“Yasuaki Yamashita’s Memoirs Will Raise Awareness About Hell on Earth”

▲ Front of the plane nicknamed Bockscar , from which the atomic bomb Fat Man was dropped, which destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Image taken on March 26, 1946. Photo Ap

Omar González Morales

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, August 6, 2025, p. 2

Eighty years ago, the atomic bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. On August 9, 1945, another bomb, Fat Man , was dropped on Nagasaki. The attacks perpetrated by the United States government were intended to eradicate the Japanese civilian population, explained Sergio Hernández Galindo, a historian specializing in Japan and a member of the Directorate of Historical Studies at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

In an interview with La Jornada , the specialist discussed the stories of the two survivors of that tragedy who live in Mexico, reflecting on the importance of young people understanding the ongoing global threat and Mexico's role as a detractor of nuclear weapons.

It's a fundamental issue given the current context; the public needs to realize that there are statements from governments, like the United States, sending atomic submarines to Russia, risking nuclear destruction. And, of course, the tragedy of genocide by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people. Let's also not forget that India and Pakistan have these weapons and are in conflict. Today, the environment is much more complicated than it was 80 years ago , Hernández Galindo commented.

For the expert, the risk of nuclear war is still present: It's not a thing of the past, it's the present. It's a crisis for humanity. We're talking about bombs now available a thousand times more powerful than those dropped on Japan. Even the use of these weapons of mass destruction demonstrates that the war was going to take place in a different context, one that wanted to see the Japanese people disappear. From that tragedy arose the need to reflect not only on war, but also on the importance of peace .

Two stories bear witness to this struggle. The first is the case of Yasuaki Yamashita, who survived the Nagasaki bombing thanks to his mother's protection. She was his shield. In addition to the injuries from the blast, he suffered radiation repercussions and was subsequently discriminated against by Japanese society. His refuge, like that of many other victims of other tragedies, was Mexico.

In this country, Yasuaki Yamashita found more than just a home, but a refuge. He didn't have children because of the risk of radiation, as he was worried about the genetic damage they would have suffered. He was always part of the community here. He never wanted to return to Japan. Yamashita's mother died 10 years after the explosion, a victim of cancer , the expert explained.

Since 1995, Yamashita has been giving lectures about his experience: "We need to talk to young people so they know the horrors the survivors endured. Fortunately, people listen to us, and there are materials, such as talks and the book Hibakusha: Testimony of Yasuaki Yamashita (published by Fondo de Cultura Económica), that help us understand the victims and understand that they were scarred," said Sergio Hernández.

Another testimony is that of the family of Conchita Hiramuro, the daughter of a Japanese immigrant who lived in Guadalajara and moved to Hiroshima in 1940. Surrounded by war, escape was impossible; however, she was fortunate enough to survive the bomb blast, which immediately killed 70,000 people. The nightmare continued with famine and misery: a lack of food, medicine, and clothing meant that residents had to eat even the leaves of trees to survive. Conchita Hiramuro returned to Mexico in 1950 and settled in Guadalajara, where she still lives.

Treaty against the nuclear threat

Our country is important in the fight against the proliferation of atomic bombs, thanks to the signing of the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1967, created after the Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. The pact was a commitment by the members to never possess or use nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

It must be emphasized repeatedly: this isn't something that doesn't affect us, it's not something that happens elsewhere, but rather it implies the destruction of an entire region. Mexico's declaration in that treaty was fundamental, a very important step , the INAH historian emphasized.

In 2024, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Nihon Hidankyo organization, a group of atomic bomb survivors who continue to fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Sergio Hernández asserts that the award was momentous because it calls for reflection "on the existence of a group that fights to point out that humanity may be in danger of disappearing."

The award to that organization leads us to recognize the need for world peace and for all nations to accept the problem. Today, the drums of war reverberate throughout the world. The survivors pointed out that it's not just for them; the struggle is so that those who hear us can survive.

Yasuaki Yamashita and historian Sergio Hernández Galindo frequently hold conferences to address the public. This year, they held them in San Luis Potosí, Baja California, Guanajuato, Mexico City, Puebla, and Chiapas.

Today they will perform at 12 noon at the Library Bridge of the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Cuajimalpa Unit. On Thursday, they will premiere a special program on Radio INAH, and on Saturday at 1 p.m., they will attend the Xavier Villaurrutia Hall of the Centro Cultural del Bosque to witness the play "Las niñas y los niños de papel" (Paper Girls and Boys ), based on the experiences of children who survived nuclear barbarism, in which Yasuaki Yamashita will tell their story.

I have hope in Yasuaki's vision, that his memories and the pain of his recollections will help raise awareness. I have faith in knowing that there are people who don't want to see that hell on Earth happen again. In my role as a teacher, I have that responsibility: to teach new generations about the terrible consequences of nuclear weapons , the anthropologist concluded.

