The 53rd edition of Cervantino International Festival (FIC) concluded this Sunday night with great success after its commitment to attracting a younger audience with current musical proposals, without leaving aside the attraction of theater, music far from commercial success and other art.
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And it is right there where the play based on the pieces of William Shakespeare titled The other Othellorepresented by people deprived of their liberty, in this case the Cereso de León, Guanajuato, who were winners to have this privilege of being part of the most important cultural festival in the country.
“The contest was held among the 11 penitentiary centers that the state has and the winner was chosen thanks to the qualification that specialized cultural personnel determined. This is a very beautiful work because it brings a message and in this case it was that from prison we can do prevention, since The Other Othello speaks of betrayal, heartbreak and a tragedy in the end,” commented Julio César Pérez Ramírez, head of the penitentiary system in the state of Guanajuato.
The art of Cereso de León at the FIC
This is the first time that the Cereso is an important part of the program FICand he did so with this collective adaptation that transforms Shakespeare’s classic into a mirror of memory, confinement and hope, which starred people deprived of their freedom within the Ruelas Project of #53FIC, work that reconstructs the text from the intimate, the painful and the deeply human.
More than 40 voices were present on stage. “And this gave us a new perspective that we can have people who guide us so that we behave correctly because if not there are consequences according to our actions. The inmates want to give society a message and that is that in the darkness there can be positive things,” Pérez Ramírez added.
This is one of the ways in which the penitentiary system works with areas of opportunity and reintegration is what Guanajuato is based on.
“The precise instruction of our lady governor, teacher Libia Dennise García Muñoz Ledo, is to address the causes, to humanize the reintegration centers. And this is achieved with containment work through culture.
“The penitentiary theater has existed for a long time. However, here are the ways in which it is carried out. We made an area to create a cultural building that was built from scratch, where resources, efforts and the participation of all those deprived of liberty in various workshops were invested,” said the head of the state’s penitentiary system.
Convinced that second chances do exist, the corresponding authorities worked hand in hand with the 40 actors on stage, as well as those behind the staging of The Other Othello, such as stagehands, costumes, musicians, light and sound.
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Finally, Julio César Pérez Ramírez clarified that the inmates who are part of the prison theater show a positive attitude as the days go by despite their confinement.
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