Out of War: Maritza
By: Ben Krasow and Gavin Duncan
About Maritza...
Maritza lives in Medellin, Colombia, in the Communas. Maritza is 17 years old. Maritza was in a gang called "The Mexicans". she has shot at people and has been shot at but now she wants to be a peace maker. "The Mexicans" is fully against another gang called La Libertad. These gangs have been involved in the "Civil War" and have had "wars" against eachother. Maritza eventually left behind her role in the gang. Later on in Maritzas life, she joined the childrens movement for peace and is try to make a change in her community. Every night, Maritza fears getting killed by the gangs in her community.
Geographical information about Medellin, Colombia.
Maritza lives in the Communas of Medellin. There are a lot of Gangs where she lives. Some parts of Medellin are nice and clean but other parts (like the communas) is dirty and bad. Maritzas house is a broken down building with smashed windows and a torn in half door. here is a picture of what some gangs look like.
Description of Environment...
Maritza's family includes a drunk father who cares more about where his liquor ends up than where his daughter does. she also has a drunk mother who usually is good at saying she doesn't love her. Maritza eventually ran away but then came back and got a beating. The only people that actually care about her are Beto and Fabio. Beto is one of the people in the children peace movement. Fabio is one of Maritzas friend since the beginning. Fabio is a bad person but Beto is a good person. It is up to Maritza which path to follow. This picture below shows how we should stop child abuse.
Events that made Maritza want to make a change...
Maritza wants to make a change because even though making peace might be a long ways away, she knows deep inside that it is her only way to make Colombia a peaceful country once again. When she stands in the middle of all of what is happening, The civil war and drug cartels, She sees that it will be hard but the only way to accomplish peace is to try, fail and repeat until it finally comes out positive and peace is once again inside her beloved country. It will be a tough goal to accomplish being that the entire country is in an all out civil war, Yet Maritza still doesnt give up even though she knows that her peace movement wont do much and might fail.
What maritza has done...
Maritza has accomplished encourages young kids to be better children and she has encouraged parents not to beat kids and not to be like her parents. She is currently inspiring them to be good children by not joining a gang like she did and not drinking like she did. By doing this she has made her community and her country a better place. This video below is showing how Colombia needs a lot of help from Unicef and other organizations.
UNICEF: Education provides hope for Colombia's children
what maritza wishes for
Maritza hopes to change the lives of teenagers in poverty and turn them into good people. She wants to turn their lives around from becoming what she once was. She hopes to bring peace between the two gangs, "The Mexicans" and La libertad, so that death will occur less frequently. She dreams hat someday peace will be spread throughout colombis and she hopes to bring that.
Bobby McFerrin - Don't worry Be happy
John Lennon - Imagine (official video)