El viento y la ceniza.

Video excerpts of this theater piece recreating the drama of a Conquistador, spellbound by American exuberance, who returns to his country defeated and sick, just to be punished and forced to keep looking for El Dorado. We see one of the Spanish conquerors in his last days. He is haunted by several ghosts (his father, his mother, a woman) who tell him to go to America to do great deeds and become rich. One by one, all the ghosts from the past come to pay a visit and judge him. This is one of La Candelaria's plays concerned with the violent conquest of America, but it focuses on the conquerors, their miseries and their dreams. La Candelaria (www.teatrolacandelaria.org.co) was founded in 1966 by a group of independent artists and intellectuals who came from experimental theater and the broader Colombian cultural movement. Directed by Santiago García, La Candelaria is one of Colombian theater's most innovative agents, modernizing national drama while addressing popular audiences. By means of an ongoing exploration of national folklore, situations and characters, they have created some of Colombia's most compelling plays, some of them through the method of 'creación colectiva' ('collective creation'), addressing the acute social and political problems of their society. At the same time, they fostered the creation of Corporación Colombiana del Teatro and have developed a number of theoretical works that reflect upon dramatic creation, its methods and languages. Still nowadays, La Candelaria is committed to repertoire, experimentation, and discussion as fundamental elements to artistic creation. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics