CoFiA, along with Grupo Ella Tu, sponsored a screening of Juan Pablo Morales Estrada’s moving documentary “Why I Am Here” on June 10 at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, NJ. The event was a great success and saw quite an emotional response from the audience who attended. The documentary, which focuses on the life of Elias Garcia now and during the war in Guatemala in the 1980s, was very well received and was lauded as an exemplary film presented by first-time director Morales Estrada. A bilingual Q & A session with the director and with Mr. Garcia followed. A moving performance by the Grupo Folklórico Tikál of a traditional Guatemalan folk dance, which included narration of the story of the dance in Spanish, also followed the screening. DVDs of “Why I Am Here” are on sale for $15 on the CoFiA website at the following link: Video now available for purchase.
A partial recording of the Guatemalan folk dance can be viewed on YouTube through the following link: Performance by el Grupo Folklórico Tikál