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'' 'Alfredo de la Cruz Molano Bravo' '' (1944-2019) was a writer, sociologist and journalist born in Bogotá in 1944. He dedicated his life to touring the rural areas of Colombia with the intention of giving an account of other realities that inhabit it. Through his literary production, Molano has constructed fundamental texts that show another perspective on the origins and developments of complex social processes such as violence, forced displacement and rural problems.
'''Alfredo de la Cruz Molano Bravo''' (1944-2019) was a writer, sociologist and journalist born in Bogotá in 1944. He dedicated his life to touring the rural areas of Colombia with the intention of giving an account of other realities that inhabit it. Through his literary production, Molano has constructed fundamental texts that show another perspective on the origins and developments of complex social processes such as violence, forced displacement and rural problems.


==Biografía==
==Biography==


Nació en Bogotá, creció  y vivió en  las montañas de la Calera, entre arrayanes, mortiños  y eucaliptos. Fue un  caminante de trochas y caminos que con tenis y mochila  recorrió el país de lado a lado, de frontera a frontera, de rio en rio, hablando con la gente de la Colombia más olvidada para  escuchar sus “historias de vida”, a través de las cuales relató los orígenes de la violencia, el desplazamiento forzado, la colonización, el despojo de tierras, los atropellos culturales y territoriales contra los pueblos indígenas y afro, el detrimento ambiental, dibujando en cada uno de sus escritos el mapa de un conflicto agrario de más de 50 años. Fue un estudioso de las luchas sociales, de la población campesina, de los despojados, de los abandonados  de  esa Colombia rural desconocida e ignorada por muchos y que él recorrió sin descanso.
Alfredo Molano Bravo was born in Bogota, and grew up and lived in the nearby mountains of La Calera amongst myrtle, Andean blueberry and eucalyptus trees. He roamed dirt roads and paths with his sneakers and backpack, traversing the country from end to end, from border to border and from river to river, speaking with people from that most forgotten Colombia to listen to their life stories, through which he narrated the origins of violence, forced displacement, colonization, land seizures, environmental damage, and cultural and territorial abuses against indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples, sketching out the map of over half a century of agrarian conflict in each of his writings. He was a keen student of social struggles, the peasant farmer population, the dispossessed and the abandoned of that rural Colombia, unknown and ignored by many which he roamed ceaselessly.


Estudio Sociología en la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, donde fue discípulo de Camilo Torres de quien aprendió el país posible, de Orlando Fals Borda, el país real y  de Eduardo Umaña Luna, la ética, tres maestros quienes  influyeron en su vida y con quienes  sostuvo una estrecha amistad. Entre 1972 y 1975 se vinculó a la Universidad de Antioquia como profesor, donde conoció al filósofo Estanislao Zuleta y participo en sus tertulias. Entre 1975 y 1977 fue alumno de ''l’ École Pratique de Hautes Études'' de París, donde no siguió el  rigor académico impuesto por el método cartesiano para a cambio relatar las voces  de la gente con quien hablaba, a quien escuchaba y a quienes sentía, logrando con su fina pluma y su mirada aguda y minuciosa dar  un análisis profundo y un relato fiel  de las problemáticas del movimientos campesinos, de las  comunidades  étnicas afectadas por la violencia del país. Escribí, dijo Molano, “buscando los adentros de la gente en sus afueras, en sus padecimientos, su valor, sus ilusiones. Borraba más que escribía, hurgaba, rebuscaba el acorde de las sensaciones que vivía la gente con las que yo mismo llevaba cargadas en un morral. Un río crecido, una noche oscura, un jadeo, el terror de oír armas en las sombras eran caminos por donde entraba la vida que se jugaba en las selvas y por donde llegaba su soplo a mis letras. Creo que sólo ahí, en el acecho, en el peligro, en el miedo aparecía el reclamo de justicia que yo buscaba para contarlo“. Discurso en la entrega del premio Simón Bolívar 2017.
He studied sociology at the National University of Colombia, where he was a disciple of Camilo Torres, Orlando Fals Borda and Eduardo Umaña Luna, from whom he learned about the ‘possible country’, the ‘real country’ and ethics, respectively. These three masters influenced his life and he maintained a close friendship with them. Between 1972 and 1975 he worked as a professor at the University of Antioquia, where he met the philosopher Estanislao Zuleta and took part in his social gatherings. Between 1975 and 1977 he was a student at the École Pratique de Hautes Études in Paris, where he did not fall in line with the academic rigor imposed by the Cartesian method. He chose instead to recount the voices of the people that he spoke with, listened to and empathized with, succeeding in using his fine pen and shrewd, meticulous gaze to provide a thorough analysis and accurate account of the problems of the peasant farmer movements and ethnic communities affected by violence in the country. I wrote, Molano said, by “looking for people’s depths on their surfaces, in their afflictions, their bravery and their dreams. I erased more than I wrote; I dug around, I sought out the harmony between the feelings experienced by people and those that I myself carried around in a backpack. A swollen river, a dark night, a gasp, and the terror of hearing weapons in the shadows were paths along which the life that was at stake in the jungle entered, along which its breath reached my words. I believe that only there, in lying in wait, in danger, in fear, only there did the demand for justice appear that I was seeking in order to recount it” (from Molano’s speech at the ceremony of the 2017 Simón Bolívar Prize).
[[Archivo:Alfredo-Molano-02.jpg|300px|miniaturadeimagen|derecha|Alfredo Molano. Archivo particular. Cortesía de la familia Molano]]
[[Archivo:Alfredo-Molano-02.jpg|300px|miniaturadeimagen|derecha|Alfredo Molano. Private file. Courtesy of the Molano family]]