▲ American dancer Annie Rigney will perform tomorrow at the opening ceremony of FIDCDMX at the Raúl Flores Canelo Theater at Cenart. Photo by Brian Pollock/courtesy of the organizers

Fabiola Palapa Quijas

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, August 6, 2025, p. 3

With artists from the United States, Argentina, Latvia, El Salvador, Germany, Puerto Rico, France, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, Poland, Cuba, Canada, and Japan, the Mexico City International Contemporary Dance Festival (FIDCDMX) will take place. For the past 10 years, it has become the most important cultural and dance exchange center in the country, thanks to the diversity of both venues and proposals presented.

From tomorrow until the 17th, the festival will take place in various venues in the capital so that the public can learn about dance being performed on the other side of the world and create connections. In addition, the participating artists always talk about what surrounds them or affects them, what moves them, and this gives a glimpse into a global horizon , commented Rodrigo González, co-director of the dance event with Raúl Tamez, in an interview.

He explained that since its inception, the festival's main objective has been to foster international artistic exchange and disseminate the diversity of innovative and rigorous performing arts, with a deep commitment to the body and contemporary creation.

González added that the festival gives visibility to contemporary dance in Mexico City and is a great moment for the public to get closer, because sometimes people are unfamiliar with this discipline because they feel they don't understand it or that it doesn't communicate with them, or they've only seen proposals with which they don't connect. This meeting is an opportunity to see this great panorama, in addition to the fact that people find it interesting to see artists from other countries .

This year, the FIDCDMX (Family Dance Association) will award the Luis Fandiño Medal to renowned dancer and choreographer Omar Carrum for his outstanding career and contributions to contemporary dance in Mexico and around the world. Carrum has been instrumental in training several generations of dancers, along with Claudia Lavista and Víctor Manuel Ruiz at the Delphi School. As a choreographer, he has numerous works and remains very active in Mexico and other countries such as Prague and Colombia. "You can still see him on stage with great skill, and in each of his choreographies, he reinvents himself, generates new languages, and is constantly researching ," he stated.

Among the dance figures who will be performing at the festival is Mufutau Yusuf, a Nigerian-born dancer who will perform the work Impasse , full of raw physicality and emotional intensity , who represents Ireland and has danced in major companies.

In his works, he takes up aspects of his culture, of African dances, and shows a contemporary side of his traditions , González said.

The festival's co-director expressed that Mexico will be represented by great creators, such as Yuridia Ortega, who will perform the piece Noche , which relates to the process of constant transformation, that when you think you can't go on, there is always something that triggers change and evolution .

Choreographer Isabel Beteta is also part of the artistic gathering's cast. Her work, " Desapego ," is inspired by the Hermit tarot card, which represents the moment when a person experiences introspective thoughts.

It has been very gratifying to open this bridge of communication between artists from different countries and then generate projects that go beyond the festival .

The FIDCDMX activities will take place at the Dance Theaters of the Centro Cultural del Bosque, the Raúl Flores Canelo Theater at Cenart, the Esperanza Iris Theater, and the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico.

Fabiola Palapa Quijas

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, August 6, 2025, p. 3

Awarded the 2025 José Limón National Contemporary Dance Prize, performing artist Rolando Beattie commented in an interview that his creations are diverse, but always focus on processes of research and exploration. I'm very interested in processes. I've built different methodologies in stages .

One of the challenges he set himself at one point in his career was to create pieces that could be performed separately or in unison, because that required a very specific, rigorous, and energetic spatial-temporal treatment. "I also composed works with four companies, with casts of 10 to 14 dancers, performed separately and then all together—that was quite an experience ," Beattie recalled.

The creator indicated that he likes to set himself different challenges related to space and action, thought, which is his first guided physical action, as if it were a score of thought so that the movement not only obeys the language and actions of the scene, but also comes from a discourse of a personal monologue .

The artist's most recent stage proposal, Blindness-You have 2 seconds to think about it-2 seconds , is the result of a profound exploration of human relationships, which his group, Rolando Beattie Contemporary Dance Ensemble, will present tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, at the closing of the Diverse Dances: Diverse Bodies Season.

The work captures longing and yearning as the driving forces of a ceaseless search for an encounter with the other, reduced to a dislocated and clumsy attempt due to the inability to see beyond oneself. Ferocity as an unrevealed, imperceptible audacity, in hibernation, at rest; like a stigma, irrevocable , explains its author.

The piece will be performed by nine dancers from the company founded in 2005 and based in Oaxaca de Juárez: Abraham Rodríguez, Armando Estrada, Carla Pais, César Castellanos, Estefanía Olivo, Jezmín Fenochio, Martín González, Miriam García, and Zaid González.

Body-thought-emotion

For Beattie, dance constructs its poetic perspective from an indivisible triad: body-thought-emotion . It's a proposal that fuses dance art with theatrical language and visual poetics. It's an unconventional piece that reflects the inevitable gap between two bodies .

