| Popis: |
This work tells the stories of young Nicaraguan people that fled to Costa Rica to escape political persecution within the context of Nicaragua’s political violence and repression, which began in April 2018. Through these stories, I want to shed light on the psychosocial impact of political violence and forced migration and contribute to improve people’s empathetic understanding of the realities of refugees.My aim was to understand the personal and collective meanings that these refugees give to their experiences during the protests using a social perspective based on Martin-Baro’s liberation psychology. I also became interested in understanding how Nicaraguan refugees were creating networks of support to survive and heal in Costa Rica. To conduct my fieldwork, I spent three months in Costa Rica serving as an accompanier and conducting participant observation in collective houses inhabited by young political refugees, with whom I also conducted individual interviews. I was really interested in listening to the trajectories of their lives since April 2018 and I was really surprised when I discovered they were also interested in telling me their stories, not just because I was asking, but because they had been waiting for someone they could trust and who was willing to listen to them. For this reason, I felt that my most important task as an accompanier was to be a witness of the things that happened to them. I came to realize that their motivations to participate in the protests were rooted in the search for justice that awakes solidarity. During the protests, they were spurred to act against the political repression and to resist by working together. The company of others in similar situations has helped them make sense of what has happened to them and to cope with dire circumstances. Nowadays in Costa Rica, they are facing other series of difficulties such as feelings of frustration, xenophobia and labor discriminations, and once again their work as a community has helped them resisting by taking care of each other. |
