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Few people willingly march 350 miles for the sake of safeguarding their community from illegal mining. In 2014, Francia Márquez led about 80 women to the capital of Colombia to protest illegal mining and won protection from the government.
Márquez studied law to understand how to protect her Afro-descendant community in La Toma, Colombia. With her legal know-how, she peacefully protested for change alongside women in her community, continuing her fight even despite threats against her life.
In 2022, she was elected as Colombia’s first Afro-Colombian woman vice president, a role in which she has advocated for the rights of women, Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombians at a national and international scale.
“Humanity’s greatest challenge is to either work together to preserve this planet or destroy it,” said Márquez in an interview with Earthjustice in 2019.
“It’s up to us to assume our own responsibility and defend life. In Colombia, we’re creating campaigns to incentivize reforestation, as well as recycling. We want to raise awareness about the products that can be composted and how we reuse certain items. There is so much we can do.”
As a strong environmental advocate, Márquez is pushing for Colombia’s transition to clean energies as well as championing land rights for marginalized peoples. However, her advocacy extends far beyond her country’s borders.
As vice president, she traveled across Africa in 2023, working to create strong international ties for research and exchange, promote people-centered diplomacy and discuss historical reparations.
“When I speak, it is from a place of justice, not only for Black people whose rights have been violated but also for Indigenous communities, women and nature itself,” said Márquez during a short feature video for the Goldman Environmental Prize.
“This fight has not only been mine but it has been the whole community’s fight.”
Photo by Andrés Castilla, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
