Center for Latin American Studies

As long as Colombia is known only through flash-point headlines of drug cartles and guerilla groups, the poor and victimized members of its society remain invisible. Juan Mejia's Uprooted exposes the plight of Afro-Colombians violently driven off their coastal lands and forced to subsist in shantytowns far from home. With immense tenderness and intimate attention, Mejia personalizes this history through the daily life of one brave woman caught in a politically and economically untenable situation.