Nicolás Morales Agudelo
Mariana Pérez Cogollo
The concept of this photographic composition is reflecting four moments of the vulnerable journey that illegal migrants undergo. The first photo is called "Tears", to represent the heartbreaking moments prior to venturing into the ocean; the second one is called "Storm", which represents the moment of shipwreck; the third is called "Agony", which is the moment of anguish as they are drowning, and the last one is called "Quietness", which represents a faint sense of disturbing calmness of migrants perishing at sea.
This represents the situation of millions of illegal immigrants mostly from Asia, Africa, Cuba, and Haiti that arrive at the Colombian coasts of the Urabá region (Acandí, Capurganá Turbo, Necoclí), and La Miel, Panama. But this voyage implies taking illegal routes from their countries of origin to South America, then, the inclement ocean they have to cross from the Gulf of Urabá, especially from Turbo, to reach the jungle of the Darién Gap in Panama tends to impair their plans. The well-known Pan-American Highway starts from Alaska to southern Chile with only one gap: a nearly 100 km stretch of thick rainforest located on the border between Colombia and Panama: the Darién Gap. Historically, attempts have been made to penetrate this great natural barrier, but the jungle has systematically rebuffed efforts. In the 1850s, several U.S. Navy explorers died in the gap while attempting to open a ship channel to connect the Caribbean to the Pacific. After many unsuccessful attempts, the area is now dominated by Colombian guerrilla insurgents, who have chosen the site as their refuge. (Linthicum,2016)
Nowadays, immigrants take this journey without knowing if this desire will come true, while putting their lives at risk. In the hopes of getting enough resources to make it to North America and get the possibility to acquire the life quality and social security, they lack in their motherland. The causes of this wave of global migration are different and complex: fleeing poverty, persecution, war, and xenophobia, are overlapped factors that influence this issue. Immigrants struggle to reach their utopian dreams, created by the lack of opportunities, just to sink and drown in a sea of desperation.
References Linthicum, K. (2016, December 22). Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants from around the globe are forging a grueling path to the U.S. — through the heart of the rainforest. Www.Latimes.Com. https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-immigration-trek-america-colombia/