ARENA Y ESTERAS: AN

ACADEMIC REVIEW
A study into an organization for social-circus and
community arts in Villa el Salvador, Lima, Peru.

Abstract
In this study we aim to describe the organization of Arena y Esteras, a grass-roots community arts
group that facilitates social development through social circus, popular theatre and participatory
arts. The reason for this study is to contribute to the field of social circus and participatory arts
studies, a field that is under-researched and deserves more attention in respect to social
development. The methods that were used for this study were literary review, systematization of
experiences and ‘the Most Significant Change’ interview technique, as theorized by Rick Davies.
The body of text includes information on the theoretical context, background, a description of the
functioning of the organization and the external institutional context. The annexes of the
document include summaries of the conducted researches.

Jimmy Kegel
kegeljimmy@gmail.com
Arena y Esteras: An
Academic Review
A study into an organization for
social-circus and community arts
in Villa el Salvador, Lima, Peru.

Written by:

Jimmy Kegel
Jimmy.kegel@hvhl.nl
www.linkedin.com/jimmy-kegel

Commissioned by:

Asociación Taller de Educación y

Comunicación a través del Arte
Arena y Esteras

Sector 3, Grupo Residencial 24,

Mz. E, Lt. 20
Villa el Salvador, Lima 42
Teléfonos: (51-1) 287-7221 /
945672424
E-mail:
educacion@arenayesteras.org

www.teatroarenayesteras.blogsp
ot.pe

In collaboration with:

Van Hall Larenstein University of

Applied Sciences

www.hvhl.nl

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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Chapter 1: The theoretical context of Arena y Esteras ................................................................................. 5
1.1 What are Participatory Arts? .............................................................................................................. 5
1.2 The tradition of ‘collective creation’ and ‘popular theatre’ in Latin-America .................................... 8
1.3 How can arts contribute to peace in times of violence? .................................................................... 9
Chapter 2: The background of Arena y Esteras .......................................................................................... 11
2.1 Villa el Salvador: The geographical context of Arena y Esteras ........................................................ 11
2.2 The Peruvian internal conflict and the rise of Arena y Esteras in Villa el Salvador .......................... 12
2.3 The developments in recent years and the challenges to be addressed ......................................... 15
3. Description and analysis of Arena y Esteras ........................................................................................... 17
3.1 The mission, vision and values of Arena y Esteras ............................................................................ 17
3.2 The objectives, strategies and methodology of Arena y Esteras ...................................................... 18
3.3 Theories and concepts ...................................................................................................................... 20
3.3.1 Buen Vivir ................................................................................................................................... 20
3.3.2 Social Circus ............................................................................................................................... 21
3.3.3 Popular Theatre ......................................................................................................................... 23
3.3.4 The Conflict Cycle ....................................................................................................................... 23
3.4 Organizational structure: Components, structure and staffing ........................................................ 24
3.5 Resources and funding ...................................................................................................................... 26
4. Description and analysis of the external institutional context ............................................................... 27
4.1 Key stakeholders ............................................................................................................................... 27
4.2 The target group ............................................................................................................................... 29
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 31
References .................................................................................................................................................. 32
Annex 1: The Systematization of Barrio Circo............................................................................................. 35
Annex 2: The Most Significant Change ....................................................................................................... 39

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Introduction

In 1992, on the outskirts of Lima in a dessert community, a small organisation of artists and social workers
stood up against the violence and fear of their era by bringing joy and laughter back to the streets. This
group of friends came to be known as Arena y Esteras (‘Sand and Mats’), the two ingredients their
community of Villa el Salvador was founded upon in the early years of the 1970’s. For over 27 years this
group has organised socio-educative workshops for the children of the neighbourhood, in the form of
theatre, circus and other forms of art, to induce social transformation in a marginalized district. They have
produced numerous works of popular theatre, transformed the neighbourhood through their social actions
and have built the Casa Cultural, a free cultural space were participants can learn artistic and social skills
that contribute to the quality of their lives and relationships.

Throughout these years, Arena y Esteras has experienced little academic attention. This is a loss, since there
are many interesting observations to be made within the fields of social development, international
development, pedagogy, peacebuilding, therapeutic studies and participatory arts. The insights of this
organisation, accumulated over 27 years of experience, might contribute to a wider public of practitioners
and scholars interested in the mentioned fields of interest. Therefore, this document aims to describe this
interesting example of a grass-roots organisation striving for social development through community arts,
through an extensive literature review and two participatory researches. The literature review is described
in the chapters of this documents that follows, while the two researches are briefly described in the Annexes.

The chapters include: 1) A description of the theoretical context of the organisation, 2) Information on the
background of the organisation, 3) a description and analysis of the functioning of the organisation, 4) a
description and analysis of the external institutional context. The two applied researches are complementary
to the literature research, as they provide information on evaluation, benefits of the programs lessons
learned and recommendations for similar projects or organisations. Photographic material in this document
was taken from the organisations archive.

4
Chapter 1: The theoretical context of Arena y Esteras

In order to understand the institutional context of the organisation, Arena y Esteras, one must understand
the principles and theories on which its sector is based. As explained in the introduction of this report,
therefore this first chapter gives an insight in the world of participatory arts for social development and
explains how this is often linked to a context of inequality, social exclusion and violence. The chapter
includes an explanation of what are participatory arts, a description of the history of these practices in Latin-
America and how globally these practices are used in contexts of war and violence.

1.1 What are Participatory Arts?

To understand the framework from which the organisation works, we need to understand the world of
participatory arts and begin with: What is arts? To define arts is notoriously difficult (Matarasso 2019) and
when you debate about what belongs to the realm of arts and what not, one ends up at a discussion on
aesthetics, on which many books were written in the past1. However, we all have a general understanding
of what means arts to us and through our own means of judging an artwork, based on our previous
experiences with art, we come to an understanding of what is a beautiful work of art and what is not. What
makes it so difficult is that fact that we think that art is commonly a thing or object and for the creation of
this an artist requires skill (Matarasso, 2019). But there exists a broad range of art practitioners who do not
conform to this criteria of art, among which participatory arts is one of them.

Easier to define, however still very complex due to the great diversity of practitioners, are the participatory
arts. François Matarasso2, in his book A Restless Art defines participatory arts as “the creation of art by
professional artists and non-professional artists” (Matarasso, 2019). This means that participatory art
involves the creation of art and that everyone involved in the artistic act is an artist. It is argued that
participatory arts are very effective for community development and that “for greatest impact, participatory
approaches must be central to practice” (Sloman, 2011). However, it is based on the writer’s findings that
the organisation takes the concept of participatory art even a step further, into the realm of community arts.
Matarasso makes a distinction between the two practices, which becomes clear when we look at his
definition of community arts: “Community art is the creation of art as a human right, by professional and

1
Like: Aesthetica by Baumgarten (Baumgarten 1961), or the famous Kritik der Urteilskraft by Kant (Kant, 1924).
2
François Matarasso was originally a visual artist, who in the early years of the community arts in England worked
in various cities as a community artist and later as a culture booster. From the mid-90s, he focused mainly on writing,
researching and advising in the field of community arts. He specializes in 'practice-led research' and in particular in
the field of the effects of cultural participation and the organization of the cultural sector to promote this. His work
is very influential and therefore regularly cited in this report (Retrieved from
https://www.icafrotterdam.com/nl/makers/francois-matarasso).

5
non-professional artists, co-operating as equals, for purposes and to standards they set together, and whose
processes, products and outcomes cannot be known in advance” (Matarasso, 2019). As we can see,
community arts brings in the concept of arts as a human right, an idea which is based on article 27 of the
declaration of human rights from 1948.3 Practitioners of community arts argue that “if art is the act of
making and sharing meaning, and thus defining the human experience, then, self-evidently, it is, or should
be, available to everyone”. Also, “denying people the right to participate in the cultural life of the
community is to deny them a voice”, which is the first step towards denying them other rights as well
(Matarasso 2019). Arena y Esteras in Villa el Salvador are a prime example of community arts (according
to the definition of Matarasso), advocating for the basic human right to arts, which becomes visible even
through their simple motto: “Por el derecho a la sonrisa” (‘for the right to smile’) (Toguchi, 2016).

