Former URI Executive Director Charles Gibbs shares a photo and story from 2008:
At the third URI Latin America regional assembly, which gathered URI members from 11 countries in Iguaçu Falls (between Brazil and Argentina), Charles met Isabel Ramos, a gifted copla singer from Cordoba, Argentina.
“When Isabel first saw me, a white, male Christian, she ran weeping and screaming from the room. I represented the devil that aimed to destroy Indigenous cultures and the people who lived them.”
Isabel was persuaded to return the following morning and have a conversation with Charles. He listened to Isabel’s stories of suffering and loss of culture and home. “She was the teacher. I was the student,” Charles writes. “Her tears drew out mine.”
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