Costume Research

Our costume designer, Sara Ossana, has forwarded us her research regarding the costumes for our production. She is looking to anchor the piece with a unit costume modeled after the concept of the Campesino(a) - this represents the peasant / farmer / working class in Central and South America. There are still large populations of Campesinos across Latin America and it is a fairly universal identity throughout those regions. You will find people who identify as Campesinos or Campesinas from Mexico to Peru and Colombia; they tend to come from the "mountains" or more rural regions of these countries but they are really everywhere. As these are the peasants or working class, many of these people are closer descendants of the indigenous cultures throughout Latin America. They also tend to have darker complexions and fall towards the "Indian" end of the mestizo spectrum. There is racism in Latin America, typically the darker the skin (more Indian) the more marginalized the person. This is still very strong even today.

The overall look of the Campesino has not changed much for the past 100 years. They are characterized by a cotton or a cotton blend shirt and pants, although jeans have become affordable enough that they sometimes replace the typical cotton pant. There is also a signature hat, although the silhouette varies depending on the country. In Mexico, El Salvador etc., the hat is more of a traditional "cowboy" hat; as you move further south it is a variation on a fedora with a very small brim. The hats are worn by both men and women.

They also wear either work boots or more traditionally a huarache or sandal, typically made using old tires for the sole and leather strapping tied around the ankle. This footwear was made famous by the Tarahumara who run 200 mile races in handmade huaraches.

Other implements that a Campesino would carry are a bule, which is a dried gourd used as a canteen with a leather strap tied around the neck. Contemporary Campesinos would also always have a machete on hand. 

All of these images range from the 1980's to now, all over South and Central America also. Sara thinks about using the Campesino as a unit or base costume with possibly a mixture of hat styles for the actors, representing the different regions. The actors will all have a cotton shirt and pants, ideally in a light tan color with huarache sandals or some type of sandal; possibly the women could apply their skirt as an apron when playing Yerma or Medea. We would introduce the elements of the "conquest" - "soldier" or occupier - and "original" Aztec or Mayan Warriors and other strong indigenous and historical symbols and iconography through the use of silhouettes and signature pieces or strong singular gesture pieces. 

For example, for the Spanish Conquistador, we could construct a simple silhouette piece that gestures towards the shape of the conquistador helmet and is identifiable but not a "real" helmet; or an Incan or Aztec head dress but out of a simple material, not realistic yet suggestive, relying primarily on silhouette; or simply boots to represent the modern "soldier". 

These pieces can either be worn by an actor or held in place by one actor for another, like a prop-costume or a full scale human puppet costume piece, relieving the need for individual fit and allowing for use by multiple people without the need for any quick changes. The nurse would be in a typical, generic nurse uniform and the driver could be in a slight variation of the Campesino silhouette to distinguish him. 

submitted by Sara Ossana

Día de la Pachamama

August 1st is the day of Pachamama, the mother of the Earth. Alejandra submitted the following images as possible inspiration for our poster. The first three are interpretations of the Pachamama motif, specifically the painting El Abrazo de Amor del Universo by Frida Kahlo (1949):

The last image is a poster design by Isidro Ferrer for Centro Dramático Nacional:

Harvest: Rituals and Performance

In August, there are a number of festivals throughout Latin America celebrating harvest time and, especially in the Andes, Pachamama. Here is a video showing the central ritual concerning Pachamame, the Challa or Pago, which means "payment", in which the earth is offered food and drink:

Similarly, the Fiesta del Maíz is about giving thanks for the harvest season and asking God to bless it. It is a time when the community gathers to give thanks together. The festival is also held to preserve, promote, and protect the culture of corn. Various dishes made from corn are prepared for the corn festival; even a special drink, called chicha, is made from corn.  