Then why do people practice participatory arts, or more specifically, community arts? Apart from the notion
of access to arts as a basic human right, which is merely a philosophical idea, scholars have identified
numerous practical reasons for practicing participatory arts, all interlinked with the domain of social
development. All scholars and practitioners agree on one major point: Participation in the arts brings
benefits for the individual and the community. According to Matarasso in Use or Ornament? These benefits
can be described as “creative and transferable skills and human growth”, “friendships” and involvement in
the community. Through the latter the participating individual promotes “social cohesion”, “contact” and
builds “confidence of minority and marginalised groups” in the community (Matarasso, 1998).
Furthermore, in an essay that was included in the Essays from ICAF4, practitioner Kevin Ryan explains the
transformative power of community arts as: “We stimulate creative activities that inspire and develop new
expectations of what might be possible in peoples’ lives” (van Erven, 2011). Ryan continues by explaining
that community art grants people the power to organise themselves on topics of their own concerns, which
is again also underlined by Matarasso who says that it builds “individual and community competence” and
builds “belief in the possibility of positive change”, which in turn all address the issue of social exclusion
(Matarasso, 1998).

In the extensive research report Use or Ornament? Matarasso has gone to great lengths to investigate the
outcomes of community arts and has categorized the individual and community impacts into several
categories. Three of these categories, “social cohesion”, “local image” and “identity and community
empowerment and self-determination” are interesting for us to examine more closely, since they are very

3
“Article 27. (1) everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts
and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (Danieli et al., 2016)
4
The International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

6
much related to the work of Arena y Esteras, as we will see later in this document. The research indicates
that the positive contributions of community arts in these three domains are as follows:

Table 1:The positive contributions of Community arts in the domains of Social Cohesion, Local Image and Identity and
Community Empowerment and Self-Determination (Matarasso, 1998)

Domain Positive contribution on personal and community

level

Social Cohesion5 • Reduce isolation by helping people to make friends.

• Develop community networks and sociability.
• Promote tolerance and contribute to conflict resolution.
• Provide a forum for intercultural understanding and
friendship.
• Help validate the contribution of a whole community.
• Promote intercultural contact and co-operation.
• Develop contact between the generations.
• Help offenders and victims address issues of crime.
• Provide a route to rehabilitation and integration for offenders.

Local Image and Identity6 • Build community organisational capacity.

• Encourage local self-reliance and project management.
• Help people extend control over their own lives.
• Be a means of gaining insight into political and social ideas.
• Facilitate effective public consultation and participation.
• Help involve local people in the regeneration process.
• Facilitate the development of partnership.
• Build support for community projects.
• Strengthen community co-operation and networking.

Community Empowerment and Self- • Develop pride in local traditions and cultures.
• Help people feel a sense of belonging and involvement.
Determination7 • Create community traditions in new towns or neighbourhoods.
• Involve residents in environmental improvements.
• Provide reasons for people to develop community activities.
• Improve perceptions of marginalised groups.
• Help transform the image of public bodies.
• Make people feel better about where they live.

5
Social Exclusion according to the research: “the promotion of stable, co-operative and sustainable communities”
(Matarasso, 1998).
6
Local Image and Identity according to the research: “The local image and identity theme brings together material
which touches on people’s perceptions about where they live, and how they connect with it and with others who
live there” (Matarasso, 1998).
7
Community Empowerment and Self-Determination according to the research:” As a result of participating in arts
activities, people and community groups had developed more equitable relationships, taken further self-determined
action or gained control over their own affairs” (Matarasso, 1998)

7
As we can see in table 1, the positive contributions of community arts to the sector of social development
are numerous and various and its impacts widely acknowledged. Concluding to this section it can be said
that community art projects are alternative, effective and very cost efficient when compared to other
projects in the social development sector. They produce significant change for their participants and the
wider community, while posing an insignificant risk to public spending (Matarasso, 1998)

1.2 The tradition of ‘collective creation’ and ‘popular theatre’ in Latin-America

Arena y Esteras, based in Villa el Salvador, is a community arts organisation that stands in line of a Latin-
American based tradition of community arts practitioners. In the politically tumultuous 1970’s and 1980’s
of Latin-America, numerous groups of practitioners within a so called collective creation tradition appeared
on stage (they were mostly theatre producers and performers) all over the continent. This ‘new’ form of
popular theatre was practised in Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and
Mexico and, just like attempting to define participatory arts, “collective creation cannot be reduced to a
single formula” (van Erven, 2005). Among many differences between the various practitioners, there were
similarities in the core elements of their performances, like indigenous music, ironic humour, broad
characterizations, flexible productions to adapt to changing venues and lengthy creative development
processes (Solomon, 1982).

But, most importantly,

collective creation is always
based on “carefully
researched themes that
correspond to the interests
and the cultures of the
people they perform for”,
for which idiosyncratic
techniques are developed to
“suit their own specific and
ever-changing sociocultural
circumstances” (van Erven,
2005). Therefore, practitioners of Image 1: During a performance of ‘Moo’, the actors play different indigenous instruments: A
quena flute, sampayo flute (‘pan’ flute) and charango.
collective creation are often
considered actors as well as researchers at the same time. Due to collective creation’s historical context,
many theoretical writings on the matter are rather “Marxists in orientation”, with many practitioners being
tied to the politically left and the unheard peasant in an attempt to “dramatize their local stories” (van Erven,

8
2005). Furthermore, they performed mostly for peasant and working-class audiences to address their socio-
political concerns (Solomon, 1982). Enrique Buenaventura from Cáli's Experimental Theatre (TEC), had
described collective creation as “more than a playmaking method alone and requires a new kind of actor,
one who is not someone's servile employee but, instead, a self-conscious socially responsible co-owner of
the means of creative production” (Buenaventura, 1970).

Although the rise of collective creation may seem a relative new and innovative method for social
development, the use of theatre for political or educational purposes has a long standing tradition in Latin-
America. In the time of the Incas, indigenous Peruvian theatre was used to teach farming techniques and
when European missionaries arrived to the continent, after the colonization, they used theatre to Christianise
the local population, teach the colonial language and to indoctrinate the colonial rule). Later this turned on
the colonizers when by “the late 18th century, many Latin Americans had turned to popular theater as a
means of protesting colonialism and encouraging cultural pride” and in the 19th century they used it to call
for revolutions against the establishment (Solomon, 1982). Nowadays, groups of collective creation, or as
we will continue to refer to them as community art collectives, emphasize not only on the content of their
plays in order to express their political concerns, the developmental processes are highly valued as a means
of expressing societal needs. They offer training on for example improvisation, physical techniques,
acrobatics, while group discussion and participatory practices significantly contribute to the creative
processes. When you ask any practitioner these days, they will say that the process is more important than
the products that are being created in the creative collaboration. In this way the work of theatre is less
politically charged, while the participation in the rehearsal nowadays can feel like an act of resistance in
many different contexts on the Latin-American continent.

1.3 How can arts contribute to peace in times of violence?

There are many community arts practitioners who deliberately, or happen to work in contexts of violence,
open conflict, or situations of post-conflict. As we shall see in chapter 2, Arena y Esteras has its roots as an
organisation in times of internal war and a post-conflict grass-roots collective. The book Performance in
Place of War, written by James Thompson, Jenny Hughes and Michael Balfour in collaboration with the
University of Manchester under the collective In Place of War, have identified four circumstances under
which community art performers act “in place of war”:

• In place: In a context of open conflict.

• Displaced: When performers are (internally) displaced, or when community art practitioners work
with refugee communities.

