Page 26 - C.A.L.L. #37 - Winter 2013/2014

The Colombian Renaissance

by Albert Bates

"In Colombia, the ecovillage movement is ceasing to be seen as the alternative, hippy,
or maladjusted parts of society, but rather are coming to be known as 'the people.'
They are the 99-percent, the cultural center and point of reference."

Since we visited and gave our first village
design courses more than a decade ago,
the ecovillage movement has been
wedding Colombian grassroots
organizations - the Campesinos,
Indigenous and Afro-decendant people -
into action-oriented environmental
networks. The ecovillagers, Red de

Ecoaldeas Colombia when we last visited,
reformed 7 years ago into Renace Colombia. RC is developing a multilayered strategy
for greater communication with other networks, sectors and movements in the
country, as well as developing capacity to incubate new ecovillages and other varieties
of experimental human settlements.

There are 16 ecovillages throughout Colombia, five or six of which are still in the
formative stages. The longest existing ecovillage is 28 years old.

Some recent achievements of Colombian ecovillages:

• Pachamama Ecovillage in Quindio is exporting
full containers of their organically treated

bamboo as building material in Spain and the
Caribbean.
• Aldea Feliz in Cundinamarca won the Fulbright
Commission grant to build an ‘ecoshop’ with high
green architectural standards.
• By the end of 2012, all the major ecovillages in Each member community of
Renace is building a Maloca,
Colombia will have their own Maloka - an ancestral the traditional meeting hall
house of gathering in the Amazonic tradition. in Amazonia
• Atlántida ecovillage in Cauca is the main training center for Latin America for
leaders of Dances of Universal Peace. One of Colombia’s indigenous traditions
is the “mambeo,” artistic decontamination of the world, merging the mind with
the heart.

26