Canchas de Algodon de Azuar

Performance By Raquel Vasquez La Roche and Luis Vasquez La Roche.

My sister and I walk through sugar cane fields in Trinidad and Tobago that were harvested by the British to produce sugar, but that were previously cotton plantations under the Spanish crown. These fields remember all the free labour by my enslaved ancestors.

We are both dressed in our protective suits like we just arrived on these lands from the future. We walk and dig through the soil and lift up our childhood basketball hoop. There is a play between the word cancha in spanish and its translation to english. Cancha in Spanish exclusively means court in English, but it could also be translated to the word field. I am interested in the range of opportunities that black families have. What does it mean to work in a cotton or sugar cane field in the past, and what does it mean to be an athlete or an entertainer in the present? I was one of those black kids that only saw themselves represented in media through sports and music. What are the parallels between these?

"Despues de 20 años"

"No, son 20"