{"id":21193,"date":"2023-12-04T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.entreculturas.org\/rozalen-travels-to-ecuador-with-entreculturas\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:02:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T10:02:15","slug":"rozalen-travels-to-ecuador-with-entreculturas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.entreculturas.org\/en\/rozalen-travels-to-ecuador-with-entreculturas\/","title":{"rendered":"Rozal\u00e9n travels to Ecuador with Entreculturas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rozal\u00e9n travels to Ecuador with Entreculturas<\/h2>\n\n\n

The singer-songwriter and social activist Rozal\u00e9n, together with Beatriz Romero, sign language interpreter, traveled to Ecuador from March 27 to 30 to learn about some of our projects in the field, together with our partner organizations, Fe y Alegr\u00eda and the Jesuit Refugee Service<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their trip to Ecuador, Rozal\u00e9n and Beatriz have connected with other contexts, meeting children with special needs who are at risk of being left out of the system if they do not have an inclusive education.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Guayasam\u00edn’s museum house and farewell<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today was your last day in Ecuador. We just saw you off at the airport after an exciting visit to Guayasamin’s house museum<\/strong>. The best closure for this journey towards tenderness. Thank you once again Rozal\u00e9n, Beatriz for your willingness to watch.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the middle of the world, Ecuador has given us a lot. It has been a privilege to connect your music with the reality of the projects that we accompany<\/strong> from Entreculturas together with Fe y Alegr\u00eda and the Jesuit Refugee Service and finally with the beauty of Oswaldo Guayasam\u00edn’s paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guayasam\u00edn<\/strong>, internationally recognized Ecuadorian artist (Quito, Ecuador, 1919 – 1999) summarizes, with his painting, the pain and oppression of Latin America together with the expression of cruelty, love and tenderness. Guayasamin lies buried in his home in Quito under a tree that he named “The Tree of Life”<\/strong>. A tree full of hanging crystals that sound in the wind and that seems to tell us that life doesn’t die if we don’t want it to. That we must continue to believe in beauty, especially that which hides in fragility and in the margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for accompanying us, Maria, Bea, for being angels on our path<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Day 3: Getting to know the work with refugee and migrant populations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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“After 16 days of walking I slept 3 days in a terminal and then I was in a hostel where we slept in overcrowded conditions. I knocked on the door of JRS and they opened it for me, but not every door opens. JRS has been that angel in our path<\/strong>.”“I feel accompanied and protected<\/strong>, I don’t feel in danger. I have felt very welcome and my children are studying, they come here to do their homework and the families come to do workshops and we help each other.”“All of us here are a new family<\/strong>; those who were here when we arrived welcomed us with a huge smile and a hug that I needed.”“Do everything you can to make sure your children study, education is the only thing they will have left<\/strong>.”<\/em> These are some of the voices of refugees and migrants that we heard with Rozal\u00e9n and Beatriz in the La Argelia neighborhood, south of the city of Quito, where a Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) shelter<\/strong> is located, which is much more than a shelter. In the words of Fernando Lopez, JRS Ecuador Director<\/strong>, “it’s a door that opens, it’s a friendly embrace, it’s family”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We seem to forget that this happens in so many places around the world,” said Rozal\u00e9n during the meeting. “The number of times we Spaniards have been emigrants…. Some times in history you have to migrate and others to welcome<\/strong>. Thank you for sharing your story with us.” Since 2000, this space, made up of several individual houses, has been home to migrant and refugee families who have been arriving in Ecuador for years, mainly from Colombia and, currently, from Venezuela (60%). In addition to housing, JRS offers psychosocial care, legal advice, support for children’s schooling, health care, basic necessities such as food and clothing kits, and support in finding work if they want to settle in the country. In the words of Ximena Moreno<\/strong>, head of the JRS Shelter House<\/strong>, “the migration journey is not easy, but being here makes them brave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JRS-supported shelter of Fundaci\u00f3n Nuestros J\u00f3venes in La Mitad del Mundo <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After visiting the JRS reception space in Quito, we went to La Mitad del Mundo, where we learned about the work of the Fundaci\u00f3n Nuestros J\u00f3venes<\/strong>, which supports JRS, an entity founded 40 years ago. It was born with the