La Jana
La Jana
by Juan Pablo Aguilera Justiniano (Chile)
2010
Photo (c) Sebastián Fernández
Life is not the future, it is now. In a fiery exposé, a fish-stealing thief reminisces about the devastating 2010 Chilean earthquake, remembering her family and dissecting modern politics.
Our work consists of chorear, leaping from the street-lights onto the backs of the fish-trucks as they drive along and taking and taking fish and filling bags with them and throwing them onto the curb. We do it in less than a minute… Cool and calculated. The fish-filled bags are caught by a couple of cats waiting in the dark alleyways of the port and taken to a cellar we have set up specially for storing our little treasures. Then we sell them cheaper than the town traders do. In some way what we do is kinda like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, and even though we don’t give the stuff away we do sell it cheap which is already going a good deed. You just have to see it from the other side. Through other people’ eyes… Some people love us: they take us under their wings and watch our backs ’cause we save them a few pesos. And some people hate us, ’cause they want those other people’s pesos for themselves.
This translation of La Jana was originally commissioned by Global Voices Theatre.
