Traveling painter arrives in Nicaragua on his mission to “change the world”

Nicaragua (AFP).- With no other instruments than fingers, paint, a piece of glass and imagination, the Venezuelan painter Manuel Gallardo, known as Tote, visits Nicaragua as part of his mission to “change the indifference of the world” through of his art.

The 53-year-old Venezuelan, who has traveled to different countries with his street art that he calls “Tote’s utopia”, teaches painting workshops in two care centers for street children and children with disabilities in the city of Granada (southwest) .

Before arriving in Nicaragua Tote was in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Gallardo, who declares himself an “activist” and “humanist”, has traveled to Africa and Asia with his art with which he “tries to change the indifference of the world (…) even if it is a utopia, but it is always a purpose ( …) now I am in Granada”, he considers.

“These kids lack the magic of colors,” says Tote, as he sits on the floor with a group of disabled children to teach them how to create landscapes using their fingers as a brush, paint, and a piece of mirror as a canvas.

In his tour of different countries, Tote says that he looks for places where “the evicted of society’s indifference” are, as he calls children with disabilities, diseases such as cancer or minors living on the streets.

“When I arrive, their faces light up with happiness because they come out of their tragedy, whatever they have, with the colors,” he says.

In his trot around the world, Tote says that it was in Cambodia where he became aware of his mission.

“The tragedy of Cambodia, I have not seen it in other countries (…) there I saw all the human tragedies with children: war victims, mutilated, orphans, children with cancer; all the evils were in that country, that’s when I changed, ”he says, about this country that was hit by civil war and genocide in 1967 and 1975).

The director of the NGO Centro Integral Corazón Contento, Patricia Fernández, told AFP that Gallardo’s altruistic work “has visible results” in young people, mainly with autism problems.

“It’s amazing how they don’t have a verbal language but they use this Tote technique of painting with the mirror to express themselves and communicate emotions,” he adds.

Helen Vallecillo, one of the students in a workshop offered by the NGO Casa de la Botella -which cares for street children-, valued Tote’s teachings as “an opportunity to learn something”, because she and other friends cannot pay a painting class nor do they have sufficient resources for it.

The director of the House of the Bottle, Yisa Mairena, valued that Tote’s technique of finger painting is good for children because “they keep their minds busy and they can imagine and make very beautiful things in glass.