The daughter of Gustavo Garzon and Alicia Zanca, she has two siblings with Down syndrome and created Kiki Party, a “bowling alley” for people with disabilities

Tamara Garzon (37) She squeezes every second of her time, and in the gaps she finds between motherhood and work, she releases one word after another. Some will know her as a daughter Alicia Zanka and Gustavo GarzonBut to her students she is Tammy, a teacher who, while teaching, becomes a kind of idol.

For ten years he ran a performing arts school for people with disabilities. It is a world that is not strange to her. She has lived with it since her birth, as her twin brothers (who are nine months older than her) Down syndrome. He lives it and explains it very naturally, without seriousness or euphemisms. Perhaps this is one of the great secrets of her success.

She recalled that just over 10 years ago, she thought she had another career. Her place in art, until then, was as an actress. He admitted that he came closelukewarm“Into teaching. Her father had founded a musical theater school for people with intellectual disabilities and encouraged her to become an assistant in a group. Until then, it was just an audition.

“It all came about by chance (or not). I have never worked while on disability and never intended to.. I was a little hesitant to try, but I started to get involved in a very real way. “Interest has been generated very gradually,” Tamara said. Clarion.

What started out without betting too many chips has today become a fully consolidated and ever-expanding enterprise. Tamara is a reference not only for her students but for all the families she is found in Tammy Garzon School A place where you learn and have fun, while at the same time acting as a support network for parents.

“When I was born I had two brothers with Down Syndrome They were very close to me, so my whole life is crossed by disability. Then, 10 years ago, I began reaching out as a teacher through the wisdom I gained from living with boredom and through my relationship with art.

Thus, she turned her family experience and her work as an actress into an irresistible combination. “I mixed the two things up, started as an assistant, then as a teacher and ended up creating my own bowling alley, my own school. There was something about my relationship with disability that was so organic, so natural, and so loving.. He said: It is like knowledge coming from the veins.

Little by little, she put aside her work as an actress, and as the years went by, her profession became 100% teacher. “Acting came by default, from family and also from exposure. I’m very extroverted, I like the flamboyance, I enjoyed it very much…but hey, there are also cycles. I think maybe that was more of a youth thing, and Now I love being on the other side even more, and seeing how the boys shine“.

In short, her work fascinated her: “I became very fond of children. I started a group and now I have eight, the bowling alley Kiki’s partyevent for people with disabilities) and activities. It’s nice to see how what you love is reflected in growth at work.

Tamara trained as an actress A therapeutic companion And the teacher. But also as a sister. Each piece of the puzzle that made up his life contributed to an addition to those decade-long classes.

“I believe that everything we go through in our lives comes together in what we do, Our history is embedded in everything we do today.“She declared. This is also why, she admitted, her school is different: “It’s very relaxed and we work with a lot of humour, as I am and as I like to relate, without seriousness. There’s always a sense of humor in everything, whether at work or in life.

“In all the families that come with me there is something a little revolutionary: My way of working is about this non-disability book, about the diagnosis, about the sweetest and most therapeutic things about disability. “This is a musical comedy: glitz and sequins,” he said.

According to her, those who come to her classes are generally not surprised; They find there exactly what they are looking for. “Musical comedy runs in my veins for everything I’ve seen, for everything I’ve done. The same for the whole team, because the majority are actors. There are also psychologists, but we mixture Where we all work the same way, which is very honest, without that half-formal disability thing.

The school’s registration form states that the musical compositions performed there arise from students’ suggestions and preferences. At the same time, it was highlighted that the place is promoting A space of belonging, trust and exchange Which enhances expressive ability and creativity through love and companionship.

According to Tamara Garzon, these goals were not only not met, but may have been exceeded. “It’s like a friends clubWith parents as well. “We have a lot of familiarity and trust.”

But, in addition, there is empathy. Direct experience with his brothers gave him a great deal of reality that would have been difficult to convey in any other way. “There are many years of association and very few people leave. A wonderful family is created and this is also very important for them because networks of support and containment are created.“.

Sometimes, for these parents, this may extend to just one coffee per week. But what it represents is much more than that. “They accompany each other, but then, at large in the world, they are so helpless. The reality for a parent of a person with a disability is very different. Garzon stressed that the feeling of having someone else have the same thing happen to them and sharing their experiences while the kids are doing their classes is very enriching and very satisfying.

Tamara sees him at home and sees him at work every day. Not only people with disabilities (and their families). They must fight harder than the rest to Guarantee your rights But they generally lack the necessary support. he The role of the caregiver That these parents play sports – which is what happens in these cases, as the artist highlights lifelong– He usually leaves them Very lonely.

“Behind the people with disabilities, there are parents who at some point grow up and receive a pension – which is often the minimum – and they have to Bank themselves and their child. People with disabilities, who are the overwhelming majority, do not have the possibility of working; “They have a pension and parents who have to pay for them, who have to take them, who have to bring them…” Garzón described.

In the context of the disability emergency, and with the reality of his brothers and students on his back, he highlighted: “They have state support, which is now in danger. The problem is that they were already unprotected before – because this is not enough – and on top of that, children are now left without their treatment, and day centers are reducing their working hours because they cannot pay the wages of specialists and professionals are leaving.”

When his mother, actress Alicia Zanca, died in 2012, Juan and Mariano were left in the care of their father, Gustavo Garzón.. Tamara, who is barely nine months younger than her brothers – with whom she has a strong bond – reflects in every word why There is nothing romantic: “My father is an actor and he lives worrying about money, and where the twins are, because he can’t afford it, because if he wants out he doesn’t have the money to leave the kids with someone. And on top of that, the twins don’t have a mother. I mean, it’s no joke, it’s very difficult. People who are not close to these facts have no idea how difficult it is.“.

during Coronavirus pandemic In the middle of quarantine, her students’ families asked Tamara for CHOICE, an activity that would get them moving again. “My son wants to dance so bad,” the teacher recalls. “He told me on Instagram Live.”

From this request, a Zoom event arose where more and more people were connected, reaching up to 60 users simultaneously. “During the whole pandemic, there were two years of having a party every Friday: it became more complicated, we held costume parties, each one from his home, and created his own little club. Until the possibility of attendance was enabled and it began to grow and transform.”

“Today it is the Kiki Party: it has its own name and identity. Kiki (on Instagram, @tufiestakiki) is a very personal party. It is intended for people with disabilities and has a very hot stamp: they dance everything, they are happy to dance and sing.

He said his brothers had the perfect presence: “Steady, nailed,” he joked, adding that “They talk a lot throughout the showIn the meantime, she enjoys it as much as the heroes, who straightforwardly define the event as a “bowling alley”: “I like the music, I like the atmosphere (in fact, I celebrate my birthdays at Kiki’s). Apart from that, the whole school staff works, we are all characters and we are having a great time, we have a lot of fun.

On December 3, World Disability DayThe year concludes with his school inviting him to a promising exhibition. Tickets can be purchased at very reasonable prices through their Instagram accounts: @tamigarzon and @escuelatami. “We make what we have Great annual show at the Astros Theater At 8pm you can get closer, you will love it.”

Tamara Garzon has a career, several jobs, several families and a club of friends. “I feel so grateful for what I do, which is beautiful. Sometimes I say, “Hey, this far?”. “I feel like there’s a lot of love coming to me,” he concluded.