CITY'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CREATIVE CITIES NETWORK
The cultural and creative goods and services are rooted in the life of the city and are not solely consumed through the marketplace. The crucial themes are that the sustainability of cultural production depends on the nurturing of talents (which implies the possibility of the survival of the producer by means of their production or the availability of free time to dedicate themselves diligently to their practice); that this production or tradition circulates (so assuring the renovation of cultural diversity); and that the access to this production is guaranteed (above all amongst the youth) in an interplay of forces of the culture of the masses stimulated by globalization.
Promoting cultural investment and production as an economic means of social growth is an ambitious project with a broad scope of catalyzing and generating relationships and of promoting diversity, citizenship, and social well-being. For the work that is done in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, it would be transcendental for the economic upturn and stimulus, regionally and nationally, to integrate into the Network of Creative Cities. San Cristóbal de Las Casas would become a regional and glocal (global-local connection) node, linking the immaterial culture, the cultural identities, and novel forms of undertaking craft work and folk art with catalysts of development, fomenting commercial exchange, the mitigation of poverty, and societal lapse, as well as with the public agencies of the three tiers of government (federal, state, and municipal) and their programs. These links would enhance the creative impulses of culture, tourism, and the comprehensive development of the social fabric of the municipality.
The aforementioned stimuli would permit the positioning of San Cristóbal de Las Casas regionally, nationally, and globally as a city whose economic model favors creativity based on its cultural diversity. This would benefit the human, social, and economic development of the region. This is especially important in Latin America where economic models have historically been based on natural resource exploitation. Coupled with eco-tourism, culture-tourism and the local trade of crafts and folk arts approach a sustainable model, which can be refined as an exemplar to other cities within and without the Network of Creative Cities. Other contributions to the network are in the plurality and constancy of renovation of shared immaterial and material heritage, syncretism of artistic techniques with other network cities, strengthening of the protagonism and transformation of reality of the original cultures within San Cristóbal, and the ramification of the inter-cultural web that is manifested constantly within the city and between cities, countries, and peoples.[1]
Furthermore, it is hoped that the vitality and importance of San Cristóbal de Las Casas to the region to the stability and prosperity of the region of southeastern Mexico and Central America would be further enhanced by inclusion in the Network of Creative Cities. Demonstrative of efficiency, transparency, security, and sustainability for life, productivity, and participation in a global world, the city would further solidify the guarantee of a cultural life through good stewardship of its people, infrastructure, and traditions as a creative city. This will take time and is a process, which is underway. As it already has for centuries since its founding and millennia before, this process is sure to further transform and invigorate the development of the region.
Promoting cultural investment and production as an economic means of social growth is an ambitious project with a broad scope of catalyzing and generating relationships and of promoting diversity, citizenship, and social well-being. For the work that is done in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, it would be transcendental for the economic upturn and stimulus, regionally and nationally, to integrate into the Network of Creative Cities. San Cristóbal de Las Casas would become a regional and glocal (global-local connection) node, linking the immaterial culture, the cultural identities, and novel forms of undertaking craft work and folk art with catalysts of development, fomenting commercial exchange, the mitigation of poverty, and societal lapse, as well as with the public agencies of the three tiers of government (federal, state, and municipal) and their programs. These links would enhance the creative impulses of culture, tourism, and the comprehensive development of the social fabric of the municipality.
The aforementioned stimuli would permit the positioning of San Cristóbal de Las Casas regionally, nationally, and globally as a city whose economic model favors creativity based on its cultural diversity. This would benefit the human, social, and economic development of the region. This is especially important in Latin America where economic models have historically been based on natural resource exploitation. Coupled with eco-tourism, culture-tourism and the local trade of crafts and folk arts approach a sustainable model, which can be refined as an exemplar to other cities within and without the Network of Creative Cities. Other contributions to the network are in the plurality and constancy of renovation of shared immaterial and material heritage, syncretism of artistic techniques with other network cities, strengthening of the protagonism and transformation of reality of the original cultures within San Cristóbal, and the ramification of the inter-cultural web that is manifested constantly within the city and between cities, countries, and peoples.[1]
Furthermore, it is hoped that the vitality and importance of San Cristóbal de Las Casas to the region to the stability and prosperity of the region of southeastern Mexico and Central America would be further enhanced by inclusion in the Network of Creative Cities. Demonstrative of efficiency, transparency, security, and sustainability for life, productivity, and participation in a global world, the city would further solidify the guarantee of a cultural life through good stewardship of its people, infrastructure, and traditions as a creative city. This will take time and is a process, which is underway. As it already has for centuries since its founding and millennia before, this process is sure to further transform and invigorate the development of the region.
