Identidades in English No 3, September 2014 | Page 20

Animando Sonrisas is an interactive communications project created and run by members of civil
society (it is not state-run or ‘official’). Members
throughout the country do this to bring joy to children and teach them values.
Through methods like “Teatro de la Creación”
[Theater of Creation], children recreate their life
stories via performance.
The project also takes its work to communities in
transition, a euphemism the government uses to
denominate collective shelter housing, places
where people who have lost their dwellings to
collapses, fires or natural disasters end up.
We have these shelters in La Esperanza, in the
Municipality of Boyeros, and in the Dolores
neighborhood, in San Miguel del Padrón.
Domestic violence and other habits dangerous to
civic education and urban culture reign in these
marginal communities.
In Cuba, primary schooling is mandatory and,
like all Cuban children, the kids in these marginal

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neighborhoods must go to school. Yet, the politicized instruction they receive does not help them
develop in so hostile an environment.
Through “Theater of Creation,” life stories, tales,
riddles, dances, drawing, story telling, as well as
questions and answers foment interaction between the child audience and the performer-facilitators.
The project is entirely apolitical, although it does
promote the formation of civic values. Likewise,
interacting with children in their own communities creates beneficial ties between their parents,
who are seeking improvement in their family relations, and fraternal principles, with an emphasis
on non-violence.
Animando Sonrisas emerged as a result of what
volunteer workers for the Network of Independent Libraries reported about the reality in neighborhoods like El Globo, La Esperanza, La Corea
and others in the capital city, after they’d visit
them as traveling librarians.