Happy Mother’s Day! Feliz Dia de la Madre!
Mother’s Day is a huge celebration here in Peru, not just within families but all of the schools and many of the churches also have large presentations and celebrations for all of the mothers. Usually on Friday or Saturday the schools have a big show, and the youth groups at the parish decided to collaborate and put on a show for the mom’s Saturday night. Whenever there is a big youth event in the parish it means my week leading up to the event is crazy busy preparing, meeting, and rehearsing.
Our theater group performed two different pieces. The first was a short sketch called “Los Sordos” (The Deafs) and was about a family that misunderstood everything that was said but thought they understood perfectly. It was obviously a comedy, which is something a bit different for our theater group, normally performing religious pieces. But God is in smiles and laughter, and for Mother’s Day we wanted to treat the mothers to a comedy. The group of 4 did a pretty good job, but with only 2 weeks of rehearsal had a few memory slips, not being used to doing pieces with so much dialogue.
The other piece we performed was a bit of mime and interpretive dance to a song by Alex Campos called “Te Quiero” (I Love You). It’s a beautiful song you can check out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLSm3PCR25g
For the verses we had a mother/son pair act out the lyrics and then for the chorus a group of four of us, two women two men, did some dance movements to the song. I was really happy with how it turned out since I created it with a lot of choreography help from Carlos, one of the youth in the group. I think one of the girls filmed it so if I can figure out how to put up a video I’ll try and share. There were many people who told me afterwards the “Te Quiero” piece was probably the best one of the night so that made me proud of the group and how they’ve grown and developed in the last year. This month is the one-year anniversary of TEFA, our theater group, so next week we will probably have a big celebration with Todd, the missionary who formed the group and is coming back to visit this week.
Like all of the Peruvian events/celebrations I’ve participated in here in the last 9 months, it definitely had its kinks and last minute changes and additions. We thought only 4 groups were performing pieces, but a sister and brother from the chapel choir came and wanted to sing a piece, and then the confirmation kids and animators added a dance and some poetry, and a group of little girls wanted to do a dance. Now don’t get the wrong idea about these little girls dancing, it was not cute or precious. The best description I can give for your imagination is “booty dancing” or “stripper dancing.” I am not a fan nor supporter of their main form of entertainment for parties, which is usually a female animator in tight spandex outfit that barely covers the parts it should. And what I find most frustrating is that this is taught to young girls, so that this group of 3 girls who were probably between age 6-10 are in tiny little dance outfits and shaking it for all their worth, moving in very sexually suggestive ways. And with this image and entertainment of women as sexual objects people wonder why there are so many cases of sexual assault against young girls and women?
Back to our Mother’s Day celebration… so we had a few more numbers and were late getting started because there were problems with sound. Exodo (the youth rock band at the parish) was supposed to start the show, but were pushed back to the end with the sound problems. All in all aside from running long and having problems with sound it was a great event and the moms really seemed to enjoy themselves which is the most important part!
In a culture that oppresses women (although really most the cultures/structures of the world are set up to discriminate or marginalize women) it is interesting to see the importance of mother’s day. Many of the mothers here do fit into the image of the suffering, sacrificing, forgiving mother who constantly serves without receiving thanks or credit for her work that keeps the house in order and keeps the family clean and fed. When our theater group was trying to plan what we wanted to do, many of the ideas revolved around the scene of ungrateful children who don’t appreciate their mother until she dies and then they realize how good they had it and how much they were loved and taken care of. This is a common theme in songs and movies here, and seems to fit the reality in Peru in many ways, but we wanted to do something different to bring joy and remind all the moms how much they are loved; not just today, but always. This is also said a lot on Mother’s Day here, that it shouldn’t be the only day to appreciate mothers, rather everyday you can recognize and show your mom how much you care. But we all know that doesn’t always happen, no matter in what country you are living.
So, I want to end this blog with a shout-out to all the mothers out there who tirelessly work each day to care for their families in many different ways and are not adequately valued for the work and love they freely give to their children. Special thanks and recognition to my own mother for giving me life and all her love, as well as my grandmas who gave life to my mom and dad (so they could one day give life to me).
Blessings to all mothers today and everyday!