SCOPE OF THE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT.
Speaking of the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas is often to refer primarily to one of the greatest urban-architectonic relics of Chiapas, of the Mexican republic, and of the southeastern region of the North American continent, as it is one of the first cities constructed by the Spanish in the hemisphere. Located 80 kilometers to the east of Tuxtla Gutiérrez on the high plateau of the region, the surrounds still have perennial natural pastures and forested hillsides.
San Cristóbal de Las Casas possesses an enormous amount of charm thanks to its harmony of urban composition, balanced as it is by attractive and impressive religious buildings like the Cathedral and Temple of Santo Domingo, both constructions having Spanish and indigenous elements which perpetuate the cultural heritage of Tzotzils, Tzeltals, and Lacondons who reside in the surrounding region.
San Cristóbal de Las Casas possesses an enormous amount of charm thanks to its harmony of urban composition, balanced as it is by attractive and impressive religious buildings like the Cathedral and Temple of Santo Domingo, both constructions having Spanish and indigenous elements which perpetuate the cultural heritage of Tzotzils, Tzeltals, and Lacondons who reside in the surrounding region.
PRODUCTIVE PROJECTS AND SERVICES
The municipality of San Cristóbal de Las Casas is engaged in the realization of the following goals:
· Seeking to stimulate creative industries, cultivate sustainable financing for social entrepreneurs, and enhance the development and participation
in political life in communities.
· Proposing entrepreneurially inclined activities, such as fairs, and establishing commercial hubs.
· Organizing workshops related to starting creative businesses, specializing in crafts, with internationally recognized certifications.
· Census of data associated with creative production and trade to be recorded during projects and programs and later analyzed to have bearing
on the consolidation or dissolution of the same.
· Census of the impact on the diversification of creative output and offerings on the access to work within the potential population.
· Census of organizations, unions, and federations aggregated and consolidated together throughout the duration of the project.
· Encouraging the registration and qualifying of traditional crafts in order that they be recognized with the distinction of the “Marca Chiapas”
(Chiapas Brand/Appellation).[2] The stamp is a proposal meant to foment and develop a scheme of quality and originality in products and
services of Chiapas, as well as to amplify the scope of negotiations that entrepreneurs and the government develop in the interest of investments
in the state.
· Launching San Cristóbal de Las Casas into the global market through the website of products and services of the city, which is compatible with
mobile phones, tablets, and other devices. Also, the creating of a COMMERCIAL HUB of the South Southeast.
· Coordinating the “thematic market for the commercialization of crafts,” an inter-cultural space, and development of the immaterial culture of the
highlands of Chiapas.
· Fomenting the creation of a observatory of cultural productivity and commerce in order to create feedback and innovation of the productive
actions of the region. This observatory will be promoted amongst the organizations of civic society, producers, and academics of the region.
· Seeking to stimulate creative industries, cultivate sustainable financing for social entrepreneurs, and enhance the development and participation
in political life in communities.
· Proposing entrepreneurially inclined activities, such as fairs, and establishing commercial hubs.
· Organizing workshops related to starting creative businesses, specializing in crafts, with internationally recognized certifications.
· Census of data associated with creative production and trade to be recorded during projects and programs and later analyzed to have bearing
on the consolidation or dissolution of the same.
· Census of the impact on the diversification of creative output and offerings on the access to work within the potential population.
· Census of organizations, unions, and federations aggregated and consolidated together throughout the duration of the project.
· Encouraging the registration and qualifying of traditional crafts in order that they be recognized with the distinction of the “Marca Chiapas”
(Chiapas Brand/Appellation).[2] The stamp is a proposal meant to foment and develop a scheme of quality and originality in products and
services of Chiapas, as well as to amplify the scope of negotiations that entrepreneurs and the government develop in the interest of investments
in the state.
· Launching San Cristóbal de Las Casas into the global market through the website of products and services of the city, which is compatible with
mobile phones, tablets, and other devices. Also, the creating of a COMMERCIAL HUB of the South Southeast.
· Coordinating the “thematic market for the commercialization of crafts,” an inter-cultural space, and development of the immaterial culture of the
highlands of Chiapas.
· Fomenting the creation of a observatory of cultural productivity and commerce in order to create feedback and innovation of the productive
actions of the region. This observatory will be promoted amongst the organizations of civic society, producers, and academics of the region.
RECUPERATION, CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF HISTORIC PLAZAS AND BUILDINGS.
Recuperation: through the programs and projects of public works of the city, the recuperation of public spaces will be stimulated from grassroots development, giving preference to community organizations, and constructing the social fabric of the community.
Restoration: from the solidarity of neighborhoods, contributing to community infrastructure and linking the principal federal and state programs for the restoration of historic spaces and buildings will be realized. There will be an abiding focus on gender equality, plurality of cultures, empowerment, and reduction of situations of risk in vulnerable populations that will optimize the equitable benefits from architectonic heritage, striving to enhance the social fabric of relationships and stewardship by a urban model of sustainability and social harmony.
Actions:
In each of these plazas, the process of restoration will be accompanied by the conservation of properties, streets, and services. The integration of social uses of public spaces appropriate to the offering of goods and services will be implemented.
The following programs are proposed:
· Corridor "Cine expressions" in each of the barrios, each cycle there will be functions of the following themes: prevention and transformation
of conflicts, biodiversity, nutrition, and cultural manifestations of the neighborhood and city. In accompaniment, there will be gastronomic fairs with
local products and barrio crafts festivals.
· Social gatherings of organizational support in each of the barrios, to accompany, in advance, each of the proposed programs.
· Itinerant Caravan, at least one artistic event will have to be presented in each barrio on the day that the “creative caravan” sets up its tent.
Each of the barrios will be invited to suggest their own ideas for neighborhood improvement concerning mobility and accessibility, security, health,
and economic presence. Public spaces will be appropriated for the community in a local artistic network, promoting that architectonic spaces will
adjust their scope of activities realized therein. Attending the visit of the caravan will be institutions, which will offer workshops, conferences,
health care, risk prevention, and citizenship services. Each barrio will have the caravan in residence for at least one day of the week for each
activity.
The local architectonic proposal will contribute new concepts of sustainability, modernism, and conservation of the material and immaterial heritage of the built areas and city model to planning and urban development, giving it a new sense of expression to the local architectural vernacular. New senses of respect for the natural environment, recuperation of traditional trades, and economic development through cultural property will be principal concepts of management in the relational-urbanistic design of the city.
Cultural agents and community partners in the area of professionalization and specialization will advance this project in parallel accompaniment of three principal axes for fortification of neighborhood identity as follows:
a) International artistic training: Sets of creative spaces will be set aside for learning, research, and teaching of the arts, traditional trades, and artistic expressions of indigenous cultures, including music, theater, poetry, dance, novel expressions, song, painting, sculpture, traditional oral storytelling, new technologies in education and human development, pedagogy of arts as applied to human development, training centered on culture, etc. Inter-cultural links to an international scope will be highlighted. Within these formative spaces special consideration will be given to regional arts, such as ironwork, toy-making, woodwork, embroidery and loom weaving, confectionery and regional gastronomy, marimba, and oral tradition, complemented with special workshops like gardening and botany, recycling, and traditional medicine. The space for the municipal symphonic orchestra will be enhanced. The overall stimulus of the artistic community through strategies of socio-communal intervention will be advanced so that the maximum number of people will be linked with the art and culture that is produced.
b) Artistic and cultural manifestations: Sets of spaces and architectonic areas, historic precincts, and plazas will, at times, be dedicated to the staging of cultural spectacles, including spaces for concerts and theater (auditoriums and amphitheaters), schools, barrios, open air spaces, expository spaces, and spaces for mass events (plazas, stages, gardens, fair grounds, etc.). Also, halls and spaces will host temporary and permanent itinerant and non-local expositions, foreign and novel creators, debate halls, and forums (exposition halls, reunion halls, and work areas for poets and writers, etc.) In general, all of the necessary spaces will be apportioned in order to complement the area of cultural-artistic training in the city in order to identify the contributions of each artist to the social development of the community and to incentivize forums of expression for artists of different ages, ethnicities, and social levels. This is meant to broaden the capacities of the community by way of the stimulation of creative productivity in a manner that is inclusive and participative, using the aesthetic experience as a driver of social growth.
