Operación María

On Saturday afternoon, I decided to go to a free play put on by the Samaritan House in Managua about the sexual exploitation of young children in Nicaragua. Walking in to the theatre at the UCA (University of Central America), I knew very little about both the play I was going to see and the current situation of sexual exploitation in Managua…actually the only thing I did know for sure was that the play was about a social issue that interests me…and it was free…

As I took my seat in the theatre I scanned the crowd and felt content that I saw some familiar faces of co-workers, other foreign volunteer friends, and even some people I have just recognized from various human rights related events that I have attended over the past few months. After a brief introduction, the play began to unfold in front of me, and I became shocked by some horrific events it presented.

Through the efforts of the actors and actresses, I learned how children as young as 8 or 9 years old are selling their bodies for sex to make some extra money. The play walked through how there is a huge problem in Managua of young kids sniffing glue and living on the streets, and now it is becoming more common for some of the young girls to sell their bodies to make money for more glue or maybe just a meal. The children that are living on the streets and sniff glue are such a mystery to me. I have heard that there are some kids as young as 4 years old. So when initially hearing all this I felt frustrated and confused. Where are these children’s parents? Can it really be true that they are choosing to live their lives on the streets sniffing glue? What kind of desperation must they feel to now want to sell their young innocent bodies for sex?

But my frustration and confusion with the situation didn’t stop there as I was also saddened to see the role of the North American in the play. Apparently some (obviously very disturbed) men from North America come to the tourist areas of Nicaragua to solicit young women and children for sex in return for paying them very little by US dollar standards…sometimes they are even paid with things like chocolate and candies that are viewed as such luxuries to them. Sure I realize that only a very small percentage of the North Americans in the country actually make up this population, but it is just another example of how I am learning that the culture where I come from constantly contributes to the oppression of these people.

The play was created for an adult audience, and it was clearly stated that no one under 18 should attend, so there were quite a few of graphic and violent scenes. At several points during the performance the audience broke into laughter, but because of the high use of slang terms and no microphone use, I was often lost with the dialogue and confused as to what was actually really funny, but during probably the most graphic and horrific scene in the entire play where a women was being raped by 2 men (and there was NO confusion as to what was going on), the audience giggled and laughed. I just kind of looked around the theatre with confused eyes wondering what could possibly be funny about this scene.

The Samaritan House presenting the play opened up the microphone after it had ended to get feed back and people’s opinions/reflections. After a few floury, surface comments congratulating the actors, a discussion was finally brought up about the reaction of the audience during this awful scene. Why did the audience react with laughter after seeing a woman raped? Was that the intention of the director? The actress who played the woman in the scene spoke up and suggested that maybe the reaction was indicative of the way we all are reacting to this problem in Nicaragua. We all know that it is going on, we see the children lying on the streets drugged up on glue, yet we do nothing. Is that not us laughing in their faces?

As the play’s title, “Operacion Maria”, foreshadowed, the play ended with the Virgin Mary coming to the streets to be with the children and save them. But is that really what we think is going to happen? As much as I know God is living among us and see his face everyday in those of the poor, it is hard for me to believe that the solution of the problem is that simple. In the play a woman dressed as the virgin walked on stage to some “holy sounding” music taking the hands of the women and children and leading them to follow her, but is that really what is happen with them on the streets of Managua?

Everyday here, I feel as though my heart and my thinking change in a new way. This day I left the theatre in a somber mood curious as to how we could allow such horrible things to happen in our world. Operación Maria? Is that really how we think the problems of the world are solved?