Community Project
Grabación mujeres – Comunidad de San Isidro Llano Grande Coperativa de Tostadas de Corozo “Mujeres Unidas”
-I do, but I have to hear my colleagues’ opinion.-
Each time I question any of the members of Mujeres Unidos, the answer begins in individual and ends in plural. They have been working together on different projects for eight years. They have been working for three years to grow as of roasted corozo, sesame, and peanut toast producers.
I approached them with the suggestion of Genaro Guevara Cortina when I told him about the women’s recording project, a video workshop for women, he told me that it would be best to work with women already organized in some productive process. Under the restrictions of schedules and activities, of tacit rules between husbands and wives, demands of the care of children and others that you do every day, we decided to propose four sessions of two hours each to make a video that portrays some aspect of your everyday life.
The women who agreed to work on this project were Inés, Margarita, Soledad, Ana, and Isabel. They decided that they wanted to document the production process of corozo toast on video. Once the project’s direction was defined, we started working together to build the document. We have met, and during the sessions, we have seen and reflected on the cinematographic work of Maya Deren (At Land, 1944) and Itzel Martinez del Cañizo (Triplests / Trillizos, 2012). We have recorded the process of preparing the toasts, they have been behind and in front of the camera, now we are working on the editing process. The purpose is to build a document that serves to show the process for that this video helps strengthen the business project.
What can I do, as an artist, for a group as valuable as this? I ask myself while I am in this privileged position as a resident of Casa Wabi. I conclude that what I have to do is support, function as another tool for them to achieve their mission, learn from them and understand in practice the meaning of the word tequio (community work), which they mention so often while we talk.
The question I leave now for the Wabi House, how can the foundation and United Women of San Isidro Llano Grande continue the collaboration?