c) Area for conservation and diffusion: Sets of spaces will be dedicated to the study, diffusion, and valorization of arts and culture of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Spaces will be equipped in order to carry out research into traditional arts, rites, customs, and cultural production for their recuperation and safeguarding, in which should be contained the repertory necessary for these investigations (libraries, workspaces, research centers, etc.); Also proposed are didactic museograhic spaces concerning regional arts and the general culture of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, exhibition spaces for ancient objects and illustrious personages of the arts of Chiapas, as well as an auditorium and conference halls for academic and cultural events. It is claimed with this project that the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, has an adequate infrastructure, cohesive social fabric, and an approach to the role of culture in the processes of personal agency that will support dignified human development and permit the holding and conservation of its declaration as a creative city. Every effort will be made to foment an urban development that integrates the best of citizenship and be inherently linked with the social wellbeing.
With the principal objective of creating and ratifying public policy concerning cultural rights and immaterial property, we hope to meet the urgent challenge of rescuing and disseminating the traditional arts of the region. Furthermore, a common house is proposed for each barrio: a house of the community and for the community in which can be expressed particular needs of each with regard to the rescue, safeguarding, and transmission of arts and traditional trades. These will be creative epicenters for the weaving of the social fabric. The common house will host experiential workshops promoted by the community and museographic exhibitions and will shelter the local economy of cultural products.
The living culture resides in the barrios and neighborhoods. From there, the creative focus of the people is generated and the creative nodes of relations, organization, formation, and management are connected, which make up the creative network of the city. The networks of the barrios and the city grow together and inter-mesh, each impelling their own development and economic empowerment, without being exogenously intruded upon.
Restoration: from the solidarity of neighborhoods, contributing to community infrastructure and linking the principal federal and state programs for the restoration of historic spaces and buildings will be realized. There will be an abiding focus on gender equality, plurality of cultures, empowerment, and reduction of situations of risk in vulnerable populations that will optimize the equitable benefits from architectonic heritage, striving to enhance the social fabric of relationships and stewardship by a urban model of sustainability and social harmony.
Actions:
In each of these plazas, the process of restoration will be accompanied by the conservation of properties, streets, and services. The integration of social uses of public spaces appropriate to the offering of goods and services will be implemented.
The following programs are proposed:
· Corridor "Cine expressions" in each of the barrios, each cycle there will be functions of the following themes: prevention and transformation
of conflicts, biodiversity, nutrition, and cultural manifestations of the neighborhood and city. In accompaniment, there will be gastronomic fairs with
local products and barrio crafts festivals.
· Social gatherings of organizational support in each of the barrios, to accompany, in advance, each of the proposed programs.
· Itinerant Caravan, at least one artistic event will have to be presented in each barrio on the day that the “creative caravan” sets up its tent.
Each of the barrios will be invited to suggest their own ideas for neighborhood improvement concerning mobility and accessibility, security, health,
and economic presence. Public spaces will be appropriated for the community in a local artistic network, promoting that architectonic spaces will
adjust their scope of activities realized therein. Attending the visit of the caravan will be institutions, which will offer workshops, conferences,
health care, risk prevention, and citizenship services. Each barrio will have the caravan in residence for at least one day of the week for each
activity.
The local architectonic proposal will contribute new concepts of sustainability, modernism, and conservation of the material and immaterial heritage of the built areas and city model to planning and urban development, giving it a new sense of expression to the local architectural vernacular. New senses of respect for the natural environment, recuperation of traditional trades, and economic development through cultural property will be principal concepts of management in the relational-urbanistic design of the city.
