Refusing to be a Victim…
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Ricardo Andrés Tabares grew up on a farm in the countryside near Bogotá, Colombia before rebels forced his family to leave. First the rebels demanded food, then the family’s livestock. When Andrés was 13 years old, the rebel leader demanded his father give up their 3-year-old daughter. At that point, Andrés’ father refused to comply with their demands. When the rebel leader became angry and threatened the family, the Tabares family grabbed what they could carry and left everything else behind.
The family hitchhiked into Bogota and found themselves living a substance existence in the city’s slum. Andrés’ father thought his family in Bogotá would take them in, but that wasn’t the case. Eventually Andrés’ father was able to find work and saved enough money to purchase a small 20 x 20 foot piece of land in the barrio called Cazuca.
Andrés says “Things are better now and we have what is most important – a floor and a roof to live under.”
“Coming from the countryside has been hard. We were used to the river and raising our animals. But here in the city it is very different because you can’t even keep a small chicken… there’s no place to keep it or money to feed it.” Andrés continued, “Here, everything comes in a bag… water in a bag, milk in bag. On the farm we ate what we grew. Here, everything costs money. If you have money, you buy stuff. If you don’t, you can’t.”
Others in the barrio have escaped the violence of rebels just like Andrés’ family. Unfortunately, they left rebels in the countryside only to inherit “social cleansing” groups within the barrios. These groups take the law into their own hands by trying to silence people and keep them under their control. Andrés says: “…there’s a war to win, and we’ll win it: for all those doing something positive for our community, and above all, for our families.”
Because of the threats to him, Andrés practices capoeira, a Brazilian martial art. But even though he fears these cleansing groups, he expresses what’s on his mind through his guitar music and his rap. He takes on the problems of his neighborhood through his music and speaks out about what’s happening in his barrio.
Andrés says, “My dream is to be a great rap artist, but that is just a part of my dreams. The other part is to help my people in Cazuca, the people of my neighborhood by singing and rapping the truth.”
As a 13-year-old, Andrés created a video entitled Rapping At Fear for a project entitled Beyond Borders: Personal Stories from a Small Planet. Eleven short films were chosen. The films were produced by teenagers who are overcoming huge obstacles that have defined their lives. The teens shot, edited, and wove their documentaries with animation and archival footage to tell their personal stories on fear and insecurity.
After filming Rapping at Fear, Andrés joined City TV Bogota as a children’s TV host where he worked for about a year. He continues to perform rap in Cazuca and belongs to a theater group in Taller de Vida.
Andrés could view himself as a victim and succumb to the violence and destructive lifestyle around him. But he has chosen to rise above what is wrong and work at making it right. It isn’t easy, but he has the passion and the belief to help make it happen.
Life isn’t easy. And it isn’t fair. But it is your life, and you can choose to live it victoriously. Let Andrés’ story inspire you to take the steps you need to takein order to move forward with intention and determination. You, too, can live your Ultimate Life!
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