In my experience, Bolivia is the taste of and quirquiña. It’s biting into a salteña and spilling an unpredictable amount of sauce all over myself. It’s jumping into a minibus and being greeted with a ‘buen dia’ by fellow passengers. It’s drinking a multivitamínico juice from a plastic bag on the way to work. It’s thinking that you need a new broom and running into a broom-seller 10 minutes later. And it’s still wondering after years of living there if it’s spelled Avaroa or Abaroa.
It’s sitting in the plaza on the weekend at dusk and sharing a warm api con pastel with friends. It’s waiting for the bus to fill up so it can leave and then encountering a roadblock on the way. It’s finding out that today is dry day, so you cannot purchase alcohol – unless one has good relations with the tienda owner on the corner. There, you will be able to purchase everything that you need, whenever you need it.
There is much more to Bolivia than this limited list, but for people who haven’t grown up here, Bolivia is a riddle that remains unsolved. To gain an understanding of this country is a lifelong quest, but a fulfilling one. In this issue Bolivian Express, we’re looking more intimately into the lives and realities of some aspects of Bolivian life.
We entered the newly built Casa Grande del Pueblo for a sneak peek inside. Our journalist wasn’t too impressed, but we cannot deny the imposing presence the building has in the skyline. Outside the Casa del Pueblo, in the streets of La Paz, over 300,000 streets dogs trot about, a friendly bunch, but their numbers are increasing exponentially and are creating public-health issues.
A few blocks from the Casa Grande is MUSEF, the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore, Director Elvira Espejo Ayca opened the museum’s doors and showed us the latest exhibit. Here, objects are more than just pretty artefacts; they tell the story of Bolivia and its inhabitants. And to better understand Bolivia, we had to leave the city. We travelled to Sapahaqui, a few hours south of La Paz. There, our team of journalists escaped the urban frenzy and had lunch with the locals in a hairdresser’s salon.
There’s also a lot to learn about from its people, and for this issue we profiled Bolivian rock star Grillo Villegas, an icon who opened his home to us. Rock is, for many Bolivians, as essential to their culture as the sounds of quena and charango. Bands such as Gun N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC have had profound impacts on local pop culture. Which is why it felt so surprising to realise that there hadn’t been a Hard Rock Cafe in Bolivia until just a few years ago.
Ultimately, one can find Bolivia’s ethos in its artists – poets like Benjamin Chavez, playwrights like Eduardo Calla and cineastes like Alvaro Manzano. They represent a prolific new generation of artists who are inspired by their country but also want to give back with works of quality and substance.
Bolivia is applying Mentisan and feeling immediately better. It’s the people and their innovative spirits and determination. It’s the mountains, the jungles, the festivals, the wildlife. It’s the babies’ red cheeks. It’s home.
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Photos: Ira Lee
A testament to the raw talent that Bolivian theatre has to offer
El Método Grönholm, the highly anticipated show featuring some of the most talented figures in Bolivian theatre, opened in August at the Teatro Nuna in La Paz’s Zona Sur. When the audience walks into the show the stage is bare except for a bizarre assortment of props, including office chairs, a motorcycle helmet, priest vestments and a red clown nose. What ensues after the public is seated is a dark comedy about four candidates vying for an executive position at a major multinational corporation. The selection process takes the form of psychological trials that force the candidates into unscrupulous power plays of manipulation and deceit.
Bringing to life a sharp and engaging script adapted from a text by Catalan playwright Jordi Galcerán, the four actors (Winner Zeballos, Javicho Soria, Natalia Peña and Mauricio Toledo) deliver a strong physical performance with an energy that captivates the audience as the play moves between a witty satirical comedy and a gripping human drama. The story reflects on human relationships, on the way people present themselves and treat one another, and on the masks people use to get what they want. The interaction between characters and the movement of the ensemble play an essential role in conveying the development of these power dynamics. This is what the actors do so brilliantly. Not only do they effectively use their voices and bodies to stake the claim of their individual characters, but they also work with and against each other to vividly evoke the human conflicts of the story.
The play moves between a witty satirical comedy and a gripping human drama.
In addition to the cast’s performance, virtually every aspect of the play is well executed. From the writer’s sharp dialogue to the lighting and tech design, every step of the process provides a strong platform for the actors to keep us laughing and thinking on the edge of our seats. El Método Grönholm is a genuine testament to the incredible raw talent Bolivian theatre has to offer.
This is the fifth play put on this year by Teatro Punto Bo. Eduardo Calla, the executive producer of the initiative, describes the project as a ‘platform of sustainability, producing and distributing theatre in Bolivia.’ The aim is to ‘create a regular series of theatre productions in La Paz as a starting point. Shows of high quality, theatre that is artistically and technically well done, to reach new audiences and foster a theatre-going public.’
If creating a regular, sustainable theatre scene in Bolivia is the main objective, money is going to be a prime concern. With limited state funding, Bolivian theatre productions tend to have smaller budgets, and theatre companies cannot put on shows as frequently as they would like. This reduces the engagement of the theatre-going public and restricts the activities of the theatre community in the country. According to Calla, who is an accomplished theatre director in his own right and has trained and worked in theatre outside of Bolivia, ‘this is a very Latin American reality.’
