Guatemala City, by Brenda Larios -AGN- The Cultural Development Houses project has established 53 physical spaces nationwide to promote Guatemalan culture.
During the virtual training on municipal guidelines, the Vice Minister of Culture, Cristhian Calderón, stated that President Alejandro Giammattei’s administration initiated this program.
Vice Minister Calderón highlighted that the ministry has worked on opening 53 cultural development houses throughout the country over the last three years. The plan brings the initiative closer to the countryside.
This infrastructure can bring art and culture closer to smaller population centers through projects that benefit these communities.
Services Offered
The Vice Minister affirmed that these units provide the following services:
- Processes for cultural economic reactivation
- Workshops to strengthen cultural practices in their various expressions
- Training processes in citizen participation
- Recreational activities
- Exhibitions on the location’s history, tradition, and ancestral knowledge
- Cultural festivals in literature, gastronomy, music, dance, and ancestral medicine
- Laboratories for collective art creation and cultural expressions
- Talks, forums, and intergenerational dialogues on cultural matters
Vice Minister Calderón explained that the personnel in these development houses will allow the ministry to strengthen and rescue Guatemalan culture. He noted that each cultural center has three staff members for its operation.
The Vice Minister highlighted that more than 100 municipal cultural policies received support from the Secretary of Planning and Programming of the Presidency -Segeplan-.
About the Program
Local authorities and various cultural actors coordinate the Cultural Development Houses program. The houses are also intended to transmit and promote the cultural expressions of each municipality.
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Felipe Aguilar, formalized the creation of this program through the Ministerial Agreement 314-202.
The Cultural Development Houses serve as convergence centers for providing cultural services. They also generate actions that promote the protection and revitalization of cultural expressions of the Maya, Xinca, Garífuna, and Ladino peoples.
Municipal selection criteria take into account the percentage of the indigenous population, departmental multilingualism, and communities that keep the culture alive. This is accomplished through various expressions for local and national revitalization and promotion.
