Abstract

GIRALDO GIRALDO, Yicel Nayrobis  and  RUIZ SILVA, Alexander. Solidarity in the Lives of Young Men and Women in the Medellín Slums. Folios [online]. 2019, n.49, pp.61-69. ISSN 0123-4870.  https://doi.org/10.17227/folios.49-9391.

The best question to express the general scope of this work is: What does solidarity mean for the young men and women of the Medellín slums who are part of social groups or networks? The study took was carried out for over five years (2010-2017) and, guided by this question, we were able to explore, through direct observation and in-depth interviews, how groups of youth from poor sectors of Medellín give meaning to their days and nights, beyond mere survival. Naturally, the initial question implies part of the answer, assuming that these guys, by being part of social organizations, are in some way supportive, which also forced us to ask ourselves: Why are they supportive, how, and what is its significance or value to them? This paper aims, through narrative, to situate these issues and, by doing so, to give a context to other ways of being young in the poor sectors of a deeply unequal city and society. The document, as a whole, is an attempt to illustrate the ethical and political stakes of young men and women from the slums, where they have to face situations that are marked by pain and suffering. As a result, in the first section, "Day-to-day solidarity in the slums," we address certain topics such as the search for retribution and the experience of mutuality. In the second section, "Variations of the solidarity experience," we focus on the social figures that facilitate their solidarity actions, on the one hand, and those that obstruct them, on the other. Finally, in the third section, we analyze the role of moral feelings in the justification of their social and aesthetic actions.

Keywords : solidarity; youth; poor sectors; slums; social organization.

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