On Saturday, participants completed a week of both community service related and arts oriented workshops, and in this way the week, at least from my point of view, was an apt illustration of the ambiguous nature of social change. That is, I led a workshop in construction work on houses planned by the aid organization Casita Linda and a class on Documentary filmmaking in which participants were challenged to apply the ideals of social change to their own documentary films, and with this combination of activities I observed both hope and discouragement as the participants took their first steps toward practical social change.
Both groups, in fact, experienced this frustrating ambiguity. The construction group set out with high spirits and great energy, contributing to work being done on a house of a family with four young daughters, two children of adult age and a tired mother. They quickly befriended the children who would help with the construction work, and they were diligent in both seeking out miscellaneous tasks on the construction site and performing them with energetic attentiveness despite the heat of the midday sun. I was actually quite impressed with the group who despite the difficult working conditions, pushed themselves to contribute as much as possible in the week allotted.
By the end of the week however, I even joined the group with inkling feeling of discouragement as, to our muted frustration, we soon realized the impossible size of the task we all imagined we were taking part in. Everyone who takes part in this kind of construction work does so with, at least, the innocent desire to help, but the detrimental reality illustrated by the end of our week’s work was that this kind of aidwork will always be, on a large scale insufficient. We all grew to empathize greatly with the family to live in the home we were constructing, but we all knew well that after we would leave, and even after the completion of their home, that kind family would continue to live in a neighborhood where water can only be purchased in large plastic containers transported daily by Coca Cola trucks and where a dirt floor, in neatly packed, is a true indulgence especially when the family of stray dogs bringing fleas and yelping puppies living outdoors can no longer mix their excrement with the house’s foundation thanks to the brick walls built to contain the newly lain dirt. After we return to our comfortable lives with electricity and hardwood floor and refrigerators containing cold mineral enhanced water, this family, no less human than us and in the exact same situation as their endless surrounding neighbors would live on as such, without any just explanation for the disparity. We can build a house for a beautiful group of people, but poverty will continue to thrive, indefinitely, so it seems.
My documentary making class met similar roadblocks. One group set out to document the Mexican publics perspective on social change, intending to prove that anyone can be an agent of social change, no matter age, social class or interest. What they found, however, was that barely anyone in San Miguel Allende had a perspective. They found a few willing souls who gave heartfelt answers, but unfortunately that majority of the individuals they filmed on the streets either didn’t know what to say about the problems and potential for change in Mexico, or like the grandson of a onetime leading politician for Guanajuato state, argued there was nothing they could do. This frankly ugly reality was difficult to swallow for the participants and me alike, but as one of the participants, Roberto, remarked, this is all important to learn and should be documented.
Again I was impressed by the resilience of the group and I must admit I agreed. Both in the construction and documentary making workshops, we learned of a discouraging reality, one more imposing than that expected, but such an education, when met with intelligent idealism, can be cause for further action and therefore hope.
Luke Pizzato (AC '10-'12) - U.S.A.
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