{"id":1385,"date":"2012-04-15T18:31:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T18:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/?p=1385"},"modified":"2018-08-17T21:59:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T01:59:55","slug":"aluna-under-a-full-moon-in-bogota-es","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/blog\/aluna-under-a-full-moon-in-bogota-es\/","title":{"rendered":"Aluna under a full moon in Bogot\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our opening in Bogot\u00e1 was a magical and charged evening. \u00a0For our first show at 5pm, our audience was composed of the mothers, daughters, wives and grandchildren of several targeted groups such as the survivors of the\u00a0Union Patriotica<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Falso Positivos<\/strong>\u00a0(False Positives).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This was not planned – just before we go on stage, the festival organizers asked me if we would mind if these groups came in to see the show. \u00a0They didn\u2019t have any money to pay for the tickets. \u00a0There were also concerns about how so many children would behave during the performance.<\/p>\n

We were honoured to have them be part of our first ever international performance of\u00a0Nohayquiensepa<\/em>, a piece that questions our relationship to the death of strangers and how we react in the face of human rights violations in places far away from \u201chome\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0We wanted them to see the show no matter what. \u00a0It was also a reminder that many people there and in our own Toronto can\u2019t see theatre because they simply can\u2019t afford it. \u00a0Secondly, Patricia Ariza taught us a long time ago that the best audiences for young works are children, as they are completely honest in their response. \u00a0She often has an invited audience of children before she opens a new work.<\/p>\n

The significance and our relationship to these groups went beyond \u201cbums on seats\u201d, an expression that usually makes me cringe anyway. \u00a0Many even in Colombia do not know who these victims are. \u00a0Here is a short list:<\/p>\n

The Union Patriotica<\/strong>\u00a0or UP was a leftist political party founded by the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party in 1985, as part of the peace negotiations that the guerrillas held with the Conservative Party and its leader Belisario Betancur. \u00a0This was an unprecedented move in Colombia and a time of hope. \u00a0Peace had a chance. \u00a0Then drug lords, paramilitaries, and military agents led a campaign of violence against the UP massacring more than four thousand leaders of the party, and initiating more decades of atrocious human rights violations.<\/p>\n

False Positives:<\/strong>\u00a0the army\u2019s extrajudicial killing of civilians who are later presented as guerrillas to increase the battle count. \u00a0Yet another atrocity against humanity and the Colombian people committed during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe. Soldiers and officers were offered vacations, promotions, and trips abroad as a reward for high quotas of rebels eliminated. \u00a0This scandal broke in 2008, and since then approximately 2,600 \u2018false positive\u2019 cases have been reported. \u00a0A number of army officers and soldiers have been brought to trail. \u00a0Many of those killed were of course poor people who were promised jobs by these murderers only to end in mass graves. For the recruiters, each victim was worth about $300.<\/p>\n

Back in Bogot\u00e1, as the play is about to begin, the performers (myself among them) are behind a screen. \u00a0I can hear the youngsters, the bustling crowd. \u00a0Then it all goes silent – and remains like that for the entirety of the performance, except for those moments of comic relief in\u00a0Nohayquiensepa<\/em>, where we are reminded of the beauty and resilience of the people who have endured violence but continue to fight for peace.<\/p>\n

As the curtain falls the audience rises to its feet. \u00a0What an emotional moment, and such a special one for an artist! \u00a0As Patricia introduced Aluna and the play to the audience she also reminded everyone that\u00a0The Festival de Mujeres en Escena por La Paz<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was not a \u201cwindow shopping\u201d festival; an event about egos, but a gathering of artists and audiences; an opportunity to reflect on the work with other invited artists, and a chance to experience the real impact of the work on our society at large. \u00a0Always thinking about the possibility for change.<\/p>\n

Working in our studio in anticipation of the festival, we could not all see beyond the artistic anxiety of presenting a new work. \u00a0In the weeks before we flew to Colombia we began to introduce our investigations of the impact of Canadian mining interests\u00a0in Colombia into the show. \u00a0What we learned blew our minds – not only for the scale of negative impact that common mining practices have on the environment, but also its connection to violence, displacement, and human rights violations at the hand of third party \u2018security\u2019 forces.<\/p>\n

Foreign interest and investment in Colombia has been a major factor in the violence and human rights violations committed throughout the modern history of the country. \u00a0Nohayquiensepa\u00a0attempts to bring some awareness of our own responsibility as Canadians for this violence. \u00a0Our foreign investments have the potential to affect many people around the world for better or worse. \u00a0We need to know what happens far away from home and how we are directly connected to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our opening in Bogot\u00e1 was a magical and charged evening. \u00a0For our first show at 5pm, our audience was composed of the mothers, daughters, wives and grandchildren of several targeted …<\/p>\n

Read “Aluna under a full moon in Bogot\u00e1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5676,"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions\/5676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alunatheatre.ca\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}