The routine life

My life has been relatively routine these past couple of weeks.   Three days a week I have my language classes, two days a week I am volunteering with ADESPROC (Associacion Civil de Desarrollo Social y Promocion Cultural Libertad).  I occasionally go to movies, meet up with people, shop and the usual day to day minutia of city life.  I’ve even been cooking quite a bit.  I now make a mean quinoa soup.  I never drive the car.  It has been parked since my parents left.

Last week I attended the opening of the Israeli Film Festival.  The Israeli ambassador spoke and the security at the event was a little daunting.  There were a couple of pretty serious looking police dogs at the door and security guards standing along the outside isle during the entire movie.  The movie turned out to be “Walk on Water” a movie I saw in the states and that I highly recommend. It was in English, German, Hebrew and of course with Spanish subtitles.

On Friday (the 16th of May) I assisted with an event put on by ADESPROC.  They are the largest and oldest (about 12 years old) organization working for the GLBT community in La Paz.  There is a small bar alongside their offices called “Cafe Vox”.  I think it is the only establishment in La Paz with a rainbow flag that doesn’t signify the indigenous community; the Aymara flag is actually a square of rainbow squares.

For the last few weeks I have volunteered at ADESPROC helping to prepare for the event.  I haven’t done this sort of volunteer work for about 20 years.  I glued small rainbow flags together, folded literature to be handed out, even helped make signs (which brought back memories of past failures in grade school art classes).  I preferred the few minutes where I scanned newspapers for any articles touching on GLBT issues.  This week I’ll be volunteering a few more days.

The event was held at a very congested and important confluence of three pedestrian streets in the central of the city.  I took some pictures and posted them.  As always seems to be the case in fledging gay rights movements there was an abundance of drag queens. There was an audio visual component with videos about tolerance and acceptance. The organization had presentations from the executive director and current “Misses” of La Paz who all spoke with passion.

I was in a group of about 12 people who arrived from the offices of ADESPROC with the props. The screen, sound system and computer had already been delivered and assembled.  We had the signs, fliers, flags, candles and about a half dozen queens (travistes).  We also had a couple huge rainbow flags (about 60 feet long) and an equally long sign proclaiming rights for all.  My only involvement at the event (other than playing photo journalist – one of my favorite pastimes these days) was to assist in hanging the signs.  There was no obvious place.  Eventually one rainbow flag became the backdrop on the side of a building. The other rainbow flag was stretched along a large portion of an important pedestrian bridge over the main street in town.  The long message flag was on the other side of the bridge.  Saturday was to be the Gran Poder celebration in La Paz and there were huge billboards facing out from the bridge towards the traffic below. With the flags on either side what is normally a very expansive view from the bridge became a virtual valley of rainbow and civil rights messages.

After the presentations (no lip sinking) the participants marched out across the bridge and positioned themselves all along the sides.  The bridge became extremely crowded and very difficult to traverse.  There were media cameras and microphones interviewing the participants further increasing the disruption on the bridge.

I was extremely interested in watching the crowd of people.  I talked with a photo journalist from “La Prensa” who told me that 15 years ago this would not have gone over well.  He felt that today people are much more accepting.  I noticed that in the people.  I never saw any real strong emotional responses.  A few younger guys grinned at their girlfriends more in an amusement than disgust or disfavor.  I watched a few women ask those fantastically draped queens to take their pictures with them, some with children.

I would be very interested in seeing a similar event in Santa Cruz.  It seems that Santa Cruz is much more open, there are more obvious bars there.  But I’ve had people explain to me that La Paz is more accepting and therefore doesn’t need bars – a very odd explanation.

It was very difficult to actually locate the one gay bar in La Paz.  I basically had to search out other guys in Mango’s, a lively “accepting” nightclub that caters to expats, and then follow them.  Punto Gay has no sign and the gate is locked (to be unlocked by the security guard upon arrivals and departures) even during the few hours that it is actually open from 11pm – 4 am Friday and Saturday.  I went once at 11:30 and there was no one there. I went later at 2:30 and it was packed.  Of course people who identify as gay claim to despise Punto Gay.  And I suspect it is a small number of people who attend regularly.

The people of La Paz like to characterize themselves as more cultured than Santa Cruz.  There is no mega cineplex in La Paz, though one is currently under construction.  Both Santa Cruz and Cochabamba have had them for a few years.  It has been explained to me that personal appearance is extremely important in Santa Cruz, that clothes and jewelry are more important than housing. Supposedly there are beauty contest schools in Santa Cruz that rival those in Venezuela.  The “Miss” contests (both those of traditional and alternative form) are conducted in and dominated by Santa Cruz.   And of course the nightlife seems much more lively there.

This next week will be consumed with getting ready to leave.  Bob arrives early Sunday morning and he and I will leave on Tuesday for Oruro, Sucre, Potosi and the Salar de Uyuni.