Youthicide and practices of resistance/re-existence in Medellín (Colombia) and Mendoza (Argentina)

Abstract

This article is the result of a joint reflection carried out in Argentina and Colombia involving a qualitative study on the stories behind the founding of four youth organizations. The study collects the testimonies of young people living in popular sectors about their experiences of social vulnerability. With the goal of constructing regional perspectives through situated research, we coordinated our findings regarding youth community processes that emerged as responses to youthicide and the precariousness of life in Comuna 13 in Medellín (Colombia) and in two popular neighborhoods in Mendoza (Argentina). These youth organizations generate participatory spaces for young people, build collective territorial, generational and class-based identities and propose new meanings that challenge hegemonic visions of these populations.