En su obra de más de 27 libros publicados, decenas de artículos y estudios, puede verse al Sociólogo, al periodista, al escritor, al historiador y al ser humano, dejando  una visión integral y una mirada profunda  de la  realidad de Colombia desde mediados del siglo XX al presente.
His body of work, comprising over 27 published books and dozens of articles and studies, reveals the sociologist, the journalist, the writer, the historian and the human being, leaving behind a holistic vision and in-depth view of the Colombian reality from the mid-20th century to the present day.
En 1990  obtuvo el Premio a la Excelencia Nacional de Ciencias Humanas por la Asociación de Ex alumnos de  la Universidad Nacional y en el 2015  fue galardonado con el doctorado Honoris Causa de la misma universidad.


En el 1992, Colcultura le otorgó el Premio Nacional del Libro “Antonio Nariño”, en 1993  recibió el Premio de Periodismo Simón Bolívar al mejor reportaje en Televisión con el programa “Chenche: La Fuerza de la Tierra”  del cual fue Director de la serie documental para televisión TravesíasEn 1997  recibió  el premio por una vida dedicada a la investigación y a la difusión de aspectos esenciales de la realidad colombiana por la Sociedad Geográfica de Colombia y en 2016, recibe el Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar, a la "Vida y obra de un periodista".
In 1990 he received the Prize for National Excellence in Human Sciences from the Alumni Association of Colombia’s National University, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the same institution in 2015.   
[[Archivo:Alfredo-Molano-03.jpg|300px|miniaturadeimagen|derecha|Alfredo Molano. Archivo particular. Cortesía de la familia Molano]]
Fue profesor de varias universidades, un destacado columnista y cronista del diario dominical de El Espectador desde 1995 y colaborador de medios nacionales y extranjeros como Eco, Cromos, Alternativa, Semana y Economía colombiana, y autor de numerosos trabajos de investigación aparecidos en diferentes medios.
En sus obras se encuentran testimonios de una sociedad sin voz, olvidada e invisibilidad, testimonios que, constituyen la prueba histórica del complejo conflicto en el que Colombia ha estado inmersa durante los últimos decenios.
[[Archivo:Alfredo-Molano-04.jpg|300px|miniaturadeimagen|derecha|Alfredo Molano. Archivo particular. Cortesía de la familia Molano]]


