What happened in Colombia Sunday, June 19, was seismic. Not just because Gustavo Petro, a former guerilla, former mayor of Bogota and current senator, became the traditionally conservative country’s first leftist president but also because of his running mate, Francia Márquez, the environmental feminist who was elected to serve as Colombia’s first Black vice president.
Márquez’s story is an inspiration for all Colombians who have been marginalized and ignored.
“This will be a government for those with calluses on their hands,” Márquez said after the Sunday victory. “We are here to promote social justice and to help women eradicate the patriarchy.”
In a country that has been ravaged by decades of civil war and extreme inequality, Márquez’s story is an inspiration for all Colombians who have been marginalized and ignored. As NBC News reported, “Marquez grew up in a remote village and had a daughter when she was 16. To support her, she cleaned homes and worked at a restaurant while studying for a law degree.” Marquez became a fierce defender of the Afro-Colombian community, leading campaigns against hydroelectric and mining interests. In a country known for its misogynist, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous culture, Márquez has faced a barrage of death threats. Still, she soldiered on and is now the country’s next vice president after running with Petro under a Historical Pact coalition that contains mostly leftist voices from the far left and the center-left.
Despite Colombia’s conservative sectors pushing the narrative that Petro and Márquez will take Colombia so far to the left that it will become the next Venezuela or Cuba, and conservative lawmakers vowing not to cooperate with the incoming administration, there is a new hopefulness in Colombia that follows years of violence, divisive politics and the catastrophic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not unlike the hopefulness felt in the United States less than two years ago when Kamala Harris became the country’s first woman and first Black and Asian vice president after an election that made Donald Trump a one-term president and gave the country the sense that it could heal and work together.
Two Black women who made history in countries where Black women have rarely been such prominent leaders should be commended and celebrated, although if the last two years in the United States are any indication of the challenges Márquez might face, there’s a chance we’ll ultimately be celebrating symbolic elections followed by little transformative change. In this country, there are many contributing factors to that lack of change, including the effectiveness of conservatives claiming that there’s an extreme leftist agenda taking over and the Biden administration itself, which still hasn’t been able find its footing in its messaging to the American people.
In addition, as MSNBC’s Joy Reid said recently, “Most of the media is still white and male. And their take on Kamala Harris becomes the take. It becomes conventional wisdom.” That rings very true.
As vice president, Harris has had mixed results, in part because she’s put into a lot of no-win situations. One of her lowest points — which still resonates with Latino voters who supported her — happened last year in Guatemala when in an attempt to address migration in the region she said “do not come” to migrants. The message sounded like resigned acquiescence to Republican border hawks when she should have boldly confronted her critics and represented marginalized voices.
Such lack of boldness has haunted the Biden-Harris administration, and in the end, it could also cause problems for a Petro-Márquez administration. It’s not wrong to question the incoming administration’s ability to build coalitions when half the country will likely not cooperate. Still, that shouldn’t lead us to downplay their victories or their potential for greater victories. The moment Harris stood with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson after a tumultuous Supreme Court confirmation hearing offered a tangible glimpse of what this country can be in the future, a country where Black women occupy seats of real power. The same can be said for Colombia and Márquez. Black women have been shut out of power, even though they have been some of the most active believers in the political process. Change starts by being a part of the political system. Black women have been shut out of power, even though they have been some of the most active believers in the political process and what it represents. Harris is still in the political arena and will help to transform Democratic politics even though it doesn’t seem as if there is any real progress now. Nonetheless, Harris is still trying, focusing on key issues, such as voting rights, even as her political opponents show no desire to cooperate. In the same vein, Márquez can use her activist past to push through what she thinks is best for Colombia. She will clearly face the backlash, just as she has in the past, but she is now in a seat of power. The desire to dismantle the status quo needs to start somewhere, and for marginalized communities who have never seen the promise of equality become reality, it will be people like Márquez and Harris who offer the hope that such goals are achievable, even if they require more time and more struggle.
Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. 
