By Karen Ávila Alcántara
Youth Movement with Direction-Voices and Agents
Why it is important to talk about emotions first. I am not going to ask you the typical question of whether it has happened to you, because of course you have experienced it as a young person, not knowing which direction to take, or you have known it since you were little, but you know that it is unlikely to achieve it, or you simply think that it is an absurd dream. Well, I will tell you about my experience and how, at 20 years old, I have achieved so many things. I promise you that it will be worth it and you will feel identified with me.
At 18, I became a leader of a Catholic youth group. It wasn't a bad experience, I never had any problems and I found people who helped me and treated me like family within that place, but I didn't know that I was missing out on a whole world. With a deep sadness, I decided to leave. I didn't know what was waiting for me and I definitely fell into depression. It was one of those times when you don't know if you made the right decision by leaving that space that you loved so much.
The processes of starting over are difficult and I was at that point where I had absolutely no idea what to do, but I wanted to explore the world. That’s when one of my angels saved me, and that was my brother. One day, I was still in bed, mired in depression, and he simply said to me: “Take a shower, get ready and let’s go.”
Since I was very young, I knew about the José Martí cultural center, which is now my favorite place without a doubt. We went to a play that day and, when I left the performance, I saw advertisements posted for free workshops. Out of curiosity, I turned to the theater branch, since I liked doing plays since high school. I didn't know if it was my vocation, but in the end it turned out to be a passion for me. Keep reading, this will make sense.
One of the workshops really caught my attention: “Theater for young people.” I saw the requirements and also saw that you had to attend on a Sunday. I went and attended again another Sunday with my papers and full of emotions, especially because I would be surrounded by kids and I needed new friends, since I came from a youth environment. Here comes the funny moment ha-ha-ha-ha. A secretary attended me and asked me why I came. I told her that I wanted to sign up for “Theater for young people.” She looked at me and asked: “How old are you?” At that time, which was August, I was already 19 years old. My birthday is in July, well, the joke is that she told me that I couldn’t enter that workshop, since the age limit was 16 years old. She was the first person who broke my heart by telling me: “You are no longer a teenager, you are a teenager.”
You're an adult now. And I'm like, Ouch! Ha-ha-ha-ha. My mom tells me I'm too little ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Anyway, all the excitement I had at that moment faded away and I felt so angry because I live in the State of Mexico; it literally takes me an hour to get to Mexico City. It turns out that she tells me 'don't worry, leave your papers and I'll sign you up for a workshop. What are you interested in?' I told her 'theater', I left my documents and I thought: 'they're not going to call me'. But at night they write me an email and tell me 'congratulations, you've been registered for social theater'.
The first thing I thought was: 'What the heck is social theatre?'
The truth is I didn't want to do it, but I stuck with it and so far I've been with that company for two years, where I've really laughed, cried, gotten angry, but I found my passion: acting, which is such a humble branch that makes the audience fall in love with your characters, hate them, love them and at the same time cry with you. Transmitting a message to the community is the most beautiful thing that can happen to you; transcribing lives through theater.
It was such an unexpected love that I found people in that place and from there I was included in another company called LGBT. I met an admirable person that I love very much, and she is my dear Estefany Neon. She included me in the cultural apology project, which is basically telling the stories of our Mexican culture, interviewing the quesadilla lady and letting the public know why our culture is so important.
All of this is beautiful, of course, but there was a problem: I had to work ha-ha-ha. That's when my mom told me that she had seen a poster called 'Jóvenes con Rumbo' that talked about job training. I spoke up, they called me for an interview and in mid-March 2023 I entered the 'Jóvenes con Rumbo' program.
At first I wasn't convinced because the training was unpaid and the program was completely free, what I needed at that time was money. But my family, who to this day I say is one of my greatest sources of support and gratitude, was when they told me: 'go, try it.'
I can certainly say that I am totally grateful to the program, as it gave me empowerment tools, trained me for employment, and gave me totally free training at a CECATI administration course. I did not accept the formal job offer because of the thousand activities I do, but they helped me have the ability to start my toy business.
Time passed and we were invited to be part of the 'Jóvenes con Rumbo' program again, the generations came together and the movement was created again. But this time it was very different, they allowed us to coordinate ideas or projects that we liked.
Today I have had the opportunity to coordinate, together with my council, the podcast called 'Voces Rebeldes Teatro' and different activities that the movement has. And I can proudly say that my council elected me to be its president.
Without the movement, I would not have had the opportunity to meet voices and agents like GAG GOYN.
The doors have opened for me in an impressive way.
That is why I started from emotions, from that fear and that daring to go out and explore the world, I managed to achieve so many things, to know and enjoy, that I still need to do, but now I am totally happy with what I do.
I am not content to stay in one place, but I always try to leave my mark wherever I go.
“Beyond the highway, there is a world.”