El árbol de Matías

Matias, my 6-year-old son, has been arguing with his best friend about politics. He tells me this on the way to the polling station.Matías tells me that he would like to vote YES in the plebiscite for the peace agreement with the FARC-EP guerrillas, because the war killed his great-grandfather. We never met him. We traveled to our father's hometown, Chaparral, with my father and one of his sisters. Memories, a happy childhood in the countryside as a hard-working and humble peasant family. Peace ends when the war catches up with them.They flee the farm. And one day, my grandfather Daniel is killed in front of his son Jose (11 years old by then). Drawings of fear and horror. How to tell a child what war is? how unjust it is. After my grandfather's death, the family had to separate and everyone had to look for a new life, leaving their village behind. The women worked as house maids. The brothers got ahead with a lot of determination, had their children and gave them what they could. Only Libardo, my father, went to school. He was two years old when my grandfather was killed, so he has no memory of him. Guns have attracted some of the men in the family. Two of my cousins went to jail for murder. One of them was killed in October 2016.Four years ago, my cousin's son was wounded in combat by the paramilitaries, who recruited him when he was only 15 years old. Now he is also the father of two children. What kind of life will he want for them? The attraction of children and adolescents to guns is everywhere. Revenge for the loss of a family member, hunger for recognition or just to be part of something easily leads them down that path. I would like my son, or any son, to understand that guns only bring pain and loss. May the paths not be repeated. Like my father, who managed to build a different life. Thanks to that, my brother and I have had a different life. That is the hope that can illuminate my son's life, and that of all the children in Colombia.