By: Derick Zhang

In Colombia, where there is a new vice president and the very first Afro-Colombian vice president in office, had an Afrocentric dress as her design that has represented her past and present. She has been fighting for less poverty, a horror she had to face herself. She has also been fighting for a better environment and represents millions of people in Colombia. The person in question is Francia Marquiz and her designer also has quite a story to tell.

Francia Marquiz has born in poverty, a common thing in Colombia. In fact, in Colombia 40 percent of households live on less than $100 a month and it has grown since the covid pandemic. She stayed in poverty until she went to a law school, and it changed her life. She was earning a living and then she won what’s called the environmental Nobel. She has gone from rags to riches, and she has done it as on Afro-Colombian. The population of Afro-Colombian is only 6 to 9 percent of the entire population of the country and have faced racism, but she was a big contributor in the fight against Afro-Colombian racism.

Francia Marquiz chose a designer for the premier fashion event because he too wanted to show his Afro-Colombian identity like her. This person is Esteban Sinisterra Paz who is still in college but has already started his mini empire. He started when he was 5, after he was forcefully displaced and was taught has to sew by his aunt and grandmother. He wanted to study fashion in college, but his dad refused and made him enter college as a social work student. So, he taught himself, finding inspiration from other designers and making his own brand and selling his items over the internet. All of his clothes are what he said represented his people and when Marquiz saw this, she knew that he could help her show who she, and other people like her, really were. This caused a fashion boom in Afro-centric clothing in the recent fashion event in Colombia.