Su primer libro, en el que se refiere a la historia de la educación en el país, fue publicado en 1979. Desde ese momento, siguió escribiendo sin descanso para dejar una extensa obra dentro de los que se encuentran, Dos viajes por la Orinoquia (con Fray José de Calasanz), Los bombardeos de El Pato, Del Llano llano, Selva adentro, A lomo de mula, Viajes al corazón de las Farc, Apaporis, Siguiendo el corte: relatos de guerras y de tierras,  Los años del tropel, Trochas y fusiles,  Ahí les dejo esos fierros , La tierra del caimán(con Constanza Ramírez), Así mismo, El tapón del Darién” (con Constanza Ramírez),Rebusque mayor, Relatos de mulas, traquetos y embarques, Desterrados, Penas y cadenas, Espaldas mojadas, Del otro lado,
In 1990 he received the Prize for National Excellence in Human Sciences from the Alumni Association of Colombia’s National University, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the same institution in 2015.
Otros rumbos, Dignidad campesina, De río en río, El destino de la luz.
Colcultura honored him with the Antonio Nariño National Book Prize in 1992, and in 1993 he received the Simón Bolívar Journalism Prize for ‘best TV reporting’ for the program “Chenche: La Fuerza de la Tierra” (Chenche: The Force of the Earth), for which he was the director of the TV documentary series Travesías (Voyages). In 1997 he received a prize from the Colombian Geographical Society for a life devoted to researching and disseminating fundamental aspects of the Colombian reality, and in 2016 he was awarded the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize for the “Life and work of a journalist”.   
Alfredo Molano  supo describir y denunciar, sin  miedo ni fundamentalismos, sucesos esenciales en la historia de la violencia en el país. Por sus denuncias fue amenazado de muerte por el paramilitarismo, por lo cual vivió exiliado durante cinco años en Barcelona y dos en Estados Unidos becado por la Universidad de Stanford donde fue profesor visitante.


Fue un acérrimo defensor de la Paz e hizo parte  de La Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad, la Convivencia y la No Repetición, fruto del Acuerdo de Paz firmado con la guerrilla de las FARC y el Gobierno de Juan Manuel Santos en la cual se desempeñó como comisionado encargado de la Orinoquia, es decir, en los departamentos de Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare, Casanare, Vichada, Vaupés y Guainía, regiones que había trasegado desde su juventud hasta sus últimos días. Lo llamaban el sabio de la tribu, un hombre de pocas palabras, “pero cuando hablaba nos aterrizaba en que la verdad la teníamos que contar desde la gente, desde los territorios; que la verdad estaba en las historias de vida, no en testimonios fragmentados”,  su vida hasta última hora fue la verdad de los campesinos", manifestó el padre Francisco de Roux, presidente de la Comisión de la Verdad.  
[[Archivo:Alfredo-Molano-03.jpg|300px|miniaturadeimagen|derecha|Alfredo Molano. Private file. Courtesy of the Molano family]]
Molano murió el 31 de octubre de 2019 en Bogotá.


== Cronología ==
He was a professor at several universities, and a distinguished columnist and reporter for the Sunday edition of the El Espectador newspaper since 1995. He also worked for Colombian and foreign media outlets such as Eco, Cromos, Alternativa, Semana and Economía Colombiana, and authored numerous research studies for different publications.


His works are testament to a forgotten, invisible society without a voice, containing testimonies that constitute historical evidence of the complex conflict in which Colombia has been mired for the last few decades


== Alfredo Molano en las colecciones del Banco de la República==
[[Archivo:Alfredo-Molano-04.jpg|300px|miniaturadeimagen|derecha|Alfredo Molano. Private file. Courtesy of the Molano family]]
 
His works are testament to a forgotten, invisible society without a voice, containing testimonies that constitute historical evidence of the complex conflict in which Colombia has been mired for the last few decades.
His first book was published in 1979 and dealt with the history of education in the country. From that moment on he continued to write tirelessly, leaving behind an extensive body of work that includes:Two journeys in the Orinoco region ; The bombardment of El Pato ; From the flat plain ; Deep in the jungle ; On muleback ; Journey into the heart of the FARC ; Apaporis ; Following the cut ; Tales of war and land ; The years of the hordes ; Dirt roads and rifles ; I’ll leave those guns there for you ; The land of the caiman ; Just like that ; The Darien Gap ; Great hustle ; Mule tales ; Drug traffickers and cargo ; Outcasts ; Pains and chains ; Wet backs ; From the other side ; Other directions ; Peasant farmer dignity ; From river to river ; The destiny of the light.
Alfredo Molano was capable of describing and speaking out against fundamental events in the history of violence in Colombia in a fearless and even-handed manner. Due to his denunciations he received death threats from paramilitaries, and as a result lived in exile in Barcelona for five years and in the United States for two years on a scholarship from Stanford University, where he was a visiting professor.
 
