Once upon a time in Mexico

Storytelling, Memories and Identity Construction - Mexico City, 1 - 5 July 2005

for photos, program, abstracts etc, go to
http://enkidumagazine.com/chics/esc.htm


A conference that could only have happened in Mexico, academic rigour mingling, excitingly rather than seamlessly, with the magic of tales. In this sense it was perhaps the most narrative of all conferences on narrative, bringing together reality and imagination as it becomes fused and confused, sober fact, moving fiction, scholarly discourse, animated performance, serious words and poetic ones, evocative images and funny ones, rainbow coloured fabrics, theatrical costumes, scents and movements, arguments presented in many guises and still interpreted in coffee grains as the days turned into night. Thus the conference itself became a story, with its core cast of unforgettable characters, each with their own bundle of life stories and research narratives, a story with unexpected twists and turns and narrative gaps to be baffled by and to enjoy, each participant part of the the field we were jointly - each in our own way - investigating: the power of stories.