9
 • In between war and peace: During the direct period after a conflict, or during the blurry times of a
peace process, cease fire, or peace enforcement, but “before any peace agreement has been fully
secured” (Thompson et al., 2009).
• Aftermath: In a context of post-conflict, deliberately phrased as “aftermath in recognition of the
fact that the term ‘post-war’ can seem optimistic or over-simplistic for many people living in
contexts where the war might feel far from over” (Thompson et al., 2009).

According to the writers of the book, community arts in the context of war can play a “preventive, protective
and rehabilitative role”, while theatre can have an “inflammatory potential” and it can “unmake” war
(Thompson et al., 2009). While performance of the arts in each of the four mentioned circumstances plays
a different role with different outcomes, the general effect of participation in community arts in a context
of war is nicely described by van Erven in his essay Towards a New Cutting Edge: Where Avantgarde
Meets Community Art. Van Erven describes the process of “action-participation-transformation”,
commonly adopted by community art practitioners in Latin-America. The action in this concept would be
the performance facilitated by the group of community artists, be it a work of theatre, street parade, circus
workshop, or any other type of participatory art, through which the participation may take place. Through
the participation, van Erven explains, one learns to overcome fear of the “other”, common for (post-)conflict
areas. The transformation occurs “quite naturally as these activities become a permanent fixture in your
life”, meaning that the artistic and creative participation of the children will provide them an alternative to
the violent mainstream.

Many scholars have attempted to document the work of these practitioners over the years, among them the
writers of Performance in Place of War, which provides a foundational text on the practice. However, many
examples of successful projects exist in modern and historic literature. For example, The ethics of survival:
Teaching the traditional arts to disadvantaged children in post-conflict Cambodia describes how education
programmes “recognized need to recover, regenerate, preserve and protect the nation’s cultural heritage”
through traditional Cambodian Khmer music (Kallio & Westerlund, 2015). Building the Dream in a Theatre
of Peace: Community Arts Management and the Position of the Practitioner in Northern Ireland discusses
the important role of different community art practitioners during and after the conflict in Northern Ireland
(Jennings, 2012). And Dramatic Problem Solving: Community Conflict Transformation through Interactive
Theatre in Costa Rica gives us an excellent example of how interactive theatre plays engaged “the
community in action planning for conflict transformation and education” (Hawkins & Georgakopolous,
2010). For more excellent examples of community art practitioners in violent contexts, visit the website of
In place of War (https://www.inplaceofwar.net/), where many more examples can be found from all over
the world.

10
Chapter 2: The background of Arena y Esteras

The background of the organization in this chapter describes the historical and geographic context of Arena
y Esteras, closely linked to the creation of Villa el Salvador, a (former) slum on the peripheries of Lima,
Peru. The history of the organization is also linked to the internal conflict of Peru (1980 – 2000), which is
therefore shortly described in this chapter. Concluding, the recent developments of the organization are
discussed and the challenges to be addressed presented.

2.1 Villa el Salvador: The geographical context of Arena y Esteras

Land invasion in the capital of Peru has been practiced on a large scale in the city’s history since the 1940’s.
Between 1940 and 1972, the population of Lima increased from half a million to over 3,3 million
inhabitants, in large parts due to illegal land invasion, with a quarter of the total population consisting of
illegal settlers (Peattie, 1990). These settlements were called ‘marginal barrio’s’ (‘neighbourhoods’), but
when General Juan Valasco Alvarado gained power in 1986 through a military coup, these illegal
settlements gained the status of ‘pueblo jovens’ (‘young towns’), which declared their recognition and
created the space for citizen participation and self-organisation, working towards legality and good-
governance (Peattie, 1990).

In 1971, a group of immigrant families joined forces together with Señor Perez, their activist and political
organizer, to organize a land invasion on the outskirt dessert of Southern Lima. The group brought food,
water, Peruvian flags, whistles to alarm each other of potential police raids and mats (‘esteras’) as symbolic
housing material to the site on May 1st 1971. Through its well thought out plan, the invasion was granted
legality within 7 days and attracted roughly 7000 families. These families were required to build shelters
within 24 hours and if they were occupied for at least two years, the household world be granted the
opportunity to buy a lot for 5 soles per square meter. The governmental Plan Regulador projected a potential
half a million population for what would become the pueblo joven of Villa el Salvador and it lay out a town
plan with broad streets, plazas and parks, which for many years would simply consist of sand (‘arena’)8
(Peattie, 1990).

By the 1980’s between 150.000 and 350.000 inhabitants lived in Villa el Salvador and while some people
where still living in mat shelters and social and economic problems were rampant, the pueblo joven saw
many masonry two-storey buildings and most of these buildings were connected to water and sewer lines

8
These two elements, arena (sand) and esteras (mats), would form the ingredients for the name of the
organisation that became Arena y Esteras. The name signals the importance of the history of Villa el Salvador that
is so closely intertwined with the birth of the organisation.

11
(Peattie, 1990). The neighbourhoods featured churches, schools and hospitals and a good deal of private
commerce. A large part to the successes of Villa el Salvador can be contributed to the establishment of an
independent planning committee called CUAVES - Comunidad Urbana Autogestionaria de Villa El
Salvador (Self-Managed Urban Community of Villa El Salvador), which, according to Bartesaghi,
“encouraged residents to actively participate in decision-making in a collaborative fashion” (Bartesaghi,
2014). Their model was characterised by a polycentric structure “where each [housing-]block has its own
communal organization (leader), services (unions, youth groups, communal kitchens), facilities (health,
education, social), squares and public spaces distributed conveniently to promote a walkable and
networking community that was entirely self-built” (Swenarski, 1989; Bartesaghi, 2014).

It can be said that the history of Villa el Salvador as a squatter’s settlement in some respect should be
viewed as a great success of socio-economic development and citizen participation. According to Peattie,
Villa el Salvador’s community was organized along the lines of “’local politics’ and ‘citizen participation’
at the community level linked to national politics” and its trajectory reflected a “part of an historic struggle
to define the path of social transformation in Peru” (Peattie, 1990). Bartesaghi did not shy to call Villa el
Salvador “as a supporting evidence of effective grass-roots management and as an exemplary self-help
model led by residents and community organisations” and gives the example that “despite of being a
squatter settlement, nowadays it has become in one of the most relevant and important districts throughout
the country in terms of its GDP contribution” (Bartesaghi, 2014).

2.2 The Peruvian internal conflict and the rise of Arena y Esteras in Villa el Salvador
Although the first wave of migrants settled in the peripheries of Lima due to failed agrarian reform policies
(Reforma Agraria) in the 1960’s, the second wave of migrants was created by the internal conflict of Peru
between the 1980’s and the year 2000, by families who sought refuge from terrorism and ethnic cleansing
in the Andean highlands (Burt, 1998). During this era Peru suffered a bloody internal conflict, involving
two insurgent groups and the Peruvian state under four different executive presidents. The two insurgent
groups, Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), called
upon the citizens of the Peruvian nation to violently overthrow its government. The Shining Path formed
as a Maoist political group, with communist professor Abimael Guzmán as its founder in 1970 and the
MRTA as a Peruvian Marxist guerrilla group led by Víctor Polay Campos. A bloody and prolonged internal
conflict erupted, wherein the two insurgent groups and the Peruvian government were all responsible for a
high number of (civilian) casualties and other forms of human rights abuses (CVR, 2003).

Although the conflict has never officially ended, but has merely become dormant since the year 2000 with
president Alberto Fujimori installed into office, reports of killings has significantly dropped and insurgent

12
activity has basically come to a halt. However, since the 1980’s, for about twenty years the conflict has
claimed the lives 69,280 people, with the Shining Path responsible for at least 54% of the casualties, the
MRTA for 1,5% and the remaining 37% can be accounted to the Peruvian government due to its
implemented counter-insurgency strategies (CVR, 2003). All warring parties committed crimes against
humanity, with massacres, forced disappearances and unlawful detentions as tactics of warfare.

