Mexico – Clowns Without Borders USA

Hope Takes Center Stage: Clowns Bring Laughter to Acapulco After Otis

Maggie Cunha, MPH — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:19:48 +0000

Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 behemoth, slammed directly into Acapulco. Less than six weeks later, Clowns Without Borders (CWB) performed for people who endured the most.

This post focuses on one particular community in the region: Los Órganos.

The photos and stories from this performance are full of color and energy. We couldn’t, in our right minds (loosely defined), not share them with you.

May these photos and stories brighten your day!

All quotes are from CWB Artist Leora Sapon-Shevin.

Laughter Becomes Lifeblood in Los Órganos (‘The Organs’)

Darina Robles invites kids on stage to help her tell a story in Los Órganos. Photo by Guillermo Caballero (as are all photos in this post).

Los Órganos is in Acapulco, but it is not a tourist area.

Children grow up surrounded by violence, drug activity, and criminal groups. There is danger all around and there are few safe places to laugh and play.

Hurricane Otis’s fury wasn’t limited to homes and municipal buildings. It also unleashed a wave of waste, generating the equivalent of two years’ worth of garbage in just 3 hours. Los Órganos bore the brunt of this environmental nightmare.

You love to laugh — and you know how much laughter has helped you through difficult moments.

You can give the gift of laughter to a child in crisis every month with a donation of just $11 monthly.

CWB Offers A New Story to Tell

CWB Artists Leora Sapon-Shevin and Gilberto Valenzuela kick off the fun.

On a covered basketball court, families filled the space.

The clowns set up microphones while people waited in line to receive academic scholarships so they could afford to continue studying after the hurricane.

As the music started, kids and their parents were eager to see what would happen next.

Children join CWB Artists Alex Pizano, Darina Robles, and Leora Sapon-Shevin.

“I went around dancing and making eye contact to see who would dance with me. I caught the eye of a little girl, about 8 years old, sitting with her grandmother with a blank look on her face and her mouth open. Her grandmother smiled at me and motioned for me to come closer.

“I took the little girl’s hands, and we danced with her still seated. Her face softened into the smallest smile.

“Eventually I left, and she went back to her blank stillness.

“Later in the show, I brought her up on stage and she kept her eyes on me, holding my hand. When I’d leave her for a few moments, I would find her standing still and staring. But as soon as I looked at her again, she would follow me — eventually pretending to be a frog, dancing like the sun, or flying like a seagull.”

Leora’s attention offered the girl a memory filled with the warmth of feeling special and cared for in front of her family and community.

Getting Reacquainted at the Clown Show

CWB Artist Gilberto “Gil” Valenzuela gives a hug during the show.

Next, a CWB artist encountered a familiar face at the event.

“An old classmate of Gil’s, a juggler, brought his family to the show, which he said he enjoyed very much.

“He had fled Acapulco because of violence, leaving his children and wife behind. After Otis, he returned to his family and their severely damaged home.”

Gil’s classmate might now have a new chapter in his own story — one filled with hope and the resilience of community.

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Beyond the Storm Clouds: A New Chapter for Children in Acapulco

A child after their first clown show, holding a new ball (courtesy of the government).

Imagine a child whose toys are suddenly gone — washed away by a storm’s fury, leaving behind a muddied mess. This was the harsh reality for many children after Hurricane Otis.

“A little boy, less than 5, approached Darina to tell her about his hurricane experience. ‘My tree fell down and my toys were full of mud, the electricity went out too!’

“Darina asked him more questions. ‘Did you enjoy the show?’ ‘Yes!’”

The clown show experience might rewrite the storm story for the children of Los Órganos, offering them an alternate perspective.

Imagination Takes Over: From Lost Toys to Found Fun

With a nudge from CWB, adults and children of Los Órganos embraced new experiences and opened the door to wonder.

Facing lost toys and a disrupted world, they discovered everyday objects could become endless sources of fun.

Would You Say Yes to This Fun?

A magic moment: Alex moves to catch his hat, thrown by an audience member.

Who needs fancy equipment when you have a hat and a willing participant?

“When Alex was trying to find someone to toss him his hat so that he could catch it on his head, he asked a woman who said that she couldn’t do it because she was pregnant. He told her it was okay, that she could do it seated.

“She tossed it. He caught it. Everyone cheered.”

Tambourine Takeover! One Woman’s Rhythm Ignites the Crowd

“Lars invited a woman up to the front to play the tambourine, which she did, smiling.

“After a few minutes, she said, ‘Let’s get everyone to participate, no?’ giving the show new and palpable energy.”

The woman’s enthusiasm was contagious, and everyone’s experience became more vibrant and joyful.

Unlocking Imagination Through Clowning

Laughter wasn’t the only gift CWB brought to Los Órganos, Acapulco. The performances sparked something more profound: a reflection on what’s possible.

“Christian, a university student studying to be a teacher, took part in the act with the whip. Afterward, with a huge smile on his face, he thanked us.

