During the COVID-19 lockdown in Venezuela, the artistic
cultural group Zona
de Descarga (meaning “discharge area” or “dump area”) was born. In
the José Felix Ribas neighbourhood in Petare, one of the hardest-hit
communities by COVID-19, the group creates spaces for art and community
togetherness during the pandemic.
With more than one million inhabitants, Petare, located in a district of Caracas, is known for
being one of the largest neighbourhoods in the South American continent. Due to
the city’s high population density and the number of residents who depend on
the informal labour market to survive, this area is particularly vulnerable
during the pandemic.
In Venezuela, food and job insecurity have significantly
increased since March, amidst a scarcity of basic utilities in the country,
including electricity, water, internet and gas.>
Jaime Pérez and his brother Jimmy Pérez, both
organisers of Zona de Descarga, explain to Global Voices through WhatsApp that
the group is a collaborative exercise of deep reflection that aims to connect
with the community through shared cultural-historical references of the Petare
neighbourhood.
Among Petare’s figures who inspire the group are the
painters Bárbaro Rivas, Tito Salas and Jacobo Borges, and the cultural
figure Burriquita de Petare, as well as contemporary figures,
including the sportsman Luis Sojo, model Isabella Rodríguez and the journalist
Luz Mely Reyes.
Events from Zona de Descarga are social-distance compliant,
are designed to entertain the community, and inform residents about
preventative measures against the spread of COVID-19.>
A journalistic piece by @SoyArepita that shows
the development of our organization Zona de Descarga that is creating spaces in
defense of the #DDHH and of a peaceful and non-violent culture.
Disseminating event information during quarantine has been
one of the biggest challenges for the Zona de Descarga team. However, Jaime
explains how they succeed in informing a community that has little access to
the internet, social networks, or smartphones:
We use any means of communication. Our greatest
ally is the community radio Resplandor de Cristo, which helps us on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays to promote Zona de Descarga’s activities.
We have carried out outreach campaigns with
banners and flipcharts, WhatsApp groups of Cine Platabanda where users can
access our film schedules. We also have groups on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram where we share updates of everything we do. Interacting with the
community has been incredible and we are in the process of expanding our team
of volunteers and partners.
At their first cinema event, “Cine Platabanda”, the group
screened the Disney movie “Aladdin”, starring Will Smith, which allowed
residents to escape the daily stress of quarantine and political disputes in the country. In May, the city
experienced a six-day shooting that took place in the José Félix
Ribas neighbourhood:>
Imagination VS Power
#LibroPlatabanda
Space for the free debate of ideas and creation
of consciousness.
Poetry becomes a story to feed the soul,
fostering a passion for reading in the family, a much more humane and just
future.
Nevertheless, violence in the area is not an obstacle for
Zona De Descarga. On June 2, the team created the first Libro
Platabanda (“Rooftop Book”) for which they collected more than 200
books to distribute among local communities. A group of volunteer storytellers
used speakers to tell the story of “The Tree”.
The organizers also emphasize that each activity is carried
out thanks to donations and support from the community, as is the case of the
books that were donated by the Bárbaro Ribas library.>
The #CinePlatabanda in Petare is the best I
have seen on social media since the start of quarantine. Hopefully they will
repeat this in other sectors where people need a few hours to escape the
crisis. Images from @RaynerPenaR.
On June 3, Zona de Descarga held its dance event, Baile
Platabanda (“Rooftop Dance”), in which volunteers with dance skills
participated. The week ended with a rooftop concert by local rappers and
various other musicians. They also performed Ora Plantabanda (“Rooftop
prayer”), to provide a community space for religious expression during the
quarantine period, as congregation centres and prayer spaces remain closed.
Sarai, one of the community’s 11-year-old neighbours, has
attended all of the events:
The Zona de Descarga activities are exciting. We cannot go out, we cannot study. It is supportive, useful and fun.
Sarai a girl from the Unión neighborhood gives us her opinion about the activity and about Zona de Descarga
PETARE IS GOOD NEWS
During the interview, Jaime expressed his love for the neighbourhood and the emotion he feels at being able to help the area where he and his family have grown up:
We want to dream. We are that generation that
fights and loves their community. Despite the social conflicts and inequalities
that we suffer, we live in a constant learning process faced with problems that
are entangled with violence, hatred and resentment that can create noises in
our consciences. We want to transform reality with art and culture.
—
Previously published on globalvoices.org under a Creative Commons License
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