Diego de Los Andes 1/8/2020
As the stress of the day crescendos during the afternoon drive home, the spell is broken when a clown steps through Los Angeles traffic demanding that drivers wake up and return to the present moment.
Diego de Los Andes is an artist, poet, radio host and clown from Chile with a unique perspective on street performance. āThis is a way for me to use art to recycle and cleanse energies created from capitalism,ā De Los Andes said in his native Chilean dialect; although his Spanish has absorbed some L.A. slang. āStreet performance is a tool completely outside of the capitalist, imperialist system to make money. When Iām out here, I am taking a political stance, or else I couldnāt do it.ā
Besides his ideological approach, there is a very physical human action and reaction involved in De Los Andesā performance. āNowadays, people are tense; extremely tense. Thereās a lot going on socially thatās affecting all of us. You can tell. You can see it in their muscles,ā De Los Andes says, as he pretends to be hunched over gripping a steering wheel tightly with both hands.Ā
Horns blare at a red light on Washington Boulevard and Normandie Avenue during the performance. Some horns are regular road rage, some are people smiling and showing support for the juggling clown.
āItās a repurposing of energy. I finish my show and look around for peopleās reactions. It happens sometimes where Iāll see someone in a completely other mood; Iāll signal for them to smile with my hands,ā De Los Andes says, as he pretends to pick up the edges of his mouth to form a smile. āAnd they do. They smile.āĀ
āTo me, thatās the most important change: when we can acknowledge and say āLook, everythings fucked,ā but we can choose to fight it with a smile and not sadness. Not with rage. We donāt get anything out of that,ā De Los Andes said.
De Los Andes can be seen in the heart of Los Angeles traffic. āWhen I was conceiving this idea, it was primarily to bring joy to Los Angelesā minority communities: Black, afro-descendant and Latino communities.
Street performing clowns are somewhat of a new thing to Los Angeles, maybe because itās been more closely associated with poverty. Living in the worldās wealthiest empire, itās a lot less common. But De Los Andes says itās much needed. āYou donāt see it much here, the juggling street clown - specifically at red lights. I know about 6 here in Los Angeles. Itās a way to disconnect people from whatās going on in the world. Itās a way to use the movement of the human body to spread a little bit of happiness. Thatās what motivates me and keeps me going.ā
Being an L.A. street clown is an experiment that De Los Andes is still figuring out. āMy clown character is still in a state of becoming. I feel like Iām still finding my inner clown. Iām a poet and theater director, but this is a new storyā De Los Andes said.
āHow did I get started in el mundo del payaso?ā he said. āI was in a theater group and I met a friend that would twirl devil sticks.āā Devil sticks are the pair of batons De Los Andes can be seen spinning and tossing into the sky at red lights throughout South Central L.A.
āWhen I saw my friend with the devils sticks, it brought up a memory of playing with some as a young kid. Thatās when I began to reincorporate them into my way of life. Thatās when I discovered life as a performer in public spaces,ā De Los Andes said.Ā For immigrants, playing and performing with something as simple as devil sticks is a bit cultural.
āThereās a certain nostalgia. For many people it makes them remember their home; Driving through streets in their country,ā De Los Andes said. In Latin America, performers and vendors at busy intersections is a common experience. āFor immigrants, that memory lingers, because in this country, common people donāt really have access to culture. Art is for the rich.ā
Along with the nostalgia, being a clown comes with a long tradition. āHistorically, the clown was the only one who could laugh at the king. He was the only vato that could do that. He was the only person who had that special key and mystery to be able to laugh and make anyone laugh,ā De Los Andes said. While heās now part of the long-standing history of clowns, itās just one part of Diegoās cultural movement,
āYou can find me on 90.7 KPFKā De Los Andes said. āIāve been working on a program called āNuestra Vozā for a while. Iām the producer of the cultural segment. To start the year, weāre looking to speak with people working in cultural fields. People who are making an impact through any medium of art of culture.ā
The email to contact āNuestra Vozā is [email protected]. The Instagram hanle for the show is @nuestravozkpfk. To get plugged in with Diego, his instagram handle is @fromandes.
āIām a clown without makeup,ā De Los Andes said. āI believe you can be a clown of the body, and you can make peopleās spirits do a somersault. Itās a tool for change. In the grand scheme of things, I feel like Iām just clowning on imperialism. Iām in the fight against capitalism through my work out here on the street.ā
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