Volunteering with Canal Cultural

Teaching yoga in San Pedro has been awesome, but I wanted to find something more and also a chance to practice my Spanish. I've been so fortunate to work with a local art collective, Canal Cultural since we returned in January. I have really fallen in love with the artists, their work and the kids they teach.

Behold, los hombres y artistas:

Luis Yat

José Chavajay

Manuel Chavajay Moralez y su hija, Luna

René Dionisio

In addition to just hanging out, I volunteered with their first public project of the year: Taller de Niños (kids workshop), where every Saturday local kids can come to learn or just draw. Other goals were:
-give them a place and materials to create art

-teach techniques in drawing, painting and geometry

-assess different talents and interests of each child and encourage them

-create awareness in San Pedro of Canal Cultural as an art collective

-showcase the artists work as an open gallery to draw attention to passersby

Although there is a general lack of structure in the carrying out of the workshops (la manera Chapina), I think these goals were good and, for the most part, achieved. The older kids actually got some face time with Rene, who is an incredible artist with a lot of great technical skills. Hopefully he inspired some curiosity or interest in drawing so they will keep it up. Additionally, giving attention to older kids in San Pedro is more beneficial than to the young ones. When kids here finish high school, they have very few options.

If the family can afford it (and they don't already have a baby to support- this is rare) they might go to Xela or the city to continue their education. More often, though, they stay in town. Boys drive tuk tuks or sell drugs and girls stay at home and help their mothers make food and sell it. And if you already have a baby, then the boys start building a house on a plot of their parents' land for their new family, sometimes as young as 17 or 18. This should be taken as a general assumption. I've seen it in action many times, but as an extranjera I also know many families who are well-off and can educate their kids or support them to travel and pursue a passion. (And the kids will be taken care of while they're gone by the other 20 members of the family.)

So encouraging artistic talents of the 13-17 year-olds is really productive. And while it's great to have foreign volunteers to play with the little kids, it is so rewarding to see the kids' admiration for these artists- their hip local heros. The only unfortunate thing is that the outreach to different kids hasn't been that great, in part because there are sometimes not enough adults, supplies and space for 20+ kids. Hopefully with time, this program can grow and spread to different parts of town.

[Note: the majoirity of the kids that have consistently participated are, in some form, related to the artists... again, this is la manera Chapina. Everyone here is related and it's just easier to be around family.]

I have done a lot of other work with these artists over the last two months, spending at least 15 -20 hours a week there. They recently applied for a travel grant to visit another art collective, Grupo Sotz'il, and work together on a theater presentation for Festival Atitlan in 2012. I helped translate and edit the application, and I hope they get the grant because they deserve it- not because I helped.

My friend Sara and I have also been teaching two of the artists English. (Because if you can speak it you can teach it, right?) During these classes, I've become increasingly more anal retentive with my grammar (journalism nostalgia), but also more aware of the subtle nuances of the language when it is spoken in different parts of the country. Sara is from Boston but has spent a lot of her life in the San Juan Islands outside of Washington state. Needless to say, we speak English differently.

We've had a good time, and I think they've learned something... They are around English speakers a lot so any background of the language is better than nothing. And we've learned some Tzutujil, so it's been a win-win.

I've also done some work (mostly profiles and brainstorming) for their upcoming (who the hell knows) website. I think it's been under construction for about six months... Yeah. Most of the pages and links are in place, and ideally, the whole site would be in English and Spanish. That's something I'd like to continue working with after I leave because it could be so great for the collective and San Pedro. But who knows?

There are a lot of little frustrations that I'm ready to leave behind in Guatemala, but I will really miss this space and these people. They have become like family (literally, we've celebrated weddings and birthdays, made tons of tamales and cake and shared life stories). Guatemalans have an innate generosity and hospitality that reminds me of the south. It's just usually harder to appreciate when you're a foreigner. So I'm thankful for this time invested to get to know these guys. I also hope to bring back some of their work- tshirts, fajas (women's belts), posters or something... but keep your fingers crossed that anything will be finished in time... 'Tis la manera Chapina.

An & David with all the babies- this awesome couple came to my yoga class and mentioned an interest in volunteering. So I introduced them to Canal Cultural and they ended up setting up their own weekly taller. Success.

creating a underwater world with potato stamps

crown decorating on An & David's last day

potato stamps

An & Manuelito stamping

paintings by the collective from a series about the Rio Negro Massacre

cement carvings by Manuel. color by los chiquitos

Luis and Ingrid surveying the goings on


Maria Fernanda learning to write her name

René teaching geometric shapes

no se que estan haciendo aca... but bottoms up!

brothers and good photographers

(ironically and sadly, these boys stopped coming to the taller after the first saturday and began working at my yoga studio cleaning and repairing the walls... guess they couldn't afford the time off to draw :(

circles and color

las obras de Canal Cultural

one of Manuel's most famed pieces. they made the design into a tshirt. the Tz'utujil mother earth.