The sheer scale of the theatre industry beyond the region, in cities like New York, London, or Berlin, is tremendous when put into perspective. ‘It is incomparable,’ Calla says. ‘In those countries, there is funding, there are systems and infrastructure for theatre.’ Although Bolivia also has a theatre system, it is not in the same condition as the theatre industries in the United States or Europe. Without legal, political, or economic support artists must make do with what they have. Fortunately, what Bolivian artists do have in abundance is creativity and talent and projects like Teatro Punto Bo have made it their mission to refine this advantage.
The shows put on by Teatro Punto Bo also aim to incorporate talent from outside the world of theatre. The cast of El Método Grönholm, for example, features four actors with different backgrounds. Natalia Peña and Mauricio Toledo have spent years working in theatre in a traditional sense, whereas Winner Zeballos is better known for his work in an underground experimental performance circuit, and Javicho Soria is a stand-up comedian by trade. Mauricio Toledo frequently works in film and has also worked as a TV presenter. Even the director, Álvaro Manzano, is primarily a filmmaker and El Método Grönholm marks his debut as a theatre director. The diversity of the talent involved has made his theatre debut an exciting and successful experience.
‘At first it was quite difficult to coordinate a rehearsal schedule that worked for everyone,’ says Manzano, adding that the final product was worth the effort. ‘Having a cast that is too uniform or similar would have made it a bit drab and stale,’ he explains, ‘the performance would have been restricted.’ A crossover of talents and performance styles helps to invigorate a theatre scene and ensure Teatro Punto Bo’s objective of delivering shows of a high standard. The decision to assemble a cast of diverse backgrounds was also useful for the play because the different performance styles complemented the personalities of the characters who clash in the story. With the audience circling the square stage on all sides, ‘The actors are like four lab rats in a box whose words and actions are being observed, judged and interpreted by us, the audience’, Manzano says.
‘The actors are like four lab rats in a box whose words and actions are being observed, judged and interpreted by us, the audience.’
—Álvaro Manzano, director of El Método Grönholm
Given the raw talent of the acting ensemble, the show is entertaining regardless of which side of the stage you sit on. With shows like this, one should be optimistic about the future of theatre in Bolivia. Initiatives like Teatro Punto Bo are slowly building a theatrical ecosystem to deliver more high-quality plays and do justice to the creative potential of Bolivian artists.
Photo: Iván Rodriguez Petkovic
La Paz is home to the brand’s highest franchise so far
‘The museum for people who don’t like museums’ is how general manager Rafael Pérez describes the global Hard Rock Cafe chain. The Hard Rock is one of the few international brands that has the ability to change people's travel plans and incite a certain loyalty.
La Paz’s own chain is no different, having recently hosted the 320th and 280th visit of two intrepid Hard Rockers. ‘It’s an important part of tourism in La Paz,’ says Pérez, and numbers are expected to rise for this kind of visitor as the La Paz location remains fairly new. It will celebrate its first anniversary on 21 September 2018.
La Paz is a city with a strong rock ’n’ roll culture. In fact, the ‘Hard Rock’ name has already been used here before, albeit entirely unofficially by a bar formerly in the city centre. So why did it take so long for La Paz to have its own official offshoot of the brand? ‘The Hard Rock franchise is committed to finding local owners and investors…people who know the place and are Bolivians, not Americans or Europeans,’ Pérez says.
It’s not just a matter of money when it comes to obtaining a Hard Rock license and opening a cafe; the corporation undertakes market research and chooses the location. The Hard Rock Cafe in La Paz is found inside the MegaCenter mall in Zona Sur, a locale more accommodating toward a 89 bolivianos (US$13) burger; however, its location does mean tourists, who usually congregate in the city’s centre, ‘have to look for us,’ says Pérez. ‘It can be a good reason, though, for people to come down here [to Zona Sur] and discover another part of La Paz.’
‘The museum for people who don’t like museums.’
—Rafael Pérez, general manager of Hard Rock Cafe La Paz
But no matter where they are in the world, Hard Rock Cafes have 80 to 90 percent of their menus in common. The La Paz branch has its own local variations, such as a singani cocktail and a Bolivian-inspired burger to be revealed on the bar-restaurant’s anniversary. When asked what ingredients this burger might include, the only hint given is that it will be ‘made with love.’
For tourists or expats hunting familiar fare or taking a day off from foreign flavours, the Hard Rock might be the cure for homesickness (or perhaps just physical sickness) here in La Paz – especially since there are no McDonald’s in the country.
Punters who do make their way to the city’s Hard Rock Cafe will find an impressive display of memorabilia, with a number of items from international stars as well as Bolivia’s own rock group Octavia.
‘It’s a point of pride that La Paz has a Hard Rock Cafe,’ Pérez says. Hard Rock Cafes are limited to one per city (Las Vegas and New York being among the exceptions). Bolivia now has two, the other in Santa Cruz, which opened in 2014.
