Women from the Colombian Caribbean fish to overcome adversity

In the life of the Colombian Caribbean, the profession of fishing has traditionally been developed by men from the communities that live at the foot of the swamps or near the sea.

The belief that only they were capable of withstanding the harsh tasks in the middle of the water and under the relentless sun has prevailed over the years in societies where women were in charge of preparing food or selling fish as a extension of their domestic tasks.

However, in a section of the Magdalena department, the story is different. Nearly a hundred mothers, sisters and friends have faced adversity. After the absence of their husbands for different reasons, they became the fisherwomen of El Cerrito, a town in the Colombian department of Magdalena, which has suffered all forms of violence in the last 40 years.

Marijuana trafficking to the United States, cocaine cartels, paramilitary groups and FARC and ELN guerrillas hit the area hard.

Luzdary García Segovia is the founder of one of the first fisherwomen associations in this town. She told the Voice of America how various circumstances, including violence, forced women from Cerrito to carry the trammel net, learn to throw it from their canoes and wait long hours to support their families.

“What happens is that here the majority of women are heads of the household. During the time of the paramilitaries, I remember that they killed several men and that is why their wives were left widows. Not long ago three other fellow fishermen were killed and their companions were left alone. Since here in El Cerrito they don’t live off anything else but fishing, they are forced to practice artisanal fishing,” García explained.

He added that many of the women in this region also marry at an early age. They leave their homes as teenagers and form large families by bringing numerous children into the world. They trust in the abundance of nature to provide them with what they need, but after a few years they suffer the abandonment of their partners when they leave for the cities in search of new opportunities.

“When they are alone with the responsibility of raising their children, they draw from the depths of their soul the courage required to learn the trade of fishing, so hard on their hands and skin, but they achieve it because love is the only thing that moves them,” he said.

They fish near the beaches that form the river floods, but they also enter the bodies of water that are fed by the large and small currents: the Pajaral, Zapatosa, and Redonda swamps, located 20 minutes from El Banco, the most inhabited town and closest to where after securing their food they take the rest of the fish to sell in its squares and streets.

“If I want to be a fisherwoman, I need to have love for what I am going to do and love for the family, for the children, for the support of your children, for your family you go to the swamp with that open heart, to return and bring feeding your children who are waiting at home,” Luzdary emphasized.

Others have learned the art since they were children, like Miriam Zambrano, who is now 37 years old but remembers as if it were yesterday that great curiosity she felt when the rise arrived, the time of abundance of fish that go up the currents to spawn.

“That comes from our grandparents. Since I was little I went fishing with them and I liked it. When there was an abundance of fish it made us want to go and get on the canoes to learn by watching that spectacle,” describes the fisherwoman, who also recognizes that to do so you have to have patience and develop intuition.

The day

The last glimpse of the sun/is the beginning of the daily task./The brave dance/with the water of the fisherwomen of the Bank,/on the banks of the Magdalena River.

In this fragment of the poetry Pescadoras, by the philosopher, researcher and poet of the Zenú indigenous ethnic group, Janeth Álvarez Montiel, part of the work of the fisherwomen of El Cerrito is described, a task that begins every day under the light of the moon. .

They wake up before three in the morning to lay out their tools, trammel nets, oars or gutters, a lever – a long stick used to gain momentum, a machete and some snacks ready to be consumed or prepared in a kind of magical stove that they carry in their canoes during the day. the day. Those who have husbands go as a couple, those who don’t go alone or accompany each other.

The cast net of dreams sinks/like a factory that produces hopes,/its networks intertwine feelings and pains,/like cumbia that is sung and danced.

“These women are a living example of the inexhaustible capacity and empowerment that women have to overcome vicissitudes. They are warriors, healers, caretakers of the environment, resilient, full of courage, builders of the homeland,” said the author of the verse. .

The dangers

Some of the boats are equipped with a motor but that can lead to a bigger problem when navigating bodies of water with sediment or aquatic vegetation. Conditions change with currents, rainfall, interactions with other bodies of water, and weather.

A skilled fisherwoman carries in her mind the paths that must be opened in the middle of the water using her lever to remove one of its worst enemies, the tarulla, an invasive plant that floats in rivers, which they call “churre.” and when it grows, it forms barriers so strong that they can block anything that tries to cross them.

