The Laden River: Ignacio Piedrahita’s Geological Stories of the Magdalena River

The Magdalena River, considered the backbone of Colombia, carries a multitude of material stories through its waters. Ignacio Piedrahita’s work, particularly in his travel diary Grávido río (2019) and the essay La verdad de los ríos (2020), emphasizes the Magdalena not only as a geological agent that shapes the Earth’s surface through erosion and sediment deposition, but also as a product of human intervention. This perspective not only revalues the river as an active force in Colombia’s reality – its agency and interconnectedness –, but also suggests, as Piedrahita does, the importance of the stories that the Magdalena tell us in the post-peace agreement context. In this regard, the river geological stories become a key element in reimagining social and environmental relations in Colombia.