Open Source Interview

Victor “Crack” Rodriguez is an artivist that lives and works in La Libertad, El Salvador. He is a member of the art collective The Fire Theory and the art movement Los Siempre Suspectosos de Todo (“The Always Suspicious of Everything”). His practice and actions are intrinsically related to social, political and popular culture, from which they build strong ties with the public that reacts and/or participates and often becomes part of the work–not as passive spectators, but as a catalyst that activates the social context. Crack aims to question and demystify symbols and narrations told from those who abuse power, who impose their version of post-truth as the official one.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON CURRENTLY?

I am currently trying to survive.

Just on March 31st I traveled to Los Angeles for an art residency. Now due to the crisis I am working with my motorcycle making deliveries, because of the quarantine nobody can go out, and a little to have something to eat and pay the rent.

I am helping me, also at the same time I am collaborating with a digital newspaper called: Gato Encerrado. I collaborate with audiovisual and photographic records from drone mainly. We are also working with Los Siempre Suspectosos de Todo to make visible and denounce the measures of the State of Exception that take away our constitutional rights. We are generating legal resources together with lawyers and human rights institutions.

DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS WHEN BEGINNING A NEW PROJECT

Any work that we carry out is based on the defense of human rights, on two main axes: defense of the environment by indigenous peoples, social movements and related NGOs, and defender of the rule of law of illegal detentions and consequently dignified treatment in prisons, surveillance of the security institutions of the National Civil Police and the Armed Forces of El Salvador.

From this reference we try to generate communication strategies, hand in hand with conceptual art for those infiltrated in reality, in that sense it also tries to redefine the application of human rights and the legal supports to which we can help. In this dynamic, we try to advise the victims of the alleged justice and the victims of the predatory territories that are harmed.
 
 
 
 
 

ARE THERE ANY MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT YOUR WORK THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY?

We are singled out as defenders of the bad, we are singled out by followers, false accounts, the government of El Salvador as the enemies for protesting the suppression of the rule of law and the militarization of the state of emergency, facts that have been the perfect excuse to have a fascist government.

Of our colleagues in defense of human rights we are the most aggressive and reactive, but someone has to do it. We try to be “diplomatic” but the urgency and the denunciation do not give us time. The general population is in zombie mode, the president is a high-level publicist, he handles big data and he knows how to manipulate the people. And a divinity, an act of kindness, or an opposition boycott can make a mistake, but he is never to blame.

San Salvador, March 31, 2020

I, Victor Rodriguez, popularly known as El Comballots (“the man who ate the ballot”), deny the post made by the page Complaint Citizen SV, where I am accused of being agitator in the tragic situation that was lived outside Cenade branch Flor Blanca.

The post, consisting of a collage of images, takes out of context the photo in which I appear recording the testimony of a citizen, who went to the Cenade to be included as a beneficiary of the $ 300 grant. My presence in the events of Monday, March 30 is because I am a collaborator of a digital media media, in the multimedia area.

Those responsible for this page have also used an image of a press conference where different sectors of civil society express our disagreement with the militarization of the Legislative Assembly, which took place on February 9, 2020.

It is regrettable that with these kinds of publications want to divert the attention of the public to what happened that Monday, because these agglomerations were carried out by the absence of an appropriate government logistics for
cater to the population.

The accusations that point me as an agitator funded by elites supporters of opposition are serious, because they are based on images taken out of context and not on reliable evidence.

As a citizen, I will make the necessary complaints, in the relevant institutions, for that publication that violates my human rights. I thank my friends and friends who have shown their support in this painful situation.

Hugs,

Crack Rodriguez

WHAT IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME?

At the moment what we are most concerned about in El Salvador is the food sovereignty of rural areas, a root of the quarantine. People who disobey and leave their homes are being criminalized by the current government, people are being detained for leaving from their houses to survive.

Impoverished people are against the wall or rather the walls: 1- Uncertainty, 2- Harassment, torture, violation of rights by policies and the military sponsored by the President’s dictatorial measures, 3- Hunger, and 4- The virus. It is truly an impotent situation, we are trying to look for alternatives from our political responsibility and trying to activate the state institutions according to the well-being of the majority.

HAS COVID-19 IMPACTED YOUR PRACTICE?

It has been very violent, as a person organized in issues of social projection, defense of human rights, the virus has taken away our mobility, demonstrations and crowds are prohibited. My practice has been limited, but due to the way of life that we are accustomed to, simple and practical. We are going to try to adapt, although it should not be like that, but for health and in some cases we have the minimum.

We have suspended several activities at the international level. The closest, the trip to Los Angeles was postponed. I was going to present an exhibition on the vulnerable populations to be taken to various cities in the country. It stopped.

Well, many struggles in defense of rivers, forests and sacred indigenous sites have been paralyzed, because now trying to enter into crisis, it can be double to triple the work that there is. What to do more with a job of delivery in between and the struggles that we must focus more on in these times.

It is not just taking a second breath, you have to vomit a third air.