“He said that the performance grew his community’s awareness of the outside world. ‘Most of these children have never left and have never even seen the ocean, even though it’s so close.’”

The performances unlocked imaginations and opened doors to new possibilities and ways of seeing the world. Even the familiar could now be a potential source of wonder and joy.

The Team

Audience members with CWB artists (L to R): Leora Sapon-Shevin, Alex Pizano, Gilberto Valenzuela, Lars Uribe, and Darina Robles.

This tour had a five-person performing team, Leora Sapon-Shevin (US), Alex Pizano (Mexico), Gilberto Valenzuela (Mexico), Lars Uribe (Mexico), and Darina Robles (Mexico), all of whom are seasoned CWB performing artists.

Our tour partners were Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Congreso del Estado de Guerrero, Sabiduría del Payaso, Banyasos, Clowncidencias, and Llaven Nü.

Over 2,100 adults and children were touched by our 13-show tour between November 30th and December 9th, 2023.

Conclusion

The once-ordinary basketball court became a vibrant stage, filled with music, laughter, and a joyous celebration of life that will echo in hearts for years to come.

Faced with the wreckage of Hurricane Otis, CWB brought more than just laughter. They planted seeds of hope and ignited the spark of imagination.

4 Ways Play Helps Connect: Examples from Human Trafficking Survivors in Mexico

Maggie Cunha, MPH — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

When was the last time play helped connect you and a friend?

Maybe you were making music, getting your groove on, or playing pickleball.

At Clowns Without Borders, we rely on the power of play to help connect people to each other and to their hopes and dreams of a better world.

In this post, the four CWB artists who performed in Mexico this past August (Luz, Darina, Vanessa, and Molly) each share a story of how women and girls in Mexico use play to connect and dream of a bright future. The stories are especially inspiring because these girls and young women have survived human trafficking.

Please note: This post includes information about human trafficking and sexual exploitation. At CWB, we’re committed to sharing the context within which we work, including naming the human rights violations our audience members have experienced. We understand this content may be upsetting. If you prefer to skip the post and go straight to the photo montage video, click here.

1. Play creates emotional connection and leg appendages (Luz’s story)

I have an act with a fake fish that I am trying to catch to make a taco, and after a few minutes of me running around wildly onstage with the fish, I came to a moment of relative stillness.

With the fish still wiggling wildly in my hand, a tiny girl rushed onstage and hugged my leg. She kept coming back onstage during the show and, eventually, Vanessa just picked her up and continued with our schtick as planned, the tiny girl in her arms.

Luz Gaxiola

This little girl wanted nothing more than to play and connect with the clowns who were the source of that play. Wrapping herself around Luz’s leg was a visceral act that expressed the love, appreciation, and connection she felt for the clowns who were offering play.

When children play, they feel safe.

UNICEF

2. Like magic, play gives you new perspectives (Darina’s story)

Obviously, you don’t need to be a refugee to experience the feeling of friendlessness. Humans just feel that way sometimes. As a human who reads this blog, I believe you’ll be able to empathize with the range of emotions expressed by a woman from our Puebla audience.

In the show, my character is a lamb who has lost her home and her family. The clowns make a dream machine and we all put in our dreams for the world, and then invite the audience to join us. It starts out silly, “Cats! Horses! Dogs! Flowers!”

Then a woman stands up and says, “At the moment you told your story, I identified. I am a refugee. I don’t feel I have a home. And only now do I feel like I have friends.”

Darina Robles

Indeed, play helps connect when nothing else does.

The woman from Puebla felt safe being vulnerable with the clowns and the audience after engaging with the lost-lamb story and laughing together.

Human Trafficking in Mexico Linked to Migration

85% of human trafficking victims in Mexico are women and girls. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission
The actual number of victims is likely 100x higher than what’s reported.
The people at highest risk of being trafficked in Mexico are unaccompanied children, Indigenous persons, asylum seekers and migrants, people who identify as LGBTQI+, and informal sector workers. US State Department

3. Play locks in positive memories of being together (Vanessa’s story)

We were performing at a cultural center, and the children of the neighborhood were very shy. At the end of the show, a group of kids got very close to me but didn’t say anything.

“Do you want a hug?” I asked.

Their eyes got wide, and first one, then the rest, nodded and responded, “Si!”

We all hugged, and then the kids giggled and ran off.

Two other kids, who had been on the side, walked over, carrying a notebook. They showed it to me, and it was a picture of us four clowns. They asked me to sign it, then they hugged it back to their chests.

Vanessa Nieto

When Vanessa took time to connect with the kids at their energy level through hugs and autographs, she did it out of love. What was also happening was that she was supporting the creation of peak moments. These peak moments would later allow the children to better evaluate and remember their experiences.

The peak-end rule is a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e. its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.

