"The Last Commander of the Quintines" and "The Right to Exist"

Film screening and discussion with the director

The Last Commander of the Quintines

Over the centuries, indigenous resistance in Cauca, Colombia, has taken many forms. In the 1980s, one of these was the Movimiento Armado Quintín Lame (Quintín Lame Armed Movement). It was the first indigenous guerrilla group in Latin America, formed by local communities to resist the growing violence facing the emerging indigenous movement in Cauca. This documentary tells their story. For director Eliseth Peña, the film is also a search for her own history: her father was the last commander of the Quintines. Twenty-five years after laying down arms, they decided to tell the story of their past—an odyssey that continues to this day, marked by distance from their homeland and confrontation with societal prejudices, where racism and denial of rights perpetuate displacement.

The Right to Exist

In 1991, under pressure from social movements and guerrilla groups, Colombia began drafting a new constitution, and for the first time, the country’s indigenous communities were represented. They fought tirelessly for this inclusion. In the Constituent Assembly, they secured recognition as equal citizens after centuries of disenfranchisement, as well as guarantees for collective territories, self-governance, and autonomous societal structures. Colombia formally acknowledged its ethnic and cultural diversity. Using archival material and eyewitness accounts, the documentary traces how Colombia’s indigenous communities proposed a political alternative for the country based on their struggles. It also asks what happened when these constitutional rights met a society still dominated by racism, violence, and a profit-driven oligarchy. What can be concluded 30 years later?

Director

Eliseth Peña is an indigenous Nasa woman from Cauca, Colombia. She works as a journalist, archivist, researcher, and documentary filmmaker, focusing on the history and struggles of indigenous communities in Cauca.