Grow up and make your way in a suburb of Cali through rap and theater

The Argentine essayist and novelist Ernesto Sábato wrote in his book

that the human being knows how to make new paths out of obstacles, because the space of a crack is enough for life to be reborn.

The crack to break through that rappers Andrés Mauricio Acosta

and Alejo Arias have found, two of the 10 members of the West Cream Klan collective, sneaks in the form of rhymes and music through one of the speakers of what they call the panic room, a small room covered with a row of acoustic panels for soundproofing, with a simple office desk and chair, a red sofa that matches the curtains, a stand-up microphone and a computer that does the work of a mixing table .

Here the rap and hip hop band has established its operations center and recording studio.

“We are an incident

in the social / and thus they support our words and bad energy / always giving

Humbly raised in this concrete jungle / between the street and the academy / I forged my criteria, rap expires and inspires…”, sings Acosta forcefully, dressed in pants, a T-shirt and a black cap in front of the microphone, in this creative space that is the basement of a building in Palmas II, one of the neighborhoods of commune 1, in Cali.

Commune 1 is one of the 21 suburbs that surround Cali and sits in the western part of the city, in the Colombian region of Valle del Cauca.

105,000 people live there, an amalgamation of a population that has come since the 1960s from Nariño, other areas of the Colombian Pacific and migrants from Venezuela. Its inhabitants live in poverty, sometimes extreme.

In the image, an aerial view of commune 1. Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

Arriba el Telón is a theater group that was founded in 1987 in Commune 1 of Cali, the third most populous city in the country.

Esteban Acevedo, 15, has been an actor for a little over a year.

In the image, at a moment of the interpretation of the last work in which he participated, entitled 'Solo Tierra'.

William Jimenez Carazo

"Arriving in a space where they receive a different welcome, where they feel included and that it doesn't matter if they are indigenous, Afro, from another country, or of a different sexual orientation, that makes them want to stay and start over and fight against those fears and insecurities.

Professor Yury Andrea Marín, 30, directs one of the classes to the twenty students who make up the theater group 'Arriba El Telón', from Commune 1 of Cali, of which Esteban Acevedo is a member, in the background of the image .Guillermo Jiménez Caeaz

“At first he was very elusive with people, even with Yury.

He wouldn't let them get close to me or hug me.

I came here believing that I knew them all and well no.

With the passage of time I became fond of it and let myself be taught”.

Esteban Acevedo, with his back to the camera, rehearses with a group of colleagues from the Arriba El Telón theater group from Commune 1 of Cali. Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

In 2021, the Arriba El Telón theater group performed 'Solo Tierra', a play in which poetry and dance are combined, and which speaks of those who seek a new horizon and land, like the majority of the inhabitants of the commune 1, but ignorance, xenophobia and political corruption offer them indifference, humiliation and violence.

In the image, Esteban Acevedo represents an excerpt from the work.

William Jimenez Carazo

Ayuda en Acción began activities in commune 1 last October. Thus, they have begun to give psychosocial support workshops to offer opportunities and job opportunities to the youth who live in the neighborhood, including the 23 members of Arriba el Telón, who rehearse the Thursdays and Fridays.

In the image, in the foreground, Ana Valentina together with the other group members.

William Jimenez Carazo

Through its vindictive rhymes, West Cream denounces the poverty, social exclusion, corruption and violence suffered by its members and many others of its generation a year ago.

They, the young people, were protagonists of the national strike, leading the social protests that spread throughout the country in 2021, which left more than 80 dead, and which in Cali had a special impact.

In the image, Andrés Mauricio Acosta, sings standing up, together with Alejo Arias, from behind, members of the musical group.

William Jimenez Carazo

For Andrés Mauricio Acosta, as for other social leaders of Commune 1 of Cali, culture has become one of the levers of change necessary for the development of young people who live in marginal neighborhoods like his.

“We are very used to being told what to do and how;

and above all to be limited.

But I am living proof that you can get where you want to go, even if you were born in the highest neighborhood of this commune, ”says the proud rapper. Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

“Sometimes we focus a lot on denouncing and talking about what is bad here, but that is why the sensationalist media are already there, highlighting violence, insecurity, lack of investment… That is why it is important that there are people like us, that we are creating culture, taking 'pelaos' off the streets, giving them the opportunity to believe in their dreams, to make music for the people". The band West Cream, which is scheduled to release an album at the end of 2022, wants to put a foundation and a record label for the new talents that are born in Cali's commune 1. Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

"Since April 28, we began to make use of the right to demonstrate and make an artistic blockade, through dance, dance, painting. And we contribute from the base of rap and hip hop", explains Alejo Arias , 28, who poses with the handkerchief of the Unión de Resistencias Cali, one of the most active youth groups during the national strike protests.Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

"I have become an ambassador of the commune, all the time I am knocking on doors outside and in different projects, to make people fall in love with the neighborhood and want to come to know it, so that they see what can be contributed", reflects Andrés Mauricio Acosta , founding member of the rap band West Cream.Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

"My rap complains a lot about the differences between social classes, but my lyrics also talk about injustice, corruption and the abyss or the social gap that we as Colombians live," explains Alejo Arias. This young man began to sing and breathe rap at the age of 12, despite the opposition of his parents, in Montebello, a small municipality in front of commune 1, where he discovered that his concerns and needs were similar to those of Acosta.In the image, Arias sits in front of the computer and the mixer of the West Cream band Guillermo Jiménez Carazo

Commune 1 sits on one of the hillsides that surround the city of Cali, in the Colombian region of Valle del Cauca, between the Cali and Aguacatal river basins.

