There is a crack in modernity that lets religion and thomism breathe in Merier’s work. ¿Do we find this conception in Mrg Carrasquilla's work ? The literature has not examined that particular point and I suggest that it is highly important to develop it if we want to advance in this discussion. For that reason the objectives of this research are:

One of the most difficult tasks when we observe this period in colombina’s history is to examine Mgr Carrasquilla’s role in colombian modernization. Depending on our sources, Colombian thomism was a backward conceptual framework that hindered the country or we were on the forefront of neo thomistic and scientific catholic intellectuals. It is important to promote this discussion because it entails our history and our place in the world. However, there are multiple barriers to this effort.

I suggest that this discussion has stagnated because of three reasons. First, one of the main texts about the topic has not been published. Oscar Saldarriaga spent 10 years and more of three thousand pages in his Phd dissertation about neo thomism in Colombia and lovaine. This text is essential but it has just circulated in small groups. Second, there are misconceptions about neo-thomism and Mercier’s conceptualizations. The literature has not carefully examined Mercier’s work. For that reason, there are plenty of speculations about what neo-thomism was in Europe and those scholars have unfairly compared MgR carrasquilla to marxist elaboration of the same period.

One of the key figures to understand this period is Mgr Carrasquilla (1857-1930). He was dean of one of the most important universities of the country, Universidad del Rosario, and main intellectual figure in this period. As Oscar Saldarriaga pointed out, Mgr Carrasquilla based many of the political ideas of colombian and framed the intellectual landscape. His work and ideas tried to implement Pope Leo’s XIII reforms and he was a great admirer of Cardinal Mercier work.

Recently, I have saved some money and bought some basic equipment to create a more elaborate work. My aim is to be able to create multi-sensorial experiences that help understand ideas or concepts and to explore the complex relation between form, content and research. Your Film studio program is an unique opportunity for me to delve into the conceptualization about video-essay. I look forward to sharing my unique viewpoint, and at the same time learning from other team members in such a way that everyone can have an enhanced experience.

These reflections have led me to try to explore video-essay and I have developed a particular project that I have attached at the end of this letter. That project was an ethnography about Colombian traditional markets that tried to show how sounds, smells, colours and flavours are more important in those spaces than in western grocery stores. In order to make that project I took 4 months of fieldwork and some interviews. With that information I created a video-essay using my father’s telephone, because I didn't have money for basic equipment. Fortunately, that project has been well received, it has presented in 2 art exhibitions, 3 conferences and 1 workshop around 5 different countries.

Video-Essay becomes an important opportunity to go beyond traditional research. Formally, it lets us challenge some naive forms of understanding texts and form. Academic papers are usually presented as “neutral” media to show “objective” ideas. In contrast, essays allow a more playful and conscious relation to the form.

However, Colombia universities have recently started to compete in international rankings. As a result, the necessity of productivity that is implied in the notion of ” publishing or perishing” has considerably diminished the creativity in research and has imposed a “ Paper dictatorship” For that reason, I have looked for forms to express my ideas influenced by old Social Scientists in the region and I am looking to step aside from traditional academic logic.

These studies open the opportunity to rework on what modernity and development mean and they allow us to close some gaps between local processes on the worlds’ peripheries and western realities. In other words, It might let us explore how some colombian grandmother “superstitions “ are as modern as a surrealist poem or a thermometer and for that reason if we approach those neglected realities we can resignify what it means to be modern.