Man, I got hit with this random question today – who the hell is Mariana Carvajal? Seriously, never heard that name before. Got curious so I grabbed my laptop around coffee time. First thing I did was type her name straight into Google like anybody else would.
What popped up made zero sense at first. Page after page in Spanish! My high school Spanish is rustier than my bike chain. Google Translate became my best friend right then. Started copying chunks of text into it, cussing every time the translation came out janky. Took me like fifteen minutes just to figure out she was Colombian.
Kept digging through articles that looked legit. Realized she was some badass feminist leader from the 70s. Like, pioneering-level stuff for Colombia. Then I hit paydirt – found her old foundation’s digital archives. Started piecing together her life:
- Grew up poor as dirt in Cali, still made it through law school
- Crashed through political glass ceilings before women even had the right to vote there
- Got death threats for defending rape victims – and didn’t back down
- Her org STILL runs domestic violence shelters 40 years later
By lunch I was hooked. Ordered tacos while scrolling through grainy protest photos of this tiny woman shouting into megaphones. Most articles buried how she actually balanced this crusade with raising three kids alone after her husband bounced. That detail hit different – had to include it.
Started writing around 2PM. Kept stopping to double-check facts, especially dates. Wrote it like I was telling my neighbor over the fence – simple words, no fancy jargon. Put in the “fast facts” part cause let’s be real, people scroll. Highlighted the death threats in bold – she earned that emphasis.
Finished around sunset. Did one last fact-check pass while eating leftover pizza. Honestly? Didn’t expect to get emotionally invested in some random Colombian activist this Tuesday. Her foundation’s still changing lives – that’s the real headline. Felt good hitting publish.
