Award-winning
Colombian composer and filmmaker spent over a decade researching the facts
about Agua de Dios, a small town in Colombia used as a concentration camp to
confine dissidents and deprive them of their civil rights and possessions.
At a time when leprosy was considered a divine
punishment, Agua de Dios was created by the Catholic Church and the government
to imprison people who were considered to have leprosy, even when they were
healthy.
Leprosy became an excuse to persecute
dissidents and to force them to live in isolation in Agua de Dios, the
leprosarium where “patients” were supposed to be treated and taken care of. The
purpose of the site, however, was to oppress people.
The victims of Agua de Dios became prisoners
for the rest of their life.
Torture, rape and malnutrition became part of
this traumatizing place, which was established in 1871. It was closed in 1963,
when the Colombian government finally passed a law abolishing the forced
isolation of people.
Julian De La Chica’s God's Punishment is
a historical novel based on real life events; De La Chica interviewed several
people before he crafted the novel. In the story we read Leonardo’s words, a
writer who gets paid to make a documentary about leprosy in Agua de Dios.
Leonardo explores the life of Luis Antonio, an enigmatic man who
had spent the first years of his childhood in the San Ignacio orphanage in
Spain. Luis Antonio is eighty-five years old, and a letter from a priest opens
up the path to the secrets of Luis’s past, which are related to Agua de Dios.
Amid the
darkness of his life, Luis finds a refuge in music.
The bridge
shown on the book cover is the Bridge of the Sighs over the Bogota River. This
was the bridge that had to be crossed to reach Agua de Dios.
Here’s a
trailer of the novel. The melancholy and mystery carried in Luis’s words entice
us to read the novel and learn about his story.
The novel
explores an ominous aspect of Colombian history, and I think the merit of the
novel is the unearthing of the human rights violations and the stories of
suffering and injustice that have been neglected for so long to sanitize the
reputation of the Church.
The book helps to understand how the Church
was complicit in the dire situation of Agua de Dios. It is an example of how
religion can be used as a tool to curtail people’s freedom and serve the greed
of dictators.
Even though I empathized with Luis when he spent time in the orphanage, I could not connect emotionally with any of the characters in God’s Punishment. I also found that the female characters in the novel are stereotypical. They are limited to being helpers or appendages of men. Yet the novel kept me on tenterhooks and offered a number of twists and surprises that responded to the intrigue and suspense sparked at the beginning of the story.
Distressing scenes are expected in a book that
portrays life in a concentration camp, so be aware of this when you approach “God’s
Punishment”.
Julian De La
Chica did an incredible job in recounting the historical details of human rights
violations in Colombia. The author clearly exposed the consequences of the
abuse of power by the government and the Church. Both worked together to
oppress people by taking advantage of the citizens’ prejudices and ignorance.
I
received a copy of the book from the publisher to write an honest review.
If you
enjoyed this post, you may also like reading my writing on the book On Account of darkness.