Alfredo Molano was capable of describing and speaking out against fundamental events in the history of violence in Colombia in a fearless and even-handed manner. Due to his denunciations he received death threats from paramilitaries, and as a result lived in exile in Barcelona for five years and in the United States for two years on a scholarship from Stanford University, where he was a visiting professor.
 
He was a staunch defender of peace, and formed part of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition that resulted from the peace agreement signed between the FARC guerrilla group and the government of Juan Manuel Santos, in which Molano acted as the commissioner for the Orinoco region (comprising the Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare, Casanare, Vichada, Vaupés and Guainía departments, regions that he had roamed from his youth until his final days). They called him the wise man of the tribe; a man of few words, “but when he spoke he grounded us in the fact that the truth had to be told on the basis of people, of the territories; that the truth lay in life stories, not in fragmented accounts … until his final hours, his life was the truth of the peasant farmers” said Father Francisco de Roux, the president of the Truth Commission. 
 
Molano died in Bogota on October 31, 2019.
 
==Timeline==
 
 
== Alfredo Molano in the Art Collection==
* Molano Bravo, Alfredo [http://babel.banrepcultural.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17054coll10/id/2798 Del llano llano: relatos y testimonios]. Editorial Áncora. Bogotá 1995
* Molano Bravo, Alfredo [http://babel.banrepcultural.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17054coll10/id/2798 Del llano llano: relatos y testimonios]. Editorial Áncora. Bogotá 1995


===Artículos y reseñas en el Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico===
===Articles and reviews in the Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin===
 
* Torres Duque, Óscar [https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/1606 Violencia y narración en Alfredo Molano ]  
* Torres Duque, Óscar [https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/1606 Violencia y narración en Alfredo Molano ]  
* Rueda Enciso, José Eduardo [https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/5027 Crónicas desmitificadoras de un viajero moderno]
* Rueda Enciso, José Eduardo [https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/5027 Crónicas desmitificadoras de un viajero moderno]
Línea 69: Línea 78:
* Polanco, Mauricio [https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/13076 Para que no se lo trague el olvido]
* Polanco, Mauricio [https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/13076 Para que no se lo trague el olvido]


===Tesis y artículos académicos===
===Theses and academic articles===


* Ordóñez, Jairo [http://babel.banrepcultural.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17054coll23/id/723 El Periodismo de Attachment en Colombia]
* Ordóñez, Jairo [http://babel.banrepcultural.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17054coll23/id/723 El Periodismo de Attachment en Colombia]


== Véase también ==
==Véase también==
* [[Orlando Fals Borda]]
* [[Orlando Fals Borda]]
* [[Nina S. de Friedemann]]
* [[Nina S. de Friedemann]]


== Créditos==
==Credits==
Abril 25 de 2020. Biografía escrita por María Elvira Molano para Banrepcultural.
 
1.April 25, 2020. Biography written by María Elvira Molano for Banrepcultural
 
==Related links in Banrep cultural==


==Enlaces relacionados en Banrep cultural==
*[http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/geografia/mac/indice.htm] Text on the colonization of the Macarena, written by several authors, which includes testimonies and chronicles of the inhabitants of the area, as well as a scientific reflection on the environmental problems generated by this phenomenon in that part of the Colombian territory. Includes bibliographies. Jorge Ortega Torres Collection. Orlando Fals Borda Collection.
*[http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/geografia/mac/indice.htm] Texto sobre la colonización de la Macarena, escrito por varios autores, en el que se incluyen testimonios y crónicas de los habitantes de la zona, además de una reflexión científica sobre los problemas ambientales generados por este fenómeno en esa parte del territorio colombiano. Incluye bibliografías. Colección Jorge Ortega Torres. Colección Orlando Fals Borda.
*[http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/folclor/llano/indice.htm] Del Llano llano. Book in which Alfredo Molano presents stories and testimonies about the Colombian plains. The colonization of the plains.
*[http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/folclor/llano/indice.htm] Del Llano llano. Libro en el que Alfredo Molano presenta relatos y testimonios sobre los llanos colombianos.La colonización de los llanos.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2576] Review by José Eduardo Rueda on the book Yo I tell him one of things, by Alfredo Molano, Darío Fajardo and Julio Carrizosa.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2576] Reseña de José Eduardo Rueda sobre el libro Yo le digo una de las cosas, de Alfredo Molano, Darío Fajardo y Julio Carrizosa.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2709] travels a hundred years apart. Review by Camilo Domínguez on the book Two trips through the Colombian Orinoquía, 1889-1988, by Fray José de Calazans Vela and Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2709] Dos viajes con cien años de intervalo. Reseña de Camilo Domínguez sobre el libro Dos viajes por la Orinoquía colombiana, 1889-1988, de fray José de Calazans Vela y Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/3229] The memory of our days of anger Review by Raúl José Díaz on the book Los años del tropel, by Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/3229] El recuerdo de nuestros días de la ira Reseña de Raúl José Díaz sobre el libro Los años del tropel, de Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2967] The other unknown country. Review by Jaime Eduardo Jaramillo on the book Selva inside, by Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2967] El otro país desconocido. Reseña de Jaime Eduardo Jaramillo sobre el libro Selva adentro, de Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/1772] Journey through the jungle of today Review by Juan Sierra on the book El plug del Darién. Diary of a journey, by Alfredo Molano and María Constanza Ramírez.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/1772] Viaje por la selva de hoy Reseña de Juan Sierra sobre el libro El tapón del Darién. Diario de una travesía, de Alfredo Molano y María Constanza Ramírez.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2025]  The other country is never the same. Review by Miriam Cotes on the book Likewise, by Alfredo Molano.
*[https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/2025]  El otro país nunca es el mismo. Reseña de Miriam Cotes sobre el libro Así mismo, de Alfredo Molano.


