La Torre Que Alcanza Al Cielo
The Tower that Reaches the Sky
This work is in homage to the radical community radio station, Radio Victoria, based in Cabañas, El Salvador. Radio Victoria combines music with campaigns and citizen reporting. They are currently one of few media sources that remain independent and critical of the government in El Salvador. The new authoritarian government, though popular for tackling gang crime, is committing human rights and environmental abuses, such as imprisoning people on mass without trial and pushing a mining project which would threaten the nation’s water supply. They also have a programme of harassment towards independent media. The government is known to use spyware, and on my trip I found many acquaintances nervous to talk about politics in public. I was relieved to discover Radio Victoria, where people were speaking their minds on these important issues. I was struck by the courage but also the joy, fortitude and empathy of this community.
Community radio has been at the heart of resistance movements in El Salvador and around the world. Nowadays these radio stations also utilise the internet and social media, but radio towers are still the vehicle to transmit messages across oceans and skies, and they are to be seen atop many of El Salvador’s twenty volcanos. This tower represents a connection formed and amplified. We never know how far a broadcast may reach, and break beyond boundaries. Radio Victoria’s first broadcasts were transmitted using an antenna fixed to a bamboo pole, inside an earthen outhouse. Now they have their own fixed tower. This is reflected in my choice of materials, which also represent the interweaving currents of tradition and modernity present in El Salvador.
The title is a reference to the song El Sombrero Azul (The Blue Sombrero) which plays in the film. This resistance song, from the time of the Salvadoran civil war in the 1980s, affirms: 'The Salvadoran people wear the sky as their sombrero, so high is their dignity'.
