Iñako Díaz-Guerra
Updated Wednesday, February 14, 2024-00:31
Newspaper archive. All Chimpún interviews by Iñako Díaz-Guerra
Macarena García. "It would be easier to find me in an ayahuasca ritual than in a church"
Cayetana Guillén Cuervo
(Madrid, at some point) has been involved in a media stir that she did not want after it emerged that in the documentary
Mapa a Pandataria
, which can be seen on CaixaForum+, she reveals that she suffered "a very strong sexual assault" when she was six years. The temporal coincidence with the allegations of abuse towards the director Carlos Vermut have amplified a noise that the president of the Academy of Performing Arts, who this February 14 arrives at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid with
Pandataria
, the work that inspires the documentary, wants to move away.
How are you after these last few days? Good, I'm fine. I have wonderful people around me and many reasons to be very well. I am focused on a wonderful project that has taken a lot to put together, in which we talk about AIDS, freedom, inclusion, embracing difference and how the performing arts save you from everything. All this that has been assembled around what I told I limit it to the context in which I revealed it, which is the documentary. I have talked about myself in a creative context in which all of us who participate talk about ourselves and our wounds. Having been taken out of that context and seen written in headlines, it has had consequences that are not what I intended. That's why I'm not going to talk about it anymore. I'm breathing and trying to focus on the positive things in my life, which right now is a lot.
More interviews Chimpún
Marta Etura.
"I'm looking forward to being given dark roles, but since I have a good face, I play good. What a pain!"
Editor: IÑAKO DÍAZ-GUERRA
"I'm looking forward to being given dark roles, but since I have a good face, I play good. What a pain!"
Miguel Herran.
"I didn't like the life I had and I abandoned everything. I left my girlfriend and my friends, I changed my phone number and disappeared"
Editor: IÑAKO DÍAZ-GUERRA
"I didn't like the life I had and I abandoned everything. I left my girlfriend and my friends, I changed my phone number and disappeared"
You are especially involved in this Pandataria
project
, the work and the documentary.Yes. I had wanted to work with Chevy Muraday [choreographer] for a long time and the show we created together had to shake, provoke something, make people reflect, generate a critical spirit and modify the point of view if necessary. It is a cast in which each of us comes from a place, but all of these different human beings can coexist perfectly in a choreography that is a metaphor for life itself: everything works if we collaborate, laugh and support each other, but in The moment one is disloyal, uncomfortable, lying or selfish, one becomes unbalanced. That's what we want to say: embrace the difference instead of turning your back on it and spitting on it. Seeing how we are, I don't know if it's more than a metaphor but a wish. Yes, it's possible, but the message is clear and that's what I As a citizen, I believe: let's not destroy this society, integrate yourself, give the hand to others, let them help you and you help them. There is always where to understand each other even if there is a difference in ages, colors, races, customs, places and cultures. This show is a fantastic example of that. Pandataria is an island south of Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to which supposedly adulterous patrician women were expelled, but in reality they were the women who overshadowed the Caesars. They raped them, accused them of adultery and exiled three generations there. On that little island in the Mediterranean, three generations of women have died for being competent and intelligent. Do you think competent women are still under suspicion? No. Not always, at least. We must value all the good things we have achieved, which is a lot. Compared to my mother's generation, the advances have been tremendous. They laid the pillars for things to work. Please calm down, let's breathe and let's look for the positive, all the good things about living and coexisting. It is possible, with all the conflicts, with all the sweat, with all the problems, but it is possible. Have you not lost even a little faith? No, no, no. I believe deeply in human beings. There are some who, for whatever reason, and I don't judge them either, can only give others their worst version. Those are the ones that destabilize the issue, but we can handle them because there are more of us who assume the moral, intellectual and emotional responsibility of leaving the house to give your best version because we have a lot of influence on the lives of others. Ursula Hirschmann said: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful without limit." That's how it is. The goal is to never turn all the good energy we have into darkness. Wounds, if you don't heal them and don't treat them, make you give the worst version of yourself and that burden can ruin your life. That is what must be avoided: I have been dealt these cards, because I will have to play with them. You say that the work is a hymn to freedom, what do you feel when you hear that we had more 40 years ago? Which is not true,We must never forget where we come from. I always have my parents [actors Fernando Guillén and Gemma Cuervo] as references, who lived in the midst of the dictatorship, released banned authors, opened doors to democracy, had 14 performances a week and had no day off, they recorded
