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Wednesday 15 June 2011
Sunday 12 June 2011
La Paz / El Alto
Following the guys of La Tropilla theatre we end up travelling in La Paz, and there collaborate with
Freddy and Andrea and El Alto theatre.
Their theatre is questioning on the problems of actual Bolivia, abut the curroption of the politician, the machism,
the mediocrity of the higher class, the slaveship of the poorest people, but always without forget to make
the audience smile, such as life, with up and down, laughs and cries.
4 years ago in the mine town of Huanuni exploded a proper war caused by the collapse of a huge mine, thanks to a lack of safety measures. Facing the disaster and the people that died in the mine, the underpaid miners began to fight against the company.
Mine company that paid paramilitary, mercenaries to shoot on the miners, that replied with dynamite, destroying the entire mine.
The repercussion followed in the town, as a proper civil war.
After the episode in Huanuni nobody wants to come back to work in the mine, and begun times of pessimism, depression, alchoolism and drugs addiction, never happend before. Freddy pushed by people from Huanuni decide to open a theatre workshop,
creating a play based on those dark days, and as actors people that really fight at the mine. Something change, at least on the minds: the withnesses of those troubled days seen themselves on the stage, and realizing that is possible looking forward, to rebuild what is lost.
We spent lot of time with Freddy, one day we went to El Alto to visit the fair.
El Alto, where the name of Andrea and Freddy's theatre company comes from is the youngest city of Bolivia,
infact the main street is named on the honour of pope John Paul II, thet died not so long time ago.
It is the city with the fastest growing population of the world, the name El Alto means "The High One", with an altitude of 4000mt.
El Alto has a breathstopping view on the entire La Paz, Mount Illimani and the Andean highlands.
Admiring the view, our attention stopped on a white puppet hanged on a post. Freddy explain us that the puppet is an allert for thieves, showing them how it can be their possible death. In fact thanks to the lack of police, here exhist a community law, where the people
are following a personal justice, most of the cases ending up with the death of the thief.
El Alto also is a place of revolutions and manifestations. Travelling in Bolivia we realize that is full of railways, but with no trains.
When thy privitized the national railway company and bought by a Chilean one, they absurdly increase the ticket price, to much for a Bolivian to afford it. For this reasons in El Alto the population exhausted made huge manifestations, ended up occuping the railway and piling up all the coaches, one on the top of another one, as a totem.
There's a lot suspestition in Bolivia, where most of the time the catholic Mary is mixed up with Pachamama, mother nature.
In La Paz you can buy fetus of lama, which are offert to the Pachamama. Before building a house you suppose to dig one fetus in every corner, otherwise the builders refuse even to start the construction. But if the buiding is massive, such a skyscraper or a bridge, the lamas are not enough, so the choice fall on the first poor drunkyard found on the street, unless the building company has to face a stubborn strike.
Freddy and Andrea and El Alto theatre.
Their theatre is questioning on the problems of actual Bolivia, abut the curroption of the politician, the machism,
the mediocrity of the higher class, the slaveship of the poorest people, but always without forget to make
the audience smile, such as life, with up and down, laughs and cries.
4 years ago in the mine town of Huanuni exploded a proper war caused by the collapse of a huge mine, thanks to a lack of safety measures. Facing the disaster and the people that died in the mine, the underpaid miners began to fight against the company.
Mine company that paid paramilitary, mercenaries to shoot on the miners, that replied with dynamite, destroying the entire mine.
The repercussion followed in the town, as a proper civil war.
After the episode in Huanuni nobody wants to come back to work in the mine, and begun times of pessimism, depression, alchoolism and drugs addiction, never happend before. Freddy pushed by people from Huanuni decide to open a theatre workshop,
creating a play based on those dark days, and as actors people that really fight at the mine. Something change, at least on the minds: the withnesses of those troubled days seen themselves on the stage, and realizing that is possible looking forward, to rebuild what is lost.
We spent lot of time with Freddy, one day we went to El Alto to visit the fair.
El Alto, where the name of Andrea and Freddy's theatre company comes from is the youngest city of Bolivia,
infact the main street is named on the honour of pope John Paul II, thet died not so long time ago.
It is the city with the fastest growing population of the world, the name El Alto means "The High One", with an altitude of 4000mt.
El Alto has a breathstopping view on the entire La Paz, Mount Illimani and the Andean highlands.
Admiring the view, our attention stopped on a white puppet hanged on a post. Freddy explain us that the puppet is an allert for thieves, showing them how it can be their possible death. In fact thanks to the lack of police, here exhist a community law, where the people
are following a personal justice, most of the cases ending up with the death of the thief.
El Alto also is a place of revolutions and manifestations. Travelling in Bolivia we realize that is full of railways, but with no trains.
When thy privitized the national railway company and bought by a Chilean one, they absurdly increase the ticket price, to much for a Bolivian to afford it. For this reasons in El Alto the population exhausted made huge manifestations, ended up occuping the railway and piling up all the coaches, one on the top of another one, as a totem.
There's a lot suspestition in Bolivia, where most of the time the catholic Mary is mixed up with Pachamama, mother nature.
In La Paz you can buy fetus of lama, which are offert to the Pachamama. Before building a house you suppose to dig one fetus in every corner, otherwise the builders refuse even to start the construction. But if the buiding is massive, such a skyscraper or a bridge, the lamas are not enough, so the choice fall on the first poor drunkyard found on the street, unless the building company has to face a stubborn strike.
Isla del Sol
The first step of our Bolivian mission is Isla del Sol in Titicaca lake, working with La Tropilla theatre,
Ulises, Julian and Luciano, three actors that decides to perform across Latin America.They are Argentinian but theatrically adopted by Bolivia and Teatro De Los Andes.Their play is "The Cyclop", written by Cesar Brie, taken from the classical greek tragedy, but projected around nowday Bolivia. The island of the Cyclope, not anymore surrounded by the ancient waters of Mediterranean Sea,but situated up on the highest lake of the world.We're been guested by the family of Don Alfonso and his wife Alicia, part of the Aymara communityof Challapampa, which is the largest village of the island. The life of the island is slow, the mimical expressions of the donkey and the pig, sleeping next to each other, gives us the idea of how is a usual day here,where years and the months are divided by the seasons and the agricolture times.One day Don Alfonso wake up everyone around 4:30 am to look at the sun rising behind the mountains.Here the clouds are kissing the lake, it was surprising that one of the most magic island is situated in a lake.We follow the theatre company in a school and in the village, the reaction of the kids and the adults,for the first time audience of a theatre play is speachless, watching all the children running to the backstageto check what happend to the dying Cyclope.
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