La Candelaria from Colombia is
perhaps the most renowned independent
theater group in Latin America today. It
was founded in 1966 and has participated
in many national and international theater
festivals. It won the prestigious Casa de
las Americas prize in Havana In 1976.

One of La Candelaria’s members re-
cently visited New York City. During her
stay she was interviewed by Cindy
Hawes, World Magazine staff member.
The interview has been divided into two
parts.

Q: When and how did. La Candelaria
get started? :

A: La Candelaria was founded in
1966 by Santiago Garcia, who is the
group’s director today, and by several
actors, artists and musicians. It was
originally called Casa deja Cultura and
was intended to be part of a house for all
types of cultural activities — a gallery,
movie club, concerts — but, of course,
there was no financial aid. The theater
group was the only thing that was able
to maintain itself because it did not have
the financial pressures of buying a
movie projector or paying painters for
their exhibits. As time went on the gov-
ernment began to initiate a number of
Casas de la Cultura in each of the diffe-
rent states. We decided to change the
name to Teatro de La Candelaria be-
cause it began to sound as though it
were subsidized by the government,
that it was part of the national gov-
ernmental cultural plans, which it was
not.

Originally the group performed and
rehearsed in a small house in a different
part of the city, but as it became more
difficult to pay the rent we managed to
get a subsidy from the city council to
buy a house in the colonial sector. They
were giving low-interest loans and so
they gave us one of these houses and
helped us pay the down payment. About
five years later we finished paying this
off. Now the house belongs to the group,
which is quite an achievement. The
house is in front. At the back, in an
empty field, we built the theater. It has
been functioning ever since.

Q: Have you received subsidies by
the government or been able to secure
some other kind of financial assistance?

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 17, 1978—Page 8

A: There are no subsidies on a regu-
lar basis, but there are two different
kinds of support that can be obtained.
The most permanent is aid from diffe-
rent senators, members of congress and
the city council who are from the left-
wing parties. It’s hard to get that kind of
aid from a liberal, and even more dif-
ficult from a conservative. Obviously
the aid is quite small because left-wing
representatives have an enormous
number of organizations and institu-
tions they want to help. There are many
theater groups in this kind of situation.

The Cultural Institute of the gov-
ernment has also given aid to certain
groups. The first year La Candelaria
was accepted for a grant by the Institute
of Culture, the Minister of Education re-
fused it. So we didn’t get anything, but
some of the other groups did. This year
we received one for the first time, but it
was very minimal, not even enough to
pay the telephone, electricity and water
bills. That’s not much help.

Q: How many members are in La
Candelaria?

A: Thirteen now. There has been
some fluctuation: Of the original 13
founders there are about four people
left. Some, particularly those of the first
five years, have gone into TV. Some now
direct other groups, or have gone to
study abroad, and others are not doing
theater anymore.

Q: Why did they leave?

A: In the first five years when the
group performed primarily European,
classical and contemporary U.S. plays
it was a very different group than it is

-now. Thé collective work of the group

increased as time went on and along
with that a certain consciousness de-
veloped. In the first years when it was
more of a typical! repertory group, the
members had a different orientation
than those who came Jater.

Q: When did the group begin to per-
form plays with Latin American
themes?

A: As we performed our classical
repertoire in union halls, schools, uni-

versities, in different cities arcund the |

country and different peasant areas in
the countryside, we realized we needed
plays whose content was more directly
related to what our audiences were liv-
ing in their daily lives. We did a series of
what we called Jornadas Obreras — en-
counters between artists and workers —
and this helped us to see that these plays
were not the best suited for them. A
classical or European play was not as
well assimilated as a Colombian one
could be. The problem is that we don’t
have too many playwrights. We only
have two or three and their plays have
been put on thousands of times.

La Candelaria
People’s theater —

in Colombia |

Q: Is this when the group began to
create their own plays?

A: Yes. Our first collective creation
was about the first revolt in Colombia
against the Spanish domination, which
occurred way before independence.
This revolt took place in 1781 before the
French Revolution. It was of a rather
primary nature, but it was a large mass
movement. Over 20,000 peasants went
to Bogota to demonstrate against the
Spanish government which succeeded
in pacifying the demonstrators with
false promises: This play, which we call
Nosotros Los Comunes (We the Com-
moners), has been presented over 500
times all over the country in the past
five years. This is an indicator that
these plays, which are Colombian not
only in their historical theme, but also in
their orientation, have a great deal to
say. That’s why they go on for years and
years.

. Before, with the classical works,
there would be a certain audience that
wanted to see them, and then there
wouldn’t be much demand for them, so
the play would be taken off and another
put on. This allows us as much time as
needed to work on anew play. If we take
two years we don’t get too worried be-
cause we have our repertoire of Colom-
bian plays and there is always a de-
mand for them. We often have to turn
down performances because it takes too
much time when we are working on a
new play.

Q: Would you describe some of your
other plays?

A: Our second play is about the
emigration of the peasants to the city —
a phenomenon which has occurred

“ties .

since the late 1940s during the civil wat
when the peasants, their lands taken
from them, were driven to the city. This
play demonstrates the false illusions of |
those who go to the city in search of jobs, —
in search of a better life. It has bee
performed over 300 times. :

Next we did a Brazilian poem. In this
play the group added music as an inte
gral part. One of the group members
composed the music. |

Our next production, Guadalupe:
Anos Sin Cuenta, was also a group crea
tion. The title has a double meaning i
Spanish: Guadalupe of the years of the
50’s (cincuenta) or Guadalupe of the
years that have been unaccounted for
(sin cuenta) as far as the history books
are concerned. We don’t find any
analysis of this recent civil war, from
1949 to 1953. It’s a war that was never
declared and that some try and deny
ever existed, yet it claimed the lives of |
some 300,000 people, mainly peasants of
both the liberal and conservative pat

This play met with great success: |
Many historians in Colombia considet
with this play theater has gotten ahead
of historians in investigating history:
We had several taped interviews with
people who had lived through the period
and we also looked into newspaper ar@
hives and a couple of books that wer
published clandestinely. This was T@
ally our first attempt to do an historic@!
analysis in a dynamic way that doesn't
lose the audience’s interest, that doesn't
dissipate the entertainment aspect 0
theater. With this we won the Casa dé
las Americas prize in 1976 given by thé
Casa de las Americas in Cuba. This wa
a great reward for us.

Photos by Jose Gastambide/
Latin American Popular Theatre Festival