Youth in Argentina: “Let’s break with all stereotypes!”

The big hall of the Argentinian Little City of O’Higgins was transformed into a circus setting: the characters, through their performances, the choreography and the visual projections accompanied by musical themes, demonstrated the complex reality that society faces today. A program without intermissions, that sought to transmit a deep and incisive message through art. 

Which one? To aim high, this is what was proposed by the theme song of the Festival, to have faith in the power of working together, with each one giving his own contribution, to believe that the barriers of individualism can be broken so as to be able to transform society in the different environments wherein the young people live their lives day by day, to struggle for a “culture of giving” based on a disinterested service, for a culture of fraternity and of forgiveness that breaks all the schemes of a humanity fossilized and frivolous that suffers, to believe that great ideals are not a utopia, but a reality that can come true by bringing about a true revolution of Love, through one’s daily actions.

At the heart of the preparation of the event were the 80 young people present this year in the Mariapolis Lia. The starting point was the question they asked themselves regarding what message to give to the numerous young people who come every year for this festival. The proposal was that of “showing everyone how society could be, if reciprocal love was the fundamental law of all our actions”. At the end of a critical reflection on contemporary society, they unmasked one of its most frequent illnesses: individualism.

From there came the choice of the slogan that helped them to bring ahead the propsed initiative, with the idea of risking one’s life for great ideals: “You are capable of doing great things… Let’s break with all stereotypes! A slogan that echoes the invitation of Pope Francis at Rio de Janeiro precisely to the Argentinian youth: “Hagan lío” (to make noise).

And so with a hundred young people coming not only from Argentina and from its farthest provinces, but also from Uruguay and Paraguay, the rich two-day program opened the way to participation through various workshops, the tour of the little city, a recital for peace with different invited musical groups and the band of the Mariapolis Lia. The work done together led to the search for solutions to the problems that were raised during the initial challenge.

Then they leave once again, but with the desire to put into practice in their daily life the departure from individualism, an answer to the words of Francis: “I want you to make yourselves heard (…), I want you to go outside, I want the Church to go out to the streets, I want us to defend ourselves against all that is worldly, the opposition to progress, to all that is comfortable, from all that is clericalism, from all that makes us closed up within ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions are made to go out…”.