Vol. xxi #3
September, 2000
Class Enemies
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tlf news |
Vol. xxi #3 |
September, 2000 |
Class Enemies | |||
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[In October 1999, Jack Warner was in Mexico City for a congress of theatre schools. A friend invited him to get to know a theatre workshop in a high school in a marginal barrio of that massive city. He was expecting a typical high-school group. He discovered instead an extremely powerful work of poor urban youth expressing their frustrations and anger with the system that denies them an identity and a voice. We immediately started to go through the hurdles to get them to El Progreso, and in April 2000, Teatro La EME spent two weeks with teatro la fragua, presenting Class Enemy for the high-school students of El Progreso. The language of theatre became a medium of profound communication and expression between the youth of two distinct cultures, helping them to realize that the problems and hopes they have in common transcend political and cultural frontiers. At the end of that time each of the members of the Mexican group wrote down his/her impressions of the visit; what follows are some of those comments.] |
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A journey, a dream; to get to know, to share, to learn from others, from another culture: to widen your horizons and discover that in the midst of all the variety there are familiar, friendly places. Places where you feel at home because people are working the same way we work, with goals similar to ours. Places out of dreams, where you know that something marvellous awaits you; by working to fulfill your dream, you arrive at that island in the middle of the sea which inspires you to keep going along the road you have chosen without fear of what you are leaving behind. A beautiful island, la fragua; a marvellous word, El Progreso. --Miguel Ángel Ortiz |
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Fragua: Lose me in the oblivion of your lush green jungle, cut me down and toss me in the fire as part of you! Human beings who form a community by living and working together in a space of beauty and marvels. El Progreso made us brothers. --Asdruval Quetzal Barrera |
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A year and four months of growing in this work, with no more pretensions than doing theatre for our families and friends. Six months of dreaming of crossing political and mental frontiers. Thirteen days of fraternizing and living in solidarity among Americans (for we all live in the American continent): ticos, chilangos, catrachos, and gabachos, and all for theatre. The theatre taught me there is life beyond the street corner where I hung out and there are more flavors than beer. Now I have more street corners: the stage of la fragua, doña Martas corner, the spray of the Carib sea, the armpit of a carnal as a corner of refuge, the hem of the skirts of the Honduran girls. And more flavors: baleadas, guífiti, being welcomed, travelling, being surprised, identifying with others... Carajo, in a word, living! --Benjamín Palafox |
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Finally I've seen this dream come true, this dream that seemed so distant and difficult to attain, given all the circumstances and problems surrounding it and those which I myself was living. But the reality has gone beyond what I had imagined: the trip, the people and all the places I have come to know, as well as the great way weve been treated. The people of la fragua are something I hadnt seen in my dream, and they have been marvellous. I am sure that all I 've experienced here will change my life and that I will always remember it. Thanks to everyone who has been part of the dream. --Rubén Ayala Díaz |
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A dream can become reality. I know that now, although we tend to forget it with the passage of time. la fragua brings to completion one stage in my life. I have learned a lot from my companions and from all the persons who work with la fragua. I have become more conscious of my own faults and of what I have to do to improve myself: to study, to work and never to stop dreaming. la fragua means constancy, discipline and love for the theatre. Frontiers dont destroy my ideals; to the contrary, they enlarge them. --César Pitalúa Hernández |
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The day before we got on the bus we all felt a nervousness of I dont know exactly what kind; it was a bit of fear mixed with the anxiousness of moving into the unknown. During the trip I was trying to imagine what teatro la fragua and the people who make it up would be like. I now know that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity brimming with images I will never forget: the great way we were treated and the new things that fill our experience: "El chucho", "Mareros", "Maras", "Catracho", the stunning beaches, the immense sea at Tela, Caribs with their tradicional guífiti, the beautiful women of El Progreso, the sincere friends of teatro la fragua: these are memories that will stay in my heart and mind forever. I want you to know that my gratitude is much greater than anything these simple lines can express, and that the experiences youve opened us up to are priceless. I can only say, many thanks. --Daniel Cruz |
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This trip has proved to us that the boundaries between countries and between peoples only exist in the mind and the mind is all that gives them their reality. That people everywhere have dreams and virtues, that the least important thing is the country because in essence and in spirit we are all equal. After this I can believe that the frontiers between Mexico and Honduras, between Teatro La EME and la fragua have disappeared and we hope it will remain so. Weve learned that dreams can come true, that no dream is a dream and nothing more. Thanks to teatro la fragua for receiving us with open arms, for making us feel part of them and for sharing with us this great experience. ˇfragua! Each one of you goes with us, and in each one of you something of us is stamped forever; and we know that if we close our eyes we will be there unconditionally, in that space where the teatro welcomed us and united us. Truly you all now form part of each and every one of us. --Argelia Hernández y Janet Landín |
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One can't help but feel a certain anxiousness and fear of an unknown place full of strangers; but you have managed to erase that feeling so thoroughly that this place and these people have become my third family. Now as we ready our return I cant help but feel sad and once again anxious, because my life will change after this experience and I dont know exactly in what way. I have to confess that I am stealing something from each one of you. I hope this will be the end of a beautiful journey, but not the end of a beautiful, even if up to the moment short, friendship. --Itzel Martínez |
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El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras, has lit up my life. Travelling to another country to show our work has served a great deal to get to know the people with whom you come together to share the same stage and to understand what life is like in other arts of the world with different customs and culture. Thanks to la fragua I have lived my dream, I have reached beyond my previous possibilities. --Jaime Simón Cortés |
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fragua means future, change; La EME, the Mexican Mafia. Putting the two together you get the Mafia of Change. The one and the other form human beings, they mark them in a way that cant be forgotten. Im carrying with me a sunbeam from each of the places we have visited, the smiles of the people Ive encountered, the song of the sea in the darkness. Several days have passed and the stage is soaked with our presence, with the future and with the past. This has not been a trip, it has been a dream come true. --Nahin Sánchez García |
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Force of the soul that Robustly grows in El Progreso. Actively, harmoniously, continuously Gaining ground with passion, Union of lives, love, And friendship, generously shared. --Guillermo Navarro |
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