Creative Integration

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Raul Juarez will tell you that improv is not just for actors. Instead, he says, everyday situations require a clear, nimble mind. And so, improv is for life.

An actor from Mexico City, Juarez has a presence - understanding eyes, finessed movements, powerful posture and a slick, black ponytail.

He is unique in a valley where the Latino community is rapidly growing. Juarez is one of the very few people, if not the only person, in town who is actively bringing Spanish language fine arts instruction to Jackson’s Spanish-speaking community. Juarez puts on events ranging from puppet shows for children to improv workshops for adults. Currently, the Teton County Library sponsors his workshops, but Juarez also provides some of his own resources to keep his classes free of charge.

Juarez hopes to offer more advanced classes in the future, but for now he wants to see more students in the workshops he currently offers. He thinks that inter-cultural workshops open to people of different backgrounds could really change the community, but also says it will take time, collaboration and organizations who truly serve the whole community.

In a recent interview, Juarez tells Planet Jackson Hole about bringing performing arts to his culture, and what it will take to bring Jackson’s cultures together.
Planet Jackson Hole: What is your background in theatre, and how did you wind up in Jackson?

Raul Juarez: I was here in Jackson because I was looking for something different in my personal life. I was living in Cuba, basically as a director of films. I have a bachelor’s degree in acting, and I have different degrees in things like pantomime and puppetry that I learned in countries like Argentina, Chile and Venezuela.

My life changed a little after Cuba, and I decided to take some time off and decided to come to Jackson, to America. I have been living in Jackson for 10 years, because I like this town, I like the people and I stayed.

I came for myself, but now I’m staying because I see that the Latino community does not have many programs or choices for cultural opportunities.

PJH: You have mentioned that it is difficult to get people involved in your workshops. Why is that?

RJ: I think the main thing that keeps people from participating is work. Many people are here first for work. We also don’t have good communication between the Mexican and American communities here.

Probably the American culture is thinking, “Hey, this is a worker.” That person is not a worker, that person is a human. They have many things to show and many things to say.

PJH: What do you think could help get more people involved in your classes or any other cultural events?

RJ: The newspaper, the radio. Translating into Spanish or any language. It means a lot to say, “Come here if you are Russian, or come here or if you are Mexican.” So, any events that these community organizations put on, if they just put a small phrase of invitation, then people will feel the warmth. If you are reading a newspaper and it is all written in Spanish, and there is a small phrase in English saying “Come here, and enjoy this with us,” even if you have no idea what is going on there, you will say, “Hey, I’m going to go inside.”

It is very important to create an honest organization that is really for the community.
PJH: How would you describe the Latino arts and culture scene in Jackson?

RJ: I can see a mix of the cultures between Mexican and U.S. culture. It is hard to create another culture between both cultures, between Mexican and U.S. culture, but there is one growing. That is my purpose, to see what happens with this middle culture.
Basically all my experience is through the library, they have translators and have many programs in Spanish, and have contact with the schools and kids. Because if you start now, when you are young, they will have a better conception of why the Mexican, Columbian or Peruvian person is here. Something very interesting is growing in Jackson, and the town will look very different in a few years.

PJH: Are there any other artists in town - such as painters, sculptors or musicians - in the Latino community, who could have a greater impact on the Latin or American communities?

RJ: I know some painters and sculptors, but they work alone. They have the same problem as me. We don’t have many sponsors, we don’t have many people trying to welcome the kinds of workshops we would teach. In this town, for the Latino community, there is a necessity for these people’s work. They want to speak, they want to show many of the things they have inside of them, and I think theater is a good way to show these things.

PJH: It must have been intimidating to try to teach acting or bring performing arts to a Spanish speaking community where there wasn’t anyone doing that already.

RJ: Yes, but I should explain my story a little more. I came to Jackson, and never in my life had I worked in other areas, just acting. So when I started to work, my ideas changed completely. For the first time, I knew what it meant to receive a paycheck for working hard, like really working. And I said, OK, this is a therapy for me - this is good for my mind and good for my body to have another experience. With that experience, I witnessed more about my community. I witnessed why my culture was not growing in this town. I witnessed why the American people did not understand or integrate with my culture. Now that is still my mission after 10 years in Jackson.

PJH: Do you think that Jackson will change, or Jackson will begin to integrate more with the Hispanic culture?

RJ: Jackson has changed. The American people understand our celebrations and want to know why we do those celebrations, and that is very important for our culture because Mexican, Brazilian, Peruvian cultures - those are all American as well – we are American.

People of the United States call themselves American. When you are born here, your government, your teachers and your parents say, ‘you are American.’ When we are born we hear, ‘you are Mexican’ or ‘you are Brazilian,’ but, still, you are American. We are living, everyone, in America.

That conception about the Hispanic or the Latino is a word invented to describe a group, to separate a group. In my perception, that is not right. Everyone is human around the globe, and everyone, in this case, is American.

PJH: So your mission in Jackson is to try to tie together these different American cultures?

RJ: Everyone has a mission here. Maybe many of the people in the globe are avoiding their mission, but many people are working for the trees, working for the animals and that is important. If I think that in my work, I can help create more of a united culture, then that will be very good in the future. We can have more world relationships. We don’t need to hide from anything.

PJH: In the workshop yesterday, there was one exercise where people described a flower, and in another a circus. These are things that all people have in their cultures, or in their life. Does that exercise reflect your goals?

RJ: That is so important. I saw some very interesting things yesterday. You had your eyes closed and were thinking about your breathing. When you started to create that image for yourself, you created, or recreated that moment in the minds of the other people. They then see how the circus was for them as a kid. That is a universal moment, a very natural moment. We try to return to being kids because when we are kids we are very normal people. When you are a kid you can have contact with kids from a different country, and a different language, and you can play with him. But an adult might say, “Hey, I don’t understand this guy. I don’t want to learn Ukrainian or Italian. I want to stay with my friends,” because you are tired, and you don’t want to think. That is one of the problems of humans, is they don’t want to think or don’t want to feel.

PJH: Because they have already decided who they are, or who you want to be?

RJ: Yes, you have already decided what your supposed personality is. That’s why there exists political fighting, or fighting between small groups or religions. Because we close our mind, our eyes our heart to the rest of the people.

PJH: What is the future of your work in Jackson?

RJ: I try to reach first my own community, because I think in the future the Latino community can show their ideas, then the American culture can be more receptive to these ideas. Each day another artist may be coming here to the United States, and each personality will bring the possibility to grow the culture.

Photo by DEREK DILUZIO
Juarez pantomimes a face-eating hand.

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Creative Integration | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories

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