EL HERALDO (Honduras) Friday May 19th, 2009
Walter Krochmal, a Honduran at Cannes
Actor of Honduran Origin a Guest at Festival de Cannes
18.06.09 - Updated: 19.06.09 05:25pm - Tania Lozano: Tania.lozano@laprensa.hn
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Someone out there immortalized the phrase “he who perseveres, achieves,” and that is ever so true. So true that the phrase has become the key to success in the lives of many.
At least it's the case for Walter Krochmal, a Honduran actor based in the United States for 30 years but who, despite the passage of time, still holds fast to his “Catracho” roots.
He traveled to the Festival de Cannes recently and, thanks to that trip, his name began to ring out in the furthest reaches of Honduras like never before in this country where he was raised.
I began to research his life and origins and quickly found his website on the Internet, where I saw for myself that this is a very important Honduran personality whose name, talent and career should be held up as an example and made known.
Contacting him was easier than I thought, but actually carrying out the interview was not so easy, with his tight schedule and trip to Cannes keeping him very busy.
When it comes to Honduras, however -- as he himself told us -- he made the time not only to give us the exclusive on his story, but to schedule a special photo shoot with Max Flores, a fellow Honduran.
The two hours of conversation allowed me to see that behind this personality lies hidden the true heart of a Honduran and, if I had to describe him, I would say Walter Krochmal is a man with vision, an organized person, a fighter, a dreamer and a bit relentless.
He's the reflection of Honduran patriotism, someone who despite living far from his country, has not lost his Catracho identity, on the contrary: he's tried to cultivate it.
I have to confess, when I heard him speak I was amazed by his Spanish, which was so clear I couldn't hold back and, after a brief greeting, asked:
How have you managed to keep your Spanish in a country where English is the dominant language?
“Because the Spanish language, the language of Cervantes, has been my salvation in this city. I've made my way around and, as they say, ‘held my own by hook or by crook’ thanks to my language skills as a translator, interpreter, translating a great many texts, plays, essays, producing radio and getting involved in any number of language- and voice-related performance activities. Doing theater in Spanish, like classics Lope de Vega, Lorca and Tirso de Molina.
Spanish has been my daily bread and I cultivate it and I study it. It's a beautiful language, so expressive. That's how I've gotten along. Because Spanish has claimed its place in the U.S. market in the last 10 years.
How long have you lived in the United States?
I came from Tegucigalpa after graduating from the American School in 1978, went to Boston with a scholarship to Brandeis University. I spent 5 years there; I got my theater degree in 3 years, and in the 2 ensuing years obtained a Master's Degree.
How old were you when you left Honduras?
18.
Have you returned to Honduras since then?
Of course, I've always made trips to Honduras. My mother lived in Tegucigalpa up until recently. Over the years I no longer traveled as frequently as I would have wanted to, but I miss it now, the fact of always traveling there with an angle on discovering the country, always looking to go someplace I haven't been to before, exploring Honduras's beauty and visiting my family, who are from San Francisco de Ojuera, Santa Bárbara.
Did you live in San Francisco de Ojuera?
No, I only had the pleasure of getting acquainted with that community last year on a trip to Honduras.
What's your favorite place in Honduras?
The thing is I still haven't made it to those magical places; Honduras is beautiful but I still haven't traveled to the really magical places. The Western region, however, I've always found that enchanting. There’s always been some kind of interest from age 13 when I would go on trips with missionaries as an interpreter and at one point also as an evangelist, because I was out there with the Baptists. I'd go to Yuscarán, to Oropolí, to San Marcos de Colón. You had to travel in trucks, on mule or horseback or on foot. Those were unbelieveable adventures, eating tortillas along the way. But maybe the most beautiful place I've seen is the place that no longer exists, which [Hurricane] Mitch swept away: the town of Orica. It was truly like paradise, a gorgeous place, like the beginning of creation.
Do you have contact with your family in Honduras?
I have some contact, in fact I'm trying to make contact. I'm probably going to have to call a cousin in Philadelphia. As a matter of fact I'm related to labor leader Carlos Reyes.
Are there still things you miss about Honduras so many years after leaving?
Lot of things, really: its cultural and ethnic treasures and, of course, the fundamental thing which is food. Honduras's human culture always gives me something, the ingeniousness of Hondurans and their creativity always amaze me and I miss that.
You've worked as an interpreter for CBS, HBO, ABC and CNN, among other media. How do you get to work with these big networks?
