Transcript of “CRAZY RADIO”: LIVE FROM ARGENTINA

Celeste: I learned about Radio La Colifata, the first radio program to ever be broadcast out of a mental hospital, about month after I moved to Buenos Aires for work, and was just well, fascinated. So, I coerced my Argentine colleague Ceci into going with me to check it out.

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Celeste: It was, and still is, really exciting to see La Colifata up close. It's an innovative concept, and it's not too surprising that this idea was born in Argentina, a country where there are almost as many psychologists as steakhouses per square mile.  And it all began with Alfredo Olivera, a small recorder, and a chance encounter.

Alfredo: Well, how did Colifata start? I began to go to Hospital Borda in October 1990 to attend the meetings of a group called Cooperanza that worked with art workshops. I joined this group and nine months later came up with the idea of recording some of the activities that were developed there. In the meantime, I met a person who had a radio program on a community FM radio. This person then invited me to be a guest on the radio program to suggest a topic of discussion connected with madness. I thought it would be better that instead of me trying to talk about madness, those who who were affected by it could.

Celeste: That was a long time ago, back in the 90's. Now La Colifata is a nonprofit, with this program as its main project.  There are about 12 million listeners from all over the world, who either tune in via channel LT 22 on the radio, listen through the internet or come on Saturday afternoons to like I do to see the taping, which personally, I like the most. In English, the name actually translates to "Crazy Radio," with "Colifata" being a distinctly Buenos Aires word.

Alfredo: Colifata is a slang term that refers to somebody who has mental problems. This word was almost dead, numb and when this project was launched, it was a concept more linked to the illness. Nowadays, more than 17 years later, the term Colifata is being used again and it is linked to an idea of health and not of illness.

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Celeste:  Ceci and I now go almost every Saturday. The energy there is infectious, and both the staff and patients, or colifatos as I've learned they're called, are warm and welcoming. It's a little chaotic sometimes, with wires and cables and people constantly moving around, but it's really interesting to watch Alfredo and the other psychologists guide the segments - which include musical performances, poetry, musings on everything from the ocean to Skype - because though it may appear to be a radio program, what's really going on is a form of public therapy.

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Alfredo: The idea is not to teach them how to do radio as announcers, producers, etc... The idea is to create a space for a human being to express himself, and in this way generate something linked to social encounters, social bonding. Besides, as an “open” tool, it constantly needs communicating vessels with society, with the community.

Celeste: La Colifata is different things for different people. One colifata named Plumita, a self-proclaimed actress, attends every Saturday and likes it for the artistic freedom it gives her.

Plumita: This is not an atypical theatre. This is the theatre of everyday.  With radio, people don't see you like they do on T.V. So you can play more with the imagination of the person if that person can't see you.

Celeste: For others, this speaking in a public space helps them to recover a really fundamental thing, which is simply, their identity.

Alfredo: The radio inherently creates the possibility of an audience. By acknowledging the speaker and what they have to say, the audience recognizes that their speech is important, and therefore gives the colifatos back their status in existence. This is one of the basic conditions for a therapeutic process aimed at diminishing pain.

Celeste: When the colifatos speak into the microphone about estranged family or national politics, people sit and listen. Listening can make a big difference in someone's life, especially for those who feel isolated.  Like this colifato, Alejandro, who's been coming to La Colifata since 1997, usually participating in a segment called "Reflections."

Alejandro: First, when I was in the hospital, I introduced myself as the "Unknown Man." The thing is, I was very paranoid when I was in the hospital and I was afraid that people would identify me because I had paranoid delusions and so I called myself the "Unknown Man," like the Vangelis song. And I made the others call me "Unknown Man." After a time, when Colifata T.V. came up, I changed it to "Alexander of the Sacred Ilion," because it's a character from the Iliad that Homer presented as cowardly. I found that people respected me and discovered the mental capacity that I still have.

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Celeste: I love visiting on Saturdays because you really see the main point of La Colifata. Someone will start playing guitar, an impromptu dance party will happen, or visitors will pass around mate, which is a tea that nearly everyone in Argentina drinks. As staff psychologists like Laura will tell you, this mixing of the two worlds is really what La Colifata is all about. 

