- As a market integrated in the structure of REDELAE, Eurolatinoamericana Network of Performing Arts, committed to the purpose of developing the performing arts as a dialogue between cultures, Maps shares the reflections and the claim expressed in the open letter that we publish below:
The COVID 19 - coronavirus pandemic has been leaving dire traces on a global scale. Stopping at the health consequences would contribute little; and the most diverse experts of academic intelligence have added their own, most agreeing on the urgent need for social isolation as the most effective tool to fight the virus; need that has been promoted through the universal slogan Stay at home.
One of the first actions taken around the world has been the cancellation of activities related to face-to-face arts: theater, dance, music and circus shows. Without giving priority to any kind of nuance, the measures left the programming of shows in hundreds of cities on the planet in a "clean slate". The decision goes in the right direction regarding the priority fight: defend people's lives, nothing more valuable than life.
However, it is not new to state that, with exceptions, cultural activity is not part of the priorities of our states. The relevance of culture in government decisions is systematically evidenced in the meager budgets allocated.
Let us add that in continents such as Latin America this scarcity of resources is added a high percentage of workers associated with cultural and artistic activity that are not even formalized, that they do not apply or are covered by any social security scheme. Workers who generate their income to live with the skill of a conjurer, an enigmatic miracle.
Because it is good to remember that artists and creators also have to eat, pay the rent for a roof, have health care, educate their children. To generate these resources is to fight every day to survive and in some cases that fight does not stop until the last breath of their lives.
This obligatory stop of cultural activity triggers and exposes another state of alert: the subsistence of its makers.
These days of confinement cannot be sustained without love, without empathy, without bread, but neither without culture, without art, without music, without cinema, without books.
Since REDELAE We urge all the governments of the world not to forget the cultural workers, not to let them fall, it is necessary to guarantee an income base that allows their subsistence in such hard times.
The reaction has to be now, there is no time to lose.
Sincerely:
