Mérida, Yucatán, (May 17, 2021).- “In my next administration we will make a series of efforts to continue dignifying and promoting the Maya culture in the municipality, mainly to preserve our mother tongue”, said the PAN candidate for mayor of Mérida, Renán Barrera Concha.
“If you can be sure of something, it is that I am going to make the greatest effort from the City Council to continue defending our roots, our culture, our sense of belonging, our identity, because Mérida and Yucatán are unique in the world,” Barrera Concha said.
The PAN standard-bearer pointed out the above during a meeting with Maya creators and performers, which was held at the Maya Hall Forum, where the candidate listened to the proposals and initiatives that support the strengthening of the Maya language and culture in the municipality in all the scopes.
He stressed that since his first administration he has been concerned and busy so that Mérida continues to be a city alive in traditions and customs, and from the City Council he has worked to strengthen the recognition of the linguistic and cultural rights of the Maya people.
During the meeting, Renán Barrera, accompanied by Diana Canto, a member of the council of mayors, said that, one of his main proposals is to find the legal tools so that the Municipal Institute for the Strengthening of the Maya culture can become autonomous.
“My commitment to you and to the Mayan speakers is to make this institute independent so that it is not subject to the encouragement of the mayor in turn and thus they can have solid projects with a future,” he said.
“In addition, I am interested in bringing cultural programs with poetry, music, art, and theater in the Maya language to the communities and public spaces of Mérida so that citizens can embrace our culture”, he continued.
Another of the plans is to establish a joint work agenda with Maya creators and executors to undertake projects in a coordinated manner that promotes the integral development of the Maya speakers to achieve the transcendence of their cultural and linguistic legacy not only in the municipality but throughout the state.
In his speech, Vicente Canché Moo, bilingual elementary school teacher, short story writer in Spanish and Maya, recognized the efforts of Renán Barrera to preserve the mother tongue through the creation of the Municipal Institute for the Strengthening of Maya Culture, located in the neighborhood of La Ermita in Mérida.
“This has been a great success for your government and I congratulate you for planning to make the Institute an autonomous, independent, and timeless body. I am sure that if it is carried out it will be the spearhead for other municipalities ”, Canché Moo said.
He added that among his proposals to enrich the local culture is the Maya publishing project to create the Basic Maya Library, the creation of an Editorial Board made up of Maya writers of proven quality, as well as a program to offer workshops, courses, and creation diplomas, literature in the Maya language, where certified teachers participate and certifications can be awarded.
For its part, the Anthropologist Sandy Tun Itzá, a poet involved in indigenous education projects, proposed the presence of cultural goods and services in the programs “Cultural Saturdays” and in “Mérida en Domingo”, in which Maya speakers participate, as well as creating an itinerant space for Maya artistic expression in communities and public spaces.
“We offer to actively collaborate in the design of your Municipal Government Plan in everything that concerns the Maya people in Mérida because together with you we want to contribute to making this an inclusive and equitable municipal administration,” the Anthropologist said.
Also present at the meeting were Socorro Cauich, teacher, activist, and communicator; Inés Hau, cultural promoter and communicator; Hernán Pech, an undergraduate student in Public Administration; María Pat, elementary school teacher, and writer; Gabriela Sánchez, music and cultural promoter and Marcos Pech, writer and teacher.
The PAN candidate toured the Tahdzibichén and San Pedro Chimay communities to talk with the inhabitants about these proposals for the benefit of the Maya language, as well as other topics related to his project “More Merida.”