==Enlaces externos==
#[http://www.elespectador.com/search/columnistaselespectadorcom%20alfredo%20molano%20bravo] Opinion columns in El Espectador.
#[http://www.elespectador.com/search/columnistaselespectadorcom%20alfredo%20molano%20bravo] Columnas de opinión en El Espectador.
#[http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?auteur100] Opinion columns in Rural Press.
#[http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?auteur100] Columnas de opinión en Prensa Rural.
#[http://www.ces.uc.pt/emancipa/cv/gen/molano.html] Curriculum Vitae Alfredo Molano Bravo.
#[http://www.ces.uc.pt/emancipa/cv/gen/molano.html] Hoja de vida Alfredo Molano Bravo.
#[https://elpais.com/autor/alfredo_molano_bravo/a/] Articles and columns in El País de España.
#[https://elpais.com/autor/alfredo_molano_bravo/a/] Artículos y columnas en El País de España.
#[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aucMe0wGFME] Vea la  
#[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aucMe0wGFME] Vea la entrevista "Caleidoscopio de RP: Alfredo Molano - Serie Tierras".
interview "Kaleidoscope of RP: Alfredo Molano - Tierras Series".
#[http://www.revistaarcadia.com/impresa/portada/articulo/una-soledad-desobediente/32148] Artículo "Una soledad desobediente" de Marianne Ponsford, publicado en Revista Arcadia.
#[http://www.revistaarcadia.com/impresa/portada/articulo/una-soledad-desobediente/32148] Artículo  
#[http://www.revistaarcadia.com/impresa/portada/articulo/cinco-razones-establecimiento-nunca-va-querer-alfredo-molano/32149] Artículo "Cinco razones por las que el establecimiento nunca va a querer a Alfredo Molano".
"A disobedient loneliness" by Marianne Ponsford, published in Arcadia Magazine.
#[http://www.revistaarcadia.com/impresa/portada/articulo/cinco-razones-establecimiento-nunca-va-querer-alfredo-molano/32149] Artículo "Five reasons why the establishment will never love Alfredo Molano".


{{RelacionesBanrepcultural}}
{{RelacionesBanrepcultural}}
[[Categoría:Sociólogo]][[Categoría:Periodista]] [[Categoría:Escritor]][[Categoría:Hombre]]
[[Categoría:Sociólogo]][[Categoría:Periodista]] [[Categoría:Escritor]][[Categoría:Hombre]]

Revisión actual - 10:30 17 sep 2021

Otros idiomas:
Alfredo Molano
Datos generales
Nombre Alfredo de la Cruz Molano Bravo
Fecha de nacimiento 1944
Nacionalidad Colombiana Bandera de Colombia }}
Ocupación Sociólogo, Periodista, Escritor
Estudios universitarios Licenciado en Sociología de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia; École Pratique de Hautes Études de París.
País de nacimiento Colombia, Bandera de Colombia }}
Fecha de fallecimiento 31 de octubre de 2019
País de fallecimiento Colombia, Bandera de Colombia }}
Ciudad de fallecimiento Bogotá
Familia Alfonso Molano (Padre). Elvira Bravo (Madre).


