i dreamt
when i was seven; i saw monkey paws and green massive tree soldiers gobbled up by matas enredadas en una selva... Inside she happened, and its been 17 years since i began to glue her mermaid shingles to my legs.
Far far off in another dimension of pure possibility, i woke up in a fever of her. i dreamt after, and again, an never seeming to begin, i kept sinking deeper swallowed by the abyss of my imagination`s kiss awakenned:
In January of 2005, I was finally able to live one of my most longed dreams to make it to Brazil. Without a plan I followed my intuition on a life changing trip which I began at my roots in Chile with my infinite family members. One long awaited day I crossed the border to Mendoza, Argentina, and adventured through to Buenos Aires and then the Iguazu falls. On the 27th of April I got on a bus with my friend and crossed the border to Brazil. Finally, after multiple 20 hour bus rides all the way from Chile, I arrived to my long awaited destiny in Rio de Janeiro. In a matter of days, I found my self bombarded by a domino effects of doors which opened new worlds, passions and opportunities for me.
The first door that opened was a commision to paint a mural, which I worked on for a total of about 70 hours in the next couple months. This led me to a job designing the floor plan for a club and working on a 10 foot mosaic on the bar top. Meanwhile I also began to work in an NGO called the Peoples Palace Project (PPP), where I participated as a visual artist in divers projects that facilitate and encourage the communication and confront the taboos between prisoners and prison-guards. The PPP also works with the youths in the favelas, who are at risk or have family members in the penitentiary system. In June, I was invited to give visual art workshops with the objective of enhancing the possibilities of possible material and process to arrive at a unique and individual expression of each participant. I held this workshop in a Women’s penitentiary for 10 prisoners as well as in the NGO for the actual artists working there who are trained in dance and theatre and wanted to learn different methods of expression for their own work in the Brazilian communities. This experience deeply impacted me as an individual and as an artist. It also allowed me to see the possibility of empowerment to individuals and community by using art as the means of expression.
Another Step
On July 19th I got back to Montreal just in time to celebrate my sisters 27th birthday. I started working right away in a Chilean restaurant (aka "la Chilenita"-the best hot sauce and empanadas around!!), and soon decided to dedicate my energies to keep pushing my dreams. I applied to an internship at Alternatives, and that was it, my stars alligned once again in crazy synchronisity! After making it past the application process and the 9 hour interview with 50 other people, 19 of us where chosen to make up the next interns for Africa and South-East Asia. I had intially had my heart set on going back to Brazil, but seeing as thought the internships were not going that way I decided that India was my next destination. Two weeks into the internship, one of our coordinators Eve Belanger (whom I share a crazy "for realla on the real" synchronisity, because we had met in Rio just a couple of months prior on Ipanema beach) had decided to go back to Rio and work for an organisation she had been volunteering at before called Afro Reggae. At her good bye party, she took me to the side and asked me if i would "mind" that if on this internship I be sent back to Brazil and work with her in Afro Reggae. It happened that a new position had opened up for Brazil, and because of my recent experience there and my newly aquiered knowledge of portugues (or more precisely "portunol"- my mix of portuguese and spanish). It was perfect, and I was completly overwhelmed and incredibly feliz that they chose me, and that my destiny had unraveled to bring me back to the place of my dreams.