Learning new skills was one of the most important activities of our life in the guerrillas, because it represented a personal and collective commitment and achievement. If someone learned something new, that benefited all of us. Andrés Mendez Ex-Farc guerrilla in Colombia.
FARC, abbreviation of Spanish Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
We had the opportunity to train in different areas such as politics, medicine, tailoring, philosophy and communications, among others. On this occasion, Andrés Mendez recalls his experience in a journalism or agitation and propaganda course, as he was known in the organization:
Andrés, tell me about the course you took.
The course I was in was a complicated course because on day one I was doing everyday life: late blight, the construction of the camp, the guard and it was after 6 that one was already vacated and could start studying . In order to study, you had to make some bunkers. They were made on the ground or they were made in plastic where no kind of light would come out because that represented a risk for one. It started after 6 until 1 or 2 in the morning. That depended on the commitment one had to learn. That course lasted about 4 or 5 months.
What did they teach them?
In that course they taught us writing, video editing, camera management, how to make magazines, banners, parades. Well, a little bit of everything. To learn we started with two computers, a camera and an audio recorder.
Did they start from scratch?
We especially start from scratch. It was slow learning, but what we set out to do was achieved. The person who taught us was very patient and very dedicated.
And who were the teachers?
The trainings were carried out by people who were guerrillas, but who had already been trained with professionals or volunteers who gave the courses to them, so they came and repeated or taught what they had learned.
Why do you think it was important to learn about communications at that time?
Because on many occasions there was no such possibility of showing ourselves, of showing that human part of ours because many times they said that the guerrillas were degenerate people, that they ate roots, well, they painted us as complete cannibals. 
So the idea was to gradually show what we really were. Sometimes formats were made where messages were sent to the community on important dates such as Christmas or Mother’s Day.
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