Can art and culture alleviate violence in Guayaquil?

Guayaquil has suffered a significant peak of violence in 2022. Until the end of last November, the National Police reported 1,385 murders in Zone 8, which includes Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón. Talking about art and culture in a violent city seems even utopian. However, art and violence have links that are not obvious to the naked eye.

The levels of violence have different causes and edges. According to Luis Cordovadirector of the Order, Conflict and Violence research program at the Central University of Ecuador, the “violent culture” is the result of a failure of educational public policy and the lack of opportunities for young people. It also points to the concept of culture as a “toolbox” used to understand the world, develop ways to change it, and create community cohesion, coined by the Israeli theorist Itamar. Even-Zohar.

This “cultural repertoire”, according to Zohar, is developed by artists: writers, painters, filmmakers, sculptors and so on. Cordova points to the “degradation” of the cultural repertoire as one of the reasons for the spiral of violence that the Main Port and the country are experiencing.

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However, art does not only coexist with violence. In Guayaquil there are public and private institutions that carry out the cultural management of the city with the vision that the promotion of cultural and artistic expressions among citizens can influence a change in the “violent culture” that is taking over the country, according to Cordova.

Foreign examples and insights

Juan Luis RestrepoColombian musician and cultural manager who was in charge of executing public policies regarding the artistic and cultural sector in Bogotá, relates the current situation of Guayaquil with the examples of cities such as Bogotá and Medellín. Much of the work of developing successful cultural and artistic activities in these cities, according to Restrepo, was to change the perception of citizens about the danger of public space and certain sectors considered more problematic.

Give the example of the program Festivals in the Park. “Today people see them as very large free concerts, but in reality their origin has to do with a strategy by the city to change the perception of insecurity in Bogotá”says Restrepo.

Another important effort carried out in these cities was the promotion of a mass public transport system that, says Restrepo, made suburban neighborhoods considered dangerous more accessible, and invited citizens to explore their own city. Art and culture were used in the cases of Bogotá and Medellín so that their citizens feel comfortable using public space again and so that they trust the “other” more.

Art as a link

Understanding and knowing the “other” is essential for the promotion of cultural events in Guayaquil for Fernando Insua, cultural director of the Garza Roja Foundation. “People don’t know their own city. They don’t walk, they don’t go out, so they are filled with taboos and myths.”. He also points out that another factor to tear down these “taboos” and “myths” is to expand the sphere of cultural and artistic events.

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For Insúa, exposing a greater number of people to opportunities to express themselves culturally and artistically can be a factor that, together with other public policies, can help reduce the rates of violence, which is consistent with the UNESCO slogan on the culture, which considers the development of cultural industries as a motor of economic, social and environmental development.

“When you allow a certain sector to express itself through art, to let off steam, to make public what happens to it, there is an influence on places, on people”, says Insúa. He shares with Restrepo that the efforts of the cultural and artistic sector must be accompanied by stronger public policies in the fields of education, public health and infrastructure development.

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art and community

The Garza Roja Foundation works together with the community that surrounds the headquarters of its cultural park in Nobol. Point out the project School of Arts Phi Sculpture, whose students are originally from Nobol and many of them were workers in the Garza Roja Park or farmers. Thanks to the work of the foundation, they are now sculptors capable of sculpting “true monuments”, says Insúa.

In Guayaquil, the Garza Roja Foundation supports artists in neighborhoods where state aid “does not reach”, according to Insúa. For example, they provide music recording spaces. From this initiative to support artists in sectors where there is no state support, many events have emerged, Insúa refers, such as short story, poetry and art festivals.

Natalia Tamayo Y Luis Paezteachers of the University of the Artsa public higher education institution, run a community outreach project called Pacha Project. This was born in April 2020 and consists of the creation of cultural spaces, mobile libraries and the organization of artistic training workshops in marginalized sectors. They work together with schools and community foundations, such as the Hilartes Community Association, which promotes cultural development, and the Karibu Foundation, which promotes the development of Afro art and culture.

The project, which has involved more than 1,000 students since its inception, began with a focus on two sectors: Mount Sinai and Trinitaria Island. One of the purposes of the Pacha Project is to work together with the community to raise cultural rights as essential.

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Tamayo points out that the project has produced important results, such as the creation of a library called El Garaje, a garage converted by university students into a cultural space. “We are already seeing how many children in the area join the artistic workshops”Tamayo says. “These alternative educational processes provide a horizon of life and tranquility to their families.”

The students, says Páez, go through an acclimatization process: at first they attend the project activities with a bit of fear, but later they are “happy” to visit the communities.

Páez indicates that this evolution that the students go through as part of the project responds to a process of destigmatization of certain sectors of the city. When students visit the community, Páez says, they realize that there is “a life beyond violence”.

“If people begin to see that there are other types of activities that are not only related to violence or drugs, then alternatives to life are presented for these people”says Páez. However, he also clarifies that the project will not transform the socioeconomic reality of the community if it is not accompanied by structural changes proposed from public policy.

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Insúa and Restrepo agree with Páez on the transformative power of art within society. However, they stress that art alone cannot carry the full weight of social change efforts on its shoulders. “The artistic sector cannot be required to solve the problem of violence on its own”emphasizes Restrepo. (YO)