Beatriz Alcaine

In a country still scarred and divided by political and social conflict, Beatriz Alcaine is creating new opportunities for artistic and cultural expression to promote tolerance and understanding among people of diverse backgrounds and opinions.

In 1991, just before the end of El Salvador’s twelve-year civil war, Beatriz Alcaine conceived and established La Luna (the Moon), an institution unlike any other in Central America. She combined the income-generating component of a restaurant with performance space for theater and music, a gallery for art work, areas for video and film projection, and workshops for discussions and seminars. Over the past five years she has confronted head-on two myths that are pervasive in El Salvador – that art and culture are the exclusive domain of the privileged classes, and that creative expression must be linked to particular political objectives. La Luna is the only self-sustaining cultural forum in the region, and courageously insists on presenting works and performances from all points of the ideological spectrum, through a firm conviction that a multi-disciplinary artistic center is an important instrument for promoting pluralism, tolerance and creativity at all levels of society.

Because her establishment is confined to a particular physical location in the capital, Beatriz is determined to expand its influence to other areas by creating La Luna Errante(the Wandering Moon), a touring enterprise that will visit cities and towns across the country, presenting acts and exhibits from elsewhere while at the same time coordinating with cultural organizations to introduce local artists and musicians. This innovative approach will enable her to expand the population’s access to and appreciation for creative expression, while contributing to the broader objective of using culture to encourage reconciliation, respect and understanding among different sectors of the society. Given the common recent experience of conflict and polarization throughout the Central American isthmus, and the corresponding repression and closure of spaces for artistic expression, Beatriz is also helping to launch a regional movement for the promotion of participatory cultural activities.

El Salvador is struggling to emerge from a period of tremendous social conflict marked by sharply divergent ideological interpretations of the country’s history and prospects.

After nearly two decades of violence and extreme tension, the political movements behind the civil war were able to reconcile and agree on electoral and institutional mechanisms for resolving their differences, and a new democratic era was ushered in by the signing of Peace Accords in 1992. Unfortunately, however, deeply ingrained prejudices and animosities that extended throughout the society could not simply be erased by the stroke of a pen, nor could pluralistic or tolerant attitudes be developed overnight. As a result, despite the advances engendered by the political resolution of the conflict, deep rifts continue to cut across Salvadoran society, along various lines. The benefits of a post-war economic recovery have yet to reach the large informal sector of the work force, so that class tensions still run high. These economic woes have contributed to an alarming increase in violent crime, especially among young people who have neither appropriate institutions for expressing and resolving their concerns, nor significant prospects for finding gainful employment. Intergenerational differences have also grown more acute as globalizing processes introduce music and entertainment options for young people that are less comprehensible or attractive to their parents.

Years of war, including the suppression of artistic activity which was deemed “subversive,” also contributed to a significant reduction in the cultural life of the country. Many writers, musicians and performers went into exile, where they were exposed to new forms, tendencies and creative opportunities. However, when they returned to El Salvador there were few outlets through which they could bring their insights to bear on the social reality of their country. “Culture” had evolved to the point where one variant was accessible only to the wealthy, through exclusive galleries or closed performances, while another maintained an “underground” character and was used as an instrument of protest. It was not until the creation of La Luna that these variants and their adherents could coexist in one place, such that cultural activity could begin to play a role in facilitating dialogue and tolerance among sectors which had to that point been completely at odds.

While no single initiative could possibly address all the sources of conflict and tension, there was a clear need for spaces and experiences which could bring Salvadorans together across political, class and even generational lines. Beatriz opened La Luna in the firm belief that it could foster more creative attitudes and contribute to the diminution of social tension by establishing itself as a cultural center where various constituencies would feel welcome. This inauguration coincided with the emergence of an optimistic national mood inspired by the end of the war, and La Luna became an immediate gathering point for artists, intellectuals, politicians and ordinary citizens who came out to see their more illustrious compatriots. Beatriz began by focusing her energies on attracting as diverse a series of performances and exhibitions as possible, so as to assure both her creative clients and the public that La Luna would not be identified with any particular political or social tendency. She also had to dedicate attention to the management side of the establishment, with particular regard to the challenge of how to make her institution both self-sustaining and accessible to people of more humble means.

