CENTRE for LATIN AMERICAN
RESEARCH and DOCUMENTATION

Resisting the Tide: Blue Justice and Collective Actions in Fishing Communities of Latin America and the Caribbean

Participatory methods discussion and exposition tour:
October 23rd, 15.00-17.00.
Webinar Conversations on Ocean Justice:
November 20th, 16.00-17.30 (CET).

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ACTIVITY: CEDLA EXHIBITION & WEBINAR
VENUE: CEDLA, Binnengasthuisstraat 46, 1012 ZD Amsterdam
 

CEDLA is currently hosting the exhibition Resisting the Tide: Blue Justice and Collective Actions in Fishing Communities of Latin America and the Caribbean in the hallway, upstairs in Gasthuiskerk. This photographic-artistic poster series, created by a transdisciplinary team of scholars and fishing communities in Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, amplifies the voices of coastal peoples as they defend their livelihoods, knowledge systems, and spiritual ties to the maritory. It highlights strategies of resistance to industrial fishing, privatization, pollution, overexploitation, and the growing militarization and criminalization of oceanic communities.

We invite everyone to attend the upcoming related events:

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Participatory methods discussion and exposition tour: October 23rd, 15.00-17.00. The event is part of the OLA (PhD Forum on Latin America) Conference opening and includes borrel for the participants. By Catalina Garcia (member of the curatorial team and CEDLA guest researcher), Antonia McGrath (CEDLA PhD Candidate), and João Fernandez Pereira (PhD Urban Geographies, UvA).

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Webinar Conversations on Ocean Justice: November 20th, 16.00-17.30 (CET). A dialogue with the exhibition’s curators and researchers on ocean justice and how to connect academic research with broader audiences. Discussant: Joeri Scholtens (Assistant Professor, Governance and Inclusive Development, UvA). Registration Link: Conversations on Ocean Justice

For more information, please contact: Catalina García

From massacre to miracle: Romani presence and the making of a pilgrimage site in Piaui, Brazil 

SPEAKERS: Martin Fotta, Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences
DISCUSSANT: Mattijs van de Port, University of Amsterdam

DATE: 14 November 2025
TIME: 15:30

ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE
VENUE: Vox-Pop, Binnengasthuisstraat 9, Amsterdam
 

In a small rural settlement in the interior of Piauí, northern Brazil, a chapel dedicated to Ciganinho Milagroso (the Miraculous Little Gypsy Boy) stands beside a large courbaril tree. Local memory and archival material tie the site to events that took place more than a century ago, when police and henchmen pursued and massacred a group of Romani people (Ciganos) crossing the region. According to the story, a small boy attempted to hide in the tree but was killed. When an epidemic struck the settlement years later, the residents attributed the misfortune to the unjust killing of an innocent soul. Over time, the site gradually developed into a local place of pilgrimage. This presentation reconstructs and contextualises the historical and mnemonic layers through which inter-ethnic violence, culpability, and sacralization became intertwined, examining how the Romani presence has been simultaneously integrated into regional religious imaginaries. By situating the devotion to Ciganinho Milagroso within broader debates and contexts, the presentation reflects on shifting configurations of Romani social position in Brazil.

Researching displacement together: co-producing knowledge with displaced women in Colombia    

SPEAKERS: Sonja Marzi, Radboud University and The London School of Economics and Political Science
DISCUSSANT: Conny Roggeband, University of Amsterdam

DATE: 12 December 2025
TIME: 15:30

ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE
VENUE: Vox-Pop, Binnengasthuisstraat 9, Amsterdam
 

This lecture examines the experiences of 24 displaced women in Colombia and the challenges they face while rebuilding their lives in Bogotá and Medellín. Based on co-produced knowledge, it centres the women’s own understandings and descriptions of displacement, rather than treating it as an abstract idea. The lecture explores the economic, social, and political forms of violence that drive displacement and continue to shape urban life long after resettlement. These forms of violence are closely interconnected, producing lasting insecurity. The women’s accounts blur conventional boundaries between scales and types of violence—whether political violence at national, regional, or neighbourhood levels; state violence through action or neglect; or interpersonal harm. Their experiences show how these forces intersect and reinforce one another, making displacement a complex, ongoing condition rather than a single event.