Cultural agents and community partners in the area of professionalization and specialization will advance this project in parallel accompaniment of three principal axes for fortification of neighborhood identity as follows:
a) International artistic training: Sets of creative spaces will be set aside for learning, research, and teaching of the arts, traditional trades, and artistic expressions of indigenous cultures, including music, theater, poetry, dance, novel expressions, song, painting, sculpture, traditional oral storytelling, new technologies in education and human development, pedagogy of arts as applied to human development, training centered on culture, etc. Inter-cultural links to an international scope will be highlighted. Within these formative spaces special consideration will be given to regional arts, such as ironwork, toy-making, woodwork, embroidery and loom weaving, confectionery and regional gastronomy, marimba, and oral tradition, complemented with special workshops like gardening and botany, recycling, and traditional medicine. The space for the municipal symphonic orchestra will be enhanced. The overall stimulus of the artistic community through strategies of socio-communal intervention will be advanced so that the maximum number of people will be linked with the art and culture that is produced.
b) Artistic and cultural manifestations: Sets of spaces and architectonic areas, historic precincts, and plazas will, at times, be dedicated to the staging of cultural spectacles, including spaces for concerts and theater (auditoriums and amphitheaters), schools, barrios, open air spaces, expository spaces, and spaces for mass events (plazas, stages, gardens, fair grounds, etc.). Also, halls and spaces will host temporary and permanent itinerant and non-local expositions, foreign and novel creators, debate halls, and forums (exposition halls, reunion halls, and work areas for poets and writers, etc.) In general, all of the necessary spaces will be apportioned in order to complement the area of cultural-artistic training in the city in order to identify the contributions of each artist to the social development of the community and to incentivize forums of expression for artists of different ages, ethnicities, and social levels. This is meant to broaden the capacities of the community by way of the stimulation of creative productivity in a manner that is inclusive and participative, using the aesthetic experience as a driver of social growth.
c) Area for conservation and diffusion: Sets of spaces will be dedicated to the study, diffusion, and valorization of arts and culture of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Spaces will be equipped in order to carry out research into traditional arts, rites, customs, and cultural production for their recuperation and safeguarding, in which should be contained the repertory necessary for these investigations (libraries, workspaces, research centers, etc.); Also proposed are didactic museograhic spaces concerning regional arts and the general culture of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, exhibition spaces for ancient objects and illustrious personages of the arts of Chiapas, as well as an auditorium and conference halls for academic and cultural events. It is claimed with this project that the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, has an adequate infrastructure, cohesive social fabric, and an approach to the role of culture in the processes of personal agency that will support dignified human development and permit the holding and conservation of its declaration as a creative city. Every effort will be made to foment an urban development that integrates the best of citizenship and be inherently linked with the social wellbeing.
With the principal objective of creating and ratifying public policy concerning cultural rights and immaterial property, we hope to meet the urgent challenge of rescuing and disseminating the traditional arts of the region. Furthermore, a common house is proposed for each barrio: a house of the community and for the community in which can be expressed particular needs of each with regard to the rescue, safeguarding, and transmission of arts and traditional trades. These will be creative epicenters for the weaving of the social fabric. The common house will host experiential workshops promoted by the community and museographic exhibitions and will shelter the local economy of cultural products.
The living culture resides in the barrios and neighborhoods. From there, the creative focus of the people is generated and the creative nodes of relations, organization, formation, and management are connected, which make up the creative network of the city. The networks of the barrios and the city grow together and inter-mesh, each impelling their own development and economic empowerment, without being exogenously intruded upon.
PROMOTION OF CREATIVITY AND CREATIVE EXPRESSIONS, ESPECIALLY AMONG AT-RISK GROUPS, INCLUDING WOMEN AND CHILDREN
EDUCATION AND CULTURE
In Chiapas, the effects of the structural reforms of decades of the 80s and 90s, together with the counterclaim of actual productivity, through plundering of lands and natural resources, have been the concentration of population in rural and urban cities. The consequence, if not the goal of exploitative companies, has been the proportioning of cheap and secure manual labor for agro-exportation and biodiesel companies. This has further eroded the well being of indigenous peoples, obligating them to leave their homelands and migrate or depend on government support to survive.
