“The more time I spend around the communities and with the people working there, the more I perceive the tension of the situation. At the end of my stay, I feel a strong urge to remain for several more months, and have the feeling that my actions are only a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done.”
-Moshe Cohen, CWB – USA founder and performing artist
Tour Overview
During the Dia del Niño tour, Moshe Cohen performed 11 shows in eight days. He partnered with Centro Derechos Humanos, Frey de St. Bartolomé and completed his tour with a budget of $1,200, including travel to and from Mexico, food and lodging, and a vehicle. Approximately 2,800 people were served by this tour.
Tour Context
Eva, from the NGO Tadas, told community members in San Vincent about this payaso who wanted to come perform. The following conversation transpired:
Q: What is payaso? Is it a person?
A: Yes it is a person.
Q: And what does this person do?
A: He makes people laugh, he does jokes.
Q: Why ?
Clowns Without Borders USA has a long relationship with the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, largely thanks to connections built in the late 1990s. CWB – USA founder Moshe Cohen collaborated with many Mexican artists and activists to bring clowning and levity to the people of Chiapas in the years following the 1994 uprising. During the Dia del Niño tour in 1997, Moshe found the situation in Chiapas to be much more tense than when he visited only a few months prior. History shows that the during the late 1990s, the Mexican government and paramilitary units engaged in a low-intensity war with the people of the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas.
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.
