San Germán is located on the Eastern Hills in the periphery of South East Bogotá. The Entre Nubes reserve delimits the northern part of the neighborhood. Fragile and essential species like Espeletias, a water filtering plant, are found in this tundra ecosystem. San Germán had a demographic explosion in 2016 when Arley, the barrio’s social leader arrived. He began to offer pieces of land to people in need and/or displaced by the armed conflict. In August 2018, 270 houses were counted inside the neighborhood. Before that, there were only around fifteen houses in the area.
Luis Alberto and Andrea Suárez. 21 and 24 years old respectively. They have a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl together. Luis Alberto is the son of Hermes, one of the oldest settlers in the neighborhood. Hermes is social leader in the barrio and member of the community board, which governs the neighborhood in response to the absence of the government.
Members of the community board use walkie talkies and a megaphone to diffuse important information, to announce meetings, and work and cleaning sessions inside the neighborhood. Construction is a constant in San German. On weekends, members of the neighborhood gather to fix and construct the territory. In response to the absence of common areas in the neighborhood, its members decided to build a house to promote social and cultural activities. This project is being developed with the help of independent urbanism collectives that have been working in the neighborhood since 2018.
Lizet and Karen Daniela are cousins and are both 10 years old. Their families were displaced from Barbacoas, Nariño by armed groups. Every Sunday, Karen Daniela and her brother get dressed up and go to a Christian mass. Karen Daniela's father was murdered in May 2019 by his brother in law inside the neighborhood. Her aunt, brother, and cousin have all fled back to the Pacific Coast.
Jerinson, 30 years old. He is an ex-military from Puerto Córdoba. In 2017, while he was living in Puerto Córdoba, he stepped on an exposed electric cable walking back home at night. He lives with his partner and two kids in San Germán since June 2017. He is unemployed and receives a monthly pension from the army which is the household's only income.
Esmeralda Aramburo Cangá, 31 years old. In 2005, 11 of her cousins were killed in the "Punta del Este" massacre in her hometown in Buenaventura. According to Esmeralda, she denounced the drug trafficker behind the murders. The authorities were bribed by the drug trafficker and revealed that she filed the complaint. Due to this, she had to flee to Bogotá, leaving her five children in the care of relatives. In 2013 she went to visit her family and soon found out that men in Buenaventura were looking for her and Arley, the neighborhood's social leader, to kill them. At that moment they decided to flee and took a bus from Tunja to Bogotá, starting a life from scratch together with only ten thousand pesos (3 UDS) in their pockets.
Construction is a constant in San German. On weekends, members of the neighborhood gather to fix and construct the territory. In response to the absence of common areas in the neighborhood, its members decided to build a space to promote social and cultural activities. This project has been financed by the money urbanism collectives that work with the community since 2018 and by a Caribbean Party hosted by this project.