Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo

Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo - Estefania Romero

I first heard about Las Abuelas (or madres) de la Plaza de Mayo from Professor Popescu in my first year writting seminar called Social Justice Warriors of the Americas. Conversation about this topic started while we were reading Kiss of The Spider Woman by Manuel Puig. I remember Prof. Popescu talking about her experience working with the grandmothers and the mothers, and how much rehearsing these people had to do before going to the Plaza de Mayo. These discussions helped reinforce my ideas about the role performance plays in social justice and social change movements.

In my first post I talked about "Un Violador en tu Camino," a performance that happened in Chile. I talked about the time it takes for the participant to learn and rehearse the chant and the choreography. These readings and videos reminded me of this and I thought it was a great opportunity to talk about it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB7r6hdo3W4&t=136s

The video "Institcional Abuelas 2016" mentioned how the dictatorship treated children as objects instead of beings deserving of human rights. In my class with Prof. Popescu I remember having a conversation about women having to "play the role" of the hurt and defeated mother. Similarly, in my Intro to GSWS we talk about stereotypes and how many times people conform to them as an act of rebellion or to use it as a weapon. Thinking about las abuelas (or madres), and the way they conform to gender roles to use them as a weapon to help their movement makes sense to me. This does not mean that they do not care or that they are putting on a show just because, it actually means that they care enough to perform.

Comments

Politics and Theatrics

This post will focus on the correlations between politics and theater. Augusto Boal makes it a point to highlight how theater is political which makes me question: is politics is theater? Boal believes that by nature humans are political and since theater is a result of human activities it too is political. Politics and theater tend to portray different messages to society. For example, theater is not generally taken as seriously by people in society while politics is taken very seriously and impacts all people. Elections, voting, and media portrayals are all outlets in which politics is performed. If politics is a form of theater, then politicians would be the ones performing the theatrics. During the 2020 presidential debates between Donald Trump and President Biden, many people tuned in to hear out the political perspectives hashed out in real time. Eventually, as the debate continued the audience quickly realized that it was turning into a political spectacle based on ho...

Las Hijas de Violencia and Pussy Riot - Bella Blog Post #3

One thing that stuck with me from this week's reading was Las Hijas de Violencia. It reminded me of the forum theatre we did on Wednesday. More specifically, the power of confrontation against the oppressor. I think a lot of the time, they(oppressors) don't expect such a reaction which gives the oppressed a sort of power. I also think the use of the confetti gun instead of a violent weapon. In this way, the oppressed doesn’t become the oppressor through gaining their freedom. Then the addition of the song adds another element of surprise. The use of punk amplifies the harasser looking ridiculous as mentioned. They're bringing active energy to the problem of street harassment. I think their movement works because it makes noise and not just audibly. The article mentions taking inspiration from Pussy Riot. They are a Russian feminist protest and performance group that performs guerilla gigs of punk rock music in public places. They wear neon balaclavas and acid-bright tigh...

El Teatro Campesino - Will Blog 2

Yolanda Broyles-González's article "El Teatro Campesino and the Mexican Popular Performance Tradition" looks at the development and significance of the El Teatro Campesino theater company founded in the 1960s to support the United Farm Workers movement. Broyles-González argues that El Teatro Campesino draws on a long history of Mexican popular performance traditions like carnival and religious pageantry, as well as European avant-garde theater techniques. She examines how El Teatro Campesino's performances incorporated elements of these traditions, such as satire, physical comedy, and music, to engage audiences and create a sense of community. Broyles-González also explores how the theater company's performances challenged dominant cultural narratives and offered a vision of social change that centered the experiences and struggles of Chicano farm workers. A quote that resonated with me was that "the real language of African theatre is to be found in the stru...

Performance for Social Change

Search This Blog