Alfredo de la Cruz Molano Bravo (1944-2019) was a writer, sociologist and journalist born in Bogotá in 1944. He dedicated his life to touring the rural areas of Colombia with the intention of giving an account of other realities that inhabit it. Through his literary production, Molano has constructed fundamental texts that show another perspective on the origins and developments of complex social processes such as violence, forced displacement and rural problems.

Biography

Alfredo Molano Bravo was born in Bogota, and grew up and lived in the nearby mountains of La Calera amongst myrtle, Andean blueberry and eucalyptus trees. He roamed dirt roads and paths with his sneakers and backpack, traversing the country from end to end, from border to border and from river to river, speaking with people from that most forgotten Colombia to listen to their life stories, through which he narrated the origins of violence, forced displacement, colonization, land seizures, environmental damage, and cultural and territorial abuses against indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples, sketching out the map of over half a century of agrarian conflict in each of his writings. He was a keen student of social struggles, the peasant farmer population, the dispossessed and the abandoned of that rural Colombia, unknown and ignored by many which he roamed ceaselessly.

He studied sociology at the National University of Colombia, where he was a disciple of Camilo Torres, Orlando Fals Borda and Eduardo Umaña Luna, from whom he learned about the ‘possible country’, the ‘real country’ and ethics, respectively. These three masters influenced his life and he maintained a close friendship with them. Between 1972 and 1975 he worked as a professor at the University of Antioquia, where he met the philosopher Estanislao Zuleta and took part in his social gatherings. Between 1975 and 1977 he was a student at the École Pratique de Hautes Études in Paris, where he did not fall in line with the academic rigor imposed by the Cartesian method. He chose instead to recount the voices of the people that he spoke with, listened to and empathized with, succeeding in using his fine pen and shrewd, meticulous gaze to provide a thorough analysis and accurate account of the problems of the peasant farmer movements and ethnic communities affected by violence in the country. I wrote, Molano said, by “looking for people’s depths on their surfaces, in their afflictions, their bravery and their dreams. I erased more than I wrote; I dug around, I sought out the harmony between the feelings experienced by people and those that I myself carried around in a backpack. A swollen river, a dark night, a gasp, and the terror of hearing weapons in the shadows were paths along which the life that was at stake in the jungle entered, along which its breath reached my words. I believe that only there, in lying in wait, in danger, in fear, only there did the demand for justice appear that I was seeking in order to recount it” (from Molano’s speech at the ceremony of the 2017 Simón Bolívar Prize).

Error al crear miniatura: Falta archivo
Alfredo Molano. Private file. Courtesy of the Molano family


His body of work, comprising over 27 published books and dozens of articles and studies, reveals the sociologist, the journalist, the writer, the historian and the human being, leaving behind a holistic vision and in-depth view of the Colombian reality from the mid-20th century to the present day.

In 1990 he received the Prize for National Excellence in Human Sciences from the Alumni Association of Colombia’s National University, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the same institution in 2015.

In 1990 he received the Prize for National Excellence in Human Sciences from the Alumni Association of Colombia’s National University, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the same institution in 2015. Colcultura honored him with the Antonio Nariño National Book Prize in 1992, and in 1993 he received the Simón Bolívar Journalism Prize for ‘best TV reporting’ for the program “Chenche: La Fuerza de la Tierra” (Chenche: The Force of the Earth), for which he was the director of the TV documentary series Travesías (Voyages). In 1997 he received a prize from the Colombian Geographical Society for a life devoted to researching and disseminating fundamental aspects of the Colombian reality, and in 2016 he was awarded the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize for the “Life and work of a journalist”.

Error al crear miniatura: Falta archivo
Alfredo Molano. Private file. Courtesy of the Molano family

He was a professor at several universities, and a distinguished columnist and reporter for the Sunday edition of the El Espectador newspaper since 1995. He also worked for Colombian and foreign media outlets such as Eco, Cromos, Alternativa, Semana and Economía Colombiana, and authored numerous research studies for different publications.

