Worksheet 2

Assisted Asynchronous Class

Friday, June 25, 2021

5. Comuna 13 in Medellin, Colombia 

I. Match the vocabulary word to its definition and then find them in the text below.

1. Slums  2. Settlements 3. Displaced 4. Smuggling 

5. Weaponry  6. Presumed 7. Escalators 8. Embedded

A. Firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass; implanted. 8

B. The illegal movement of goods into or out of a country. 4

C. Suppose that something is the case on the basis of probability. 6

D. A moving staircase consisting of an endlessly circulating belt of steps driven by a motor. 7

E. A dirty and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people. 1

F. A person who is forced to leave their home country because of war or persecution; a refugee. 3

G. A place, typically uninhabited, where people establish a community. 2

H. Firearms, guns, artillery regarded collectively. 5

II. Read the following article below: “Comuna 13 in Medellin: History and Present” and identify
the main ideas of the history of Comuna 13. 

COMUNA 13 IN MEDELLIN: HISTORY AND PRESENT

    Medellin is divided into 16 communes and all of the 250 neighborhoods are part of one of these
comunas (in Spanish). Therefore, comunas are not only the slums or the vulnerable neighborhoods
that many people think of as part of the stereotypical view of this beautiful city.

     Within what is now Comuna 13 there used to be a village but in the late 1800’s, it was later
changed to a neighborhood of Medellin called La America. It was full of big farms devoted to
agricultural production since the altitude would be very appropriate to grow many types of fruits
and vegetables. However, the usage of the land changed dramatically  after 1946 when a housing
cooperative transformed a big farm into a residential sector.During the 60’s and 70’s, many illegal
settlements developed in the surrounding areas, when many people sold their lands to new settlers
coming from many different Colombian cities looking for jobs in the prosperous economy. Another
big immigration wave came in the late 70’s and beginning of the 80’s. This time it displaced people
escaping from the conflict in rural areas of Antioquia. More than 1,500 families settled in Comuna
13 and founded it. 
 Comuna 13 is a place that from it’s foundation has been poorly managed by the local
government and it has been historically occupied by immigrants. These victims were forced to leave
their homes and live in this unknown new neighborhood with no skills apart from farming and
construction knowledge. They were discriminated against by the older settlers and saw them as
“invaders”, which disrupted the integration in the entire Comuna 13. All these displacement victims
with no jobs, living in poorly self-constructed houses of wood and aluminum materials, taking water
from contaminated streams and stealing electricity, were absolutely vulnerable to offers from gangs
involved in smuggling and trafficking drugs.
From the late 80’s and beginning of the 90’s Paramilitaries, FARC and ELN were disputing
the control of the area since this territory is strategically located as a way to take out cocaine and
take in weaponry. Moreover, these illegal groups would also control the communities by acting as
judges responsible for settling disputes, deciding who would live and die, who would be a thief and
who should be paid back for being a victim. The expansion of these illegal armies got out of control
to the extent that it became a national problem. Since the wars among all of them were leaving
many murders every day, it was literally a battlefield for more than a year; the second most
dangerous area in the world.
It was not until 2002 when the president of Colombia decided to intervene in Comuna 13
along with the support and encouragement of the then Mayor of Medellin. As a result 10 military
operations were implemented in 2002. It is presumed that the Colombian police and army
partnered with the paramilitaries to wipe out the guerrillas from Comuna 13. Since the
paramilitaries  were helping the Army to fight against guerrillas, they got total control of Comuna 13
and a new kind of silent war started.
For the next 2 years paramilitaries were illegally judging and putting many people on trial;
those who would be found guilty or supposedly helping the guerrillas would be usually condemned
to death.Therefore from 2003 to 2004 (when paramilitaries demobilized) more than 200 people
mysteriously disappeared and allegedly buried in garbage dumps.
During the following years Comuna 13 lived in relative peace since there were not any official
paramilitaries or guerrillas. However many dissident gangs took control of the territory and are in
charge (even today) of all kinds of illegal activities like trafficking, smuggling, extortions and
homicides.
In 2006, as a compensation for many decades of neglecting Comuna 13, the elected mayor
decided to invest a huge amount of money to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants and in
2008 a new cable car line was built to integrate this Comuna with other surrounding communities. 
Moreover, in 2011 the first electrical escalators for social purposes constructed in the world
were finished in Comuna 13. This structure cost around 3,5 million dollars and was built to save
more than 350 stairs in a very steep hill in the neighborhood. These escalators allow people to climb
384 mts in only 6 minutes instead of what used to be a torturous climb of 25
minutes.                                                            
As a side effect of this project and along with the street art also increasing in the comuna,
tourists started to visit the place to see the transformation, to understand the meaning of the
beautiful graffiti murals and take a ride in the famous electrical escalators in Comuna 13. 
Even though this project has helped the community greatly, the most valuable asset in this
place is definitely its people. Welcoming, warm, cheerful, happy are all adjectives that perfectly fit
for them. Proud of what they have been through, of what they learned of what they are and have
become. Their desire that people shout out loud that their history changed, that their misfortune
was left behind, and now their reality is that  their quality of life has improved a lot and that they
feel thankful to God and the previous Medellin mayors. 
And this is how comuna 13 currently looks: walls with beautiful mural graffiti, small houses
embedded in the hill painted with happiness, with lovely gardens that remind you that you are in
the city of the flowers. What if all these projects would have been made 20 years ago? Would the
conflict have ever happened?

