Pahpaki Theater brings puppets and legends to the most remote places

San Salvador Atenco, Mex. The Pahpaki theater group, which aims to rescue the tradition of puppets and tell Mexican legends, has used this art for almost 30 years for its work in social activism and has performed the same in Bordo de Xochiaca before scavengers , than in front of farmers from San Salvador Atenco, in the community of Acatlán in Guerrero, in various towns in Chiapas and even in Cuba.

Pahpaki – a Nahuatl word that means harmony and/or joy – is made up of Daniel Cebada Castañeda and Andrea Arenas Embarcadero. It has eight stagings, between traditional indigenous legends and original creations such as the play star dustwhose theme is consumerism, the monotony that it generates and that with it we stop dreaming of other possible worlds.

“Our idea is to take puppet theater to the most remote places, where people cannot go to the theater, cannot go to the Centro Cultural del Bosque (in Mexico City), it is to bring them as close to a stage as possible, closer to a theater,” said Arenas Embarcadero.

Pahpaki was born telling traditional legends created in towns, seeking to make children and adults imagine and raise awareness of the value of Mexican culture. Furthermore, he makes the performing arts his tool of resistance.

“Puppets are born in the streets to show the stories of the towns, of the people from below, and obviously they have reached the theaters, but the origin is in the town,” said Andrea Arenas.

In recent years, the Pahpaki puppet group has accompanied the farmers of San Salvador Atenco and vice versa; He was there during the struggle that the peasants of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land maintained against the construction of the New International Airport in Mexico, and they belong to the movement.

“Puppet theater and activism are inseparable, it was a way to protest against the injustices of kings,” and before monarchs “the puppeteers said that it was the puppet who was complaining, not the puppeteer, and in this way they saved their heads,” commented Arenas Embarcadero.

“The puppet is a rebellious person par excellence, the puppet is a rebel, it is born from the stories of the town, of the common people, of the market seller, of the lady, of the town’s madman, it tells those seemingly simple stories, but with great depth. of culture. Puppet and people always have to be united,” said Daniel Cebada.

For Andrea Arenas, the struggle of Atenco means “a little piece full of light, of that golden light of a pebble in the heart that every time I come, it fills even more and more with energy, with harmony, when seeing solidarity, camaraderie. When something happens to me in everyday life, at work, in the family, I always tell Daniel ‘let’s go to Atenco to fill myself with energy.'”

The Pahpaki, natives of the Mexican municipality of Ixtapaluca, also seek to rescue the different puppet techniques; They present puppets, shadow theaters, puppet shows.

“We want them to know these traditions, something seemingly as simple as a shadow, like an inanimate object that we give movement, is fantastic for the imagination of children and adults,” said Cebada Castañeda.

Daniel and Andrea considered that there is no interest on the part of municipal and state governments in promoting puppet theater or other artistic disciplines.

“Bringing culture closer to children is essential to keep them away from violence, addictions and technological devices that, far from developing their minds, atrophy them. It would be a fundamental part for the authorities to focus on culture, on the education of children, beyond just little programs that are a little muddy, but that do not really go to the root of the problem,” they stated.