Furthermore, he recommends: "You have to let yourself be carried away by the poetic language constructed by the moving bodies of the performers, whose skills and abilities—the result of deep and rigorous training—promote the possibility of establishing a bond of poetic and sensitive appreciation with the viewer, beyond a rational reading."

Regarding the evolution of contemporary dance in Oaxaca and Mexico, Beattie has an optimistic view. The national dance scene is populated by thousands of dancers with increasingly refined techniques and an enthusiastic attitude. "It's an encouraging outlook ," he told La Jornada . He highlighted the dancers' resilience and combativeness, as well as the technical and poetic evolution of the discipline, which has allowed the groups to develop impressive skills and choreographers to produce powerful and compelling pieces.

Trained in theater, dance, and communication in the late 1970s in Monterrey, Beattie discovered his calling as a dancer a decade later. He has performed in more than 4,000 performances and composed nearly 200 choreographies. He has been a soloist and author of eight one-man shows.

Last May, the federal Ministry of Culture and the government of Sinaloa awarded him the 2025 José Limón National Contemporary Dance Award for his career spanning more than four decades, marked by an extensive choreographic oeuvre and an innovative approach to Mexican contemporary dance , in addition to his work as a mentor to several generations.

Blindness-You Have 2 Seconds to Think About It-2 Seconds will be presented tomorrow at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Merry MacMasters

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, August 6, 2025, p. 4

Throughout its broadcasts, the National Indigenous Languages Fair (FLIN) has focused on impacting both institutions and the general population to help change ideologies and awareness. "We know that in Mexico there is still discrimination against the indigenous population, ways of thinking that view their languages as inferior, even referring to them as dialects ," says Almandina Cárdenas Demay, general coordinator of language policies at the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI).

On the eve of the ninth FLIN broadcast, on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, in three locations, the official notes that an increasing number of institutions have collaborated, not only from the cultural sector. This year, for example, we will have the presence of the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation, and the Secretariat of Public Education, as in previous broadcasts, as well as others from the justice sector. In this way, many institutions discover INALI's work, learn about the importance of linguistic diversity and the actions taken to promote it; little by little, they are becoming allies of the cause .

In addition to the impact it has on institutions and the public, FLIN serves as a reference point for the speakers and promoters of their languages, who see themselves represented and made visible . Materials are generated that they later use to continue their work promoting their language and policies in favor of multilingualism , says the Indo-American linguistics specialist.

Pluriverses

Under the theme Pluriversos: Indigenous Women in Contemporary Mexico , the 2025 edition of FLIN commemorates the Year of the Indigenous Woman and is held within the framework of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032. The broad and diverse program revolves around women.

Community-based initiatives and projects will be presented, along with discussions, roundtables, and conferences, some in indigenous languages with simultaneous interpretation. Artistic events, both musical and poetic, will feature narrative content, a film series featuring indigenous communities with a majority of female creators, and an exhibition of artisanal products and traditional cuisine for sale.

Nearly 200 people will collaborate in the activities, joining 36 artistic groups. Many of the participants will be women, with whom we have worked and shared projects, or we know their work and know they make a significant contribution to promoting multilingualism in Mexico , explains Cárdenas Demay.

The main venues are the National Museum of Popular Cultures and the National Arts Center, whose Blas Galindo Auditorium will host the concerts "Sonoridades Viva (Living Sounds )" (Saturday the 9th)—with Irma Pineda, Briceida Cuevas, and Ruperta Bautista—and "Raíz y Fusion Sonido" (Roots and Sound Fusion ) (Sunday the 10th), which will highlight new generations of indigenous creators. On this occasion, the Tlalpan mayor's office will be present with activities at the Tlalpan History Museum and the Villa Olímpica Cinema.

Regarding FLIN's contribution, it has been interesting to see how its reach has increased each year, both in person and virtually , notes Cárdenas Demay. Over the course of the eight broadcasts, more than 700 activities have been held, with the participation of around 200 linguistic variants. I say variants and not languages because they could be, for example, Central Nahuatl and Veracruz Nahuatl.

As in previous years, the fair will offer workshops to raise awareness about learning the languages of indigenous communities: a multilingual recreational workshop in Otomi, Nahuatl, and Mixe; a Nahuatl Language Learning Workshop; and a Chinantec Language Learning Workshop. At INALI, we are in the process of creating a microsite on our institutional website to promote indigenous language teaching. There are many offerings, both from intercultural universities and from individuals working independently; however, there is no connection between supply and demand. We will take advantage of the FLIN to publicize the offerings we have already identified and will open a space for the general public who would like to learn more about a course in an indigenous language .

▲ The Mask Festival in Porto Novo, Benin, is a spectacle held to preserve the history and traditions of the Voodoo religion, the most emblematic of that African nation. In addition to the crafts, seminars, concerts, and exhibitions on the country's history were held last weekend. Photo: Xinhua

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, August 6, 2025, p. 4