PILOT PROJECTS - CHIAPAS MEXICO 2013
Children in San Cristobal de las Casas
Workshop given to children from the city and from indigenous communities in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. It was interesting to see that their origins did not matter or posed a challenge. Even when they came from different contexts, families, even a different language or dialects. We achieved to generate a sense of community, of sharing and working together, despite the differences, the focus was always on what was being created.
We thus made a Pilot Project in San Cristóbal de las Casas –a town in the state of Chiapas– in Mexico. We decided to bring the elements of a mask making workshop with corporal expression movements to people of the town. We made a workshop for kids with no home and kids from the town. This resulted in a very interesting blend between two extreme social classes that where mixed together and where able to share and see each other as individual human beings, without thinking of a social range, having fun, and enjoying the workshop. It was inspirational finding out that every kid is full of energy and joy and has a lot of imagination to create and express what they like and want. Sometimes we think that kids with no home are unhappy but the truth is they don’t have the same things people with money do, but that doesn’t stop them from enjoying what they have. In the words of Lorena: “This is something that I learned and made our eyes more humble and reflecting that we should be graceful for what we have, and share things with others”. These are also the lessons we can learn from these workshops, raising awareness in the participants and the public.
Women in San Cristobal de las Casas
Workshop given in San Cristobal de Las Casas to a community of women living in a hospice, giving courses in meditation, drawing, history of masks and construction.
We carried out another workshop with elder women in a shelter which were experiencing loneliness, facing abandonment from their relatives or other people that considered them a burden and left them. This workshop had more mature results and made us realize the deep need they have to express themselves, their loneliness, need for love, and willingness to share and give love to others.
This project was called “Las magas de San Cristóbal” (The magic women of San Cristóbal). These magical women exist, full of hope and faith, they wake up every day searching for happiness. They live unobserved and they want their freedom. Laura Navarro and Lorena Trigos went last summer to give a mask making and performance workshop, and try to make them express themselves by creating a character, or expressing whatever they needed in a mask.