Around 1985 the major insurgent group, Sendero Luminoso, turned its attention towards the urban areas, in
contrast to the first years of the war, wherein the insurgent’s tactics were predominantly based in rural
guerrilla warfare and peasant mobilization inspired by Maoist insurgent strategies. As rural populations
moved to the urban areas and especially Lima, the Shining Path's local apparatus would move with them
and establish operations in the peripheries of these cities. It saw an opportunity to capitalize on the
grievances of the settling rural population, who faced discrimination, exclusion from traditional cultural
structures and safety nets and economic hardship, in order to mobilize them for their own cause
(McCormick, 1992). Jo-Marie Burt and Cesar Espejo formulated this dynamic as: “The weakening of the
[political] Left, coupled with the economic crisis, gave Shining Path a window of opportunity in the city to
organize at the local level” (Burt & Espejo, 1995).

In the 1990’s, Sendero Luminoso aimed at Villa el Salvador as the perfect place for running its urban
campaigns. In an attempt to demoralize the rank and file, the organisation attempted to assassinate popular
leaders of the pueblo joven (Burt & Espejo, 1995). On 15 februari 1992 they assassinated hugely popular
leader, public activist and deputy mayor of Villa el Salvador, María Elena Moyano. Moyano, after rising from
an impoverished background, was elected twice for president of the Popular Women’s Federation of Villa El
Salvador, ran community kitchens in the neighbourhoods and set up distribution centres for the famous
Vaso de Leche9 campaign. Because she openly challenged Sendero Luminoso and formed a direct threat to
their campaign through her social benefit programs, Moyano was brutally assassinated publically, which
sparked an enormous outrage in the community of Villa el Salvador (Miloslavich, 2000). It was precisely
this event that gave rise to the formation of Arena y Esteras.

On the 29th of march 1992 a group of youth got together and made the strong conviction to overcome the
collective fear, by brining joy to the streets of Villa el Salvador. They brought stilts, clowns and musical
instruments to the streets, despite of the fear for terrorism, under the motto: “For the right to smile!” (Por
el derecho a la sonrisa). Through playfulness this grass-roots movement wanted to take away the fear in

9
In 1984 the Peruvian government passed a law to provide access to dietary supplements to the country’s most
vulnerable, in the form of dairy as an in-kind benefit. The program that sprung from this policy was called Vaso de
Leche (glass of milk) and is being implemented until this day (Stifel & Alderman, 2006).

13
the hearts of the population in order to restore the social fabric of the community that was damaged by the
violence. Thus was born Arena y Esteras, literally meaning “Sand and Mats”, inspired by the initial situation
of the invaders in 1971, who had nothing more than these two elements when they arrived to the desert that
was to become Villa el Salvador. From the initial work in the streets followed the first theatre play, La
carreta de los sueños (The wagon of dreams), which showed the mix of emotions that were felled by the
population during the times of the propaganda by Sendero Luminoso and the dismantling of popular
politically left institutions that had helped build Villa el Salvador in the beginning and that were being
replaced by a neo-liberal government. The idea for Escuela Rodante (‘Rolling School’, see section 3.2 on
the methodology of the organisation) was also born during this time, in which the organisation would
collaborate with educational institutions throughout the district, in order to build artistic capacity amongst
the youth there (Toguchi, 2016).

In fact, Arena y Esteras has developed its practices during two distinct periods related to the internal conflict
op Peru: A period wherein there was open conflict and fear of terrorism and a period of immediate post-
conflict, or the ‘aftermath’ period. In Performance in Place of War, James Thompson and his colleagues
describe the characteristics of similar projects around the world with shared visions of theatre and
performance in places of violence and a transition to peace. They describe projects that have done similar
activities as Arena y Esteras in times of open conflict and claim that they “arise from the need to entertain
and occupy time, to provide relief and to help children and young people explore the impact of conflict
when normal life has ceased to function”. Thompson describes that such projects aim to create something
beautiful, are used to induce trauma and healing and explains why collaboration and participation of young
people is so important to these projects: They act as “a multiple signifier”, symbolizing the victim, survivor
and a hopeful future (Thompson et al., 2009).

During the late nineties and early 2000’s, Peru was in transition from an internally warring state to a
relatively peaceful society. In the initial years of peace, Arena y Esteras, just like other projects described
in Performance in Place of War, has opted for alternative forms of social organization (Toguchi, 2016) and
thus indirectly created “grass-roots pressure on political institutions and leaders to cooperate positively in
peace negotiations” (Thompson et al., 2009). The aftermath of a conflict does not have rigid borders and
therefore plays a role in people’s life for a very long time. The role that cultural civil society plays in this
period of post-conflict is diverse and some of the practices that Arena y Esteras has contributed to in this
process, as some of the practices described by Thompson, are:

14
 • “Projects that support the reinvention of national identity in ways that integrate people of different
identities or communities of interest previously in opposition to each other.
• Projects that play a part in reviving the economic, social and cultural infrastructure.
• Projects that address ongoing issues of social inequity” (Thompson et al., 2009).

2.3 The developments in recent years and the challenges to be addressed

In 1998 the lot for the Casa Cultural was acquired, which would enable the group to facilitate workshops,
festivals and performances on a grander scale more frequently. In the years to follow, the organisation
hosted numerous long-running projects, including: La Escuela Rodante, Chibolos Unidos, Barrio Circo,
Festicirco and more. During these years the organisation travelled internationally to display works of
theatre, but also worked in the rural areas of Peru to promote inclusion and create cultural and social identity
amongst its participants. Over the years the group has produced 10 major socio-educational works of
theatre:

• La carreta de los sueños, 1994 • Sueño de una noche de verano, 2008

• Arenas de Villa, 1998 • Killa, qué te cuentas?, 2009
• Leyendas y malabares, 2000 • Urpila, 2011
• A la Vera del camino, 2002 • Moo, 2012
• Yawar, 2004 • Oshe y Bari, 2017

As of now, Arena y Esteras exists for over 27 years and has a history closely intertwined with the history
and socio-political context of Villa el Salvador. It was the situation of the pueblo joven and the internal
conflict that gave rise to the organisation, while the organisation continues to struggle for a change of
direction in that ever fluctuating context that makes Villa el Salvador. Although the initial mission of the
organisation was communicated in a very different context, one of internal conflict, terrorism and refugees,
its methods of communication remained the same: Social transformation through the means of creative
symbols10. The current situation in Villa el Salvador is very different from that of the 90’s, socially,
politically and economically. Nowadays, rather than working against the immediate fear of conflict and
violence, the groups tries to address subtler forms of violence in the district, ones that were underlying the
twenty yearlong internal conflict in Peru in the first place: Discrimination, (social) exclusion and inequality
(CVR, 2003). According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the atrocities

10
Creative symbols are described by the organisation as alternative methods for communication. Rather than
words, one could use theatre or visionary arts as a means to communicating worries, emotions, interests etc. The
method is creative in the sense that it is a community arts-based form of expression and the word symbol refers to
the fact that it is recognized by the public and he performer as being art.

15
committed during the internal conflict of
Peru between 1980 and 2000, the
grievances that led to the mobilization of
collective violent action in that period were
identified to be related with the social
oppression of indigenous Andean people
and populations from lower classes of
society. Arena y Esteras believes that these
same dynamics are at play in current day
society and are in the way of a righteous and
just society (Toguchi, 2016). These
inequalities nowadays are expressed in Image 2: A performance of the circus-theatre play ‘Oshe y Bari’, based on
an indigenous mythology from the Shipibo tribe of Peru.
Villa el Salvador in the following forms, as
observed by the organisation:

• Domestic violence, gender-based violence, crime-related violence

• Drug addiction and alcoholism
• Economic inequality and cases of extreme poverty
• Child abandonment
• Discrimination, social oppression, exclusion, lack of social/cultural identity
• Environmental degradation, pollution

Over the years the organisation has chosen to work with children as the most vulnerable target group in
Villa el Salvador. Their ages range from 4 – 18 years old and while some of them participate in single
events, others have a more close relationship to the organisation as volunteers or promoters11, or educators.
Through them and for them the group works on its mission and objectives, by which it tries to address the
social problems as mentioned here above. The following chapters will give more insight into how exactly
Arena y Esteras tries to accomplish this.

