Multicultural Theater
Artist Residency 2012
A Brief History:
The women who make up the Forum Theater Troupe from the Migrant Family Support Center
(CAFAMI) are not professional actors. They are citizens of a centurie sold freedom struggle: the struggle for self determination, justice, and equality for woman and families. The Center opened
its doors to these women in 2007 in the village of San Francisco Tetlanohcan as a community
center and place for support for migrant families whose relatives had been lost, injured, or incarcerated in the United States. The Center is supervised by the members of the international organization Instituto de Investigacion y Practica Social y Cultural, A.C. (IIPSOCULTA) a non profit organization founded by community activist Marco Castillo in 2001 in an effort to supportcommunity social movements throughout the Americas. CAFAMI quickly became a space for education, reflection, and action on the subject of the social, economic, and political causes and effects of migration on the village. At least one fourth of this rural highland village has migrated across the U.S.Mexico border.
As a result of an overwhelming need for raising awareness about Mexican migration, CAFAMI was contacted by organizations throughout the United States interested in doing artist and cultural
exchange programs. The purpose of the exchange was to create a link between CAFAMI and
communities in the United States and to raise awareness of the culture, traditions, and heritage of the communities where Mexican migrants come from.
The women from CAFAMI chose theater as an awareness tool to illustrate their experiences of living in a community where many people leave to migrate to the U.S. In 2008 a group of ten women did an Multicultural Dance Artists Residency in New Haven, sponsored by the organization Unidad Latina en Acción. In 2010, a group of 25 women did a Multicultural Theater Artist Residency in New York City and New Haven sponsored by Yale University, New Haven Sister Cities, Inc., Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, and many other local theaters and institutions.
Since the 2010 Residency, the women of CAFAMI have worked together to create a new theater piece to raise awareness about their experiences as women living in modern Mexico, inspired by Brazilian popular educator Augusto Boal. Boal developed Forum Theater, a popular education technique for raising awareness and inspiring collective action to community problems. The technique combines kinesthetic awareness, image games, and nonverbal communication skill development to help nonprofessional actors illustrate their stories of oppression. Forum Theater began in Tetlanohcan with facilitator Stephanie Bifolco as a tool for reflection and action. Facilitator Ivan Zepeda Valdez worked with the Company from 2011 to 2012, and achieved the creation of three Forum Theater Plays: Sueños Perdidos, Veneno de mi Suegra, and Mariposa Viajera.
The women who make up the Forum Theater Troupe at CAFAMI are of different ages and different social, political, and economic backgrounds. Working together for over two years, they have overcome traditional differences that separate families, finding migration as the thread that unites their hearts. They have made theater an integral part of their lives because of a need to convey their collective testimonies and tales of oppression and liberation across the MexicoU.S. border. They have presented their Forum Theater plays throughout the states of Tlaxcala and Veracruz, Mexico. Although other CAFAMI theater groups toured to the US in 2008 and 2010, 2012 year will be the first time this group will tour to the United States.
