‘We will always be street’

Abstract

I have learned much about the limits and transformative potential of the street, la calle, as a site of struggle from and with radical organizations fighting against state violence in the urban global South. In this essay, I draw from these experiences as I continue to accompany various street-level social movements in Colombia and Uganda. I draw attention to the street as a site where state violence is enacted in tangible forms across scales. I illustrate, through discussion of a particular mural project in Bogotá, the way the state exerts its power and presence in society as pitted against the image of the urban poor. I urge scholars of street-level social movements and state violence to continue to look at this space of antagonism between the street and the state as a productive analytical space for radical geography and social movement scholarship, while keeping in mind the illustrated tensions. Additionally, in future work, I suggest we take a closer look at the class contrasts in street-level justice-seeking; the street, as a political space of encounter, between people propelled by the emotive forces of indignation and rage in mass acts of justice-seeking and those propelled by the structural forces of inequality and violence.

Keywords:

• geographies of justice
• street
• state violence
• urban social memory
• street art
• la L
• “El Bronx”
• street-connected communities

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, to mis compas. I love you and have learned so much from every moment and space we have shared. Thank you to my colleagues Hannah Appel, Michele Lancione and the editorial team of City for your comments and dialogue about this piece. I also immensely appreciate the careful and caring interpretive work of Olivia Miller as she engaged with El Cilencio’s written reflections and integrated English versions into the text. It is so important to honor the words and intentionality of our compas as we allude to their thoughts and contributions to the movement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Short for ‘compañeros’ and signifying more than friends and companions (brothers and sisters of struggle).

2 Literally interpreted as cooking pot but spatially signaling drug consumption zones in the city.

3 Albeit beyond the scope of this essay, I draw attention to the funding sources of such collectives and their entanglements with the state and the non-profit industrial complex.

4 Interpreted as poverty voyeurism or pornographization of misery.

5 The act of inhaling bazuco through a pipe.

6 Street vendor of second-hand items in the L.

7 Paramilitary running the L.

8 The act of being beaten with a baton.

9 Freedom-fighter is the term my dear friend and brother in struggle, Ssembatya Fred, has used to describe his community in the streets of Kampala. Fred has expressed opposition to using the term ‘street-connected’ when referring to his community. We plan to engage this concept further in our collective writing and reflections in the future.

10 Derived from the verb sentipensar (to feel and think, simultaneously), as set forth by Colombian Atlantic coast river communities as evident in Orlando Fals Borda’s texts. See Ritterbusch (2019) on the role of sentipensante struggle in street-level justice-seeking.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy E. Ritterbusch

Amy Ritterbusch is an activist and scholar at the Department of Social Welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Luskin School of Public Affairs. Email: [email protected]

El Cilencio

El Cilencio is an activist from the Pacific coastal region of Colombia who has fought tirelessly for the rights of her sisters in the street for the last 15 years. She has been involved in multiple street-level social justice movements and organizations over the years. Email: [email protected]