Globalization and Development Communication (GDC) student Emma Restrepo never thought about leaving Colombia until she had no other option.
Restrepo graduated from Colombian school Pontifical Xavierian University in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in social communication for development. Following that, she worked for UNICEF, Colombian president Ernesto Samper, and the Colombian Ministry of National Education, to name just a few high-level positions.
Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC), a guerilla paramilitary group, started growing in size and danger. Formed in 1964 by a mere 48 members, it grew to around 10,000 in the early 1990s.
Restrepo was working on the communication policy team at for the office of the Colombian president. A friend who was also part of the team was murdered for trying to protect land from the paramilitary. Her friend’s husband was also killed.
“Things started to become hard for many people,” Restrepo said. “I was constantly changing from house to house, moving from different apartments.”
FARC and other groups called phone numbers of Colombian citizens, and many people could easily become enemies of these groups for not talking their ideology on the calls.
She left for Spain to wait for the conflict to settle down, but after returning, she moved again, this time to London. Again, she moved back to Colombia, but it was this return that made her realize a hard truth.
It was never going to calm down in Colombia.
“It was not possible at the end,” she said.
President Andrés Pastrana Arango (1998-2002) attempted to broker deals with FARC and other paramilitary groups, which Restrepo viewed as overwhelmingly disappointing. These groups were accused of committing atrocities such as hijacking aircrafts and violently attacking towns and cities, and with many people believing Arango to have taken bribes to go easy on them. He became overwhelmingly unpopular.
One day, Restrepo had had enough. She fled Colombia for the third and final time.
“When I left my country,” she said, “there was a little bit of resentment.”
Restrepo didn’t intend to live in the United States, even though she had a visa to do so. She tried to cross the Canadian border but was caught and had to go back to the United States. She asked for asylum in the United States and was granted it.
Years later, she is appreciative of her fate.
“I’m so truly grateful to this country. I love this country, I love these people. I feel like it’s my country now,” she said.
After first settling down in New Jersey, Restrepo came to Philadelphia to write for the Impacto Latino Newspaper in 2006. Since seeing an advertisement for the job in a newspaper, she’s remained involved in the Latino media scene. Today, she hosts multiple radio shows, including the DosPuntosEmma Program at WPPM 106.5FM Independent Radio. She taught Spanish at Temple University for a year in 2014 in addition to her ongoing studies at Klein College of Media and Communication.
After a long stretch of chaos in her home country, FARC gave up its weapons in 2017. Restrepo returned to Colombia in 2018 for the first time since leaving over a decade ago.
She said Klein College has helped her fulfill a dream. In her GDC program, Restrepo has taken classes in solutions journalism, public information campaigns, and citizens media.
Restrepo received a Klein College Latino Initiative fellowship, which was established in 2018 to “help align the college’s mission with the region’s rapidly growing Latino population and its impact on Philadelphia’s cultural landscape,” according to Dr. Patrick Murphy, the associate dean for research and graduate studies.
Klein College has undertaken initiatives to recruit more Latino students, strengthen ties to the Spanish community, and feature more Latino speakers in its speaker series.
“Emma Restrepo is a leader in the Spanish-language media market,” Murphy said, “and she came to us with an interest in the Globalization and Development Communication program. Given that we have this Latino initiative funding from the provost’s office, we were delighted to have the opportunity to support her.”
“We couldn’t have asked for a better candidate for these funds,” he added.
Because Restrepo is a returning student, she is classmates with students from two younger generations. She said the generational gap has helped her gain a broader understanding of younger students’ interests. When she finally graduates with her master’s degree, Restrepo said she will be in “a kind of mourning stage.”
“It has been beautiful to come back to school after 25 years,” she said. “I always say I’m the oldest student, but I am the happiest.”
Originally published at Klein.Temple.edu