My name is Alix María Salazar. I’m a teacher and I don’t mind saying that I’m 58 years old. After studying at a teacher training school in Santander, I moved to Bogota to look for work. In 1970, I started working at a school for underprivileged children and I joined the teacher’s union.
In the seventies, people would talk about Marxism, they thought they could change the world, and they studied the revolutionary processes in other countries. There was also talk of armed groups, such as the ELN, the FARC and the EPL. I realized that labor unions had their shortcomings, but I had gone into them with the hope of transforming reality. At that time, I worked with a group of communal land owners who had decided to join the M-19.
When we were young, a lot of us were looking for something that would guarantee change, and we were convinced that any real change in this country could only come through armed struggle. But to make the leap to the highest level of revolutionary commitment, we knew we had to have the right training. We started the war to make peace. War is an instrument, like strikes are, but if the strike continues, there comes a time when the company will go bankrupt You start a war, but if that war is going to end up destroying the nation, it loses its purpose as a means to achieve beneficial results for society. If we continue like this, it will cost our country a great deal of pain and it will distort what we continue touphold with so much conviction.
*Excerpts from the book
“Voices, Stories of Violence and hope in Colombia” 2009
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