This video clip shows the procession in the El Salvador town Suchitoto, which is famous for its Fiesta del Maíz:

Inspired by these festivals, artists Jesusa Rodriguez and Liliana Felipe have developed a theatrical ritual based on pre-Hispanic, Mesoamerican aesthetics. This image is from their piece El Maíz:

As Alejandra has pointed out to us, the victims of the genocide are most of the times either indigenous people or farmers and peasants living in small towns. Thus, we are striving to incorporate  daily life objects into our design aesthetic that are coming from their own craft industry like pottery, ceramics, textiles, and also the corn industry, as they are also used, for example, in the performances by Ana Correa. The specific quality of a culture being based on remnants is also beautifully shown in this painting by Julian Schnabel, called St. Francis in Ecstacy:

Satirically combining these two lines of thought, the 2011 Colombian film Todos tus muertos (All Your Dead Ones), written and directed by Carlos Moreno, shows how the dead remain amongst the living as the living refuse to take care of them.

submitted by Alejandra

Paintings from El Salvador

The following images - in all their distinctness and their amplitude - by artists from El Salvador have been inspiring our creative team in drafting the design outlook for Yermedea and are helping us to negotiate the visual realm of the play and our production. The first paintings are by the artist Ernesto Martir:

The next paintings are by Adolfo Payés:

The following paintings are by Carlos Cañas:

This selection is by the artist Alex Sánchez, better known as El Aleph:

The last painting is by Edmundo Otoniel Mejía:

submitted by Alejandra

Máquina Hamlet

An excerpt from the 1995 production of Heiner Müller's Hamletmachine by the Argentine group El Periférico de Objetos. You can read a review of a performance for BAM in 2000 here.

submitted by Alejandra

El Salvador II

Rosa, one of the interviewed women, photographed for the project Mujeres de la Guerra

Mujeres de la Guerra, Historias de El Salvador (Women of the War, Stories of El Salvador) is an inspiring project by Lyn McCracken and Tedde Simon, which documents the lives, stories, and work of twenty-eight women leaders in El Salvador. Through a documentary film, photography exhibits in both the US and El Salvador, and a photo essay book, they hope to provide these women with the opportunity to tell their inspiring stories and share their hope, wisdom, and dedication with the world as these women now work for peace and justice in El Salvador, which in many cases began with the repression and injustice caused by the Salvadoran civil war. On their public funding site, Lyn and Tedde talk about the women they interviewed:

"The Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992) claimed the lives of over 75,000 innocent civilians. An additional 8,000 Salvadorans disappeared. Many thousands of families were forced to abandon their homes and flee from horrific violence, the majority of which was carried out by US-backed military and death squads. 

Before the war, these very young women saw the need to organize with their communities in defense of their rights. As the repression and violence worsened, some women helped their communities and families to flee, to refugee camps or the remote mountains. Others joined the insurgent guerilla forces, as cooks, as medics, in radio communications, in press and propaganda, and taking up arms to fight for their rights. 

The women tell stories about losing their homes, their family members, the scorched earth campaigns – losing crops, livestock, food and livelihood – the massacres, the repression. Fleeing with their children into the mountains, suffering from hunger, fear and tropical storms. 

Their stories are painful, hard to hear.

At the same time, the war was a school for many of them, a place where they learned to read, write, and find their voice. Today, these women organize their communities to create opportunities for everyone, to work for access to basic rights, to empower women and teach young people. Their courage, resilience, and perseverance, their hope in a better tomorrow, their ability to “seguir adelante,” continue forward in even the darkest of times, are deeply inspiring."

One of these women, Maria Yolanda Garcia Vigil, and her story is featured on the Voices from El Salvador blog, which directed our attention to this project in the first place. The story Yolanda tells is unbelievably brutal at times:

"My grandmother was hung. They hung my grandma. And they shot her. She was buried by my mom, more or less, on the spot. And my mom, too. They found her with eight kids in a house. My mom was tied up, all her teeth were broken from being kicked, she was blindfolded and beaten. They tried to kill her by beating her."

While Yolanda shares her story and her memories, it also becomes clear that her focus in doing so is the future and the improvement of the situation for women in El Salvador but also on a global level:

"These are real things, these aren’t things from a movie, but things that we have lived. And things that haven’t been easy. Our struggle has been of a lot of sacrifice, of blood, of so many martyrs that have given their lives in this history. We will construct our future together. The problems that we face in our country aren’t just here; the crisis is on the global level. And everywhere, even in the United States, there are people that are organized and fighting against injustice."

You can read Yolanda's complete story here. Please also watch this fantastic teaser for the documentary film and help Lyn and Tedde reach their goal if you are so inclined.

Also very moving in their simplicity and tenderness are the songs from the time of the war sung by Marina, which Lyn and Tedde captured for the project. In this song, Marina sings about a mother who has to tell her four children that their father is dead. “He fought for the people that he loved,” she tells them. Listen to the entire song, and others sung by Marina on vimeo.