Daniel Kahneman
Peak-End Theory creator and Nobel Prize-winning Israeli psychologist

4. Play supports personal transformation (Molly’s story)

We learned from a workshop with the director of a refuge for girl survivors of sex trafficking that most of the girls (aged 13 to 18 years) at the refuge were sex trafficked by their mothers or grandmothers, who themselves had been victims of human trafficking.

We also had a lecture and discussion on trauma and its effects with a psychologist who specializes in that work. She had told us she loves butterflies because they carry the possibility for transformation. She said that people in zones of trauma tend to draw butterflies.

Later that day, we built a butterfly skit into the show.

During the show, as Dari completed her transformation from a gusanito (caterpillar) into a butterfly, one girl pointed straight up into the air and shouted excitedly, “Mariposa!” We all looked up, and I could just see the silhouette of a butterfly as it exited from view.

In the butterfly transformation moment in the show, an actual mariposa had flitted over our heads.

Everyone, the girls and clowns alike, were buzzing and chattering with excitement at the perfection of the timing. The person who had spotted it was saying over and over, “I saw it, it was una mariposa, it flew right over us.” Girls kept repeating the word ‘mariposa’ with wonder in their voices as they looked up into the blue sky.

Molly Shannon

Because the audience had been engaged with play, they were in a state of reduced stress and increased creativity. This gave them a major advantage in learning and processing a concept they may not have considered before: Transformation is real and possible.

Conclusion

These inspiring stories from CWB artists demonstrate the power of play. Play can transform, create peak memories, offer new perspectives, and provide a sense of safety that leads to emotional connection.

We’d love to know: How will you play today?

Girls and women survivors of human trafficking in Mexico experienced 11 playful shows (reaching 2,355 people). All shows were produced and performed by CWB artists Darina Robles, Molly Shannon, Luz Gaxiola, and Vanessa Nieto.

Our partner was Llaven Nü. María José Díaz de Rivera managed logistics, and Arturo Reyes was our photographer and documentalist.

Check out the photo montage video from our August 2022 Mexico tour!

Coming Full Circle: Our 100th Project

Tamara — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 08:00:00 +0000

It’s a watershed moment for Clowns Without Borders USA. Our first undertaking of 2017 is also our 100th project since our organizations’s founding in 1995! Therefore it is fitting that we are returning to Chiapas, Mexico, where it all began for CWB-USA. Founder Moshe Cohen began making trips to this magical part of the world to serve the people of Chiapas in CWB-USA’s nascent days.

The indigenous community residing in Chiapas were oppressed in poverty and brutalized by the government of the time because of the land on which they live. The region where they reside and have for hundreds of years, is rich in minerals, water, and crops such coffee and cacao, but the indigenous people are among poorest and most marginalized in Mexico. Chiapas is a jewel, but the people and region have been taken advantage of by power, politics, and trade agreements. The Zapatista Revolution began in 1994 and was the locals way of saying, ‘we want autonomy.’ They succeeded in becoming autonomous, but at significant cost.

Rudi Galindo, a long-time volunteer, professional clown, and colleague of founder Moshe Cohen, is leading the team returning Chiapas this January for CWB-USA’s 100th project. Rudi has been traveling to share levity and moments joyful play, every year for nearly two decades. He is compelled to return and give the gift of laughter and to keep a promise.

Many years ago, on a trip to Chiapas, Rudi and another volunteer, David Lichtenstein, went to a displacement camp for the indigenous people seeking escape from recent massacres at the hands of the military. It was a wet and cold January. Thick mud coated the land. Rudi and David kept falling in the muck and mire as they performed for the audience in the displacement camp. Afterward, at the show’s end, they took their noses off and collected props preparing to exit. A hyper-emotional woman came up to Rudi and spoke rapidly to him in the indigenous language. She was anxious and animated, and Rudi called for someone to translate. What the woman said impressed upon his soul forever. She exclaimed, “I’m frightened that you’re going to leave. I feel so much safer when you are here! Because everyone is laughing and at peace, so we all forgot to be afraid. Please, do not go!” It was tearful for everyone, Rudi and David included.

Rudi was so moved that he vowed to come back, and return he has, every year since 1995.

The Zapatista Revolution is quiet now, and while it may not be over, the guns are no longer pointed, and the people of Chiapas have found a new normal. In their autonomy, they work hard to administer government and services. They have taken the concept of education and applied it on a larger scale–both for children and adults. Human rights for all is the cornerstone of their governance. They govern by respecting the earth, each other, the woman and the child. This remarkable place is unique, and if you travel there, it seems as if you’ve left Mexico and entered a different world. It’s a place where the people look noticeably different from Mexicans and where their mannerisms, language, and culture distinguish them as indigenous. It is a place where Rudi is forever connected to the people.

We encourage you to ally with the people of Chiapas, too. You can follow our milestone project updates, photos, and videos on our social media pages and explore with the clowns. Visit our page about Mexico to delve into the library of information about our past work in Chiapas.

Thank you for your continued support! Make a gift and help fund the team traveling to Chiapas. Share this blog!