Creatively using the concepts of field, habitus, cultural capital, and symbolic violence to analyze educational complexity in Chiapas, we can define three subfields: the traditional indigenous education, school education (official), and autonomous (Zapatista), as well as some other private holistic schools and non-formal education. However, due to their diverse historical and temporal origins, in practice, these educative processes act simultaneously in the same social space but with some autonomy, through social relations, and are dialectically and constantly changing identities of educational agents, who often take positions of social conflict at the generational and/or personal level.[3]
Creatively using the concepts of field, habitus, cultural capital, and symbolic violence to analyze educational complexity in Chiapas, we can define three subfields: the traditional indigenous education, school education (official), and autonomous (Zapatista), as well as some other private holistic schools and non-formal education. However, due to their diverse historical and temporal origins, in practice, these educative processes act simultaneously in the same social space but with some autonomy, through social relations, and are dialectically and constantly changing identities of educational agents, who often take positions of social conflict at the generational and/or personal level.[3]
THE ART AND CULTURE OF DEEPLY SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES FROM INFANCY TO YOUTH
Forming creative, sensitive, critical and participatory humans beings from the first years of life is a fundamental educational work for the development of society. Art as a teaching ground for strengthening the social growth of children, youth, and women (not neglecting the construction of masculinities) provides learning of deep emotional impact, stimulates imagination, and guides creative processes. By diversifying media among social participants, they can express their feelings and experiences in different ways and interpret the larger world around them and their immediate environment.
Art and play, as containers of the collective experiences of a society in its forms of interaction, allows the involvement of significant development aspects of being, such as consciousness, sense, meaning, participation, organization , and empathy. The experience of being significant results in a useful, recognizable and enormous power of knowledge transformation.[1]
Art, as a collaborator in the processes of social formation, cognitive development within educational boundaries, and emotional growth and strengthening, is a powerful trigger for people because it places interpretive points of references in our thought processes and provides new possibilities for approaching reality and coexistence. Therefore, artistic expression composes part of a dynamic whole experience that is integrated through the participation of each of its members and denotes the unique individual, giving rise to a creative approach to basic necessities of thought and emotional relationships between themselves and their environment.
Art then, as a means of intervention to assist in the processes of coexistence among children, especially girls, their ecosystem, and their family systems, triggers local and human development and strengthens the cognitive processes and goal cognition in collective learning. The sensitization towards mind-body integration, Be-Know-Do values, and concepts that involve more harmonious relationships in their daily lives between self and context are of vital importance, since, within a framework of fun and distant aesthetic parameters, art raises the attention to and care of cognitive and affective human processes. The construction of reality is formed from what the individual thinks of herself and, in correspondence, what she feels about of the situation that exists; so the artistic expressions of a culture respond to these two fields. Hence, the relevance of art in an economic model focused on people.
Here is where the arts are involved in providing opportunities and re-linking the individual with their reality and where individuals can sensitively express the meanings that environmental reality has for the girl, the woman, the man, and the youth in a creative form.
The ability to work through artistic processes with children and adolescents as protagonists of their own work allows the development of social skills, the strengthening of their expressive and social-emotional growth, the expression of creativity and qualities that enrich their personality, and the construction of citizenship.
Educational processes are anchors of social cohesion and sustainability in the development of the social fabric. Thus, it is very important to reflect on the vitality of art and culture in this time of inequality, exclusion, violence, and lack of the rule of law. As such, we must succinctly outline the present educational context in order to move towards the proposal of thematic axes development.
The present distribution of wealth and access to education in Mexico does not guarantee to society a civilized, or even inclusive, evolution. Thus, it is necessary to advocate for integration processes, inclusion, mediation, and a culture of peace through models thoroughly formative of behavior.
It is necessary to initiate actions that are able to promote the resolution of the causes, and not merely the effects, of the degradation of the social fabric based on individual development as the engine of collective transformation.
Mexico invests 5% of its GDP in education even though the Education Act speaks of 8%, a goal that still seems far away; 16% of the federal budget is invested in education, but with a failed formula, in which much is invested but little is gained.
Mexico already has coverage in basic education of 101.1 (a paradigmatic figure according to the PISA test, which is essentially a test of cognitive skills). 16% of Mexican students of basic education took this test in 2009. In the area of reading, only 16% were just shy of 1 point on a scale of 5. They were only able to spell and read but did not understand the text, much less were capable of applying the knowledge gained. 66% nationally in math scored between 1 and 2 points and the same was the case with logical-mathematical skills and writing.
Be that as it may, the reality in Mexico is lamentable. Of 166 recommendations to the new presidential administration, 83 are directed to the Secretary of Education: 13 for access to education, 10 for human rights, 10 for training, 8 to address domestic violence, 4 for sex education, and 9 for intercultural education.