11
The term promoters refer to a historical term of social promoters that were responsible for the bottom-up
development of basic services like healthcare and education in Villa el Salvador during the initial years of the
district. Arena y Esteras uses this historic term to describe youth that actively promote cultural services through
the work of the organization in their neighborhoods.

16
3. Description and analysis of Arena y Esteras

Arena y Esteras has worked in Villa el Salvador for over 27 years and has gone through different stages of
organisational development. This next chapter will describe the organisation in its current form, by
elaborating on its vision, mission, objectives, values and beliefs, theories and concepts, methodologies and
organisational structure. The strategies for social change of the organisation will be compared with
examples from existing literature on similar organisations and their perceived outcomes. A large part of the
information for this chapter was gathered through an extensive research, called the systematization of
Escuela Rodante, which documented the experiences of the organisation between 2013 and 2018.

3.1 The mission, vision and values of Arena y Esteras

Since its establishment in 1992, Arena y Esteras has worked in the same geographical context of Villa el
Salvador to promote social transformation through the arts. Its mission has since remained more or less the
same, which is formulated as such:

Arena y Esteras has an artistic and pedagogical proposal based on community organization,
intercultural and intergenerational action and youth participation, from the collective dream to
build an equitable, inclusive and self-sustaining society.

Interestingly, during the time of the student’s internship, the mission of the organisation was slightly altered
during a re-strategizing workshop with Terre des Hommes, the donor of the organisation. While the former
mission was aimed at promoting “human development and social transformation”, the new mission
statement reads as follows:

We are Arena y Esteras, an organization of artists, educators and leaders committed to our
community. We propose a way of being and doing community arts that promote ‘Buen Vivir’12
(‘good living’).

The mission and vision of the organisation are translated into values that can be divided into three distinct
categories. These values are implemented into everyday activities and are described by the organisation as
follows:

12
Buen Vivir (‘sumak kawsay’ in Quechua), loosely translated as ‘good living’ in English, “describes a way of doing
things that is community-centric, ecologically-balanced and culturally-sensitive” (Balch, 2013). The concept is
rooted in the Andean worldview of mostly Quechua speaking, indigenous inhabitants of Latin-American countries.
The concept will be briefly elaborated on in section 3.3.1, since it underlies important values, beliefs and
methodologies of the organization.

17
1) Social and political commitment:

• We consider ourselves artists-leaders.

• We assume our work as a social and political form of activism through the arts.
• Our artistic practice is based on the historical and social moment we live in, which we want to
transform from its unfair existing inequalities and exclusion.

2) Community identity:

• We were born in Villa El Salvador and we are children of migrants.

• We sustain an art of the community, with the community and for the community.
• The more rooted in the local our artistic practice is, the more universal it will be.

3) Creative Team:

• From the philosophy of a theatre group we assume art as a mobilizing force that moves us towards
the challenges of an exclusive society.
• We create and transform our own lives, aiming towards a global impact.

3.2 The objectives, strategies and methodology of Arena y Esteras

From its mission, vision and values, the organisation works on a number of objectives through a set of
strategies and corresponding methodologies that will be described in this section. The objectives of Arena
y Esteras are formulated as follows:

1. To create socio-cultural leaders/promoters through the means of community arts.

2. To form persons with values13.
3. To provide and create free cultural spaces14 for societies’ most vulnerable15.
4. To promote, enhance and endorse the liveability of Villa el Salvador and its shared identity.

On working towards these objectives, the organisation enables the following strategies:

13
Values in relation to their participants are described by the organization as “empathy, respect, cooperation,
entrepreneurship, tolerance, discipline, perseverance, self-esteem” etc.
14
The deliberate term space, rather than place, is chosen here to underline the fact that creativity does not
necessarily have to take place in the material or a physical location, but rather needs a facilitating and nurturing
space to provide the process of creativity.
15
This idea is again in line with the concept of community arts, wherein arts are considered a human right, as
described earlier in this report.

18
 1. Pedagogical education through community arts.
2. The creation and performance of socio-educative and popular art.
3. The physical presence of the Casa Cultural in Villa el Salvador, providing free cultural space and
a safe, familial and supportive environment.
4. Collective creation and participation in artistic and political networks.
5. Self-management and a horizontal, organisational hierarchy.
6. Taking over public space and transforming it through creative symbols16.

The principal program that has been run by the organisation since its beginnings is Escuela Rodante
(‘rolling school’). Although the program has seen different forms (Chibolos Unidos and Barrio Circo for
example), it illustrates a direct translation of the objectives and strategies throughout these years. Roughly
outlined, the principal methodologies of Escuela Rodante are (Toguchi, 2016):

1. Learning chains: The learning chains are seen as the interpersonal relations between the
participants of the program and their (adult) tutors, who transfer their knowledge, once obtained by
their tutors, to the participants. By learning through teaching, these educators close the circle of
learning and a mutual process is formed. This ‘learning chain’ is divided into three aspects;
a. solidarity learning
b. discipline.
c. playful learning
2. Elaborating our elements is as vital as mastering them: Throughout the years the organisation has
had to be creative in developing their own resources and materials to work with, in absence of
refined tools and scarcity of financial resources. Improvisation of circus tools, theatre props,
costumes etc., has been an integral part of the work of the organisation.
3. Our streets; learning in social action: The streets are seen as a symbolic space for communicating
socio-political concerns through artistic means. Through social actions on these streets, by
transforming public spaces through creative symbols, the youth learn to express, foster leadership
skills and become agents of their own desired change.
4. The circus as a metaphor of daily life: It is believed that during the circus workshops and
performances, all the difficult aspects of life play out and are over won, when the student displays
perseverance, patience and discipline. During the practice the student of circus will face failure,

16
Creative symbols are the recognizable symbols of arts, circus and theatre, used during social actions to ‘give
color’, ‘transform the environment’ and ‘induce playfulness’ in the often characterized as grey, urbanized context
of Villa el Salvador (see also footnote 10).

19
 disappointment, conflict, impatience etc., which through his trainings he will learn to cope with. In
other words: Skills that will be beneficial in real life.
5. Respect between genders; Strengthening the role of women: The work of the organisation has a
focus on the relationships between men and women, in order to break taboos and the socially
constructed roles of men and women in Peruvian society. It aims to fortify the capacity of women
in order to release their potential, in many cases supressed by society and the familial environment.

3.3 Theories and concepts

Arena y Esteras’ work is rooted in several theories and concepts, widely used and acknowledged by other
practitioners in the field and scholars that have studied the matter. This section elaborates a number of them.

3.3.1 Buen Vivir

The concept of Buen Vivir is a philosophy that is intertwined in all aspects of the work of the organisation.
It is a guiding principle that comes back in the mission statement, but also through its objectives, theatrical
concepts and political statements. The term comes from the Quechua words sumak kawsay, which in
English would roughly translate to ‘good living’. However, according to expert Eduardo Gudynas, such a
translation doesn’t nearly cover the content of its meaning, since it sits to close to a western and neo-liberal
notion of welfare or wellbeing. “With buen vivir, the subject of wellbeing is not [about the] individual, but
the individual in the social context of their community and in a unique environmental situation" (Balch,
2013).

In Latin-America the term is used to describe “alternatives to development focused on the good life in a
broad sense” (Gudynas, 2011). The concept is increasingly used by social development movements,
environmentalists, activists and even governments. The philosophy of Buen Vivir is based on an indigenous
worldview wherein the specific idea lies “that well-being is only possible within a community” which in
many traditions includes “Nature” as a community member. This movement includes a critical reaction to
contemporary Western capitalist development theory, while it points out alternative development methods
based on an indigenous belief system (Gudynas, 2011). As an example, the concept refers to the earth as
pachamama, a living sentient being that includes all life, which in Equador and Bolivia has been granted
the status of a person with defendable rights, by taking up these rights in the national constitutions. In this
way environmentalist have made it easier to protect the environment in court against environmental
perpetrators (Acosta, 2018).