His works are testament to a forgotten, invisible society without a voice, containing testimonies that constitute historical evidence of the complex conflict in which Colombia has been mired for the last few decades

Error al crear miniatura: Falta archivo
Alfredo Molano. Private file. Courtesy of the Molano family

His works are testament to a forgotten, invisible society without a voice, containing testimonies that constitute historical evidence of the complex conflict in which Colombia has been mired for the last few decades. His first book was published in 1979 and dealt with the history of education in the country. From that moment on he continued to write tirelessly, leaving behind an extensive body of work that includes:Two journeys in the Orinoco region ; The bombardment of El Pato ; From the flat plain ; Deep in the jungle ; On muleback ; Journey into the heart of the FARC ; Apaporis ; Following the cut ; Tales of war and land ; The years of the hordes ; Dirt roads and rifles ; I’ll leave those guns there for you ; The land of the caiman ; Just like that ; The Darien Gap ; Great hustle ; Mule tales ; Drug traffickers and cargo ; Outcasts ; Pains and chains ; Wet backs ; From the other side ; Other directions ; Peasant farmer dignity ; From river to river ; The destiny of the light. Alfredo Molano was capable of describing and speaking out against fundamental events in the history of violence in Colombia in a fearless and even-handed manner. Due to his denunciations he received death threats from paramilitaries, and as a result lived in exile in Barcelona for five years and in the United States for two years on a scholarship from Stanford University, where he was a visiting professor.

Alfredo Molano was capable of describing and speaking out against fundamental events in the history of violence in Colombia in a fearless and even-handed manner. Due to his denunciations he received death threats from paramilitaries, and as a result lived in exile in Barcelona for five years and in the United States for two years on a scholarship from Stanford University, where he was a visiting professor.

He was a staunch defender of peace, and formed part of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition that resulted from the peace agreement signed between the FARC guerrilla group and the government of Juan Manuel Santos, in which Molano acted as the commissioner for the Orinoco region (comprising the Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare, Casanare, Vichada, Vaupés and Guainía departments, regions that he had roamed from his youth until his final days). They called him the wise man of the tribe; a man of few words, “but when he spoke he grounded us in the fact that the truth had to be told on the basis of people, of the territories; that the truth lay in life stories, not in fragmented accounts … until his final hours, his life was the truth of the peasant farmers” said Father Francisco de Roux, the president of the Truth Commission.

Molano died in Bogota on October 31, 2019.

Timeline

Alfredo Molano in the Art Collection

Articles and reviews in the Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin

Theses and academic articles

Véase también

Credits

1.April 25, 2020. Biography written by María Elvira Molano for Banrepcultural

Related links in Banrep cultural

  • [1] Text on the colonization of the Macarena, written by several authors, which includes testimonies and chronicles of the inhabitants of the area, as well as a scientific reflection on the environmental problems generated by this phenomenon in that part of the Colombian territory. Includes bibliographies. Jorge Ortega Torres Collection. Orlando Fals Borda Collection.
  • [2] Del Llano llano. Book in which Alfredo Molano presents stories and testimonies about the Colombian plains. The colonization of the plains.
  • [3] Review by José Eduardo Rueda on the book Yo I tell him one of things, by Alfredo Molano, Darío Fajardo and Julio Carrizosa.
  • [4] travels a hundred years apart. Review by Camilo Domínguez on the book Two trips through the Colombian Orinoquía, 1889-1988, by Fray José de Calazans Vela and Alfredo Molano.
  • [5] The memory of our days of anger Review by Raúl José Díaz on the book Los años del tropel, by Alfredo Molano.
  • [6] The other unknown country. Review by Jaime Eduardo Jaramillo on the book Selva inside, by Alfredo Molano.
  • [7] Journey through the jungle of today Review by Juan Sierra on the book El plug del Darién. Diary of a journey, by Alfredo Molano and María Constanza Ramírez.
  • [8] The other country is never the same. Review by Miriam Cotes on the book Likewise, by Alfredo Molano.
  1. [9] Opinion columns in El Espectador.
  2. [10] Opinion columns in Rural Press.
  3. [11] Curriculum Vitae Alfredo Molano Bravo.
  4. [12] Articles and columns in El País de España.
  5. [13] Vea la

interview "Kaleidoscope of RP: Alfredo Molano - Tierras Series".

  1. [14] Artículo

"A disobedient loneliness" by Marianne Ponsford, published in Arcadia Magazine.

  1. [15] Artículo "Five reasons why the establishment will never love Alfredo Molano".


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