Art: alternative to mistrust and violence in Guatemala. #vvu

Theatre-maker Anouk de Bruijn (32) has been to Guatemala seven times since 1999. For the Treaty of Utrecht, she entered into an exchange project with the Guatemalan group Caja Lúdica. Together, they are committed to giving people a positive experience through art. Their project 'Hidden War' is about the lives of young people in Guatemala. 

Openness, positivity and creativity seem fairly normal principles in a theatre production. But if you live or have been in Guatemala, you do learn to put things into perspective. There is so much distrust, violence and fear there because of the civil war, but also because of the current political situation, that such a basis is completely new to many young people.

'Hidden War' will be a performance based on personal stories of four young people from Guatemala and four from Utrecht. The four young people from Utrecht have been to Guatemala for their internship, thesis or volunteer work. They exchange experiences about their lives and their country with four young people from Guatemala.

The title refers to the situation in the Latin American country. After the end of the civil war in 1996, it is now a democracy. Anouk de Bruijn narrates:

But that is just a word. There is a lot of violence and oppression. The show also deals with the hidden war within yourself. The search for meaning in your life. Why do you go to a country like Guatemala? You always walk the streets there with risk and fear.

 Birdless

She wondered this especially during the internship she did in Guatemala City in 2005:

I found it SO intense. You are so aware of death there. You are very vulnerable. There is enormous impunity there, so you are outlawed. Only 2 per cent of perpetrators are caught.

From the group Caja Lúdica, five people have been killed in the past three years. That violence combined with hunger and poverty, you feel it all the time. You can't walk the streets there after six o'clock. It's constant insecurity you feel.

She remembers all too well how, from a taxi, she saw two men kicking another man's ass.

But every time I come there, I still feel very much at home. It is a beautiful country and I like the way people interact with each other. That suits me.

 Conflict situations

The second time she visited, she saw a 'comparsa', a kind of parade with lots of music, dance and costumes, by Caja Lúdica. She was impressed by it, sought contact with the group and that meeting was the reason for her to study drama as a teacher in Utrecht. The theatre maker explains:

Caja Lúdica works according to a methodology that comes from Colombia. It focuses on conflict situations. In a country at war, how can you offer an alternative to violence and mistrust through art? They make sure people have fun and regain confidence in themselves and their surroundings. They make the young people they work with aware of the situation they are growing up in and how they can change it.

From Colombia, this form of 'social theatre' has gone to Guatemala. Young people there undergo training and then conduct their own workshops in their own neighbourhoods. The idea is that this way it spreads and creates a network in the neighbourhood. For me, it prompted me to become a theatre teacher. I wanted to work with people who don't easily come into contact with theatre and put drama in a social context.

Anouk de Bruijn did that in the Netherlands with a project in Cuijk, where she was born. Before that, she interviewed neighbourhood residents and based on those conversations she made a performance, in which the residents played themselves. She is now doing the same with the exchange project with Guatemala.

Trust

Caja Lúdica knows them well by now. She admires the company because young people really grow there and experience something positive.

Those young people, some as young as 16, are giving workshops in schools with so much confidence and joy and so much strength. Young people really become a part of Caja Lúdica and everything comes from within them. It has to, because there is no subsidy. Everything is their own initiative.

 Openness

The exchange for 'Hidden War' happens on several layers. First, in methodology.

I learn from Caja Lúdica how they engage young people. They work very expressively and collectively. I, on the other hand, make more small, personal portraits. It is very interesting to learn from each other in that.

It is also an exchange in stories. What is it like growing up there? And what is it like to live here?

What really touched me was the openness with which they talked to me about everything they have been through and the strength with which they work.

 Narcos

To understand young people, she visited neighbourhoods where they grew up.

We went to a girl's house. At one point she said, 'Now the camera has to go. This is the part of the narcos and here there are shootings every day.' They grow up in that.

That girl will come to the Netherlands in May and be in the performance 'Hidden War', which will be shown during the De Vrede van Utrecht festival on 20 and 21 June 2013.

 Continued

Before that happens, there is a lot to be done. Anouk de Bruijn is now processing all the interviews and is writing the play. For this, she is working with people from the De Rest foundation, who are her sounding board and are doing the dramaturgy.

Catalina, the co-director of Caja Lúdica, is coming to the Netherlands in October. Together, they will find a location where they want to play the show. They will also continue working on the concept.

In February, Anouk de Bruijn returns to Guatemala City to work with the Guatemalans. In May, the four actors will come to the Netherlands with Catalina and can work with their Dutch colleagues on the final result. And what that looks like, Anouk de Bruijn herself does not know at the moment.