![Captive: 2,147 Days of Terror in the Colombian Jungle](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
![Captive: 2,147 Days of Terror in the Colombian Jungle](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
Paperback(Original)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
After more than two years of captivity deep in the Colombian jungle, surrounded by jaguars, snakes, and tarantulas, miles from any town or hospital, Clara Rojas prepared to give birth in a muddy tent surrounded by heavily armed guerrillas. Her captors promised that a doctor would be brought to the camp to help her. But when Rojas went into labor and began to suffer complications, the only person on hand was a guerrilla wielding a kitchen knife. The guerrillas drugged Rojas with anesthetic while one of them slit open her abdomen. Her son, Emmanuel, was born by amateur cesarean section in April 2004. His survival was miraculous, but her joy was soon cut short when the FARC took him from her when he was only eight months old. For the next three years, Clara was given no information about him, but her desire to one day see him again kept her alive. In early 2008, Clara was finally liberated and reunited with her son—to whom this book is dedicated.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781439156957 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Atria Books |
Publication date: | 05/25/2010 |
Edition description: | Original |
Pages: | 243 |
Product dimensions: | 5.72(w) x 8.58(h) x 0.64(d) |
About the Author
Translator:
Adriana V. López is the founding editor of Críticas, Publishers Weekly's sister magazine devoted to the Spanish-language publishing world. She is the co-editor of Barcelona Noir, a short story collection for Akashic Books, as well as the editor of Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles and Other Quinceañera Stories (HarperCollins, 2007). Lopez's work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications and book anthologies. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Juicy Mangoes (Simon & Schuster, 2007), Border-Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass & Cultural Shifting (HarperCollins, 2004), and Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (Seal Press, 2002). López is a member of PEN America and currently divides her time between New York and Madrid.
Read an Excerpt
1
Dispatched from Freedom
JULY 22, 2008
It’s been almost six months now that I have been free, and it still feels like it’s all a dream. Early each morning, I awake to the sound of birds chirping all around me. I live in Bogotá’s savanna, where the air is crisp and I can take in the mountain scenery from my window. There isn’t a morning that goes by that I don’t thank God I’m still alive. It’s the first thing I do upon opening my eyes. Yes, to thank the blessing that’s reunited me with my mother, with my son, Emmanuel, with my family and friends, and with all those who I love most. I am grateful to finally be able to leave it all behind. The kidnapping, the captivity—that’s all in the past. Now that my life is back to normal, with the affection and company of my loved ones, it’s strange to recall that not so long ago, when I was rotting away in the jungle, I could have felt so alone. So utterly forgotten.
Many have asked if I’ve changed since the kidnapping; if I’m still the same Clara that I always was. I tell them yes, that for the most part, I’m still the same person—but with a scar on my stomach now, and a profound mark made on the way I think and feel about things, which I can only hope will fade with time. Sometimes I’m assaulted by feelings of sadness, but, luckily, I have Emmanuel at my side for comfort. As is expected, I would have preferred that the Colombian guerrilla organization known as the FARC hadn’t robbed me of six years of my life. But I’m alive and here to tell the tale. Each person will recount what the war was like from his or her perspective. I’m just another soldier. And this is my story.
These words come from the depths of my heart, and I write this for many reasons. First, I’ve always dreamed of writing a book. I’ve written various academic and professional works, but this is a chance to bare my soul in the world of letters, a field that I’ve always adored. I’m also inspired to write a memoir so that it remains for my son and those of his generation. Because I long to be part of a country that prioritizes reconciliation, forgiveness, tolerance, growth, and peace. Lastly, I want to share my experience with readers and have them understand the difficulties I suffered and overcame, so that perhaps while reading this book, a seed of hope and longing will be planted in their hearts.
© 2009 PLON
Table of Contents
1 Dispatched from Freedom 1
2 My Mother 3
3 The Day Before the Kidnapping 7
4 The Day 15
5 The Day After 33
6 The Jungle 39
7 Night 49
8 The Guerrillas 53
9 A Sense of Decency 61
10 Friendship 63
11 Escape 67
12 The Unraveling of a Friendship 79
13 Solitude 83
14 Fasting 89
15 Faith 93
16 Doubt and Anxiety 101
17 Pastimes 115
18 Motherhood 123
19 Emmanuel 135
20 With a Baby in the Camp 153
21 The Trek 163
22 Christmas 173
23 The Long Separation 177
24 Waiting 183
25 Murmurs of Freedom 191
26 On the Road to Freedom 199
27 Operation Emmanuel 209
28 The Reunion 221
29 Readaptation 233
30 Time Lost 237
31 Forgiveness 239
32 A New Tomorrow 241
Acknowledgments 243