By referral, through people on my side who’ve recognized my skills.
A colleague, a Venezuelan actress, who’s helped me a lot is Sonia Berah. Some opportunities were offered to me, others I sought. But it all started in 2000. I don't recall how it started, but that was the year they broadcast World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. This program was the first national network news television program presented in a Spanish simulcast in the United States. So the program hired a group of us, who've worked as actors, to do the interpreting.
You've translated speeches by an assortment of personalities?
Well, we recently broadcast the program and speech Barack Obama gave at his Inaugural Concert.
It was produced by HBO and I was one of the persons involved in the translation and dubbing of the various voices throughout the event and on live.
In 1997, I worked with the Honduran Garífuna community in Honduras and served as interpreter for the [Prime] Minister of Saint Vincent, James Mitchell. At the local level I've been doing speeches by George Bush and provided simultaneous interpreting of John McCain in the Presidential Debates, Spanish interpretation of the Pope's speeches, among others.
Have you had the chance to meet some of these persons?
No, I'm always in a broadcast booth with a television monitor, some headphones, independent controls to modulate my voice and the voice of the speaker when providing simultaneous interpretation. They're where they are and I'm where I am.
With so much experience in the media, have you had any formal studies in the field?
Self-taught. I got a half hour of training in radio production. I spent 4 years doing radio and playing with the medium and bringing my acting experience to bear on the fact that I have a good rapport with technology.
What about your acting career, how many plays have you done?
I don't know, it might be 60, 70 or 80. Really, I've done so many and in such different styles it'd be difficult to come up with a figure.
How about in film?
I started out doing student films, I paid my dues doing student films. But to date I've done between 20 and 25 independent films, shorts and narrations.
When did you decide to focus totally on film?
Like any artist, I'm concerned with legacy and the permanence of my work, and theater is ephemeral. The cost of living and the continuing devaluation of the discipline in my case led me to conduct a self-inventory and to seek a change in the direction of my life as an artist. Theater in this country's an anarchronism.
If you had to rate the work you most enjoy, between voice work, acting and interpreting, which would you choose?
Everything I do I love.
Is it that difficult to break into film?
The thing is I have a fairly peculiar perspective. There are a lot of levels in film. You have commercial film, I suppose that's difficult to break into.
What I do know and what I do believe in is the idea that I'm not going to sit down and wait for someone to cast me at an audition, I'm not going to look for anyone to validate my career. I'm going to seek opportunities out there. I'll make them up. I'll make use of the human network. We'll see what comes out of it.
I'm living in New York and since the 50s this has been a city for indie cinema. With the miniaturization of technology, dissemination of communities through cyberspace and one’s friends, you make films here.
I may break into commercial film or not, I really don't know, but I aim first and foremost to do exceptionally good work by capitalizing on my idiosyncrasy. I ground my career in quality and begin to seek ways to develop projects.
Do you want to break into the commercial film industry, Hollywood for example?
Well it could be, you can't say yes or no. People evolve, people change and it could be. I don't disregard the possibility because I've always been an open-minded person all my life.
How about the film that took you to Cannes?
It's a fable with elements of magical realism, a parable, and it's a re-working of the subject matter Franz Kafka dealt with in his novella “Metamorphosis.”
That's the story of a man who wakes up one morning having turned into a giant insect, and how as a result of his transformation into something so grotesque he ends up cast out by society.
It's a contemporary version of that story, but this one rooted in the U.S. heartland. It’s the same story, I provide the voice-over narration and play the role of a priest. It's a collaborative relationship I've had with Ms. Suzanne Sitelman.
We've done 2 or 3 movies together and I've discovered she's a gutsy woman, a woman with the determination that brought about this sudden, and unexpected, trip to Cannes. It seems they liked the film in France and someone bought the rights.
It's a short film that made it into the short film festival associated with the Festival de Cannes. It was shown in a market, out in the open. It's marvelous if you're not shy.
The idea of inviting the actors to come to Cannes was so they could show up at the market and bring viewers into the screening rooms to watch the short. It was really upbeat. I had the chance to meet a lot of great people, and to meet people from New York. The trip to Cannes was a clear signal that I need to continue heading in this direction here.”
What was your experience at the festival like?
It was a dizzying experience, a dramatic one with all these farcical things that happened to me, unbelievable. But overall it was an unforgettable experience on many counts, a beautiful surprise, and getting that far is a test of character.
