Declaration for an anti-ableist Latin America and no more Telethons
From the CLACSO Working Group on Critical Studies in DisabilityTogether with Latin American activists and academics, we wish to express our deep concern about the progress of the Telethon campaigns in our Latin American region.
This type of televised charity fundraiser gained popularity in the 60s in the United States, spearheaded by Jerry Lewis, with the aim of raising funds to ensure the rehabilitation of children with disabilities. From its inception, the means to achieve this has been the sensationalization of children's bodies and the constant reduction of disability to a deficit that must be cured, overcome, or made invisible in order to achieve, through personal over-adaptation, integration into a disabling society. From its beginnings, the nascent Anglo-Saxon disability rights movement, which in the 80s would be called the "social model of disability," portrayed telethons and all forms of charity toward this group as enemies in its political battle for dignity. In contrast, and challenging this view, they asserted that "pity oppresses" and that the telethon was a pimp of disability, due to the abuse and economic exploitation it perpetrates against children's bodies and their families. Underlying this statement was an additional element: charitable fantasy generates a false sense of well-being at the level of general society, regarding the fact that "something" is being done in favor of people with disabilities.
But in reality, this type of response reproduces the oppression of this group and renders invisible the systematic discrimination, segregation, and exclusion they experience daily for deviating from the "able" body. From this perspective, disability is not a misfortune that befalls isolated individuals, but rather a systematic form of oppression imposed on those who fall short of the requirements demanded (according to medical/labor criteria, defined by capitalist productivity standards) by the "able" body. Battling against charity and the reduction of disability to the realm of an undesirable difference that requires only medical treatment to be corrected, organized people with disabilities demanded the recognition of their civil rights, detaching the issue from the individual sphere and shifting the debate to the modes of production of inequality and social devaluation. What needed to be changed was the social, the ideological, and the political, not individual bodies. The foundations of these elements were extended through the development of the human rights paradigm of disability, and, with various milestones, would culminate in the signing of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, before the UN General Assembly, in December 2006.
In Latin America, since the 70s, but with earlier precedents, people with disabilities themselves have been fighting against various forms of charity that targeted them. However, it wasn't until 1978 that a telethon arrived in the region. This occurred in Chile, during the Pinochet dictatorship and the implementation of a radical neoliberal project, a perfect excuse to create an atmosphere of social unity. The right to rehabilitation was privatized, ceasing to be covered by the State. Gradually, the Telethon became synonymous with disability and "solidarity" in Chile, and its televised show an annual fundraising success. By achieving its goal of raising funds, the Telethon created rehabilitation institutes and became a multi-million dollar business for the brands that sponsor the event, increasing their sales by donating a portion of their profits to the campaign. These are the foundations of a disability care model that was exported, along with neoliberal policies, to various Latin American countries.
The first Telethon in Colombia was held in 1980, an initiative of television presenter Carlos Pinzón. For the next 15 years, it was held almost uninterruptedly each year, coinciding with the intensification of the armed conflict: a period marked by the genocide of the Patriotic Union political party, the Palace of Justice siege, thousands of attacks by drug cartels, hundreds of massacres perpetrated by paramilitary groups with the state's consent, and countless targeted assassinations of social leaders. The Telethon was not held from 1996 to 2009. In 2010, it was revived thanks to the efforts of ORITEL (International Organization of Telethons, an institution created in 1998 to coordinate the efforts, actions, congresses, and summits of Telethons in the Americas).[1]The television show, which was demeaning to people with disabilities, resumed. However, starting in 2014, various organizations and social movements of people with disabilities began a nationwide mobilization in rejection of Teletón.
From 2015 to 2018, the "No More Telethon Colombia" movement consolidated its power, operating in the legal, communications, and socio-political spheres. The arguments against holding the Telethon, widely disseminated by the movement, became a transformative educational act that resonated with the public. As a result of street protests, legal actions, and influence in the media and on social networks, the amount of money raised by Telethon decreased due to the reinforcement of the perception of charity and pity. Consequently, in 2018, Telethon abandoned the idea of continuing the televised tele-begging marathon. For all these reasons, we in Colombia join the struggle of Latin American peoples in rejecting Telethon.
The Telethon arrived in Peru in 1981, at the beginning of the internal civil conflict that became the most violent period in the nation's 20th-century history. Therefore, in addition to the sympathetic tone it projected toward people with disabilities on television, it quickly became a political weapon used by the governments and parties in power to try to improve their public image. Furthermore, Ricardo Belmont, who brought the format from Chile, later became mayor of Lima and a member of Congress.
