2023-06-11 15:25:39
interview
The actor is these days dedicated to La Tropa, a theater company that he founded with his family. He also continues to be a keen observer of the reality of the country and is not afraid to call things by his name in the face of the scandals of the Petro government.
11/6/2023
SEMANA: For years we have seen you as an actor in wonderful roles. How has he fared now in his facet as a culture entrepreneur with his theater company La Tropa?
Robinson Diaz (DR): It has been an opportunity to create a high-quality theater, where the first beneficiary is the public. La Tropa is a theater company that I direct with Adriana Arango, my wife; My son and 20 other people also work. It is a prosperous project because we have had the support of the public that believes in art well done. We currently have six plays on stage, including The lady in black, Schizophrenia, Much animal, Red-handed. And the public massively attends the Teatro Libre de Chapinero to see them. The idea is to make a self-sustaining theater that allows us to finance our next productions.
SEMANA: How has it been working as a family?
(R.D.): Everything has been built little by little. Adriana, who already has experience as a cultural manager, and I met at TPB and have been together ever since. Our son, Juan José, who is very bright, grew up on stage, between cameras, sets and dressing rooms, this is in his blood. The three of us bet as a troop to do the things that we like very much for the enjoyment of the public.
SEMANA: You, who are now a businessman who is committed to culture in Colombia, aren’t you concerned to see that the sector seems to have no supporters in this government?
(R.D.): We must let the process in which many of us believed with this government begin. And, above all, not sit idly by, waiting for a government to solve everything for us. I contribute as an art businessman who pays his taxes and produces prosperity and provides employment. It is that you have to get out of the mentality that the one who makes culture is a crazy marijuana user. That is already sent to pick up. But it is also true that the Government has to wake up and realize that it has a very powerful asset throughout the country with the arts. You can’t keep postponing that.
SEMANA: But, don’t you think that almost a year following the start of the government, the policies related to culture, with which many elected you, should already be taking off? It is that a proper minister has not even been appointed.
(R.D.): It’s true, but Petro is a guy who listens. He still has three years to materialize these reforms, including that of culture. Now, I know that Gustavo Petro is not the panacea, nor the jerk that he was. But at least he sits down to talk with the artists. It is no less true that he urges you to understand that more concert halls are needed, provide theaters with better equipment, offer greater incentives to artists, more cultural venues. Not everything can be festivals, reggaeton and brandy, which is what many people think culture is. The truth is that Colombia is a country under construction. And they want Petro to do it in eight months, which has taken more than 200 years.
SEMANA: With that ancestry you have in the middle, why didn’t you want to join the negotiation table that currently exists with the artists?
SEMANA: Do you regret your vote for Gustavo Petro?
(R.D.): I voted once morest 200 years of feudalism. I voted for someone who proposed reforms, different ideas, beyond a political party. I am 57 years old and I have not had a single day of peace in Colombia, so I did want a real change.
SEMANA: But, with only eight months in government, there are already several petro-enthusiasts, several of them in the culture sector itself.
SEMANA: Now that you talk regarding bullying, do you consider yourself a man of the left?
(R.D.): I consider myself a man of life actually. Art has no political parties. I don’t start fighting with Tomás Eloy Martínez, with Umberto Eco or with Borges, who was so right-wing. I love this country very much. They have offered me to go live in Mexico, in the United States, and I have always said no. Meanwhile, many people write me dirty. “Go to Venezuela, go to Cuba.” And I answer them, I have already been to those places and I did not like it, this is my country. I am not advocating that we have a system like the Cuban or the Venezuelan, yuck! What I believe is that Colombia is a country that we can manage better. People want to graduate you as petrista or non-petrista to put a label on you and meanwhile the hordes continue to attack you. But I think that good art is above all those things.
SEMANA: In any case, as a person who believed in the project of this government, don’t all the scandals that have been uncovered in a government that has been in office for so few months leave a bad taste in your mouth?
(R.D.): Petro has been badly surrounded in some cases. People that one says Hp, what are you doing there! But he means well. The scandals have surprised me and I cannot believe that we are experiencing the same thing that we have criticized other governments for. The son, for example, is a retaliation. I think Petro has been naive as a ruler; therefore, he has not realized in time who he was surrounded by.
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