“The entire community turns out the next afternoon for the event, and it’s evident that they’re treating it with great respect. We perform for over an hour. It’s clearly a completely new cultural experience for them, although the laughs are not lacking.”
-Moshe Cohen, CWB – USA founder and performing artist
Tour Overview
In March, 1996, Moshe Cohen, the founder of Clowns Without Borders USA, joined three Italians (Pierpaolo Di Justo, Claudio y Consuelo) on an expedition organized by two Mexican pupeteers (Los Saltimbanqui). The project was in collaboration with Centro Derechos Humanos Frey Bartolome de las Casas, and was sponsored by Payasos Sin Fronteras, the Spanish chapter of Clowns Without Borders.
The artists traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, to perform in the Zapatista aguascalientes of Oventik, La Garucha and La Realidad, as well as smaller communities, and in the campamento during the peace talks at San Andreas S’amachem de los Pobres.
Tour Context
This tour occurred during an especially tense moment in the Zapatista Uprising. At the peace talks of San Andreas S’amachem de los Pobres, the first official talks between Zapatistas and the Mexican government, security consisted of three lines of human barricades surrounding the building where the talks took place: The innermost line was formed by Red Cross volunteers; the second by Zapatista sympathizers; and the third was the military. There were two shifts of sympathisers, with the second staying in the marketplace where the clowns performed.
The artists frequently interacted with people who were unused to their style of performance, but were open to and curious about the payasos. During this time of immense change in Chiapas, Moshe experienced a conflicted role: The artists were told that their presence helped deescalate possible military aggression, yet the payasos were also responsible for bringing “new” ideas into indigenous communities.
CWB – USA follows United Nations naming conventions for all countries, nations, and territories, along with the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To read more about our Code of Ethics, click here.