In this district of Cali, with bustling streets, to which buses do not arrive and through which

(a popular means of public transport in Colombia) transit, the built houses dot and pile up on the hill without order or urban concert , at first sight;

105,000 people live there, an amalgamation of a population that has come since the 1960s from Nariño, other areas of the Colombian Pacific, and migrants from Venezuela.

These suburbs, of which Cali has 21, are usually born from invasion neighborhoods, illegal settlements, that is, land occupied by groups of people seeking a better future in the city and far from the war that has plagued Colombia for decades.

Its inhabitants live in poverty, sometimes extreme, and a large majority are of low social class.

In this commune, the population is distributed mainly between two of the five neighborhoods that make up this area of ​​the third most populous city in the country: 25,000 of them live between Terrón Colorado and Vistahermosa, the neighborhood where Acosta was born.

"Music has become the pedagogical tool with which I work here," explains the 33-year-old rapper and also a public librarian from Vistahermosa, sitting in the recording studio with Arias, one of his rhyming partners at West Cream Klan.

But this work “with and for the community” in the case of Acosta, also nicknamed

, comes from afar.

At just 16 years old, he accompanied his maternal grandmother, Aura Emilia Joaqui Buitron, a neighborhood leader, to meetings with neighbors and to carry out social work.

“I felt very comfortable doing it,” he recalls.

Writing was always present in Acosta's life, and rap came later, when shyness allowed him to sing his own creations, and after following in the footsteps of other hip hop groups that would also be born in the commune, such as New School .

In a progressive way, he was taking over from his grandmother as a community leader.

And since 2019, he has led West Cream and a workshop to train

which are held on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, where anyone from the neighborhood can come, and then participate in the rapping rooster battles that are held every two Sundays of the month. on the fields of Villa del Mar, a traditional meeting place for training since its inception.

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A post shared by 𝑾𝑬𝑺𝑻 𝑪𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 ⚡️ (@westcream)

For Acosta, as for other social leaders in the district, culture has become one of the levers of change necessary for the development of young people who live in marginal neighborhoods like his, in which opportunities to advance are conspicuous by their absence. .

The National Administrative Department of Statistics in Colombia puts the unemployment rate of the population between 15 and 28 years of age at 21%, in a country where 12.53 million adolescents live.

“We are very used to being told what we should do and how, and above all to being limited;

but I am living proof that you can get where you want to go, even if you were born in the highest neighborhood of this commune”, expresses the proud rapper.

From that reflection a song was born that would be called

and that would change the route of its lyrics.

“Years ago, I met a person I will never forget.

She taught me that there were groups that made rap with a message, Christian rappers, that beyond their religion, they had a purpose.

That made me question what was mine, that I, Andrés Mauricio Acosta, who was being very harsh with the State and the inequality between social classes, what was he doing to change that reality, ”argues

.

It is important that there are people in the neighborhood who create culture, taking 'pelaos' off the streets, giving them the opportunity to believe in their dreams

Andrés Mauricio Acosta, rapper and founder of the West Cream Klan

Through its vindictive rhymes, West Cream denounces the poverty, social exclusion, corruption and violence suffered by its members and many others of its generation a year ago.

They, the young people, were protagonists of the national strike, leading the social protests that spread throughout the country in 2021, which left more than 80 dead, and which in Cali had a special impact.

In Puerto Resistencia, the main stronghold in the city during the protests, the ten members of the collective encouraged young people to protest and not be afraid of the state.

“Since April 28, we began to make use of the right to demonstrate and make an artistic blockade, through dance, dance, painting.

And we contribute from the base of rap and hip hop,” explains Arias, 28, who also belongs to the Unión de Resistencias Cali and Portada Resiste, two of the most active groups during the national strike.

"We have spent 20 years of a government of the extreme right where continuity is what governs," he lamented.

And he wishes that in the next presidential elections, which celebrate the first round this Sunday, May 29, they become the beginning of a new stage.

"My rap complains a lot about the differences between social classes, but my lyrics also talk about injustice, corruption and the abyss or the social gap that we as Colombians live," explains Arias.

