Every society has it wounds, while, some tend to be deeper than others all wounds never fail to leave behind scars – those visible to the eyes and those that we decide to hide- all scars stay to remind us of a moment of pain. Learning from the community that I was placed Ibarra of Imbabura province, Ecuador. The social scars do not only affect one group of people they affect all and continue to affect a generation since internal scars are harder to deal with than others.
I meet her while I was working in my host mum’s communities and she had moved here with her family from Columbia to Ecuador for safety reasons and a better pleasant life. With this I picked interest in Ecuadorian culture and policy especially with refugees in Ecuador. Ecuador in Latin America is one of the biggest recipients of refugees from various Latin American countries like Venezuela, Peru, Colombia and many others. They are all usually resettled by the government and live and work here like Ecuadorians.
With this I dug deeper to see how refugees were being received, and the deeper I dug the more the information got bitter for my liking. Running away from a society filled with violence that was their main initiative to move they stumbled across the worst violence and that is the embedded silent discrimination.
After a long conversation with my host mother she explained that this society form years from colonization has been scared with the culture of discrimination. The scars of discrimination in Ibarra run deeper than just one group of people being discriminated. With discrimination of the Afro-Ecuadorians, people with other abilities and the indigenous people, this attention is now being focused onto the new comers in town.
The problem with the discrimination scars attained here from years and years of discrimination is that there is a separation on how different groups of people show their scaring. The first group accepts that it was wounded and crippled from the discrimination and wants to address the issue. The other group hides its scaring and with that within them they build up a huge amount of anger and hate. The other group is not afraid to show their scars regardless of their actions whether discriminative or not due to theirbeliefs in social difference. While the other group I have noticed is the group that is in denial or feels liberated, those in denial believe that discrimination is not that bad while those liberated think only of the self and to them if they do not discriminate personally the world is a better place because they are doing good.
For me I believe the ignorance of the scars that were left upon our society is crippling and it is these scars that will continue to wound us deeper and deeper. Discrimination is not a today problem it has been a problem for years and has not faded yet. Maybe it has improved, but this statement only encourages reluctance and tolerance. Yes we are different but I should not be treated different because I am different we all deserve respect for each human being because our lives are not ours a lone. We can try and convince our selves that we came on earth solo and we will leave this earth solo. However, the mere fact that we share this earth together, we share life, thus respect self and the community you build around you.
