The idea of writing towards a specific community that I was part of, was quite challenging in the beginning, due to the fact that I personally don’t have a strong rooted connection to any other community besides the Black community. Despite the fact I have diverse interests and hobbies. I believe that my identity as a black woman has a great impact on major aspects of my life ,such as socio-economic status, cultural stereotypes, representation and visibility.. Etc, characteristics that are pretty  relatable to among black people, develops indeed a sense of community. However the Black community itself is a very broad concept, because of the diverse geographical location across the globe, and socio-cultural circumstances. Which is the reason why I particularly wrote about the Afro-Colombian community.

When it comes to writing, exploring and including most of my thoughts it’s very helpful, it creates this constant revision of direction,and word usage as well, at the same time evoking a sense of creating writing; however it could be coathic, or just a lot of information to digest sometimes, but just like most writing process and narrowing down and  establishing a clear connection between ideas is essential.

I did not have the opportunity to receive feedback or realize peer workshop, to work for the betterment of my writing  based on others opinion or suggestions, but popular practices among my peers like reading out loud my essay to make sure i did not overlook mistakes, paying attention to my tone as i read  to make sure i was being coherent, which was the only tool that was put in practice for the community essay.

It took me 3 days to write my community essay. I dedicated about 5 hours in average per day writing my essay, i had a lot of progress when the first draft was due, probably because I work better under pressure, specially when it comes to writing, some of my difficulties, specially when starting were very broad concepts such as the history of slavery, the cultural impact in Colombia brought by African-Colombians, and the current socio-economic state of black society, and how the legacy of racism, colorism develops quite different in third world countries. If i would’ve had more time when constructing my essay, i would have dedicated more time, and detailed establishing an explicit connection between ideas, and concepts through a shorter text. 

My favorite part of this particular essay was how informative it was, acknowledging the history and foundation of black communities in Latin America, specially in Colombia, in order to understand how slavery was experienced in South America, also providing an  understatement on the struggles of marginalized communities faced in ‘developing’ countries. At the same time emphasizing the determination of African-Colombian slaves to free themselves through a well built strong sense community.

Another of my most pleasant experiences was narrating the different tasks or labour that slaves would perform in Sugar Plantations in Valle del Cauca, because some of this practice is pretty much rooted in the community. The production of guarapo and panela are still practiced among my family, and the fact that I witnessed and performed this work myself , was a beautiful way to reconnect with my ancestors besides the negative context.

-A visual representation of the extraction of sugar cane juice, guarapo, done by slaves