The arrival of troops to Cristales del Caguán

With this painting I want people to realize that war is not a very fancy life. War is very hard! War is a situation in which you find yourself in very difficult extremes.

When you join an armed group, your name is changed. “You will be called so-and-so and from now on you have to comply with orders.”

There, you spend one, two, three years, five, ten years without having any news from your family… My daughter, she might be sick, dying, they are not going to give me that kind of news.

Letters arrive. They arrive! And first, the commanders check them, and if there’s something that might get the person worried, [the person] is deprived of this information, so they won’t do anything crazy.

You, at any time, it can be raining, thundering, you might have not eaten, when the arm forces arrive! You have to kick the pot with food, grab a handful of uncooked rice and shove it in your mouth and run…. That’s the guerrilla life.