Fes! Cultura Podcast with María José Pizarro
A conversation back and forth between Colombia and Barcelona about the right to tell one’s own story and migration as an opportunity.
In 2009, during her exile in Barcelona, María José Pizarro developed the exhibition “Ya vuelvo. Carlos Pizarro, Memoria para la paz”, inaugurated at Casa Amèrica Catalunya. For her, this project became a reunion with her father after 18 years of absence: an exercise in memory, reparation, and dialogue that marked her debut as a curator and cultural manager in the diaspora.
Years later, she starred in and co-produced the documentary “Pizarro” (2015, dir. Simón Hernández), which reconstructs her father’s life through her intimate perspective. It was a personal journey to reconcile with his legacy, understand the causes of his assassination in 1990, and recover a chapter silenced by violence and fear.
These two experiences, conceived and produced in the Poble Sec neighborhood of Barcelona, had a significant impact in Colombia. They led María José to join Bogotá’s Secretariat of Culture, the National Center for Historical Memory, and to begin her political trajectory as a Member of the House of Representatives and later as Senator of the Republic — a position she currently holds.
In this conversation with María José, we will explore how these cultural initiatives were conceived and the meaning they have held both in her life and in Colombia’s recent history: the right to one’s own narrative, the power of art to transform the personal into the collective, and memory as a tool for reparation. We will also reflect on the role of migrant cultural changemakers — a Colombia that exists beyond its borders, yet continues to act as a driving force for transformation.
- Guest: María José Pizarro
- Host: Diego Salazar
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Format: Conversational
- Date: Thursday, January 15, 2026 / 7:00 pm
- Venue: Sala Oasys. Passatge de Sant Antoni Abat, 2. Barcelona
The Fes! Cultura Podcast is a space for conversation and reflection where artists, creators, and cultural practitioners share how, through their creative practice, they are generating transformations in their lives, communities, and territories. From a diverse and committed perspective, the podcast highlights experiences that connect art and social change, showing how culture can be a tool to imagine and build more just, sustainable, and plural futures.
In collaboration with Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació and Sala Oasys Barcelona.
Cover photo: Gustavo Aguado
