Villa El Salvador

One of the other volunteers, who works in the community theatre CIJAC, took me on a tour of Villa El Salvador. It was pretty awesome. I’m not going to lie. I got to watch one of their rehearsals for the 40^th Anniversary celebration. Then a few weeks later I returned to watch the show and to take pictures.

The show was based on the history of Villa El Salvador. It showed how the people came from all over Peru to found their own community, how they worked together to build their houses and to defend the
land that they claimed as their own, how they received documentation for their land claims and how they came together as a community. The actors wore costumes in styles from all over Peru. It was interesting to watch the intersecting of
cultures.

Villa El Salvador has attracted attention in the International Development community for its strong political leadership. Community leaders from the beginning fought for education and sustainable
economic development. The results of which are obvious. Now Villa El Salvador has a manufacturing industry which makes clothes, furniture and other products that feed into the large department stores in the more prosperous parts of Lima. Their main commercial street also sells these products for lower prices!

Villa El Salvador also has a community radio and television station. I got a chance to talk to one of the organisers of the radio station on my personal tour. He told me that they have community talk radio in the mornings and early evenings – the rest of the time they play music. The television station is mostly local news shows but they are hoping todevelop some children’s shows in the near future. It’s so important in political and economic development for a community to have a method of communication where they can share the news and events that are happening in the community.

Mil gracias to my coworker for showing me this impressive community.