By Ana María Hanssen

ARGENTINA: I used to think Americans were the only ones that had trouble with geography. I lived in Los Angeles for 6 years, a cosmopolitan metropolis where millions of people from all over the world cross paths everyday.

It never ceased to amaze me when people, after I would explain that I was from Colombia, would ask me if I was from “British Columbia,” or perhaps from the “District of Columbia.”

I was even asked if Colombia shares a border with Chile. I have encountered a similar phenomenon here in Argentina which I am also having a tough time understanding. When I say I come from Colombia, for some reason people immediately respond by commenting as if Colombia was in Central America.

By Rocío Arango Giraldo

COLOMBIA: Before the liberation of the two women that FARC had held captive since 2001, Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, said to the international community that “the FARC aren’t terrorists and it is necessary for us to negotiate a Humanitarian Agreement, to liberate the other hostages, more than 700 people that this guerrilla (group) has in captivity in the Colombian jungle.”

Venezuela Pres. Chavez stands in the middle of (L-R) Consuelo Gonzalez and Clara Rojas, rescued after 6 years in FARC captivity.
(Source: eitb24.com)

I’m going to talk in name of my generation — those born in the 80’s: “The Generation of Fear.” I’m going to write in first person because this is my story and the story of many others too.

We wonder now and want to pose this question to Chávez: If what we have lived through is not terrorism, what IS terrorism?