If there is something I don’t like, it is classism and elitism, in that I am as univalluno (a graduate of the University of the Valley) as it is possible to be. This is a personal story and reflection on these unpleasant topics.

The first thing I want to write, is from where I write these words, and that place is that of a privileged person, but also hardworking and sacrificed. I am a child of public education, both in my secondary education and my university education. I am also the son of a family that the DANE1 I would call “vulnerable”, those workers no matter whether we are “ white-collarworkers”2 or “blue-collar l”3 )

I am basically almost a statistical error, that is to say, given the social conditions in which I was born and the place where I was born, I was not supposed to get to where I did.

Leaving aside the above, here is the story:

While I was in Toulouse, I was contacted by an old colleague from my time as a trainee in EMCALI, who asked me to bring her a suitcase from France that belonged to her daughter, who because of the pandemic had been unable to return to France to finish her studies. I promptly went to pick up the suitcase downtown and took it with me when I returned to Colombia, obviously carrying a double suitcase made me incur in an additional expense that the airline would not forgive me.

After returning to Colombia, I contacted my former colleague to pick up the order she had placed for me, apparently my colleague was not very eager to get her stuff back and put off the delivery again and again (she didn’t seem very happy about having to pay for the extra suitcase either).

After about four months, I finally got someone (my colleague did not show up in person) to pick up the suitcase. At that time I was not interested in getting the money back in pesos, but in euros, anyway, I was going back to Europe and there I was going to spend the money. It should be clarified that I did not charge him a single peso for the favor of transporting a suitcase for more than 7000 km away.

After canceling me several times, again, the supposed “relative” who was going to pick up the suitcase, showed up a day later than agreed and more than two hours after the last appointment, basically, this person entered my house in a bad way, took the suitcase and threw the money that was owed to me on the floor.

I did not like this at all.

I have reflected on this experience for a couple of years, and my conclusion is that there was always a profound classism on the part of both my colleague and the person who sent for the suitcase.

And although the content of this blog is anecdotal, it has actually triggered deep reflections on my part about Colombian society, how classism and elitism enshroud our country, and poison and corrode it from within.

You just have to see how far they are capable of going to preserve their power or to snatch the coveted lands from the Colombian peasants with blood and fire4 , but that my friends, is another story.

Footnotes

1 Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística - Wikipedia, la enciclope…

2 Trabajador de cuello blanco - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

3 Trabajador de cuello azul - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

4 Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre