Echoes of Silence

Support Echoes of Silence Today!

Echoes of Silence - 'artists with dirt under their finger nails' - works to build peace with justice, through beauty and action. Beauty offers a glimpse of wholeness, keeps alive the vision of a healed world and moves people profoundly to take concrete actions to make peace-filled justice, crucially - as the very earth melts beneath our feet - environmental justice. With so many of the world's people unable to read, Echoes emphasizes the arts as vital channels for communication and interchange. We particularly support projects to end war, to reduce global warming, and to build community information and action networks locally, nationally and internationally.

Inspired by Victor Jara, Chile's great and greatly-loved singer/songwriter, we challenge celebrity culture, seeking instead to support popular movements and peoples projects. As Victor himself put it: 'We're not artists but cultural workers. And, first and foremost, we're workers". So, since there are already so many fine programs achieving so many wonderful things we devote our energies, primarily, to supporting the work of others rather than starting projects of our own. In this way, direct support for Echoes is actually amplified, since it assists not only our own work but also that of many other groups. Further, this way of working allows for great flexibility, so we're able to commit ourselves, often at a moment's notice, wherever our input can be most effective. Some recent/ongoing examples of our work are:

• Organizing/performing at events for those who suffered on 9/11, both in the USA (2001) and in Chile (1973 viz the destruction of the elected government of Dr. Salvador Allende by General Pinochet, aided and abetted by the USA and Britain. Victor Jara and thousands more were tortured and murdered.
• Promoting the Nicaraguan government's Zero Hunger and other programs that enable campesin@s to live with dignity on the land, via trade justice and organic farming, providing food security, reducing water waste and promoting reforestation. They also transform the life of women who become owners of the animals and are liberated from cancerous cooking smoke by systems that use methane from animal waste for cooking and lighting. Finally, workers stay home, developing their own land and family instead of being forced to emigrate to provide cheap labor for the 'American Way of Life'.
• Providing sound system and live music for the 30th anniversary of the Nicaraguan Community Movement, which develops health, educational, sport and cultural programmes in marginalized neighbourhoods and rural communities
• Regular prose and photo reports on current Nicaraguan events for the international community
• Three tours per year of the USA and Europe, offering analysis, promoting links to community projects and national programs, giving press interviews, concerts and lectures, taking part in conferences and discussions, assisting with campaigns, demonstrations and more. For further information, please contact us directly at: echoespaul@tortillaconsal.com and/or on: Nicaragua (505) 405 2563, UK (44) 01225 866181, USA (1) 973 765 9102.
  

*Photo: Don Felipe Urrutia (90): Legendary musician who, entire;ly by ear, rescued the traditional polkas and waltzes of northern Nicaragua from oblivion. His group, Don Felipe y sus Cachorros, also sang to back the Sandinista Revolution. Now over 90, he's here seen playing Echoes' co-coordinator's "Green Guitar", homemade from scrap wood.