In the past the IGCA Team had the unique experience of meeting Fabien Cousteau and, even though this was years ago, it remains as one of our most enriching experiences. This January we had the privilege of releasing turtles once again with this outstanding oceanographic explorer.
Being part of the IGCA team encourages students to take initiative, during our visit to VIVA AZUL, Roberta Bará, one of our current leaders, decided to interview Fabien Cousteau taking advantage of this opportunity. His reaction was not only very positive, but all the group felt a complete interest and admiration to his responses.
In December, the IGCA team along with other students had the opportunity to assist our first release of the school year which was organized by VIVAZUL. When we arrived at the beach (El Amatal in La Libertad) the members of this organisation gave us some background information about turtles and the impact humans have on their lives. Subsequently, it made us think of the importance of taking care of this beautiful creatures and our environment. After the information session, we were given final instructions on how to release the turtles and each one of us received a blue marble to represent our ongoing commitment to save Earth. Finally we were able to release the turtles and witness their amazing instinct to move towards the ocean.
Since September is our civic month, we decided to focus on our cultural strand and organise a set of activities for the IGCA members in order to increase awareness and pride for our culture. One of the activities consisted in introducing four of our traditional games by giving a brief history of when they were created and how they have evolved. Next, all members participated in a tournament of these games.
El Salvador’s Independence day is the 15th of September. This year was different from other years for El Salvador as it was the celebration of the 200 year anniversary of the first cry of independence. Many people confuse El Salvador’s actual independence which was in 1821 , with the date of it’s first cry of independence which was in 1811. But in the ABC community the IGCA team was present in the assembly celebration to clarify that information!
IGCA in the ABC was in charge of producing 3 different elements within the context of El Salvador’s independence and the 200 anniversary of the first shout of independence. The three productions were presented in the ABC El Salvador’s Independence Day Assembly which took place the 14th of September in the ABC Auditorium. The productions were a speech, a video and a Salvadorian cultural dance and they were all very creative, artistic and informative. The entire assembly and productions were held in Spanish as it is El Salvador’s national language.
Next on in this post you will find more information on each of the three productions.
The 200 anniversary speech
This was a speech elaborated and carried out by two ABC students, Mariela Gutierrez and Catherine Cabeza. It was a speech which held as a subject that this year we celebrate 200 years anniversary of the first cry of independence which took place the 5th of November 1821 and how it differed from the actual independence.
The speech explained how the economic depression and exploitation that the creoles were living in El Salvador through that time led them to an aspiration of independence and so it motivated them into a rebellion. This rebellion was lead by two Salvadorian national heroes named Manuel Jose Arce and Jose Matias Delgado. This first attempt was indeed a failure and the Spanish army remained in power, however it served as an example for other pushes for independence to take place in future times ultimately leading to independence a decade later.
It was a very interesting speech which took everyone back 200 years in time as we heard the amazing story of the first cry of independence. Both students wore traditional outfits of women in El Salvador at those times, as it can be seen in the images.
The motivating video
This video presented by the IGCA team and elaborated by Javier Monterrosa, an ABC student, was very catchy as it showed many of the different beauties El Salvador has to offer. Scenery, traditions, people, major interests and many more things about El Salvador’s culture all formed part of the video. The soundtrack was El Torinto Pinto music of which the author is unknown.
The point of the video was to motivate Salvadorian students to feel proud of their country and culture and to interest people who were not Salvadorian into knowing more about the culture.
Here is the video itself:
The dance production
This dance production was produced by Mrs. Lucila Gonzalez an ABC teacher with a lot of knowledge on El Salvador's culture and performed by various ABC students, also it must be taken into consideration that, although they didn’t perform the dance, other ABC students were involved in the making of costumes, management of rehearsals and explaining and introducing the dance in the assembly.
Well this was a dance production based on a cultural Salvadorian dance called “Los Chapetones de Panchimalco” or also known as “Baile de Educados”. It is a satire dance and it involves as tradition only male dancers even to represent the women characters and it is about the mocking of a Spanish wedding of the time when Spain ruled over and of the bourgeois customs which were done during those weddings.
More visual representation of the dance and its setting up can be seen in the images added to the post:
