Description
This paper discusses the themes of debilitation and disablement in relation to the ocular injuries inflicted by the riot police upon protesters during the Colombian National Strike of 2021, a two-month long streak of protests set against the backdrop of Colombia’s transitional process and a wave of social upheavals in Latin America. First, I use the notions of “debilitation” (Puar, 2017) and “slow death” (Berlant, 2007) to discuss drawn-out forms of harm, both material and discursive, that long pre-date and follow the moment of injury, and whose effects reach beyond individual bodies (Clark, 2019; Sharma, 2021). Second, I consider the ocular injury in terms of disability politics: despite the visual impairments that often result from ocular injuries, survivors do not always reclaim disability as an identity due to its perceived associations with vulnerability and trauma, among other factors (Ben-Moshe, 2018; Erevelles, 2011; Puar, 2017, 2021). Third, I address the affective significance of injured eyes, given the rich symbolism attached to vision (including themes of witnessing and recognition), as well as the visibility of the ocular wound as an enduring mark of participation in protest, and one that has been reclaimed as a symbol of resistance by survivors’ groups and activists (Misri, 2019).
