Vol. xxix #2

June, 2008

-- Eduardo Núñez Negrete

...when the jaguar roars, the undergrowth trembles, as if that roar came from the deepest and most intricate belly of time.
-- López Moreno

It is said that the heirs of the great revolutions are always more radical than their inspiration. I don't know why, but I know a little about the history of the Jesuits in Honduras, and it is clear that history is the work of men who were forged and formed to fight against injustice. teatro la fragua is the dream made reality of one man, it is the voice of an oppressed people, it is the altar where men and women who have been formed into great actors offer their hearts, it is a jaguar who struggles to maintain the force of its roar, it is the place where I have left forever a fundamental part of my heart.

As an anthropologist I have learned that the greatest treasure of a people are its culture and traditions. In our day the monster of imperialism contaminates and tries to destroy the roots of all the Latin American peoples. Our own society is corrupted by violence and unemployment, by governments that pay no attention to education and culture: these are realities we all share but which few recognize and there are only a few who stand up against the lumbering capitalist giant.

In the face of the extreme poverty and violence in which they live daily, there are some who have chosen the way of armed resistence; but there are others who have chosen another way that is perhaps more difficult, for that is a constant battle over many years, a battle whose weapons are rhetoric and acting. These are teatro la fragua and Padre Jack Warner, who has labored almost thirty year to form consciousness in a place thirsting for it, who has formed various generations of great actors, but most importantly, who has made of them a great family.

And that is the great family that received us in Honduras. The first day, two persons whom I now call brothers met us at the airport to take us to El Progreso: Esteban Canales and his cousin German, from whom I learned a lot; I believe that every person who arrives from different parts of this world to the teatro of padre Jack Warner, discovers the richness of possibilities of the theatre as a fundamental arm of defense against a globalized world, which has forgotten that theatre which does not want to be a cortesan of hte moneyed; and they discover as well and shares the warmth of a group of persons of noble heart.

If you get the chance to live it together with them, you can become part of their constant labour in the teatro; mi friend and companion Adriana and myself discovered this in our experience with them: you can feel the presence of a Latinamerican Grotowski. I wish I were capable of describing all that which can only be felt and lived; but surely my words are inadequate to communicate to you what is was like to be at the side of living legends, beginning with Padre Jack Warner, Edy Barahona, José Ramón Inestroza, Rigoberto Fernández, Esteban Canales, Julissa Reyes, Tony Díaz, y Gimena Cartagena. Por un pequeño instante de tiempo me dieron la oportunidad de revivir nuevamente la magia y la mística de estar sobre un escenario.

Combativeness in Christ is not an occasional thing, it is His way of being; He doesn't want his followers to be lukewarm but bold. Not coldly stoic, but warm in their generous love, simple and strong: the kind of people we find in teatro la fragua, warriors of that combative spirit of Christ.

The times when men could be mollified with promises of the afterlife are history. The reclaim as an unalienable right the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Honduras has lived through and continues suffering hard times.

One of the signs that the responsible conscience of artists in general is not sufficiently active is the fact that in these hard times which many peoples are going through, the majority of artists are silent in the face of the persecutions of the reigning powers; no one speaks a word of opposition. The people of Progreso in Honduras have a voice which is raised in these hours, with the courage to protest the activities of tyrany. It is the same voice that rescues the roots and traditions of a people trying to define and consolidade their identity. Dear Reader, I invite you to discover the Honduran Stories, the tales of two brigands know as Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit, the tale of the origen of corn, which features a stubborn but sympathetic Elder and Nompuinapu'u, the young god who is the owner of corn, and you will understand a small corner of an elaborate work.

For primitive peoples, masks have first of all a magical function: they convert the user into a new being who brings into being whatever it desires. The actors of la fragua have a set of living masks which take over their whole body, and enables them to create in the empty space of the stage a new creation. The actors use the elemental media of their bodies to narrate and bring to life not only to characters but to a whole world: earth, air, fire and water take form through their bodies.

Words and actions should unite people, not divide them. Perhaps a song or a story is useless for changing the course of a river; perhaps art will never be the perfect shot that ends the life of a tyrant; perhaps the theatre has no hope of clothing and feeding the poor. But in coming to know teatro la fragua I am now sure that art, a song or story or theatre itself is food for the soul, which gives life and strength to those who have least.

You can't change the course of a river, but perhaps after the tempest of a hurricane, you can win a smile from a child.

Dear teatro la fragua, never lose the force of you roar. Many thanks to all: in you midst I stopped being a Mexican and became your Latin American brother.

-- Eduardo Núñez Negrete

(Eduardo Núñez Negrete is an anthropologist who resides in Mexico City).