Republic of Excrement raises a collective reflection on forced migration

The body says what public discourse usually hides. In excrement republic The scene is filled with remains, voices marked by fatigue and minimal gestures that insist on remaining standing.

The starting point is deliberately uncomfortable: that which the system expels, degrades or renders invisible. From there, the company La Perra Alegría articulates an investigation in which forced migration, daily precariousness and gender violence appear as persistent traces in the word and the shared experience.

The work will have performances starting tomorrow at El Albergue del Arte, in Coyoacán, and will continue its journey through cultural and university spaces in Mexico City and the state of Mexico, with the intention of promoting encounters with diverse audiences and testing listening in different contexts.

Directed by Samanta Elena Pizarro Aliste (Talca, Chile, 1985), who is also part of the cast, the production is based on the collection of poems of the same name by the Salvadoran writer Miroslava Rosales.

“The transition from the poetic text to the theatrical language implied a profound transformation of its structure. It was necessary to look for the conflicts that were within the poems and bring them to concrete situations in the lives of the characters. The result dialogues with the book from the action, the body and live music,” Pizarro explained in an interview with The Day.

The Albergue del Arte is the headquarters of Tadeco Teatro, a group founded in 1982. For Margarita Hernández Navarro (Mexico City, 1979), a member of its board of directors, the space is a sustained practice of encounter.

“We do it even though there are no resources. The pretext is to find each other,” he said. “Receiving this work reaffirms a way of making theater that is sustained beyond geographical, economic or aesthetic borders.”

Omar Guadarrama (Mexico) participates, who shares the dramaturgy; Adam Arhelger (Germany), accordionist with training in public health who constructs live music as an extension of the story, and Pizarro Aliste herself.

The use of Spanish, German, English and Nahuatl is part of the discourse and highlights how each language carries a specific way of looking at and inhabiting the world.

Working with the abject avoids easy impact. Pizarro Aliste pointed out that the search focused on everyday actions as political gestures. “There we find beauty: in preserving dignity, joy, hope. That minimal resistance organizes the composition and opposes the logic of degradation.”

For Hernández Navarro, the link with this creation is direct. Tadeco Teatro has been bringing together migrant creators from different latitudes for decades. Founded by Juan Manuel Martínez, the group has been sustained by a collective work that today it shares with Gustavo Ávila.

“We are always fellow migrants. Sustaining these processes implies offering a place where no one is alone and where creation is maintained collectively. In this gesture, joy occupies a central place as a political position in the face of adverse contexts.”

Each presentation will conclude with a virtual conversation with Miroslava Rosales, whose presence has been decisive throughout the entire process. Pizarro Aliste highlighted the depth that her experience of working with migrant and incarcerated women in El Salvador brings. “His gaze broadens the reflection and gives another weight to what happens.”

Circulation through theaters, cultural centers and academic spaces is also part of the research.

In these areas, the director pointed out, listening “is oriented towards collective reflection with students and specialists on forced migration issues.”

In this context, the dialogues are developed with Professor Luz María Hermoso Santa María, at the Autonomous University of Chapingo, and with Professor Aarón Díaz Mendiburo, at the North American Research Center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Hernández Navarro added that bringing theater to classrooms, esplanades or unconventional spaces implies dismantling the idea of ​​scenic privilege. “It’s not that we are going to teach: we end up learning from those looks.”

Both theater creators agree that “thinking about other forms of community based on embrace, love and joy, and generating creative survival and mutual support strategies is an urgent need today.”

excrement republic It will have performances tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. at El Albergue del Arte (Alberto Zamora 32, Coyoacán neighborhood, Mexico City) and on January 27 at 7 p.m. at the Agricultural High School of the Autonomous University Chapingo (February 22, Chapingo, state of Mexico).

The presentations will continue on the 29th of this month at 7 p.m. at the Cultural Center of Spain (CCE) in Mexico (Republic of Guatemala 18, Colonia Centro); on the 30th at the same time at the Goethe Institute (Tonalá 43, Roma Norte neighborhood), and on February 5, with a time to be confirmed, at the UNAM North American Research Center (Humanities Tower II, Ciudad Universitaria). Admission will be free.