Arena y Esteras works to integrate the concept of Buen Vivir in its practices and thus educates the younger
generation on these ancient ideas through their theatre, social actions and political statements. In
collaboration with national and international partners, like Proyecto Regional Andino, Terre des Hommes

20
and CEDIAF, the organisation advocates for the implementation of ideas based on the Buen Vivir concept
in national politics, to protect the environment and its natural resources and to create a safe and healthy
environment for Peruvian communities. The concept was recently adopted into the mission statement of
the organisation.

3.3.2 Social Circus

Social Circus plays a major part in the work of Arena y Esteras. The concept is also known as “community
circus, “recreational circus” and “new circus” and is adopted increasingly by “humanitarian and peace-
making groups as well as by schools and the increasing number of new circus companies emerging
throughout the world” (Maglio & Mckinstry, 2008). The concept could be described as “a form of non-
professional circus education where the focus is on personal development, social inclusion and self-
expression as opposed to the achievement of a high level of artistic technique” (Cadwell, 2018). Social
circus is often targeted at “marginalized populations, promoting an ethic of equity and solidarity” (Spiegel
et al., 2014) and often includes “specific population groups, such as at-risk youth, homeless populations or,
[…] adults living with learning disabilities” (Mccaffery, 2014).

The benefits, as described by different scholars, are

numerous, however always aimed at achieving some
“specific social outcome” (Mccaffery, 2014).
According to a study in Equador, where a nation-wide
social circus program was implemented, “Social circus
shows great promise not only for promoting healthy
individuals but also for promoting health equity and the
social change needed to sustain it”. Furthermore, the
study claimed social circus offered “strategies to deal
with the burdens of displacement and loss” and “skills
that results in healthier communities” (Spiegel et al.,
2014). Another study underline trust as a core element
and outcome of social circus, because “each participant
learns how to trust themselves, their peers and their
teacher; they learn how to cope with failure and how to
achieve great success without competition” (Cadwell,
2018). Among other things, it is claimed that social
circus contributes to: “bringing people together”, Image 3: “Circus is, by its very nature, a risky pursuit.
Without trust the activities cannot proceed, but trust must
“raising confidence and self-esteem”, “increasing be built, fostered and maintained” (Cadwell, 2018).

21
mobility or fitness”, “providing an opportunity for future employment” (Mccaffery, 2014), “to reduce teen
smoking, drug addiction and antisocial behaviour” (Spiegel et al., 2014),

Without such extensive academic research, the organisation has identified the positive effects of social
circus throughout its years of implementation. It claims that the method contributes to addressing the social
problems (as described in section 2.3) faced in Villa el Salvador and has a major impact on the lives of its
participants. Table 2 illustrates the benefits of their social circus program as observed by the organisation
(Toguchi, 2016).

Table 2: Emotional, cognitive and social benefits of Social Circus as observed by Arena y Esteras ((Toguchi, 2016)

Benefits of Social Circus per technique

Technique Emotional benefit Cognitive benefit Social Benefit

Juggling -frustration tolerance -fine motor skills - learning recognition

-control of impulses -gross motor skills -Conflict resolution
-personal growth -laterality -ease of joining new
-acceptance of self- -kinetic intelligence social groups
limits -body awareness -ease of expression
-self-confidence -dissociation -resilience
-development of self- -development of -perseverance
motivation creativity -discipline

Acrobatics and/or -Self-regulation - gross motor skills -Autonomy

aerial exercise -control to take risks - kinetic intelligence -teamwork
-self-trust and in the - divergent thinking - sense of belonging
partner -mental speed -communicative skills
-improvement of self- -solidarity
esteem -mutual respect
-sense of belonging -empathy
Equilibrium -trust -balance -autonomy
-self-confidence -body development -resilience
-control of bodily -capacity to analyse -discipline
impulses -control of the senses -perseverance
-dissociation capacity -expressive skills
- expansion of social
network

22
3.3.3 Popular Theatre
Popular theatre is a concept that was already briefly discussed in the context of Latin-America, where it is
known as collective creation (see section 1.2), which is a concept used by the organisation to co-create and
perform socio-educative works of theatre. Through the means of drama/theatre, the method aims to combine
popular education methods with a participatory approach to research. The method “draws on participants’
experiences to collectively create theatre and engage in discussion of issues through theatrical means”
(Conrad, 2004). Famous examples of popular theatre developers were Paulo Freire who developed the
pedagogy of the oppressed and Augusto Boal with his famous forum theatre.17 Popular theatre is a method
that is used by Arena y Esteras since its establishment. Through the method they have created the plays that
were described in section 2.2 with the intent to communicate socio-political concerns of the participants
and the audience, related to that specific historical or current context.

3.3.4 The Conflict Cycle

We can briefly elaborate on the
so called ‘Conflict Cycle’ model
(figure 1), which is not actively
referred to by the organization,
but is according to the writer, a
useful tool to place the
organization’s work in a wider
context in relation to its work on
peacebuilding. As was
discussed in chapter 2, Arena y
Esteras was established during a
period of protracted internal
conflict, or as indicated in the Figure 1: The Conflict Cycle Model (Retrieved from
model a “Mutually Hurting https://www.saferworld.org.uk/resources/publications/220-conflict-prevention-and-
conflict-sensitive-development.
Stalemate”. Although in the
case of Peru, officially a peace agreement was never accomplished, since the 2000’s a de-escalation of
violence has taken place and within this context the organization has worked on “Post-Conflict
Peacebuilding” and “Reconstruction-Reconciliation” in the form of social development.

17
Boal was inspired by Freire and elaborated Freire’s work into a concept known as Theatre of the Oppressed, of
which forum theatre is a widely applied technique in pedagogic theatre and social development (Boal, 1985).

23
For example, the theatrical work of La carreta de los sueños aimed to address the emotional losses and fear
that was provoked by the propaganda of Sendoro Luminoso, during the internal conflict. Furthermore, after
the publishing of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the group travelled to local
communities of Apurimac and Ayacucho to implement intercultural workshops with local communities to
raise awareness and sensibility about the conflict amongst its youth (Toguchi, 2016). Lastly the group still
has a focus on addressing the same inequalities that, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
were underlying drivers for the internal conflict and violence in general (domestic and gender-based)
remain topics that are being addressed through its programs (CVR, 2003).

3.4 Organizational structure: Components, structure and staffing

The work of the organization can be divided into four distinct components. These components all consist
of a number of different activities (see table 3) through which the strategies of the organization are
communicated. These components and activities were identified through the systematization of Escuela
Rodante. The four components of the work are:

1. Festivals
2. Community interventions/Social actions
3. Artistic/Creative and Socio-educational workshops
4. Popular theatre

Table 3: Components and Activities of Arena y Esteras

Component Activities

1. Festivals • Self-organised festivals

• External festivals (national, international and local)
2. Community interventions/Social • Neighbourhood interventions

actions • Artistic interventions

• Marches/protest
3. Artistic/Creative and socio-educational • Permanent and recurrent workshops in the Casa Cultural

workshops • Exchanges with external teachers

• Escuela de Arte (‘School of Art’; summer school)
• Workshops at colleges
4. Popular Theatre • Theatre plays
• Rehearsals
• Re-makes

24
The staff of Arena is composed of part-time, paid employees and many volunteers, some international. The
functions of the organization are divided over a number of areas, each designated to a person, although their
tasks overlap and are complemented by each other. Figure 2 illustrates these areas, or tasks, as they are
currently organized.