An incredible environment, everyone wants to talk to everyone else because you never know who someone might be. An anecdote from the premiere of Almodóvar's “Broken Embraces,” where people were fighting to get in: There were local folks with no accreditation all clustered in front of the theater holding up signs, looking for a way in.
Did you meet well-known directors or personalities?
I'm not shy and I went everywhere place handing out my business cards. I struck up friendships with writers and directors, which for me is the fundamental relationship in film and theater, very interesting people. Overall it was a productive experience, I met marvelous people.
How long were you in Cannes?
I left May 13th and returned May 25th.
Did this trip change your view on life and your career at all?
No, my dreams are always on the same scale: “the impossible.” Dreaming with that sort of “unattainable” isn’t going to change now or ever, I simply see the distances getting shorter. If I'm sharp I have to take advantage of them. Bigger doors are starting to open up.
What are the projects you're working on currently?
Right now I'm tying up all the loose ends I left behind when I took off, handing in work that was overdue, organizing myself. I’m in a period of seclusion so I can organize.
I have projects to write and launch. I have to polish up my website and I'm going to start something really exciting: organizing the first festival of shorts, holding screenings among friends, making contacts with the directors I met and having them send me copies of their films so that people who have the possibility of buying or distributing these short films can view them.
Right now I'm in the early planning stages, working with a friend who's a documentary film maker.
When you started out, did you imagine you'd achieve everything you've achieved up to now?
All I've known is hard work. I've always been a restless person. I've always made good use of my hours, I was always curious, I like to look at the depths of the matter.
From the time I started out I said to myself: “I want to be a freelancer.” I don't have the temperament to work from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Early on I had to figure out a way to get along financially and I have some experiences I could tell you about. I respect people who work as waiters, people who can serve. As a lad I worked in three restaurants and was kicked out of each one of them because I was incompetent.
However, I didn't visualize anything, I just grabbed hold of whatever I could find so I would be able to stand on my own at some point. I've suffered any number of things in this city. What you see about me right now is glamour, but it's hard-earned. It took a lot. I'm the sort of person who works 18 to 20 hours.
At this point in your life, what dream do you think you still have to see come true?
Twenty thousand, meaning, what corner of the world wouldn't I want to get acquainted with? What experience wouldn't I want to have? What projects wouldn't I like to see produced? Film or audio projects, literature, travels along with so many other things.
You've been working with the Honduran community in New York, I want to know a little more about that side of you.
When I arrived in New York as a youngster I came here seeking out my community.
For 10 years I performed “Timoteo se divierte,” a theater piece by Honduran poet Daniel Laínez.
I played in that piece for 10 years together with Peruvian actress Teresa Yenque, with the Honduran American Cultural Association presided at that time by Antonieta Máximo. I did the promotion for the first ballet folclórico garífuna's first trip to New York.
All of that began to fade, maybe because of the hesitancy of Hondurans to build strong institutions. After a couple of years they called me to take the post of executive director of the association of Honduran Organizations in New York.
This was in 1994, and I accepted the post. The first thing I did was collaborate on the construction of a monument to the victims of the Happyland tragedy. I was there for 18 months during which I developed projects that greatly benefitted the community.
Have you considered taking up that active a role in the Honduran community again?
I'm going to do it for the country as a whole and I'd like to do it in a way that guarantees maximum permanence. But to go back to being tied down in an office, that's really going to be very difficult.
I suppose you're aware of the country's socioeconomic situation right now, how do you see Honduras in the near future?
It's a tragedy which when I see it up close it makes me sad, it makes me angry, it frustrates me; like any other Honduran I have the identical reaction when I see the tragedy people are living while they sit on so much wealth.
I think the country's resigned itself to playing the role of the subjugated and the issue of the lack of identity and the isolation kill the possibilities for getting ahead.
The fact that we're not competitive, that there's no confidence in what's homegrown, the insecurity is frustrating. And now we're getting to a critical point where we'll either plot a sinister future or a promising one.
But it's time to look at that crossroads and see other ways of approaching problems; if what's been tried hasn't been successful, it's time to dig a little deeper.
A message for Hondurans?
What I really want to convey to everyone is that the key to development for a country such as ours is identity, material culture, singularity, the conglomerate of virtues and ethnic groups, those are the real treasures that we should not let go. You have to know how to present them.
Exploring identity is important, if you do that we have great possibilities for development.
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