La Trocha

•

La Trocha is a Craft Beer brand born thanks to the peace agreement signed in 2016 in Colombia between the government and the FARC guerrilla, that aimed to put an end to a conflict that had plagued the country with death and human rights violations for decades. The agreement stipulates not only a bilateral ceasefire, the delivery of arms, an agrarian reform, the reparation of the victims of the conflict and the possibility of participating in politics, but also the reintegration of the members of the guerrilla group to civil life. To achieve the latter, the government provided aids that would allow ex-combatants to start new lives through study and entrepreneurship, and La Trocha is one of the projects that came to life when the war ended.

Trocha in Spanish means narrow path open through the undergrowth. The name was chosen out of familiarity with the concept and the analogy it provided for the idea of breaking through and creating their own path towards peace. Inspired by revolutionary Mexican posters, Bogotá-based typographic studio Bastarda used linoleum printing to create a highly visible and custom wordmark with a strong and feisty character. The slogan “tomando el camino de la paz”, in Spanish, acts as a double entendre, meaning “drinking one’s way to peace” and “taking the way to peace”.

The work around the illustrations had Colombian photographer Jesús Abad as inspiration. In his work El Testigo (The Witness), he portrays the aftermath of the war in Colombia and shows what some of the places that have suffered from the conflict look like today. One of those places is Bojayá, a small town that 17 years ago, experienced one of the most horrible massacres in the country’s history. During confrontation between paramilitary forces and the FARC guerrilla, a grenade went into the church where defenseless civilians were taking refuge. 79 people died and at least 100 others were injured. Today, however, life continues to grow in a place where so many lifes were once taken away. Inspired by how life now thrives in Bojayá, we created a set of colorful illustrations depicting some of Colombia’s wild flora growing in places where war (represented by elements such as a rifle, a boot and a communist cap) died.

The yellow butterflies that appear in certain places are a nod to 100 Years of Solitude, the novel of Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, that tells the story of the people of Macondo, a fictional town that, like Colombia, has suffered countless tragedies over time and yet, life and hope have always managed to prevail.