Are All Politicians Pigs?

Meeting of the C.R.D.I.
Saturday, March 1
El Perro de la Parte de Atrás del Coche
C/ Puebla 15

Story by Karina Stenquist

Photos by Kike

The elections are coming up, we’re all feeling the tension between the PSOE and
the PP…and ….oh wait…you’re not? You think they’re all the same bag of
crap and can’t understand what everyone gets so riled about? You’re yearning
for a different kind of political party? Well then, you should have been out
with your intrepid MAP correspondents on Saturday as we attended the final
event in the 3-day campaign of the C.R.D.I.: a different kind of party run by a
different breed of politicians. And by
politicians, we, of course, mean pigs.

Yes, pigs. Saturday’s event (at El Perro de la Parte de Atrás del Coche – the city’s most awkwardly named
venue) was a culmination of three days of public performances by a group of
porcine, faux-politicians, performers with a penchant for social issues. These artists took politicos to task both for
their piggish ways and for their very human disregard for the rest of the
planet.

Upon entering El Perro de la Parte de Atrás del Coche (hereafter to be referred
to as El Perro), your devoted MAP correspondents were greeted by cheerful,
exuberant female campaign workers. These election workers were similar in almost
every way to the skirt-suited professional yuppie-ish women who run campaigns
the world over. The only difference being that these young women, along with
their campaign sashes and buttons also sported snouts, pink ears, and pink
curly tails while they snorted their enthusiasm at you.

We were somewhat skeptical; perhaps this “politicians as pigs” gag
was a bit transparent. Yes, yes, we all think they’re pigs, but what else is
there to express once you’ve put on your funny little mask? It turns out plenty.

The event began with a video montage of political speeches including everyone
from Castro, to Hugo Chavez (calling the U.S. prez a donkey – priceless!) to
JFK and Margaret Thatcher. I particularly enjoyed the well-timed jump-cut from
Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech to footage of Valdimir
Putin set to raging punk rock – indeed, where is that dream of equality? Most
of this was set to very danceable music, building a festive atmosphere set
against the simultaneously amusing and disturbing presence of the pig-masked
performers, mingling with the crowd, sometimes dancing excitedly, sometimes
twitching and chewing their “trotters”.

As the piggy politicos danced their way around the basement venue to rally for
their chief porker, they brought to mind not only the base and often pandering
nature of politics, but also the animalistic aspects of this very human
activity that is politics.

When the leader of the C.R.D.I (the Big Pig as I call him)
began his discourse, the excited squeals, oinks and snorts from his supporters
planted in the audience quite aptly brought to mind the often irrationally
ecstatic crowd responses at modern political spectacles. Specifically, I thought of recent criticism of
Obama rallies where attendees have been seen crying from the overwhelming
emotion of it all.

The party faithful also, as is a matter of course, had a chant:” Scrofa!
Scrofa!”- a word which seemed to serve much the same purpose as
“smurf” – it stood for anything and everything. (A conveniently
present Italian friend explained that in his language, a scrofa is a mamma pig
- learn something new everyday.)

The speech itself was where the performance diverged from the “politicians
are pigs” line. Here the pigs came
out in favor of nature, agents more closely aligned with the earth and natural
cycles than their human counterparts. This sudden about face forced the
audience to shift from negative pig associations to positive ones – from Animal
Farm to Babe.

Although for those of us struggling with the earsplitting
mic volume in conjunction with a second language, some of this was harder to
pick up on. The visual and audio parody of modern politics was a far stronger
theme, and more carefully executed, with sashes, buttons, and slickly produced
propaganda posters to help create the illusion.

Unmasked after the performance, one of the pigs, Gerardo De Pablos, explained
that this was a first attempt for this group of actors, who belonged to a
variety of different theater ensembles, to come together to do an explicitly
politically themed work. They wanted to see what kind of a public response they
got, and, from what we witnessed on Saturday, they should be well satisfied -
the venue was packed and the atmosphere jubilant.

The closing event followed three days’ public performances
in the streets, including military-style processions and choreographed dance
numbers in Malasaña and the area around the University. If all goes well, the
members of the C.R.D.I. will be out in the streets again during the next round
of (municipal) elections – hopefully in different cities simultaneously. And
we’ll be there with our little pink pins on, oinking our support.