There does not exist in Mexico a regulatory body or monitoring of the international education recommendations. Nor is any international educational agency widely known. This is much more the case in rural areas.
A third of the Mexican population over 15 years, about 8.4 million people, are illiterate, mostly women and indigenous people. Only 10% of indigenous women who enter universities graduate according to the report of the rapporteur Verlo Muñoz. In respect to the state of the right to education in Mexico, it mentions that 31 million young people have been left behind educationally. Of these, 6 million are illiterate and 1 million are child laborers, especially girls. This data appears to contradict reports that the Mexican state has given in terms of its educational coverage.
The access to education does not ensure better quality of life, according to CONAPASE, and social participation is a right. However, participation is an exercise in citizenship and a process of training, dialogue, and agreements that lack cohesion and articulation in Mexico.
The educational environment in Mexico today does not know how to approach people at risk and ends up expelling them from the system. Also, there is an unusual relationship between Secretary of State and union workers in the field of education, a uniquely problematic relationship in Latin America. The state of affairs provides ample non-ideal conditions on which to reflect. There is a comprehensive picture of the processes of exclusion and inequality favoring the emergence of violent behavior at school and among populations of 10 to 21 years old, behavior that becomes replicable in adulthood and in the conception of social relations.
For San Cristobal de Las Casas, which is located in a central place for intercultural development, it is a possibility to provide a methodology leading to the mitigation of risk circumstances that curb human and local development, impacting these processes significantly and positively.
So, in Chiapas, the main points of recommendation from international agencies around the reduction of violence against women, education gap reduction, food can be met. The problem of child workers can be addressed by involving international organizations as partners of municipal actions and grassroots movements in the municipality. There can be progress towards the incorporation of participatory local governance and the boosting of cultural trade networks.
In this vein, there is investment in the development of women through the strengthening of family systems that produces food sustainability and psychosocial sustainability. At least two fundamental points towards these goals are the transmission of knowledge and productive options in three population groups: infants, youths and adults. Here then, the female is the principal catalyst of the social fabric for economic empowerment in the area.
Also crucial are the expansion of the variety of living conditions and social participation, reduction of risk conditions, and promotion of coexistence in public spaces; and these spaces should engender mobility, restoration, responsibility to the maintenance of the inhabited place, and citizenship with cohesion and equal distribution of its powers.
Within the national context, San Cristobal de Las Casas records an average degree of marginalization, ranking 1,641st among the 2,456 municipalities that participated in the study. Notably, the state of Chiapas records a very high degree of marginalization, occupying the second place in this category among the 32 states that make up the country.
Of the three economic sectors, the tertiary sector, which includes all activities related to trade and services, is the predominant, occupying 67% of the population, followed by the secondary sector, with 22% and the primary sector with 9%
The presence and persistence of ethnic groups have allowed the perpetuation of the cultural heritage of the Maya, Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Lacandon, each being fundamental parts of the intercultural conglomerate in Chiapas.
The greatest indigenous contributions to the culture of San Cristóbal de Las Casas are manifested in the immaterial, such as gastronomy, traditional festivals, rites and ceremonies, traditional medicine, and indigenous craft traditions of textile type.
As stated previously, educational processes are anchors of social cohesion and sustainability in the development of the social fabric, so it is very important to reflect on the vitality and role of art and culture in present scenarios of inequality, exclusion, and violence in child populations and adolescents with social indicators below the welfare line.
Cities and creative spaces, views from different perspectives, some examples:
1) Fight inequality and violence and attraction of talent and investment to revitalize degraded areas (FLORIDA, 2005; LANDRY, 2006);
2) Promotion of creative clusters, highlighting among the most important cultural wine regions in France, the media cluster of Montreal, creative parks
of Shanghai, and centers of new media of Peking, which describe Chengdu Xiong;
3) Transformation of cities into global creative centers, according to Kovacs in South Africa. However, not conducted properly, it can engender an
eventual gentrification and the absence of community participation, the destruction of local relations, and exclusion of small creative actions
and diversity;
We may also reflect of the restructuring of urban socio-economic fabric, based on local specificities, as is the case in Guaramiranga, with its Jazzy Blues Festival, and in Paraty, whose motto is Flip (refer to the text of Ana Carla Fonseca Reis).
