En un sol amarillo. Memorias de un temblor

En un Sol Amarillo is a work that reflects on tragedy and corruption, and recounts the story of a community faced with devastation. It is based on the earthquake that destroyed dozens of Bolivian communities in 1998. The cities of Aiquile, Totora, Mizque, the rural communities of Antakawa, Loma Larga, Chijmuri, Hoyadas, Chakamayu and others were battered by the quake: homes destroyed, others irreparably damaged, hundreds injured, dozens dead. Teatro de Los Andes travelled to the cities and rural communities to gather horrific accounts. Every line in this work comes from those narratives.

The international community sent all types of aid, which was valued at nearly $30 million. The Bolivian government, through Civil Defence and the Army, organised the distribution of aid and reconstruction. Before long, voices were raised about corruption, theft, misappropriation of funds, abuses of people. We studied the histories of other earthquakes. It seems that in each earthquake, generosity and selfishness coexist. Pettiness and solidarity. Abuses and theft, particularly on the part of the authorities, have been a constant in the earthquakes of Latin America.

An earthquake stops being news the moment the victims start to use it to make calculations. When the cameras get turned off and the reporters leave, the survivors start to get to know the earthquake, to live day after day with what was destroyed, to rebuild. We want to thank the inhabitants of those communities. We hope that this work lives up to their sincerity, that it serves as condemnation and memory, and that it does not betray their disinterested and desperate narratives.