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How did you approach capturing the daily lives of the residents in the San Bernardo archipelago?
It’s been more than 8 years since I visited Santa Cruz del Islote. The first time I heard about this place I was still working at the local newspaper in the city of Barranquilla called El Heraldo, where I had done several stories about vulnerable communities living in aquatic ecosystems like Nueva Venecia, Tierrabomba or Bocas de Ceniza. It was a topic that interested me a lot, I wanted to understand what the Caribbean was about through its inhabitants and their stories. The newspaper never sent me to this island, it was until I became a freelancer that I had the opportunity to go there. It became my first personal long-term project.
I wanted to explore the living conditions of this community and also document the fight for their island, one of the most densely populated in the world. At first, it was difficult, in a closed community, where everyone knows each other and it is easy to identify the stranger. However, with each new visit, the community got to know more about me and I got to know more about the community. They have witnessed my personal and professional growth and I have witnessed the changes that the island and its population have undergone. With each visit I made new friends, I met a new family, and they began to take me part in their events and celebrations. I have accompanied them in baptisms, weddings, degrees, and parties, and today after 8 years the community trusts me and trusts in my work. They know me, respect me and appreciate me.
The first years of this project allowed me to explore my way of looking, for me it was a laboratory, the perfect setting to find my way of narrating. At this stage, I managed to publish the story in some international media. What is it like to live on the most densely populated island in the world? It was the title. However, as time went by, I began to witness the changes that the island was undergoing and how climate change was putting subsistence in this place at risk. The project began to transform.
It was evident that the community was increasingly suffering with the rising tides. Erosion in other areas of the archipelago has begun to disappear entire islands and the pressure exerted on the ecosystem by uncontrolled tourism is leaving this Afro-island population with very few options.