I was in the mobilization, it was peaceful, I saw directly everything that was happening, I went, I helped the wounded, I saw how my brothers were bleeding to death, I am a Huamanguino and I tell you that to this day the pain of the people, of my people, is felt. . I have gone to funerals, I have been hand in hand with relatives. I didn’t lose a family member, it’s true, but I made that pain my own.
That day, let me tell you, that day Ayacucho felt a lot of pain. That day we all looked at each other and said that life here in our region is worth very little. That’s why I had that obligation to make this documentary. And I did it.
The one who remembers 15D, that is, December 15, 2022, is the young filmmaker Fidel De la Cruz Sulca. That day Ayacucho once again experienced bloody events. The protests demanding the resignation of the new president Dina Boluarte and the dissolution of Congress turned into a violent goodbye to 10 civilians and left more than 70 injured, many of them from gunshot wounds.
YOU CAN SEE:
The Altarpiece of my Protestthat is the name of the documentary about this painful event, premieres at the Huamanga Municipal Theater this Sunday the 15th. It is directed by Fidel De la Cruz.
De la Cruz remembers what happened as if it were yesterday, as if months had not already passed since the tragedy that marked the people of Ayacucho.
He is a young short film director, a lawyer by profession, who has lived his entire life in his native Huamanga. At 32 years old, he did not know the violence of the 80s and 90s, but he knows that Ayacucho is marked by wounds that still hurt, that have not yet healed.
He has no studies in audiovisuals, but his spirit as an artist and his being from Ayacucho called him to make this record, for two years, with a team of young professionals from Ayacucho and with the editing advice of the renowned Spanish documentary filmmaker. Luis Cintora.
No, I did not live in the era of violence. —continues his story Fidel De la Cruz—, but it is not necessary to have lived it to know it. As the artist Felipe López, professor of Fine Arts, says, from generation to generation this pain has been transmitted, at home, in the family, at lunches, we talk, we converse, in the street, it is there, the memories are there. , the memories, you talk to an adult and they tell you, and you feel that, in Ayacucho you feel that characteristic of living with violence a lot.
But, also, adds this young content creator, there is art. The Ayacucho native carries art in his skin, in his veins, all his days.
Yeah —he comments—. It is a very artistic city, which has made pain art, pain song, pain altarpiece, pain painting, pain saddlery or Huamanga stone… So we live with that.
We asked you, is that why the repression of 15D is still present in you?
Yes, it is present, all artists with a little sensitivity have touched on those themes. Musicians, poets, writers, storytellers, altarpieces, artisans… there are many who have felt this pain of our land and have done work since December 15.
YOU CAN SEE:
Community says goodbye to Jhonatan Alarcón, tenth victim of repression in Ayacucho
Why The Altarpiece of my Protest?
The altarpiece is an emblematic piece of traditional Ayacucho art, which transmits knowledge, techniques, and iconography from generations of artisans. In these rectangular wooden boxes, events and scenes from the communities are represented, using figures made from ceramic plaster paste mixed with cooked and ground potatoes, paint and other additives.
As De la Cruz tells us, there is a lot of interaction between this Huamanguin cultural expression and its environment.
It is because of this interaction that the documentary filmmaker chose an altarpiece “to testify” to the pain of December 15. For this they resorted to Edilberto Jimenezwho elaborated the events of the 80s in his altarpieces and, in this case, made a very special one with what happened in 2022.
Don’t just stay in painreflects De la Cruz, Not only does it remain in the anguish and suffering of the victims, but from the pain it generates art, it generates color, it generates life, which is resistance and memory, that is what the documentary is about.
In that senseadds De la Cruz, The participation of Edilberto Jiménez is very special. He gives us his testimony of how he creates his altarpieces, how he lived in the 80s when Carlos Iván Degregori supported him, encouraged him, and how he sees the new massacre and tells us his feeling of once again making an altarpiece of pain, of murder, on the part of of the military in a city that he loves very much, he always returns to Huamanga. Edilberto is important, he is a main part of the documentary.
Cintora’s contribution and experience
The participation of Spanish is also valuable Luis Cintorawho has made human rights audiovisuals in several countries. In Mongolia he recorded how nomads live; In Somalia his work focused on the recovery of bodies from mass graves buried during the Somali civil war; and in Algeria he made a documentary about refugees.
YOU CAN SEE:
Ayacucho: prosecutor accuses 20 soldiers of attempted murder
In Peru there is already a documentary series with 14 works on the internal armed conflict. In the series there are titles like The Cabitos greet you, Minka of Memory, Return to Accomarca, Vigil in Cayara.
Possibly the documentary I made about Los Cabitos was one of the most complex productions. Also the last one, This was our punishment, about a memory episode of the Hualla community, in Víctor Fajardo… In El Retablo de mi Protesta I worked on the edition. I consider it a much-needed feature-length documentary. It is very important that they are young people from Ayacucho who have narrated what has happened.
The voices of professors from the University of Huamanga are also included in El Retablo de mi Protesta, such as Jeffrey Gamarra, Nelson Pereira, and Lurgio Gavilán. Dr. Gloria Cano also appears.
Various activities for 15D
The premiere of the documentary will be this Sunday the 15th at the Municipal Theater of Huamanga and is part of the schedule of activities that the Association of Relatives of the Murdered and Injured on December 15 (ASFAH).
The agenda begins this Saturday the 7th with the photographic exhibition What color are your deadat the AKU Cultural café. On Monday the 9th there will be the mobilization in memory of the victims.
On Saturday the 14th there will be an exhibition of wifalas, altarpieces, paintings, in the Plaza Mayor; In addition, a Rock against the Dictatorship in the Alameda Cemetery and the forum Advances in the Search for Justice, with Amnesty International and the Archbishop’s Archive. On the 15th there will be the mass, pilgrimage and unveiling of the Memory Pedestalin addition to the vigil and a great cultural event.
YOU CAN SEE:
Prosecutor’s Office identifies the military chain of command in the massacre in Ayacucho
As you can see, what happened is very present in the daily lives of the Huamanguinos. The Writers Association also organizes the conversation: Art and Memory against the repressive government. And the play is presented Wiksa Ukupi in Inyay (Sobs in the gut).
The premiere of the documentary, which fuses traditional art and social denunciation, is part of the desire for justice. That’s why Fidel De la Cruz and the young team that accompanies him ask to discover how the altarpiece is transformed into protest.
His documentary is a response to the prejudices and stigmatization of those who insist on blaming the victims as responsible for their unexpected fate.
================
Obstacles on the way
-The ASFAH indicates that, two years after what happened, there is progress by the Public Ministry, which “has implemented a special team to investigate cases with victims during the social protests, it has identified 35 soldiers responsible for the massacre, and the head of the Ayacucho macro police region.”
-But they also point out that there are many obstacles “mainly from Congress and the Executive”, who seek to limit the work of the Public Ministry and human rights organizations, which they consider their allies.
-The president of the Family Association (ASFAH), Yobana Mendoza Huarancca, expressed her discomfort over the possible presence of Dina Boluarte in Ayacucho. “We have not received a word of apology or a gesture of solidarity. Indifference persists. “Ayacucho does not forget and rejects the presence of this government in our land,” he commented.
