Within the framework of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, celebrated on August 9, the conference “Maya People, Identity and Culture” was held by Ermilo López Balam, with the purpose of to strengthen the identity of the Maya people in our state.
The president of the Government and Political Coordination Board of the Congress, Deputy Víctor Hugo Lozano Poveda, when welcoming, recalled the event and said that this type of activity contributes to further strengthen the identity that makes us so proud as Yucatecans.
“This is the product of the coordinated work we have had with the Insititute for Development of the Maya Culture: (Instituto para el desarrollo de la Cultura Maya: INDEMAYA) since the first day of this responsibility. When we arrived at this Legislature, we knew that we would have the task of being the ones to commemorate the 200th anniversary of our Legislative Branch”, stressed Lozano Poveda.
The legislator remarked that different activities have been carried out with the aim of preserving the Maya Culture, which plays a very important role, especially in Yucatan, which ranks second in the country in terms of people who speak an indigenous language, according to figures from the INEGI.
He added that things are being done well, but there is still a lot more to do, for this reason a further step was taken by signing an agreement with INDEMAYA, initiatives have been generated to protect our cultural heritage, such as declaring the Mayan Language as Heritage Intangible cultural asset.
“We are also making this change from the inside, since a little over a month ago the Mayan language course for congressional employees concluded. With these types of actions, we continue to curb our commitment to the legacy left to us by our ancestors,” he stated.
For her part, Deputy Manuela Cocom Bolio thanked Deputy Lozano Poveda for supporting the activities and the legislator Melba Gamboa Ávila, present there, for preserving the Maya Language course, and the singing contest in Maya language that is organized periodically by INDEMAYA.
“It was a wonderful experience, our culture is present in all areas, listening to young people sing Trova, electronic music, hip hop, and rap in the Maya language, all without losing that identity that characterizes us Yucatecan Maya. The women who proudly wear our suit, no matter how simple it may be, is part of our identity”, Gamboa Ávila remarked.
Representative Cocom Bolio asked that our identity continue to be strengthened since precisely in this Legislature it was possible to declare the Mayan Language as Intangible Heritage of Yucatan.
The speaker Ermilo López Balam, coordinator of the Human Rights department of INDEMAYA, has a degree in Business Administration. He entered the institute in 2004, having previously passed two grammar courses in the Mayan Language and a Voice-Over Workshop for Radio and Television, and has He has participated in different programs, in addition to receiving several awards for his hard work in favor of the Mayan Language.
López Balam explained what identity, culture, origin is and how it arises, he also clarified that the Mayan culture was not an empire, but one of the most important civilizations in the world. He also talked about the codes, the numbers and the conquest.
Present at the event were the director of the Legislative Research Institute, Mario Maldonado Espinosa, and the Secretary General of the State Congress, Adrián Anguiano Aguilar.
TYT Newsroom
