This project, begun in 2020 and still ongoing, is a long-term artistic process. It began with an exploration of El Club social, cultural y deportivo Tikal Guatemala (CTG), a social club founded and run by Guatemalan immigrants in Montreal between 1972 and 1982. Through participatory projects, I aim to spark discussion about what it means to be an immigrant (Latin American) in Quebec today, while keeping alive the memory of what El Club Tikal Guatemala represented.

The CTG provided a home for newly arrived Guatemalans, with a soccer team and cultural activities such as plays and folk dances. The 700-square-meter space on Rachel Street had a kitchen, bar, and stage area, which also served as a refuge for new arrivals while they looked for work or housing. The CTG was a registered non-profit organization with a board of directors. However, after ten years, CTG was dissolved due to a lack of financial resources, stemming from unpaid debt and the public's reluctance to pay dues.

There is no academic research on this initiative, which was active between 1972 and 1982 in Montreal's Mile End. No literature exists on the rich Guatemalan and Central American scene that established itself in Quebec in the early 1970s, nor is there any research explaining why certain social clubs for immigrants in the same area of Montreal succeeded in creating long-term cultural services while the Guatemalans failed to do so. The CTG's invisibility motivated me to make a series of reconstructions of its initiatives, with the somewhat utopian aim of fictitiously constructing what it might have been today.

As a first step, I reconstructed the space in virtual form, drawing on in-depth oral interviews with founding members, on-site research, and archival documents. The 3D virtual tour of the club is available online at clubtikalguatemala.com, which also contains a compilation of information about CTG.

Drawing on the interviews and archival research, I then reconstructed the play El Mejor Tesoro, a comedy in two acts by Guatemalan writer Juan Fermín Aycinena y Aycinena (1893), performed at the CTG in 1979. The re-enactment of this play, under the direction of director René Lara, who also directed it at the time, and a group of Latin American immigrant students from UQAM, was presented at the Centre d'appui aux familles immigrantes (Casa C.A.F.I.) in Verdun in 2023.

The current stage, realized as part of the SPHERE(S) Lab, aims to provide an augmented reality (AR) experience across key elements of the "Patriotic Festivities", an annual event commemorating the independence of several Central American countries, including Guatemala, from Spanish colonial rule. The founding members of CTG brought this event to life, notably with a parade through the streets of Montreal in 1979. The parade first snaked along Rachel Street, ending at the soccer field in Parc Jeanne-Mance. Soccer field in Spanish translates as "la cancha", hence the name of the project.

The event lasted eight days and was meticulously planned with various activities: a basketball match, a play, a crafts exhibition, a cultural and artistic evening, followed by a parade featuring the five Central American countries. The parade included bicycle races, a soccer match, the lowering of flags and a dance party with salsa music.

Thanks to this AR immersion, the public will be able to immerse themselves in the rich heritage of these past activities, reconstructed from the memories of Central Americans active in Club Tikal, including Ismael Recinos, CTG director, René Lara, head of cultural activities, and Santiago Franco and Amilcar Vargas, coaches of the soccer team.

The aim of this augmented reality experience is to blend public and private spaces to reflect the complex experiences of diasporas, accompanied by cultural cross-fertilization and border crossing. 

By creating these multiverse realities, my intention is to provide ephemeral meeting spaces where individuals can interact and collaborate, whether digitally or live. I aim to create social experiences that enable recognition, exchange, and the imagination of collaborative futures.