Adapted from: https://medellindaytrips.com/comuna-13-in-medellin-history-and-present/

Make a list of the main ideas:

1. Commune 13 was formed from events of immigration and state abandonment, resulting in violence, gang
formation and drug trafficking.

2. With the end of paramilitarism, commune 13 allowed itself to remain in peace for a time, obtaining
intervention from the mayor's office to improve its infrastructure, which has given cultural and historical value
to this area.

3. The most striking thing about commune 13 are the people who live there, characterized by being friendly and
happy with all visitors.

6. Grammar: Would for past tense.

III. Look at the following sentences: 

1. In Comuna 13, there used to be a village but in the late 1800’s, it was later changed to a neighborhood.

1. Moreover, these illegal groups would also control the communities by acting as judges responsible for
settling disputes.

1. Comuna 13 didn’t use to be safe in the late 80s and 90s.

1. Those who would help the guerrillas often got killed.

1. These escalators allow people to climb 384 mts in only 6 minutes instead of what used to be a torturous
climb of 25 minutes.

1. Did Comuna 13 use to have graffiti in the past? I don’t know, but it does now.

Based on your observations, think about the following question: 

In what kind of contexts are used to and would for past tense used?
Your answer: the "would and the used to" are used when you want to refer to actions
that were carried out in the past and that have an importance even in the present.
IV. Check what you learned: Decide whether the statement is true or false.
 STATEMENT TRU FALS
E E

When the phrase would is used, the infinitive form is also used. x

Used to and would are used when referring to repeated past actions or events. x

Would can refer to past states. x

Would is usually used in the negative or question form to describe a past action. x

V. Practice: Complete the following sentences with used to or would based on

what you learned above.

1. I loved going to my grandmother because she ______WOULD__________ cook amazing dishes every time
we visited her.

2. There ______USED TO ________ be so many people in the streets but now there is barely anyone.

3. When we had a serious argument, Simon and I ______WOULDN’T______ talk to each other for weeks.

4. I _____USED TO SHARE_______ (share) an apartment with a friend, but then I moved out. I have my own
place now.

5. My parents ___WOULD TRAVEL______ (travel) to other countries when they were young, but now they
___ GO____ (go) to places that are nearby.

7.Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil  

VI. Match the vocabulary word to its definition and then find them in the text below.

1. Itinerant 2. Sanitation 3. Alleviation 4. Illiteracy

5.Hub 6. Eviction 7. Infamous 8. Bulletproof vest

A. The inability to read or write.

B. The effective center of an activity, region, or network.

C. The action or process of making suffering, deficiency, or a problem less severe.

D. A personal armor designed to resist the penetration of bullets.

E. Well known for some bad quality or deed.

F. Traveling from place to place.

G. The action of expelling someone, especially a tenant, from a property; expulsion.

H. Conditions relating to public health: provision of clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal.
ANSWERS

1 F
2 H
3 C
4 A
5 B
6 G
7 E
8 D

VII. Read the following article “Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Past and Present” and compare
and contrast Favelas to a similar suburban area in your hometown.

Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Past and Present

  The history of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro begins in the final years of the nineteenth century
as Brazil transitioned from an empire to a republic. As the nation continued to undergo dramatic
political changes throughout the course of the twentieth century, the slums of its second-largest
city grew in size and number, in turn experiencing significant changes of their own. 
  Initially, these communities were loosely incorporated solid settlements that originated
organically in order to house internal migrants and itinerant workers. As they became more
numerous and increasingly populated, favela residents began to organize internally, forming
residents’ associations. Since the city and state governments failed to extend many public services
to the favelas, community members, led by their local associations, banded together to provide
sanitation, medical care, and transportation to their friends and neighbors.
Largely ignored by city and state government for much of the first half of the twentieth
century, the favelas began to attract political attention starting in the mid-1940s. During this
period, populist politicians ascended to power promising poverty alleviation and national
modernization. A central part of their program was providing modern, sanitary, public housing
units as an alternative to slums, which were thought to  produce not only disease, illiteracy, and
crime, but also moral corruption and political radicalism. 
In addition, the primary reason for the construction of public housing was clearly real estate
interests. Many favelas were located on precious inner city land in Rio’s most wealthy
neighborhoods, making them fertile territory for lucrative commercial and residential construction
developments. Yet because favela removal failed to address the root causes of Rio’s housing
shortage, the city’s favela population continued to grow steadily. As a result, government officials
eventually determined that eradication was not a viable solution to the favela problem, abandoning
it as an official policy in the late 1970s. 
As the Brazilian government gradually moved away from military rule and toward democracy
in the early 1980s, the country increasingly became an important hub in the international trade of
illicit drugs. By the middle of that decade, favela residents were no longer contending with eviction
and relocation, but had only traded that threat for another, that of drug violence and violent police
repression. Despite a national political recalibration from authoritarianism to democratic
governance, levels of violence skyrocketed to the point where Brazil has often been considered the
world’s most violent nation not in a state of war at that time. 
 Rio’s police force, infamous for using extreme force with near total impunity. The high rates
of police brutality and homicide statistics have concluded that Brazil is home to only a nominal
democracy in which certain citizens are systematically prevented from realizing their intrinsic
rights; to security and peaceful existence free from discrimination and arbitrary violence. 
However, in 2008, the government of Rio de Janeiro launched the Pacifying Police Units
program (UPP), a state-run operation to disarm the drug trade and reclaim the city’s favelas from
the gangs that had controlled them since the mid-1980s. Since then, the military police has
“pacified” nearly 100 communities through the establishment of 26 community policing bases. The
program has been quite popular, yet some instances of violence and corruption on the part of the
occupying police forces have attracted criticism. 
Changing local consciousness has proved more difficult than UPP planners envisioned, as
residents are reluctant to believe that the police are no longer the enemy. Many police officers are
aware that a permanent, armed police presence in these communities is difficult for many residents
to accept. UPP officer Eduardo da Silva teaches karate to teenagers and adults in Cidade de Deus
and as a gesture of goodwill, he doesn’t carry a gun or wear a bulletproof vest when he goes to
work. The program is far from perfect, but as long as project planners and the police ensure
meaningful collaboration with the  community, the program’s prospects for long-term success
appear quite promising.             
Adapted from: https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-9/favelas-in-rio-de-janeiro-past-and-present/