Furthermore, in Peru, the campaign aligned itself with the interests of religious institutions, adding another dimension to the instrumentalization of those portrayed in the media as objects of pity, not as subjects. Since its inception, the money raised has gone to the San Juan de Dios Clinic and Home, and in 2020, the Teletón Foundation even held a special edition during the COVID-19 pandemic, in conjunction with Caritas, the Archdiocese of Lima, and the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. The instrumentalist logic explained earlier is expounded in dogmatic discourses that maintain dangerous polarities. Through mass actions like the Teletón, particularly for children with disabilities, simplistic strategies are employed where "others" convey fictions of acquiring altruistic qualities, constructing an ableist and superficially charitable "us."
In Brazil, the Telethon began in 1988 at the studios of the Brazilian Television System (SBT), owned by Silvio Santos, a businessman in the industry, raising millions of reais. This money was earmarked to fund research, treatment, and rehabilitation for children with physical disabilities served by the Association for Assistance to Disabled Children (AACD). Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 23rd edition of the Telethon in 2020, which took place on November 7, was held on a reduced schedule and focused on ableism. Soap opera actors, singers, and influencers with disabilities, among other celebrities, responded to the AACD-Telethon's invitation and attended the televised program, either in person or virtually. The Telethon did so on behalf of all people with disabilities, ostensibly with the intention of raising public awareness about ableism. Herein lies its hypocrisy: using it merely as a slogan that implies "not overcoming" disability, thereby supposedly promoting the "independence" and "inclusion" of people with disabilities. However, the Telethon's approach remains aligned with the liberal notion of the universal subject and continues to be what it denies: ableist and marginalizing.
Teletón arrived in Mexico in 1997. For its first edition, an emblematic day in the country's religious festivities was chosen: December 12, the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Since this first broadcast, Televisa (the country's entertainment giant) has produced and aired this annual fundraising event, which is supported by major businesses and some state governments. Following the example of its predecessors in South America, from the outset, a script was developed that blended childhood, charity, melodrama, and spectacle. This has proven to be a profitable business, reflected in its infrastructure (24 Teletón Rehabilitation Centers [CRIT] and a Teletón University) and in agreements with various state governments to provide rehabilitation services for children with disabilities. These agreements have provided Televisa with land for the construction of the CRITs and a significant annual sum. In 2014, the UN recommended that the Mexican government cease providing public funds to Teletón. From that year onwards, this organization completely changed its approach and began to incorporate a new perspective (and, too) of human rights. It should be noted that the advertising campaign was aggressive and lasted throughout 2015; this was reflected in the slogan of that edition: Come, see, and decide..
To reach new generations who use different languages and media for entertainment and information, Teletón México uses social media for all kinds of promotional materials, as well as resources like GIFs, and leverages current trends to create its advertising. An example of this is the adjective third to name the people with disabilities who support this institution and to encourage those who decide to donate; this use is related to the characters that appear in I'm not here anymore (2020), a Mexican film that caused a great stir in the first half of 2020.
To date, Argentina has not exclusively held a televised Telethon campaign to raise money for children with disabilities. However, in late 2020, civil society mobilized with the National Disability Agency, observing with deep concern the agency's arrival in the country.[2].
As of December 2020, 13 countries in the Americas were part of ORITEL, and even though all Latin American countries have ratified the Convention, we observe with concern the persistence and success of telethons in our region. In rejection of these telethons, civil society in various Latin American countries has mobilized, denouncing their harmful effects on public recognition and highlighting what the existence of this spectacle reveals: the privatization of the right to health and care for citizens, and the irresponsibility of states that leave healthcare systems in the hands of third parties. It is impossible to understand the success of telethons without considering the sense of solidarity they inspire and the desire to "help." Behind it and the inspirational use of people with disabilities, we can find the configuration of disability as a scapegoat and a mechanism of social bearability in the face of the suffering generated by the individualization and commodification of social needs, imposing the imperative of personal over-adaptation to an unjust and unequal order.
The false sense of well-being generated by the success of Telethon campaigns in Latin America silences and conceals the cruel reality experienced daily by people with disabilities. Chronic and involuntary unemployment, school exclusion, poverty, and social isolation (resulting from barriers to participation) are all part of the landscape of the "no" they experience. The roots of these misfortunes, as can be inferred from what has already been stated, do not stem from the whims of nature or bad luck, but from the systematic violation of their rights, perpetrated through state policies (both actions and omissions) and the social exaltation of the values associated with neoliberal capitalism.
When we say NO to the Telethon, we are saying NO to these kinds of deeply unequal and exclusionary societies. For all the reasons stated above, we raise our voices and say:
#DisabilityIsNotCharity
With the slogan #LatinAmericaAntiTelethon We urge States to fulfill their commitments to the United Nations, their obligation to combat all forms of defamatory imagery against people with disabilities, and to implement measures to guarantee their respect as citizens. To be anti-ableist, one must be anti-Telethon.!
March 2021
CLACSO Working Group
Critical studies in disability
[1] https://oritel.org/rehabilitacion/
[2] http://www.rumbos.org.ar/anti-Teleton
This statement expresses the position of the Working Groups Critical studies in disability and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
