I walk through the Parque de la Ferroviaria, the light wind, the humid heat and the smell of the estuary make you realize that you are there, present.

I go to the small painted building, the Doll’s House Museum. It is half past ten and in a few moments the performance of La ratita presumida will begin.

I’m going with my daughter. We entered the place, decorated with joy and warmth.

In the waiting room, I was amazed by the age diversity in the public, entire families, many elderly people, some in wheelchairs.

Anita von Buchwald’s dolls come to life in a museum located at the foot of the Salado estuary

In the place you are greeted with a warm welcome and a lot of kindness, until the door opens and you see the theater with a red curtain in the background.

On one side of the chairs, part of the collection of more than 400 dolls, hand-made by Guayaquil artist Ana von Buchwald, is displayed.

Three works were exhibited consecutively in front of a group of about 50 spectators, who lived an intimate and unique experience with faces of amazement, laughter and complicity.

Before and after each performance, the actress Marina Salvarezza, a member of the Guayaquil Experimental Theater Foundation, who organizes these performances and the various cultural activities and workshops held in the museum, appeared in front. She, with the passion and energy that has always characterized her, presented the works and anchored the morals and reflections of each of them in the public.

They say that dolls are guardians of collective memory, helping us connect with our roots and better understand our identity.

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Isabel Solé, a professor at the University of Barcelona, ​​believes that the doll is also an emotional therapeutic tool, a person transfers his emotions to the doll and puts his own feelings into the mouth of the character, thus helping parents and teachers to know your inner world in order to help you.

It was moving to see that group of actors with their hands and voices, scenery, lights, sound and production team, all committed to saving this art and heritage, with the sole purpose of sharing it with the participants and improving their lives for through reflection and proximity, aliveness and reality.

The Museum and the Foundation have no funds, but it can be contributed by coming to the ceremony on Sunday, by donating or by participating in the “Adopt a Doll” campaign, a small contribution that helps restore the dolls and spread the presentations to schools and other venues.

After the presentation I walked again with my daughter, bordering the estuary, talking to her about what we had seen. I silently thought about how lucky we are to be able to rediscover these spaces, that these dolls are in such good hands, and that in the midst of technological fascination and fear, these good hands are giving us back the ability to connect and share from the purest human state. (OR)