“Spotlight on…” is a new FIA project, a series of interviews with our members to help you get to know them better. The fourth person to take part in this series, posted simultaneously on our website and Instagram account, is Alicia Dogliotti, Vice president of the Federation.
Tell us about yourself. How and when did you first get involved in your union?
I am an actress, director, and playwright dedicated exclusively to theatre. Although I occasionally work in audiovisual, I prefer live performance. My union, SUA, was founded in 1941 and is the only union representing actors, directors, playwrights, and related professions in Uruguay. It is a founding member of the country’s only workers’ central organisation, PIT-CNT, and has been a member of FIA since the 1950s.
I became an active member of SUA in 1995, after returning to my country following several years of studying and working abroad. Within a year, I found myself serving as the General Secretary, actively participated in every meeting of what we used to call BLADA (Bloque Latinoamericano de Artistas), an organisation that eventually evolved into FIA-LA. For a period, I stepped back from the union’s leadership due to my political engagements, recognising it was inappropriate to hold both roles simultaneously. Once I disengaged from my political tasks, I was called back and was elected president twice (the maximum term allowed by our statues).
Today, I remain active in the Gender Commission and work on all international issues. In FIA, I became vice president without realizing it – one of life’s pleasant surprises, which indicates that you must have done something right! My candidacy was supported by many countries whose leaders knew me, the union I have always represented, and my country. This great vote of confidence excites me every day; I treasure it and hope I won’t let anyone down.
FIA is a space where the gender, Latin Americanist, and decolonial perspectives I strive to bring to every action or reaction are respected. FIA, its Presidium, and its Executive Committee are places for serious and respectful debate, where diverse perspectives are understood and, in most cases, embraced.
What made you want to do this job? Tell us about a movie or a show that changed your life.
My first memory as an actress was learning to “faint” at the age of three, a trick I would perform at every family or friends’ gathering. I gave up that practice until, while in bed with a rare infection in my kidney, my mother (exhausting all resources) recited Federico García Lorca to me. So, before I could write “Mom loves me’, I could recite with grace and accent the ‘Prendimiento de Antoñito el Camborio’. In no time, I became a spectator of adult theatre, with my mother or my high school literature teachers. Theatre was the voice of those who fought against oppressive governments, it was the place of emotions where I could exchange glances with someone on stage. That unique communication made me fall in love. Independent theatre in Uruguay is very strong and has significant references. In the 70s, before the dictatorship, they produced LongPlay Discs with recorded plays to fund themselves. When I was 10, my mother gave the LP of “Libertad, Libertad”, a play by a Brazilian author, produced by Teatro El Galpón in Montevideo. To this day, I can recite it without missing a single comma. It had everything: laughter, tears, poems, and songs, but above all, it was struggle and dialogue with the audience. I saw the dialogue through that LP. Years went by, El Galpón was in exile in Mexico, and the School of Dramatic Arts was close by dictatorship. So, I enrolled in Veterinary School, for five years! Democracy restored my hope (and my sanity!), and the first thing I did as a women free from dictatorship was to register for the entrance exam to the School of Dramatic Arts. Since then, I have been living for the theatre.
What are your dreams and hopes for performers worldwide?
That we are recognised as workers, receive a fair wage, and work under optimal conditions. That everyone has the right to access education and training without barriers. That the arts become an integral part of education. That access to and enjoyment of culture be recognised as a human right and that States take responsibility for protecting it as such. That our federation becomes a network so strong that is supports every artist in every corner of the world.
What is your priority as Vice-president of FIA?
Strengthen international ties across the world; ensure that unions in Latin America become even closer and develop stronger local union structures. Increase FIA’s visibility beyond action and reference sites, so that is has a more noticeable and, therefore, more effective local presence.
Give us one example of how FIA’s work has improved the working conditions of performers in your country?
Every international recommendation or action that is agreed upon always leads to local transformations. The issues faced by workers are the same worldwide, and they are dynamic topics. FIA helps us maintain an important compass in these dynamics.
In our particular case, FIA’s support for performers’ rights was crucial in making the issue prominent in a country with limited audiovisual production. Today, this industry has grown, but it has found artists who are alert and informed.
The first meeting of women artists and trade unionists, held in 2001 in La Havana, opened the door to our concern about participation and discrimination in our sectors. Since then, the union, in one way or another, has never stopped working on diversity issues.
If you had to describe FIA in one word, what would it be?
Solidarity.
