A live production of “Historias de Hombres – ¡En Voz Alta!” debuted in Santiago, Chile in August 2010. Participants were a diverse group of 14 celebrities, community leaders, and first-time presenters. To order the documentary film of this production, click here.
They included Coco Legrand - Chile’s most popular comic, who hosted the event in his theater; Power Peralta, a hip-hop dance duo of twin brothers; Mauricio Palma, a well-known comic; Pedro Sanchez Melivilo, a leader in the Mapuche community of Chile; Jorge Olea, Chairman of the U. Chile Department of Dance; and Andres Ignacio Rivera Duarte, Founding Director of Transsexuals for Dignity in Diversity who received the international 2008 Felipa de Souza Award for his human rights work. The event program can be seen here.
With a guiding focus on exploration of masculinities, topics addressed in the production included brotherhood and mutual support; impacts of bullying; substance abuse; the journey of aging; homosexuality and the church; transgender identity and human rights violations that are ‘required’ in order to officially change sex in Chile; physical violence between men; childhood abuse and subsequent homelessness and HIV/AIDS; breaking the cycle of domestic violence; machismo and men’s roles in the context of women’s evolving social roles; growing up in poverty; manual labor and classism; paternity in the context of divorce; honoring of indigenous traditions; gratitude to family members and mentors; self-realization in the context of physical disability; and the healing power of self-acceptance, community, and love.
Educational goals of the production were developed on the basis of key informant interviews conducted in Chile in 2009 by Josie Lehrer and Shlomit Baytelman (a respected actor in Chile who contributed to artistic direction), regarding key links of masculinities with health and justice challenges in the country. Interviews were held with Dr. Silvia Santander, researcher at the Metropolitan University of Education Science, and staff members of HIV/AIDS Section of the National Ministry of Health, Cultura Salud, Foundation for Popular Education in Health, and VivoPositivo (national network of people living with HIV/AIDS). Interviews were also held with Dr. Jose Olavarria, a leading masculinities researcher based at the Corporation for Research on Women’s Development; Dr. Ximena Luengo, former director of the Chilean Institute of Reproductive Medicine; Dr. Pamela Oyarzun, Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Chile Medical School; psychologists working with men and urban youth; and others. These and other colleagues also provided critical feedback on presentation content as it was being developed.
This initiative was co-sponsored (in-kind) by Amnesty International, VivoPositivo, Metropolitan University for Education Science, Transsexuals for Dignity in Diversity, Foundation for Popular Education, Circus OK, and PRANAS Chile. Partial financial support for the project was provided by an Innovative Grant from the UC-San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, the Knowledge = Freedom Foundation, the Soup Community, and private donors. |
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