Laura: La Colifata was born as a radio program because other people - journalists from other radio shows - provided a space on those shows so Colifata could be broadcasted. Therefore, La Colifata was built by the people. It was built by every person in the audience who listened to it and said and then they donated everything from cassettes to recording equipment. The community helped La Colifata come into existence, and the community continues to build it in other ways.

Plumita: Well, it’s curiosity. People are curious. They want to know. Then, they find out that they don’t know much and that they learn something new whenever they come.  Just like in life. The thing is that they think, they think that there are places where one goes to learn but there are no such places. There are no places where to be mad or sane.

Celeste: The program has inspired 40 similar radio stations in other countries including Spain, El Salvador, and Brazil. And also during the Saturday tapings there's always someone from one of these sister radio stations there. My accent usually isn't the only foreign one in the audience - there's French, Italian, Portuguese and more. Once a colifato pulled me up to sing along to  "We Are the World" just because I speak English. I also know Plumita likes that I go there as well.

Plumita: I believe that Americans are practical. I like them, I like how they dress, how they speak, that they chew gum.

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Celeste: At the same time, when Ceci and I visit, we can't help but notice the lack of resources in Hospital Borda. Conditions are run-down, the colifatos still have basic needs like men's clothes for example, and there's still a lack of general care. This contradiction is really interesting to see, because the colifatos are part of this pretty famous program. The musician Manu Chao is a big fan and has recorded an album with them. Film director Francis Ford Coppola shot part of his latest film at Borda, and both celebrities help raise money for La Colifata when they can. And with this public exposure, people might think the colifatos are being made fun of in some way. It's a very delicate point. Because if you think about it, there's always the potential for exploitation.

Gaston:  My name is Gaston Montels. I am member of the alternative community radio project called FM La Tribu that has existed for almost 20 years in the city of Buenos Aires. When they did the concert with Manu Chao in Old Boys, where the colifatos participated and so did we, it was very strong to see this contradiction, how the colifatos on one hand are not permitted to be a spectacle, and on the other hand, enjoy the public spotlight. So it's a very complicated process that the coordinators of La Colifata handle very well.

Celeste: Over the last six years, 35% of the patients who participate in La Colifata have been discharged, which is more or less aligned with normal hospital statistics. But as the staff discovered, the re-hospitalization of those who continued at La Colifata after they've been released was less than 10%, attesting to the show's success.

Gaston: I believe that this project encourages the discussion of public health policies, and actually, it is. I believe that La Colifata helps very much to redefine craziness. Those fears, those apprehensions, those monstrosities that have been socially constructed about the image of the crazy, I believe that La Colifata has succeeded in deactivating them.

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Celeste: It's always hard to leave after I spend a Saturday at a live taping. I go through so many emotions - I'm amused, enlightened, saddened. Everyone who goes there, colifato or not, feels emboldened to share their innermost struggles, their secret desires, their ideas, but there's something else that moves Ceci and me to take the long bus ride back each weekend. And it's this something that the staff feels as well.

Laura: The colifatos gave me back and continue to give me: the capacity of wonder. This is one of the most important values for me at La Colifata: that they helped me –and will keep on helping me– see life in a different way. Also, and above all, there is still magic there. Magic is what takes place on Saturdays: we cannot realize what is happening but only see that something is happening. That is wonderful.

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For more information about Radio La Colifata, go to lacolifata.org. That’s L-A- C-O-L-I-F-A-T-A DOT org.

Special thanks to Victoria Bembibre and Martín Waserman for help with initial reporting;  C. Andrea Sottosanto and Josefina Murphy for transcription and translation assistance; Carolina Villanueva, Martin Celis, Rodrigo Tabernero and Verónica Carmona Barrenechea for lending us their voices; and Cheba Massolo, Agri, and Julio y Agosto for sharing their music. But most of all, mil gracias to the Radio La Colifata staff and colifatos for inviting us into their world.

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