The protagonist of José, the film made in Guatemala, winner of the Queer Lion award at the 75th Venice Film Festival, talks in this interview about how this film changed his life by making him look at his reality and that of the country in a different way.
By: Irene García
Enrique Salanic is an actor, he is gay, but above all and above all he is Mayan K'iche; that's how he defines himself. And these characteristics of his identity have earned him discrimination and exclusion. He is one of the protagonists of José, the film by Chinese director Li Cheng, filmed in Guatemala in 2017 and released the following year. Just a week ago it was presented in this country, as part of the Muestra de Cine Diverso organized by Visible and the Ixcanul Foundation with the support of the Cultural Center of Spain in Guatemala.
However, the feature film, which exposes the homophobia of the conservative Guatemalan society, has been presented in more than 70 festivals around the world and won the Queer Lion award at the 75th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
José tells the story of a 19-year-old gay boy who sells "shucos" to help his family's economy. In search of fun, he establishes casual sexual relationships through digital applications. It is there when he meets Luis, who takes José to a plane of passion, pain and unimaginable reflection. The film takes place entirely in Guatemala, and the main locations are in zones 1, 4 and 7 of the capital.
The first time I was on the podium with journalists - after the release of José - many asked me: "What was it like to play a gay character in Guatemala, and I answered: No, I mean, yes I am gay, but before that I am K'iche, we are a minority within a minority, many Guatemalans think that the indigenous person stays indigenous and nothing more, but it is not so", says Enrique when reflecting on how starring in this film changed his life.
"My experience with this film was something that changed my life, even though it was my second film and my second experience [the first was Days of Light] in film." That change, more than in the professional field, was in Salanic's most intimate and personal, the confrontation with his own reality. "I learned not only about the reality of a minority that is very intentionally excluded in a conservative, classist, racist world," he says, referring to the country's LGTBIQ+ community.
Realizing this, he adds, "was a very changing issue, not only emotionally, but psychologically, because perhaps at the time the film was progressing I was not realizing everything that was happening, I could not measure the impact it could have" in his life and in Guatemalan society.
Participating in this film helped Enrique to "meet not only different people who are members of the LGBTIQ+ community, but also those who live in indigenous populations outside the capital, (as well as) get to know the technical side of filmmaking, become more aware of all the work it takes to make a film and the dedication it requires".
Because, he adds, making films here in Guatemala is a complex task. "If you want to make films, it's because you love this profession, because first it's a question of money, which is not something that comes so easily." The biggest challenge of making a film with a homosexual theme in Guatemala "is that it is a conservative country" where "religion weighs a lot".
"I recognize that I was a little afraid of what could result in psychological violence or physical violence, not only here in Guatemala, but in my community; that people might react in a discriminatory way because of who I am, but sometimes I realize that, in the accumulated fear, that's what it is: the feeling that people already know who I am, but it's not talked about."
"It's all good because you don't talk about that issue, but you have to talk about these issues, you have to manifest it. The incentive to talk about this is to be able to say what I feel, what I think, to show my face in some way from the art that one performs; this is a way of expressing oneself before life, knowing that Guatemala has to be prepared for the worst," he adds.
And, he adds, "Guatemala can be embracing you and suddenly dictatorships come, genocides come, exterminations come or laws are passed to violate our rights".
It is necessary to speak, he insists, so that "the words reach the people they have to reach and question themselves from where they have to question themselves in order to have an impact on what they have to impact in their spaces, in their bubbles". Through her work, she says, "I am doing my bit, living from my community. Maybe my community won't hear or see this film, but maybe my actions alone can have a ripple effect on my neighbors or whatever.
Enrique believes that it is important to be subtle when talking about sexual diversity in indigenous communities, "because it is a very shocking topic that you can't go into someone else's house and burst in with a topic like this; you have to be tactful with the communities, talk and see how to reach them, not to change their way of thinking, but just to accept and make it known that we exist, that we have always been and will continue to exist".
Original publication: Agencia Universitaria de Noticias
Author: Irene García Alvarez
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