Arte en la cárcel y solidaridad internacional. Entrevista a Juan Baladán Gadea

Abstract

Born in Treinta y Tres del Olimar in 1942, Juan Baladán Gadea is an Uruguayan poet, musician and composer who was imprisoned for political reasons from 1971 to 1985. When he was finally released, he exiled in Breccia (Italy). During his fourteen years in prison, his artistic activity became a form of resistance to oppression and a way of enduring those difficult living conditions. Some international organizations such as Amnesty International and the International. Association for the Defense of Artists victims of repression worldwide (AIDA) mobilized for his liberation. Founded in 1979 and functioning in different European countries and the United States, AIDA aimed to denounce through creative actions the censorship and violence suffered by artists all over the world. Besides defending different cases in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, AIDA acted in the transnational public sphere to exert pressure on Latin American dictatorships, using the creation as a way to struggle authoritarianism around the world. Motivated by the study of this association, the interview with Juan Baladán Gadea allows reflecting on the repressive machinery deployed in Latin America and the cultural mechanisms of resistance to it.