After the murder of his father by an illegal armed group, and thanks to his mother's teachings about the value of resilience and the importance of a better society, today he works for peace, the conservation of the environment and for many people overcome their condition of poverty.

By Erick González G.

He was born in Garzón (Huila), in 1996, on February 20, under an astral sign that augured the virtues of patience, tranquility and kindness, with the ability to blend in according to the circumstances; She also predicted a philanthropic outlook and a passion for law, architecture, art, travel, and scoring an eight-to-five card in a non-profit organization. The technical sheet of her life.

From a very young age, she had to corroborate that file or, to be more exact, she had to corroborate herself. The first characteristic to manifest itself, when the personality and less the profession is not suspected, is to travel, even if it is by decision of others. When she was very young, her family moved to El Agrado, a municipality known as “The Oases of Peace”, which, despite its nickname, accounts for 391 people affected by the conflict in the Single Registry of Victims (RUV), the fourth municipality less affected by the conflict after Paicol (198), Yaguara (208) and Elías (213).

She felt the displeasure when her father got a job in another municipality. "He was a dentist and he got a job at the hospital in La Argentina, and one of his premises was that wherever he was working, we had to go with him, because the family unit was the most important thing we had", says María Alejandra.

In fact, the discontent was tainted with fear by the violent chronicles that had splintered the peace of the region. "I was afraid of living there because years before they had murdered a priest, a fact that marked the department", she recalls.

The 2,618 lives affected by the violence in Argentina according to the RUV, that is, almost seven times more than in El Agrado, can testify that María Alejandra's feeling was not unfounded. What's more, two days after moving in, they put an explosive device in the mayor's office, so María Alejandra's fear grew by the handfuls, and thus she began “to experience the strongest armed conflict and to feel how people lived the war in this country”.

The problems had targeted her family since her father was appointed director of the hospital, where apparently more than treating patients, the disease of the region was diagnosed. “The issue against the medical mission was always tenacious, it was always threatened. Later we found out that there were hospital officials and nurses who were from the Farc, even a doctor left there threatened.

At age 13, circumstances would force María Alejandra to "cheat" the tranquility and adaptability in the technical sheet of her life. On Friday, April 15, 2011, her father arrived at the house around seven o'clock in the evening, where her whole family was waiting for them, when a person, dressed as a peasant, with a cleft lip, knocked on the door. “My brothers opened the door and I went out to explain to that person that my father did not attend to work issues at home, but he told me that it was for the signing of an authorization for surgery, so I told my father to attend to him; he left and I went to the room; one of my brothers stayed in the room, and that's when we heard two shots. My dad died instantly. "

The murderer ran away. The body lift concluded at 3:00 a.m. They were eight hours in slow motion, traumatic, with the bloody and inert body of the head of the family at the entrance of the house, which unfortunately is part of the 263 homicides that Argentina has in the RUV due to the armed conflict.

At her young age, María Alejandra took care of the procedures for the uprising and the funeral. Her mother and two brothers were too devastated to take on the job.

After the funeral, the survival log pointed to Garzón again, since returning to El Agrado was ruled out due to incompatibility of memories.

The mother of María Alejandra, who was dedicated to clothing, knew at that time that the livelihood of her and her three children depended on a thread. “My mother's decision to work with her sewing machine and reject a fixed-income office-hour job was somewhat criticized, but she rejected that offer to keep an eye on us and have a better quality of life; also, because at school they gave us crises and we went home to have their support, which was what we really needed at that time”.

Maternal support was not reduced to the emotional 'heals that heals frog tail', it was much more profound: “My mother was the axis in our own healing as a family and in our peace building as people, despite what we had happened. She always instilled in us that we should not get stuck because of what had happened to us, that we should not stay in a grudge: first, because it was not healthy, and that would prolong the violence in you; second, also on the spiritual issue, she always instilled in us that we should be better people”.

Those tips and time made him say goodbye to the wounds inflicted by the conflict. María Alejandra was able to parade, gallant, her cap, but she had to wait a year to enter to the university study Law in Bogotá, where she moved with the aim of “exploring other ways of thinking”. In this way, patience was also "cheated" on the technical sheet of her life.

“I believe that the best measure of reparation that the Victims Law has is the educational issue: today I am a lawyer thanks to the Reparation Fund for Access, Permanence and Graduation in Education of the Victims Unit, because they can give you a money and you invest it, but it is not reflected in your future, while if the study repair is applied, all your life you will have a degree, you can find a better job and improve the quality of life for you and your family. And the Accompaniment Strategy was also important, the Victims Unit was always present when there were some problems with the university”.

While stuffing himself with principles and legal norms, in 2017 he participated in the One Young World, the most important summit of young people in the world, where with some delegates from Colombia he formed the group Lidera el Cambio, an organization that seeks to inspire, empower and connect to young leaders in Colombia around sustainable development and with which it has already organized two other similar summits.

After stripping codes and treaties, she got a job at a foundation whose mission is to build peace and alleviate poverty. “I have always loved social issues, and after what happened to us in Argentina I have always wanted to work for peace. From my role as a woman, I have built peace through my testimony, through my forgiveness, because as a victim of the conflict I was able to forgive my perpetrators, I believe that this is the best way to contribute to peace”.

Faced with these evidences, the Law, philanthropy, the eight hours of work in a non-profit entity can also be cheated on the technical sheet of its existence. Her next stop is the country of the koalas to study English, which is in a waiting room due to the pandemic. The final port of your dreams is to work with the United Nations. Neither her mother nor her brothers are haunted by the past. One of them is finishing high school and the other is already in college.

Apparently, she would have pending subjects in the school of life: architecture and art. From the first, she may settle for the religious constructions of her native town; from the second, to understand that happiness is determined by the mental and emotional state of being, and to live, in these times of abuse, hustle and bustle, according to that teaching, is already an art.