Couple fights social injustice through the arts

By Richard Nieva

If you asked most people if art saves lives, many might say yes, figuratively speaking. But performing artists Mauricio and Cindy Salgado take that idea a little more literally.

The husband and wife duo works to promote Artists Striving to End Poverty, a national non-profit organization which originally stemmed from a student group from Juilliard committed to fighting social injustice through the arts.

Cindy, a dancer, and Mauricio, an actor and program manager for ASTEP, visited Santa Clara from last Thursday to Tuesday, guest teaching various dance and acting classes and holding open curriculum development workshops in which attendees learned how to develop solidarity with marginalized communities through the arts.

Their visit culminated with a presentation and performance on Tuesday evening in the Music and Dance Building. Cindy performed a dance piece based on the true story of a mother in Darfur, and Mauricio performed a monologue about a child's superhero dreams of getting his father's life back on track.

Interspersed between performances were video presentations of the organization's work with children through artistic media from dance to poetry.

The ASTEP mission focuses on bottom-up, internal social change and development, said Mauricio, who stressed education particularly with children as a major component of the program.

"We seek to create environments where the focus is on the children's creation. We are going to take artists, and we are going to put them in the room to be channels for the stories of these children," said Mauricio. "But in essence, we want these kids to start telling their own stories."

Instilling a sense of value in children is one of the first steps in giving them hope, continued Mauricio.

"In telling their own stories, it is empowering them to believe that their stories are worthwhile," he said.

More importantly, he said, this self-expression helps the children believe they have a place in their community and also gives them a sense of responsibility for taking up the pride of that community.

Cindy recalled the exact moment she realized the arts could be used as a vehicle for social change.

It was during the summer of 2002 when she and Mauricio took a mission trip to the Dominican Republic after their first year at Juilliard, which she said they felt compelled to do after the attacks of Sept. 11 were still fresh in the public consciousness.

At the end of the trip, Cindy decided to create a piece as a thank you to the community, she said.

While rehearsing, a young Dominican girl came into the studio, and after some prompting from Mauricio, the girl started dancing with Cindy.

Mauricio recalled watching the two dance together from an outside perspective. The contrast was what struck him most, he explained. He saw Cindy -- a blonde, blue-eyed, upper-middle class California woman -- create something side by side with Ana Leonor, a 12-year-old black Dominican girl from a poverty-stricken family.

"All the barriers that could possibly exist existed between these two people," he said. "But as soon as they began creating together, those barriers crumbled, along with any stereotypes the two may have had about each other."

Cindy echoed his statement.

"The most beautiful part of it," she said, "was that at first when she came up to dance with me, she was just mimicking me in the background. I just kept doing my thing. Then she started leading me, with her own impetus. It was her choice to start leading me. It's hard to explain a moment like that," she said.

This feeling was eventually fused into the piece's development and the two performed it as a duet.

This overarching power to set aside stereotypes and create together is something inherent in art, they said, which makes it the perfect catalyst for social change.

Mauricio, after much contemplation about his role as a teacher, eventually concluded the agenda of a teacher is to teach "compassionate, courageous choice-making" to his or her students.

"If that is the greater plight, then what better way to have that very complex discussion than telling the very real stories where things aren't always black and white, but more in the middle and gray?" he said. "And how do you tell stories best? Through the arts."

Since its inception, ASTEP has grown to handle programming in South Florida, South America and New York, and it has even developed an orphanage in India, where Santa Clara students Francesca McKenzie and Genevieve Horvilleur will work this summer.

Horvilleur recalled first hearing about ASTEP when the group first visited campus last year, during what she referred to as a difficult time in her life because a recent surgery on her leg had left her temporarily unable to dance.

"It's just been this forward motion, realizing that it's been like a calling for me, and that's the type of work I want to do," she said.

McKenzie, who described herself as always being committed to both art and social justice, at first found herself conflicted about how she should be spending her time. She credits ASTEP and the Justice and Arts Initiative Co-Director Caroline Silberman for making her realize that the two arenas do not have to be separate.

Silberman, also an instructor in the theater and dance department, brought the Salgados here in conjunction with the department's social justice and the arts course, now in its second year.

Currently, Silberman is working with ASTEP on developing a program on campus for student-artists interested in affecting social change around the area.

"We want to invigorate this entire campus, which then goes out into the community, then goes out into the world," she said. "We just have to keep it going and keep it flowing."

Contact Richard Nieva at (408) 554-4546 or rnieva@scu.edu.