The City of Mérida and the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals presented the campaign “7 Treasures of Merida’s Cultural Heritage“, which aims to promote and disseminate the heritage of the city through citizen participation and to celebrate its appointment as “Cultural Capital of the Americas 2017”.
Mayor Mauricio Vila Dosal, stressed the importance of involving the people of Mérida and make them decide which the “seven treasures” will be, and so the citizenship can get interested in cultural heritage and in taking part of the preparations for the “Cultural Capital of the Americas 2017” which is an achievement of all “Meridanos”.
Accompanied by the president of the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals Xavier Tudela Penya, who traveled from the headquarters of the Bureau in Barcelona, the mayor urged citizens to participate in this exercise by sending their proposals on the spaces they consider eligible to be “treasures of our city”, it can be anything from a park, street, avenue, monument, church, estate, cenote, house, among others.
The campaign has three phases:
- Phase 1: begins in May, citizens submit up to seven proposals for candidates.
- Phase 2: covering the entire month of June, the treasures with the highest number of proposals are made public on the page of the Bureau for voting. The seven items with the highest number of votes win.
- Phase 3: will take place in July. During this phase, the 7 Cultural Treasures of Merida’s Heritage chosen by the citizens are promoted.
Citizens wishing to submit their candidacy proposals have to send an email to atesoros@ibocc.org, optionally, sender may accompany the proposal with a photograph. Each citizen must send their seven proposals in one email.
In June, the voting is done through the “Cultural Capital of the Americas” website, www.cac-acc.org.
Mayor calls meridians to choose the “7 treasures Cultural Heritage of Merida” (Photo: Yucatan al minuto)
And at the end of the voting period, the most voted candidates will become the 7 Cultural Treasures of Merida’s Heritage and will be incorporated into the Representative List of World Cultural Heritage of the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals, list which already enrolled Cultural Treasures from cities such as Andorra, Asunción (Paraguay), Badalona (Spain), Barcelona (Spain), Barranquilla (Colombia), Brasilia (Brazil), Catalonia (Spain), Madrid (Spain), Mayagüez (Puerto Rico), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) , Quito (Ecuador), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), São Luís (Brazil) and Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina).
Vila Dosal highlighted the important international promotion Merida will get as a result of this campaign, in each of the cultural capitals, where about 1.6 million people who have already participated in this voting process for their own hometowns, will receive direct information regarding the Merida Treasures campaign .
In addition, this will be televised worldwide through international television networks such as Discovery Channel and Spain’s Antena 3, the broadcast will be seen in 25 countries with an audience of 300 million people as part of “Cultural Capital of the Americas” series, along with a segmented international high impact promotion through “Discovery Channel in your School.”
Vila Dosal thanked the International Bureau for their collaboration in this Treasures of Merida campaign, and stated that: “we have so many attractions that visitors often just fail to enjoy them all.”
Xavier Tudela, president of the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals, said the aim of the campaign is to promote and disseminate the cultural heritage of Merida in a fun and didactic way, and to encourage visits to selected historical and cultural sites.
Also, he said, it seeks to establish new tourist routes that allow visitors to experience the rich heritage of Merida, while citizen participation is promoted.
The event was also attended by Erica Millet Corona, executive secretary of the Agency “Cultural Capital of the Americas 2017”, Victor Hugo Lozano Poveda, general coordinator of Community Policy, Irving Berlin Villafaña municipal director of Culture, and Carolina Cardenas Sosa, head of Mérida’s Tourism Economic Development Office.
Source: Yucatan al Minuto