Rebel on cause

“I was a rebel without a cause.” These are the strong words that best describes the strong-willed children and women rights ambassador Luz Marina. Born in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city and the hub of all political, economic and cultural life of the country fifty years ago, Luz knew that she was born for a purpose. At a tender age, she abandoned her parents and worked hard on her own, working towards a worthy cause of defending children and the rights of women in general.

Working as a real estate agent and a professional lawyer, just like her father, Luz’s great sense of humour is evident. “I live with my young 85-year old dad who is an intellectual and spends all day reading his big bookcase at home,” she says.

Born in a family of six with three brothers and three sisters, and a mother of one daughter, Luz now lives with her father after things fell apart with her marriage. “My mother died four years ago after ailing for five years. That was the time I suffered a broken marriage too,” she recounts.

But now she says she is strong, re strategizing on how best to fight the battle of liberating and empowering women and children in her country. With her daughter as her greatest strength, her ideal world is that free from violence and discrimination, a world where women and children have equal access to knowledge and information, a world free from poverty, full of love, peace and happiness. She believes that armed with journalism as her weapon, her dreams of justice and equality will come to fruition.

“If I am given a chance to live for the second time, I would like to be a singer like Edith Piaf, Mercedes Sosa or a great writer like Isabel Allende,” says she. Posing as pacific, Luz is glad that she stays in the capital that offers great opportunities for her to advance her dream.