He began to sing and breathe rap at the age of 12, despite the opposition of his parents, in Montebello, a corregimiento ―intermediate extension municipality― in front of commune 1, where he discovered that his concerns and needs were similar to those of Acosta.

Songs such as

were born from these experiences , which will premiere a video clip on June 21 and which will be part of West Cream's album, which they are scheduled to release at the end of 2022. In it, there will be lyrics with messages of protest, but also hope and illusion for commune 1, where they want to start up a foundation and a record label for the new talents that are born in the neighborhood.

“Sometimes we focus a lot on denouncing and talking about what is bad here, but that is why the sensationalist media are already there, highlighting violence, insecurity, lack of investment… That is why it is important that there are people like us, that we are

culture, pulling out

from the streets, giving them the opportunity to believe in their dreams, to make music for the people;

That is why salsa schools, the library, places that are sowing dreams and hopes are so important.

I have become an ambassador of the commune, all the time I am knocking on doors and in different projects, to make people fall in love with the neighborhood and want to come to know it, so that they see what can be contributed”, reflects Acosta.

theater as therapy

Five minutes from the basement of Las Palmas II, where Acosta and Arias record and improvise, in the Tory Castro Recreational Unit, which belongs to the Terrón Colorado neighborhood, within commune 1, the Arriba El Telón theater group meets to rehearse.

Esteban Acevedo enters through the door of the multiple room, next to the Olympic pool, where Yury Andrea Marín, his teacher, and several of his classmates, also actors, are waiting.

Before rehearsals begin, the 15-year-old boy merges into a collective hug with Ana Valentina, Michael and Gregory.

“At first he was very elusive with people, even with Yury.

He wouldn't let them get close to me or hug me.

I came here believing that I knew them all and well no.

With the passage of time, I became attached to it and let myself be taught”, recalls Acevedo.

“He came in with a defensive attitude.

The crack to be reborn, of which Sábato wrote, Esteban Acevedo found it in the theater.

This teenager had tried salsa dancing and other disciplines, and sports, but what really hooked him was acting.

At 13, his life changed.

He came out of the closet in front of his mother, grandmother and other family, to whom he confessed that he was gay, and found a wall of misunderstanding that the theater has managed to break down.

"Acting gives me confidence and strength to continue day by day because I am not a very brave person, nor do I trust myself very much," he admits.

Marín knows what Acevedo faced when he joined the theater group, recommended by a friend.

She, also a resident of commune 1, experienced a similar process when she was nine years old, when she joined the artistic group that she now directs.

Arriba el Telón was formed by the Teatro Esquina Latina in 1987 within the framework of the

and associated since its inception to the Red Popular de Teatro de Cali.

“Children and people who have lived through violence, the displacement of their families, migration from Venezuela come to our community… All very strong situations and experiences for them.

Arriving in a space where they receive a different welcome, where they feel included and that it does not matter if they are indigenous, Afro, from another country or of a different sexual orientation, makes them want to stay and start over;

and fight against those fears and insecurities”, contextualizes the artistic director.

In 2021, the theater group performed

, a play in which poetry and dance are combined, and which speaks of those who seek a new horizon and land, like the majority of the inhabitants of commune 1, but the ignorance, xenophobia and political corruption offer them indifference, humiliation and violence.

Ayuda en Acción began activities in commune 1 last October. Thus, they have begun to give psychosocial support workshops to offer job opportunities and opportunities to the youth who live in the neighborhood, including three of the 23 members of Arriba el Telón, who They rehearse on Thursdays and Fridays.

“The theater for us is an excuse to reach the community, because our interest is not to train actors, actresses, professionals….

If any of them finally want to dedicate themselves to acting, great, but what we want is to give them all the tools that an actor has, to know how to stand on stage.

And so we managed to give these young people who have grown up and live in this vulnerable context tools so that in any setting such as a school or a university they know how to face life”,

25 participants from six different artistic and cultural groups have benefited from this Ayuda en Acción program, including Acevedo.

“That explosion that occurred in Cali, that social discontent of the national strike and that lack of opportunities for young people, what showed us is that we needed them to believe again that they could be managers of their own development.

So we decided to give them tools so that they could make themselves visible through democratic and non-violent processes”, explains Patricia Rosales España, coordinator of the NGO in Valle del Cauca and Cauca.

“We focus our work precisely on making these different ways of being young in Cali visible.

We analyzed the situation and saw that we had to focus on her life project”, she adds.

A life project that Acevedo always thought would be to follow in the footsteps of his grandmother and godmother, both dedicated to nursing, but now he does not rule out that it is linked to the defense of human rights and the legal profession.

However, the most important lesson he has received from the theater, he confesses, has not been knowing what professional future he wants: “It has taught me many things, but the most important thing I think has been simply expressing myself and doing the things that I want. I like them because they make me feel good.

Leave fear behind, be myself and not get carried away by what others think.

This report was made with the support of Ayuda en Acción and the 1Planet4All project, financed by the European Union. 

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