Figure 4: The areas of staffing in Arena y Esteras Figure 5: The organisational structure

Figure 3 illustrates the organisational

structure of Arena y Esteras. The
organisation aspires to have a horizontal
structure, which means that there exists no
hierarchy in the traditional vertical sense,
wherein management takes decisions in a
top-down fashion. The inner team, or
“nucleus” of the organisation is rather small
and therefore able to take important decisions
democratically. Within this inner sphere, also
known as the ‘Theatrical Collective’, the
tasks described in figure 2 are executed.
Around the inner group of staff work the
promoters (a term that was already described

25
in footnote 12). These cultural promoters are working on a voluntary basis and participate in the
organization of activities, workshops, festivals and other types of work. They sometimes aspire to move
inwards towards the nucleus of the organisation, which can be earned through extensive participation in the
organisation. The last ring of staff describes a loose group of voluntary contributors, in the form of external
teachers, project based support, or international volunteers through programs of Terre des Hommes, or other
origins.

3.5 Resources and funding

In line with the idea of “elaborating our elements is as vital as mastering them” (Toguchi, 2016), as
explained in the methodological principles of the organisation in section 3.2, Arena y Esteras highly values
and practices self-management in regard to resources and funding. One could argue that self-management
is one of the major principles, or values on which the organisation, just like its context Villa el Salvador, is
founded. In line with the style of management of the CUAVES in the district (Bartesaghi, 2014), as
explained in section 2.1, the organisation has had a self-sufficient, auto-management style of work since its
establishment. This means that most of its funding and resources were accumulated through donations,
sales of entrance tickets, workshop fees and other miscellaneous sources. In their activities, the organisation
was never subsidised by the local municipality or overhead Lima municipality, or any Peruvian ministry.
Only recently the organisation receives financial and technical support from the German faction of Terre
des Hommes. However, the value of self-management remains an important aspect in the work of Arena y
Esteras and is thought as a valuable and necessary lesson to its participants.

Image 4: Children play a Brazilian style of drumming during a pasacalle (‘street parade’) in the
streets of Villa el Salvador.

26
4. Description and analysis of the external institutional context

This chapter deals with the external environment of Arena y Esteras, in regard to stakeholders and the target
group. For the analysis of this chapter a stakeholder identification tool and stakeholder analysis have been
used (Brugha, 2000). Furthermore, this chapter gives a brief description of the target group of the
organisation.

4.1 Key stakeholders

As a small grass-roots organisation operating in a localized context, Arena y Esteras does not have an
extensive list of key stakeholders within the sector it works. However, a number of important key
stakeholders play a major part in the activities of the organisation. These stakeholders were identified during
the stakeholder identification workshop, facilitated by the student. A visualization of this process has been
created in figure 4, which illustrates the inner and outer sphere of influence of the organisation. Within the
inner sphere of influence (the blue circle) reside the actors that have direct contact and influence, on the
organisation and vice versa. On the outside of the sphere are actors who play an important role, but who
are more distanced in relation to the organisation.

Figure 6: Stakeholder Identification of Arena y Esteras

27
In the direct sphere of influence, we find the following stakeholders:

• The beneficiaries and their families; The most important stakeholders within the work of the
organisation are of course the beneficiaries, meaning: The participating children. They are in very
close contact with the staff and the physical location of the organisation, the Casa Cultural. Their
families are mentioned also, since they approve the participation of the beneficiaries, bring and re-
collect the children and are involved in some of the activities.
• The public; In this case refers to
the passive18 visitors of the works
of theatre, or the festivals and
community interventions of the
organisation. They are important
stakeholders, because they are a
target group that the
organisations want to reach out to
and communicate their socio-
educative popular theatre, or
political statements. Image 5: “the public is never really a ‘passive spectator’, since they nearly
always have a part to play in the performance”.
• Community Leaders; Refers to
the political leaders of Villa el Salvador, who historically have been divided and elected per sector
of the district (see section 2.1 on the history of the district). Every neighbourhood has its community
leader, who have a decisive role in regards to the organisation of public events, organized by Arena
y Esteras.
• Colleges of Villa el Salvador; The educational institutions of the district provide the input of
children who participate in certain programs. Sometimes they visit the Casa Cultural, while in
other cases educators of the organization visit colleges to facilitate workshops.

Outside the direct sphere of influence, we find the following stakeholders:

• Terre des Hommes: Is an international organization that works “for the rights of the child and for
equitable development, without racial, religious, political, cultural or gender-based discrimination”
(Retrieved from https://www.terredeshommes.org/about/mission/). Arena y Esteras receives
financial and technical support from the German faction.

18
According to the organization, the public is never really a ‘passive spectator’, since they nearly always have a
part to play in the performance, in the tradition of ‘participatory theatre’.

28
 • Artistic Networks, cultural groups and political/activist actors: Artistic networks include the
national and international networks to which the organization belongs and through which certain
activities are supported and facilitated. The cultural group represent groups from Villa el Salvador
and Lima in general with whom the organization sporadically cooperates. Lastly, political and
activist actors are organizations like CEDIAF and Proyecto Regional Andiono (see section 3.3.1
on Buen Vivir) with whom political alliances for advocacy are formed.
• Municipality of Lima and Villa el Salvador: Although very limited, the organization is influenced
by policy changes of the overhead municipality of Lima and the district. However, this influence
is small and there has never been any support for the work in the form of subsidies or technical
support.
• Universities: There has been cooperation with universities in the past, same as with colleges in the
district. However, this has been very marginal.

In order to prioritize these

stakeholders, a stakeholder
analysis has been
conducted (Brugha, 2000).
The stakeholders are
ranked on an axis of
importance and influence.
The importance of a
stakeholder in this case is
defined as: ‘The priority
that the project gives to an
actor and the importance it
has had to meet their
needs’. The influence of a
stakeholder is defined as:
‘The power that an actor
Figure 7: Stakeholder analysis of Arena y Esteras
has to facilitate, change or obstruct the project process.’ The result
of this practice can be seen in figure 5.

4.2 The target group

The work of the organization is aimed at the populations of Villa el Salvador most vulnerable and, just like
Spiegel and Mccaffery underline (see section 3.3.2), “marginalized populations” and “at-risk youth”

29
(Mccaffery, 2014) (Spiegel et al., 2014). The target group of Arena y Esteras are children and teenagers
who live in Villa el Salvador and who are influenced by the context of the district. These children are
exposed to: Domestic, gender-based and crime-related violence, drug addiction and alcoholism, economic
inequality, poverty, discrimination, social exclusion and an unhealthy environment (Toguchi, 2016). The
program aims to reach out to children via fixed workshops in the Casa Cultural, as well as through the
educative institutions of the district. In regard to the popular theatre, showcased by the theatrical group, the
group aims for, just as Solomon described in her article, “peasant and working-class audiences”, who form
the majority of the district (Solomon, 1982). The target group benefits from the programs of the
organisation, as is stated in the objectives: Socio-cultural leaders/promoters are created amongst them, they
are thought values and life skills, free and cultural space is provided for societies most vulnerable and the
liveability of Villa el Salvador and its shared identity are promoted, enhanced and endorsed (see section
3.2). For more benefits, see table 1, table 2 and section 3.3.2.

Image 6: The group transforms the public space of Villa el Salvador through ‘creative symbols’, in an environment that is often
described as grey.

30
Conclusion

As we have seen in the previous chapters, Arena y Esteras is a multi-faceted organisation, with a long
history, while upholding a strong relevance in the local context of today. The group has had a long way to
come to get to this established position within the society of Villa el Salvador, wherein it is able to play
such an important role in the lives of many participant children and teenagers. This role will remain
important the coming years as the district and populations within Peruvian society still face social exclusion
and marginalisation in a rapid growing economy. Within the field of social development this organisation
and similar projects can have a significant contribution.

We have also seen that the methods of Arena y Esteras can be compared to a variety of practitioners within
the field of community arts. The organisation applies methods of popular theatre and social circus that fits
within a Latin-America tradition. Furthermore, social actions and festivals take over the public space and
transform the district of Villa el Salvador with creative symbols. The benefits of these practices have been
observed by the organisation and justified through the systematization and Most Significant Change
researches (see Annexes), are simultaneously described by different scholars. Lastly, the application of the
concept of Buen Vivir will prove significant in the rapidly degrading natural environment of Peru, as the
organisation takes a stance against environmental harm, climate change and advocates for derechos
ecologicos (‘ecological rights’).