As she worked through these challenges, relying on her innate entrepreneurial abilities in the absence of any formal training on the business end, Beatriz sought to broaden the impact and appeal of La Luna. She began a series of discussion groups for women, to address their role in post-war society, then opened her facilities on Saturday afternoons to children to participate in art workshops that encourage them to develop their creative potential by painting and building models, using recycled materials to promote environmental awareness. To this point she has worked with over 160 musical groups, 10 dance groups, 12 repertory companies and more than 40 painters, sculptors and photographers. Her example has inspired others to set up restaurants and cafes loosely modeled on La Luna, but Beatriz is concerned that the concentration of these establishments in the capital, not to mention the prices charged to guarantee sustainability, will tend to make such spaces accessible only to the middle class.

As a result, Beatriz has developed a strategy for expanding the impact of her cultural initiatives. In the short run, she is building relationships with radio stations so as to create programming and advertising that will feature the performances she has attracted to La Luna, as well as explanations of the philosophy of tolerance and mutual respect that underlies them. She has coordinated efforts with the Ministry of Culture and the City of San Salvador to broaden the scope of activities included in the annual city festival (“fiestas patronales”), giving her access to the tens of thousands of visitors from all backgrounds who stream through the fairgrounds in the first week of August. She is also one of the founders of a region-wide movement called EN-RED-ARTE (“In the Art Network,” a play on the meaning of the three words when run together in Spanish – “to get yourself caught up in something.”) This organization, which brings together creative people from throughout Central America, is dedicated to the study, production, diffusion and promotion of art and culture, and has built a network to facilitate the flow of information as well as to stimulate the exchange of performances and exhibits between countries. Beatriz is also developing plans for a more innovative and ambitious effort to share culture as a means of fostering social harmony. She aims to assemble a caravan of several vehicles which will travel to towns across the country, introducing new forms of cultural expression into their traditional festivals, linking with existing art and music groups in the area, and supporting a large measure of its activities through the sale of food and beverages. La Luna Errante would in this way be able to reach a far broader and diverse audience than those who can visit the fixed establishment in San Salvador. In this way Beatriz feels she would be able to reach her ultimate objective – the advent of a new chapter in Salvadoran history wherein the flowering of cultural activity helps inspire more creative responses to social issues, while promoting understanding, respect and tolerance for different points of view.

Like so many other Salvadorans, Beatriz had her life torn apart by the civil war. As a young teenager in the late 1970s, she was introduced to violence and social polarization when her mother, who worked for a progressive radio station, was stalked, threatened, and eventually driven into exile by death squads. Beatriz and her sister spent time in the United States and Mexico before returning to El Salvador in 1984 to visit their grandparents. They were dragged out of their home at dawn the day they were due to return to Mexico, tortured and falsely accused of being messengers for the guerrilla organizations, and Beatriz ended up spending 22 days in a jail for women political prisoners. The experience transformed her, not only by awakening her to new insights into the depth of social injustice in her country, but also by building her strength and commitment to working for a better world. At the same time, she was sickened by the petty squabbling among opposition groups, and convinced that she did not want to fall into the trap of being identified with a particular ideological tendency.

Beatriz feels particularly grateful to her parents for allowing her to travel at an early age. As a girl she spent a summer in Norway at an international children’s camp, an experience that profoundly impressed on her the breadth and diversity of cultures and traditions in the world. Later in life she had the opportunity to live in France, Mexico and Nicaragua, developing the twin poles of her professional career – artistic expression (especially dance), and communications. All these influences helped shape her commitment to the promotion of broad social dialogue and respect for varying viewpoints. She sees La Luna as the providential and logical confluence of this commitment with her artistic roots.