8. Modern subcultures

The history of African-American social dance

African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and
retain a sense of inner freedom. They remain an affirmation of identity and independence where communities
let loose and express themselves by dancing together.

VIII. Watch the following video The history of African-American social dance and answer the
questions below:
1. What are the characteristics that best describe social dance? 
dancing slapping thighs, shuffling feet, and clapping hands are characteristics that describe social
dance. In general, the fact of being a happy, spontaneous dance and not choreographed.
2. Social dance conveys emotion. Provide descriptions of how social dancers convey joy, despair,
connection, and defiance.
 Well, social dances convey all those feelings that once felt by people belonging to the exclavo
people in the United States. Social dance is deeply related to the beliefs and customs that the Afro-
American community developed for decades; expressed in an artistic way through their songs and
dances. For example, the cakewalk, a dance that represents the feeling of mockery of black slaves
towards their masters.
3. Social dance allows cultural traditions to be kept alive despite what is going on in the world. Why is
this important? Provide an example from this video.
This is important because it reminds us of who we are and where we come from, an example of the
video is when she talks about the typographic passes of the social dance, she mentions that
slapping the thighs and shuffling are symbols of the slavery that the Afro people for a long time.
Social dance, as the presenter says, is not only the art of dancing, it is a language, it is history and
cultural heritage.
4. Social dance can be empowering. Reflect on and discuss this statement.
Social dance can make people feel identified with the Afro-descendant culture, it creates strong
ties between people who do not share the same blood but do share the same sense and love for
ethnicity or culture. It is a special way to unite a people hurt by their past with their ancestral
traditions.

IX. Look at these photos and guess which products were invented by women.

Monopoly: Elizabeth Magie created The Landlord's Game to spread and teach about the economic theory.
Magie patented the board game in 1904 and self-published it in 1906. Nearly 30 years later, a man named
Charles Darrow rejiggered the board design and message and sold it to Parker Brothers as Monopoly. The
company bought Magie's patent for the original game for $500 and no royalties.

Liquid paper: In the days before the delete key, secretary Bette Nesmith Graham secretly used white tempera
paint to cover up her typing errors. She spent years perfecting the formula in her kitchen before patenting
Liquid Paper in 1958. Gillette bought her company in 1979 for $47.5 million. 

The circular saw: A weaver named Tabitha Babbitt was the first to suggest that lumber workers use a circular
saw instead of the two-man pit saw that only cuts when pulled forward. She made a prototype and attached it to
her spinning wheel in 1813. 
Submarine telescope and lamp: It's difficult to find any in-depth information about early inventor Sarah
Mather. Her combination telescope and lamp for submarines, patented in 1845, speaks for itself.

The solar house: In 1947, the Hungarian scientist and biophysicist Maria Telkes invented the thermoelectric
power generator to provide heat for Dover House, a wedge-shaped structure she conceived with architect
Eleanor Raymond. Telkes used Glauber's salt, the sodium salt of sulfuric acid, to store heat in preparation for
sunless days. 

Are you surprised that these inventions were from females? Why? Try to use the passive in your answer.

YOUR ANSWER:

Not really, the truth is that I have always considered women as an equal, when comparing them with
men. I feel that the great inventions that have emerged over the years have demonstrated the
intellectual power that humanity sustains in general, therefore, it is not necessary to discern between
genders to be able to define which invention is more surprising. I fully believe that women have the
same capabilities as men to carry out any job function. In conclusion, I am not surprised that women
were discovered by these inventions.