This academic work aims to contribute to a field of community arts and social circus, about which scholars
agree on the fact that the topic is under-researched and deserves more attention. The benefits of the sector
on social development have been proven, however much more research is needed in order to advocate for
policy changes and wide-spread support and implementation. The work of Arena y Esteras should function
as an example of excellent performance within the field of social development, conflict transformation,
peacebuilding and participatory arts. The writer of this document hopes that this work contributes to the
acceptance and recognition of a serious (and fun) practice within the field of social development.

31
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Annex 1: The Systematization of Barrio Circo

As part of this study, the staff of Arena y Esteras, together with junior researcher Jimmy Kegel from the
Netherlands, have attempted to systematize the experiences of Barrio Circo, as part of the Escuela Rodante
methodology of the organisation. The need for this research arose from the fact that the organisation lacks
information on evaluation of their projects, as well as any in-depth written materials. To produce ‘lessons
learned’ and recommendations for similar projects, the organisation decided to conduct a systematization
of experiences, a technique widely applied for participatory research in development practices in Latin-
America since the 1960’s. A detailed description of the research, including methodology and results, can
be seen in the report Informe para la Sistematización del Barrio Circo (Kegel, 2019). Some of the
information from this research was used to describe the organization in chapters 3 and 4 of this document.
In this annex will briefly be described the technique of systematization, the outcomes of the project Barrio
Circo (as part of Escuela Rodante) and the recommendations that were drawn from the research to inform
similar organizations or projects in the sector.

1.1 Systematization: What is it and why should you use it?

Systematizing an experience, especially one of an artistic nature, is not an easy task. It is very difficult to
evaluate the work done in a community art project, since no measurable objectives have been identified and
no benchmarks for success have been established (Matarasso, 1998). In addition, community arts
professionals, such as Arena and Mats, can only decide what "good" means when evaluating their work and
"what they are working for (their purpose) and what level of achievement will satisfy that purpose (their
standards) are not for strangers to determine” (Matarasso, 2019). For that reason, “participatory art projects,
more than any other, should see evaluation as an integral part of the creative process” (Matarasso, 1998),
and the so-called systematization of experiences can contribute greatly to this.

The idea of systematizing experiences was born during the 1970s, in tumultuous years of social change in
Latin America. Samantha Hargreaves of ActionAid said that "it is likely that the challenge of adapting to
these socio-political changes and the desire to support better and more effective development and social
change motivated people involved in practice to start looking for ways to organize and communicate what
they had discovered in and through their practice” (Hargreaves, 2007). The systematization of experiences
became a widely recognized tool for documenting experiences for critical reflections, in the social
development sector, used by organizations, government institutions , NGOs and local community groups,
to understand the experiences of past projects and to be able to extract the so-called "lessons learned" from
the experience.It is important that this happens to improve future initiatives and when the results of the

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process are documented and published, the information becomes accessible and shareable to others who
wish to undergo The same projects in similar fields. However, an important aspect of the systematization
of experiences lies in the fact that it is not simply a documentation, but also a critical reflection that includes
“opinions, judgments or criticisms presented by all stakeholders and participants” (Chavez-Tafur et al.,
2007)

In summary, it can be said that the main objectives of systematizing an experience are to:

• Organize the available information;

• analyse it in detail to understand what has happened;
• draw conclusions that will help generate new knowledge, and
• present the results in the chosen format. (Chavez-Tafur et al., 2007)

1.2 The methodology

Roughly outlined the research followed the following methodology:

• The institutional context was described that was present during the time of the researched period.
This included the organisation’s mission, vision, objectives, strategies components, organisational
structure and the relationships with external actors.
• The limits of the project were established and the direction of the investigation was determined.
• The project was described in detail, including the components, activities, their frequency, and the
context wherein the project took place.
• The results were analysed, discussed and through them the ‘lessons learned’ and
recommendations were extracted.
• The outcome of the research was presented in a report and final products were developed.

1.3 The results and recommendations

In an evaluation workshop the successes of the project were identified and discussed. The results of this
can be seen in table 1.1. The criteria and indicators were defined and agreed upon by every member of the
group. For each indicator the positive and negative aspects that helped achieve or stood in the way of
accomplishing the objectives of the project were identified. The resuts of this exercise were used to draw
‘lessons learned’ and recommendations.

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Criteria 1: Methodology based on trust and emotional ties
Indicators Postive Aspect Negative Aspect
1. Action Training -The boy and girl leaves from the beginning to perform -An action is done without conscience
actions in the neighborhood -Lack of methodology
- Learn by playing -Lack of theoretical training
-Management of frustration -little research
-The child is the protagonist
2. Peer formation -Learning chain that helps develop leadership in each -For lack of proper technique circus or theater is taught
child with risk
-generation of leaders -The boys share their knowledge with emotional load
-Mutual learning and instability.
-Awareness of responsibility
-Learning fixation
-Incentive security and reaffirm your personality

3. Experiencing other aspects of -Knowing the family environment helps to understand -Slow proceses
it -Impotence
life
-Empathy -Shame
-Reduction of violence
-Knowing other realities and ways of living
-Increase of trust and tolerance among participants

Criteria 2: Commitment based on local identity

1. To know the territory and local -Value local identity -Contradiction between the history of V.E.S. and the
-Acquisition of commitment to the district reality
history
-Valuation of your family identity

2. Participation in the social and
political agenda at local and
national level
-You develop a critical look at your surroundings - Political fear
-Development of a self-criticism -Lack political debate
-Life project idea
-Community protagonist

3. To know new realities and -Access to ancient knowledge -Adopt attitudes

-New Horizons -Lack of promoters
commit to their surroundings
Contrast your reality -Lack of emotional containment

Criteria 3: Scenic experience as part of the artistic training

1. Growth at technical and artistic -Higher self-esteem
-Participation to national and international festivals
level
-Circus technical learning skills
It gives them small job opportunities
-Allows you to participate in various assembly and
creation processes
-Causes egocentrism in young people
-There is no awareness of their social or political
environment, it is only based on the technical
-They will show their technical learning to other spaces
without group identity

2. Socio-emotional protagonism
3. To understanding topics of your
own reality
-Nourish the young person's self-esteem
-Change of perspective and life project after some tour
-Convincing their self-assessment qualities
-Security
-You are open to other knowledge about your
environment
-The child is sensitized to his own reality
-Creation of other appearances due to lack of
personality
-Cultural alienation when knowing contexts with
economic level raising
-There is no family support
-A superficial compression of some subject
-The child manipulates his position to fit the group

Table 1.1: ‘The successes’ of Barrio Circo, as identified by the organisation during an evaluation workshop

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1.4 Recommendations
Based upon the findings of the systematization of experiences of Barrio Circo, the following
recommendations were formed, in order to guide and counsel similar projects or organisations in the sector:

• Provide space for personal and institutional reflection during project execution.
• Invest in monitoring and evaluation practices during and after the project, to close the learning circle
and improve good practices.
• Document processes, methodologies, results, etc. throughout the project, in order to create content
for internal and external communication.
• Strengthen and clearly formulate the responsibilities of each area within the project, in order to
reduce the possibilities of lack of communication, lack of coordination and dispersion.
• Invest in strong and effective social ties with important stakeholders that share a common interest
in the outcome of the projects, such as (in the case of Villa El Salvador) district leaders, educational
institutions, the municipality and the national government.
• To address and re-address the political function of a given community intervention in order to raise
awareness about the activity carried out and its related intention and to provide space and foster
political debate among the young participants.
• Design programs based on the playful and supported by the creation of peers between an educator /
promoter and a participant that maintains a family bond and a lasting friendship.
• Find an effective balance between functioning as a community art institution in the form of cultural
house with open doors, while remaining a formal institution with serious social objectives and
effective management, and having strong institutional coordination and organization.

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Annex 2: The Most Significant Change

39