objective of assisting drug addicts and, later, they began to address the reality of gender violence and started a program to rescue girls who were victims of trafficking<\/strong>. With the arrival of Venezuelan migration, they saw the need to put their facilities at the service of this reality and, since 2018, JRS has been their main partner. The center has capacity for 120 people, although in the hardest months of the pandemic they exceeded this number because all the shelters in the area were closed, except for this one and the one in JRS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the meeting with migrant and refugee women, moments of emotion were experienced as they shared the interpretation of ‘La l\u00ednea’ and ‘La puerta violeta’. ” We have to open many violet doors”,<\/strong> said Fernando Lopez, JRS Ecuador Director, at the close of the meeting. “There are a lot of hard things we live through, but also a lot of joys.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Day 2: Santo Domingo and gender colloquium<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Special Education Unit of Fe y Alegr\u00eda in Santo Domingo accompanies more than 150 students with disabilities, focusing its work on the transition to working life <\/strong>of its students through entrepreneurship or their involvement in different productive sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Tuesday was visited by Rozal\u00e9n and Beatriz, who had the opportunity to get to know the work of this and inclusion center<\/strong>, and toured the facilities of the center. 4 classroom-workshops<\/strong> (the audiovisual classroom, the home classroom, the painting and silk-screen printing workshop and the sewing workshop) in which hearing-impaired and intellectually disabled young people from Santo Domingo receive training in the following areas integral accompaniment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There was a super big change in me when I learned sign language. As it evolved, I felt that it was my language and my identity<\/strong>,” explained Juan Carlos, a former student and now a teacher at the center, during the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatriz and Rozal\u00e9n shared a moment of music and art<\/strong> with students and their families, with an emotional dramatization entitled “The life of a deaf person” and an artistic representation of the song “Sunflowers” starring the students themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colloquium on violence, gender and education<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year in Ecuador 172 women were killed by gender violence<\/strong> (including transfeminicides). Of these deaths, 11 were under 18 years of age and 5 were over 65 years of age. In 46% of the cases, the femicide had a sentimental link or was part of the victim’s circle of trust. In addition, these femicides left 161 minors orphaned because 53% of the victims (93) were mothers. The murder of women has also been linked to other previous crimes such as disappearances, trafficking or sexual abuse<\/strong>. “Behind each of these official figures there are women and girls with names and surnames. We must put a face to this violence and analyze its causes.” With these data and this reflection, educator Genit Barberan (Fe y Alegr\u00eda’s zonal accompanier) started the colloquium promoted by Fe y Alegr\u00eda Santo Domingo. A colloquium to which Rozal\u00e9n and Beatriz Romero were invited, along with families, teachers and students of the school. Ver\u00f3nica Proa\u00f1o, a teacher at the Bernab\u00e9 de Larraul school (San Miguel de los Bancos) stated: “The school has the obligation to make equality visible, name and refer to it through, for example, the use of inclusive language, the creation of safe spaces, socialization and the creation of mechanisms for expression and denunciation. The educational center must be prepared for identity searches and also the non-rejection of diversity and, above all, to flee from the naturalization of violence”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together -teachers, principals, students, mothers and fathers- discussed the different alternatives that the school can propose. And they analyzed the lyrics of Rozal\u00e9n’s songs such as “La puerta violeta” or “Girasoles”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rozal\u00e9n and Beatriz were also able to narrate and comment on their experiences and impressions regarding the power of music to generate transformation<\/strong> and support dynamics of inclusion and equality: “To help Maria’s message reach more people is a gift. Having deaf people and their families come to a concert… I couldn’t have imagined it. It has given her a prominence that I had not seen before and that helps to normalize sign language and encourages more people to learn,” she said. Beatriz<\/strong>. “Thank you for this much-needed debate. We have to keep moving forward… For example, in our field, we have hardly had female singer-songwriters, but there are more and more of us. Many women tell me ‘I feel represented by you’. We need more women leaders, women in leadership, women and men like you opening spaces for equality and from education. Thank you for inviting us, for sharing your struggles and your work,” she said. Rozal\u00e9n<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n