“The tarulla is like a trap, it brings down roots or cobwebs and it grabs hold of its roots in large quantities, they don’t let it flow quickly, you have to hit it with a machete to make the way. But when it is too long, our strength is exhausted by the sun, if that is added to hunger and desperation, it can be fatal. There have been fishermen killed because of that,” Miriam said.

Another danger they face are caimans, cousins ​​of crocodiles, natural inhabitants of the lagoons and swamps of this region. When women need to jump into the water to secure their nets, all their senses must be alert in case they encounter any of these creatures. The first thing would be to hit them with any of your work items to scare them away.

“It has not been my case but there are fishermen who have brought photos with alligators in places where we buried the trammel net to fix it to a pole. You have to first look at what is around you to be able to jump into the water as safely as possible,” said the 37-year-old woman.

The inland trade has many more challenges: Learning to throw the trammel net, because not knowing how the person can get tangled, capsize and run the risk of drowning; The sun without sufficient protection becomes another adversary and cracked skin from years of days at more than 30 degrees of temperature is the consequence; Meteorological phenomena such as waterspouts and strong winds can destabilize the canoes, which with all their equipment become the target of lightning in the middle of a storm.

“As you see, being a fisherwoman is not easy but it is good,” said Luz Dary, when describing what a day in the life of a woman dedicated to this profession is like. “There we spend some time, we chat, we laugh, we make jokes, there is a routine with the companions and the fishermen, we prepare coffee with bread, sometimes we cook widow (fish with vegetables) on a gasoline stove that we carry in the canoe. “In the shade of a tree we wait two, three hours before checking what falls.”

According to these women heads of household, a “good catch” is made by the volume and weight of what falls into the net. A production of 5 to 11 arrobas or more is a result to thank God and the Virgin of Carmen, of whom they are very devoted, but there are “bad” days in which only three fish are caught. The sedimentation of rivers and swamps has been progressively affecting the health of fish, forcing them to hide to reproduce.

Due to its geographical location, Colombia has only two seasons a year, the rainy season and the dry season. A cycle that has also been altered by the effects of Climate Change. In the Caribbean, the drought is experienced more severely as the heat hits subsistence activities harder. When there is a shortage of food in the water, fisherwomen transfer their interests to land, this is what is known as amphibious culture.

Under the leadership of Luzdary, the Asococre fisherwomen’s association built a community restoration proposal as a team that managed to win a call for economic and social reactivation projects supported by the Colombian government and private companies. They also dedicate themselves to other activities such as selling the few fish they catch in punch bowls and preparing fried foods typical of local cuisine.

“When the fishing ends we have a community nursery to carry out restoration in those bodies of water, it is done with native trees from the same swamp, seeking to recover the wetlands as they were before. Arborization for fauna, for the fish themselves, and we received resources through the Adaptation Fund to plant more than 7,000 trees,” explained Luzdary.

Thus, at least 40 families manage to survive until the rainy season returns and with it, as a chapter of the Christian Bible says, the multiplication of the fish. Bocachicos, Tacoras, Curvinatas, Bagres, Blanquillos, Changos, Comelones and Doncellas, are the species that after February will once again sail the waters that bathe El Cerrito and its neighboring towns.

Waters that ironically provide them with food but take away their space because they flood their houses and displace them to live temporarily in dry areas like the cemetery.

“People ask but how do they live there and I say thank God we like it when there is flood, they will say these people are crazy, because when the water rises there is an abundance of fish, we want it to grow because when it goes away our food goes away” , assured Miriam.

Then again the mothers, daughters, sisters and friends will wake up early with their cast nets, their levers, canoes and gasoline stoves, their songs, talks and prayers to thank once again for the opportunity to have the fish that feeds their children every day. and the honor of being the fisherwomen of El Cerrito, Magdalena.

“We measure ourselves to everything, we don’t give up at anything, if we have to throw trammel nets, machete and stick, we do it, we can do it too, we are smarter, more careful and calmer,” concluded Luzdary, the spokesperson for 35 women and 7 men who make up their small organization.

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