Study 1
and then two functions. Man, please! Let's think about everything that has been achieved and evolved in these years. Spain is a great country to live in and one of the best and freest countries in the world. It's okay that we continue fighting, each one for what he believes, but let's not lose perspective. We live with freedom of expression and information, with a right to privacy, public health and education... I don't know, I am very in love with Spain and I still get very homesick every time I travel abroad. It is also true that what I miss most is the group I belong to, your people. However, you stop in Madrid just enough. Yes, because I am passionate about theater. Yesterday we performed in Palma and, man, at the end the theater stood up and there were people in tears in the front row. That causes a very beautiful thing that still impresses me. The feeling of mission accomplished, that all the effort that touring entails is worth it, night after night sleeping alone in a strange hotel. You always feel lonely and it's hard, but then you do the show and it makes up for it. It's like childbirth, it hurts, but when you see the baby it's all worth it. You complain, but then you don't want to stop. Between the theater, TV, the presidency of the Academy... It's true, I get involved in all the messes, I'm interested in things, I get involved and they overlap. You don't know how hard it is for me to go out to dinner. I force it because, although I have little time for myself, my friends are vital. They are my identity, they are my life at the same level as my son. I could work less or on fewer things, but then it makes me so happy to see all the beautiful things we are achieving at the Academy, in the sense of valuing and dignifying our craft, that I can't help but get deeply involved. And remember, so people don't get confused, that it is an unpaid position. It takes up a lot of my time and there is no charge for anything, not even for the acts, neither me nor anyone on the board of directors, so I also have to work on everything else to get in. I do it with pleasure because I love the job.
Guillén Cuervo or how to endure a close-up.ENRIQUEZ-NISTAL
How do you assess the latest allegations of abuse in the union, in this case against Carlos Vermut? Do you know what's happening to me? I have no idea what happened and I'm terribly afraid of hoaxes. I don't want to say that this is, but until I have clear information about what happened, I don't dare to speak out. Not about this or anything because I'm afraid of swinging. It is so delicate that you cannot allow yourself to speak without certainties. I don't dare out of prudence and because I have also seen myself on the other side, when people talk about you and have no idea. That drives me crazy and it has happened to me on a few occasions. Better to err on the side of caution than risk contributing to a hoax. That's why it makes me very angry that my documentary subject was mixed with this case. It has nothing to do with it. Mine is an isolated movement that I tell in a creation process and has nothing to do with my profession. Nothing to see. What happens is that it has mixed over time and has already been put in the bag. Do you feel that your industry is being pointed out too much? Yes, but I understand it because in our profession we have a platform and we are constantly talking in the media, which that puts us on the front line of fire. That doesn't happen to a doctor or a lawyer, but abuse of women happens everywhere. What happens is that we are looked at more and that burdens us with a responsibility that, at times, is unfair. In what sense? Things are greatly distorted. The other day I read an interview I did for
Pandataria
and it was titled: "Cayetana Guillén Cuervo takes a position regarding abuse in her profession." I? I have said the obvious, that any abuse is reprehensible, but nothing of my profession, that is your interpretation that you also put in the headline. That's very fucked up because what do I do? You're being misrepresented and people in my profession can read that and say, "Damn, what is this positioned for?" As I am also a journalist, this manipulation in which you sweep towards what is best for you even if it is not true makes me very angry. That is not loyal either to me or to your job as a journalist. Do these things still affect you? Yes, they affect me very much, very much. Lies, hoaxes, breaking your trust... I have endured many lies about myself throughout my career and I can't get used to it. What happens is that I do therapy and it helps me. I am dealing with the issues and they give me tools to confront them. It suits me very well, but it still bothers me. I suspect that you are glad you did not dedicate yourself to journalism. Well, in EL MUNDO I have written for many years and the career has helped me to be in charge of programs like
Attention works!
o
Spanish version
without any intrusion on public television. I feel that, more than cultural journalism, what I do is constant cultural activism. Am I still unable to give your age? Don't even think about it. It is a question of activism. It bothers me deeply because it's like "this woman is this age and she can already do these things yes and you are no." Leave me alone, let me talk, let me move. I refuse to be tagged by a date.