radio Andaquí in Belén de los Andaquíes, promoting community-based communication and developing the 'radiocicleta', a mobile broadcasting station mounted on a tandem bicycle that brings local voices, stories and broadcasts directly into the streets.
In 2005, he founded the Children’s Audiovisual School (Escuela Audiovisual Infantil, EAI), a creative space where children and young people tell stories about their lives and territory, guided by the principle that 'without a story, there is no camera'.
Through this initiative, alongside his work with community gardens and traditional crafts, Alirio encourages active community participation in the creation and preservation of living memory. His work places everyday experiences, local knowledge and community voices at the centre of collective storytelling, strengthening the connections between people, their histories and the territory they inhabit.
Mariana is a social communicator and journalist, a specialist in project design and evaluation and strategic communication for organizations, and a candidate for a Master’s degree in Strategic Communication and Social Change.
Born in Belén de los Andaquíes, Caquetá, Colombia, she joined the Andaquí School of Citizen and Community Communication at the age of ten, participating in radio production and collaborative processes to tell local stories. She is the founder of the Escuela Audiovisual, a mother of three, and passionate about field production, community engagement, audio, and photography.
She has extensive experience coordinating projects with children, young people, and rural communities. She has served as Communications and Knowledge Management Coordinator for the Caquetá Development and Peace initiative, and has also worked in communication with women and their organizations across the Colombian Amazon, as well as in international cooperation projects.
Daniel is a Colombian designer from Belén de los Andaquíes, Caquetá, with a background in graphic design and visual arts. He grew up in a region where rich natural and cultural heritage coexist with a history shaped by armed conflict and forced displacement, experiences that have deeply influenced his creative work.
Through projects such as 'Educados en la montaña' (Raised in the Mountain), recognised by the Latin American Design Awards, and Pasó en mi niñez (It happened when I was a child), a series of illustrated micro-stories developed in collaboration with the Children’s Audiovisual School of Belén de los Andaquíes and exhibited at the Museum of Independence in Bogotá, Daniel explores the relationships between territory, memory and childhood from a deeply personal perspective.
He has also developed creative projects for Los Angeles Times, Congo Films and various non-governmental organisations. He currently leads AGC (Archivo Gráfico Colombiano), an initiative dedicated to documenting, preserving and celebrating Colombia’s graphic history.
Camilo is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom. His academic research and experience in human rights advocacy focus on understanding the relationships between violence, armed conflict, social justice, human rights and memory, and how these shape the lives of individuals and communities.
Throughout his career, he has explored the role of social movements, victims of violence and civil society organisations in societies affected by armed conflict, insecurity and inequality. His research examines how individuals and communities make their voices heard, claim and defend their rights, and participate in efforts to build fairer, more inclusive and safer societies.
His work also investigates how these collective actions contribute to the construction of political and cultural memory, foster recognition for victims and marginalised groups, and strengthen solidarity and social transformation in societies marked by division, inequality and conflict.