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Medellin suffered narco-terrorist violence like few other cities or perhaps like no other. To rise again after living it is really complex. And in that process of getting ahead, our society -unconsciously- stopped telling its own story. The journalists and academics told it, but there was no citizen appropriation of the story. As a society we focus on urban interventions, on social programs, on job creation; crucial issues for that reconstruction process. But what happened is that others appropriated the story, turning the perpetrators into the main characters of it.

That is why we decided to start a project focused on the narco-terrorist violence memory. We are telling the stories of its victims and heroes through lectures in schools, a memory tour, projects for at-risk youth, and building an additional room that will have our House of Memory Museum dedicated to the subject. But, beyond every initiative, this is a conversation for all the citizens to understand why is it that this happened to us, to reconcile with our own shadows and to give light, finally, to those who deserve it.

EMBRACING WHAT WE WERE, TO BUILD WHAT WE WILL BE.

At the beginning of 2018, the Citizen Culture Secretaryship initiated the strategy Medellín is full of Citizens Como Vos ( Like You), whose objective is to propose a conversation around mutual recognition. We are convinced that the citizens of Medellín, constantly contribute to the coexistence and the world citizen culture, and for that reason we decided to tell all those stories, all those data that make us feel proud of the city, because we believe that it is worth having them present the moment we need to relate to each other and live our everyday in the city. We proposed then to make visible those pro-social behaviors, to thank the actions that contribute to coexistence and to the world citizen culture, and to propitiate confidence scenarios.

In these three senses, we have had, for example, thank-you comparsas (parades), which are invisible theater exercises where they recognize, with a small celebration, behaviors such as throwing garbage in the bin, or stopping the car before a zebra crossing to leave pass to pedestrians. It is about putting the focus on those everyday acts that we all have, but of whose value, many times, we are not aware. Whoever experiences a comparsa (parade) surely will talk about it and remember it for a long time. A few days ago we brought serenades to citizens who stand in line to get on public transport: a spontaneous, simple, completely natural act and whose importance for mobility and respect for the fellow citizen is gigantic. Citizens asked for songs and joined the singing. To inhabit the city is also that, to tune together, to sing in company.

We believe in the power of thanking those wonderful common actions that contribute daily to coexistence, to compliance with standards, to safe and sustainable mobility. Up until now, we have sent 5.829 “photo doing it fine” (Fotocultas), which are the opposite of “photo penalty” (fotomultas), to thank the drivers of Medellín for behaviors such as giving way to the pedestrian in the zebra crossings, respecting the anti-blocking perimeters, driving one on one on the road . These acknowledgments are complemented by the delivery of  “Cultas” (doing it fine tickets) (2.487, so far) by Medellin transit agents, who are also delivering thanks to citizens in different parts of the city.

And how can we not thank the inhabitants of Medellín? In 2018 the city was filled with Trust Stores. We had 500 stores that had no one to attend them, each person approached the store, paid the price for his shopping, and took back the change by themselves in case there was any. No one cared or watched over, no one was paying attention. More than twelve thousand citizens interacted with the stores and the percentage of payment was up to 98 percent. This year we launched the Trust Bus, transported more than 1.400 passengers, traveled more than 700 kilometers, and the percentage of payment was 100 percent!

We talk about trust, gratitude, and mutual recognition. As citizens we look at each other in the eye and say yes, we create together, we believe together in the wonderful common of inhabiting Medellin, of dreaming it, of building it every day from the everyday actions. Medellín is full of Citizens Like You is the opportunity to thank and promote all those ways in which, as citizens, we contribute to coexistence and civic culture, so that we can all continue celebrating that city which we are proud of.

And it is precisely in 1993, when the capital of Antioquia waged a bloody battle against the drug cartels and it was thought that the institutional response would be limited to strengthening the security forces of the State, the city made a commitment to the talent of children and young people. INDER was born, a dependency of the Mayor’s Office of Medellín that, aware of the potential and talent of its citizens, set out to democratize access to sports with a free offer. At the time, the new born entity would become an instrument of resistance to violence through coexistence and trust, generated around physical activity and recreation.

Today, 26 years later, Medellín has 886 public and free sports venues, where close to 720.000 people of all ages benefit monthly. As a resul of this and other banner programs such as the Popular Sports Schools, the city has positioned itself nationally and internationally as a sports power that has also seen in these spaces a powerful vehicle for social transformation. Medellín believes in sports as a worthy life project!

None of this has been in vain and the balance is more than positive. Hundreds of athletes forged on our city stages have lifted up the name of Medellín on multiple occasions and today we can proudly say we are the region that has contributed the most medals to the country. No less important is that it is the only city in Colombia where “the classic”, a soccer game that faces the two traditional teams of the house, is played in presence of the two fan clubs. Medellin definitely understood the role that sport should play in our societies.

Medellin 1 – 3 October 2019

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