This project aims at promoting the culture of sustainability and viability mainly of children, youth, and adults by fomenting the ability to internalize changes so that coexistence is optimized and participation is equal with respect to gender. Social skills should develop in a culture of peace, by reduction of violence and risk situations, and productivity, overall by enabling the city creatively.
General and basic actions, which are contemplated for the programming of a strategy of socio-community intervention, in which the vision of creative economy is essential:
· Participatory diagnosis
· Delimitation of study areas and focus groups.
· Census with cultural and economic indicators.
· Design of indicators and instruments.
· Instrumentation of model building in education and social productivity
· Training of community leaders in mediation and socio-cultural promotion
· Formation of networks of citizens trained in participatory methodologies through art for the development of social skills.
· Update of teachers of mediation and human development.
· Generation of revival of the cultural centers of the municipality as irradiation points for socio-cultural intervention.
· Creation of cultural corridors and recovery of public spaces through non-formal education strategies.
· Promotion of participatory and local policies with a cultural approach to strengthening basic education and high school, as well as childhood
and youth formal and non-formal education.
· Promotion of productive projects for the promotion of creative economies.
· Promotion of participation of civil society organizations in cultural missions.
· Formation of strategic alliances with other cities in Latin America and the world that promote culture as a means of reducing risk and violence.
· Creation of an observatory of trade and production systems in the region to monitor the impact of the proposal on income per capita, access
to services, and increased rate of people in the region becoming at least two points above the minimum well-being of the municipality.
· Building of baseline indicators in common with international organizations, government, civil society, academia, and citizens to enable models
of evaluation and transparency in accountability and new forms of participatory local governance.
Objective:
Transformation of the social fabric through art and culture for sustainability and viability in the town of San Cristobal de Las Casas; mitigation and elimination of risk situations in infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood, mainly oriented towards women; promotion of entrepreneurship and community action to strengthen the human and local development through educational psychology methodologies, and techniques for reducing psychosocial barriers of the vanguard, applied with a focus on interculturalism, gender, citizenship and neuro-artistic development.
Actions:
· Promote and encourage the development of creative economies, training methodologies, human and local development through training of community facilitators, 30 per region (or subdivided), including 5 specialists, for the implementation of a social development project in neighborhoods and for promoting creative industries, strengthening and activating the network of houses of culture, and promoting their networks.
· The state has significant support from national and international programs of prevention and response to violence, as contradictory to the high frequency instances in recent months, and by the management in cooperation with some of them. There may be a great contribution concerning budget and goals, to be accompanied by the articulation of regional networks.
· Promote seminars, courses, and international residencies between cultural groups or agents of the countries of the network.
· The project of accompaniment, counseling, and instrumentation that can be put into action includes a breadth of work with art education regarding children and youth in communities, citizenship building, the prevention of violence, and the promotion of culture and momentum in public policy by promoting empowerment of child and youth leadership, introducing cutting edge methodologies in creative education and neuroscience applied to the arts, attention to risk situations in health, education, food, public etc. As such, the training of government staff in participatory design and management models for community action networks will ally and strengthen governance.
The Board of Education and Culture strengthens, encourages, and promotes the incorporation of programs, activities, and content prior to the agenda and formation of government policies in their local social actions.
The cultural center of Carmen promotes trading strategies and artisanal networks and provides management support and community outreach.
Actions
A proposed program is “Cuéntame el telar" (Tell me, loom), in which two craftsmen work while a scenic narrator describes the cultural property. In this manner, the artisan workshop provides an experience of cultural contact and offers its products within the neighborhood fairs. Each neighborhood will have a traditional craft that is described by a scenic narrator, who also describes the system of networked production. The center itself diversifies its cultural and creative flow in their facilities.
Strengthen the library network and position it as part of neighborhood playgrounds.
Design in conjunction with local tourism through a project named "craft passport 2014”: a cultural tour of the craft, architecture, language and traditions of the highlands of Chiapas. Tourists can be in a community for one day and engage in an experiential tour, being trained as artisans, taking part in traditional ceremonies, working as a shepherd, and making bread and tortillas, among other activities. Thus, the promotion of the creation of networks of creative industries around the tourism experience can be achieved, including youth, women, and children in the knowledge and disclosure of their culture.
Implement a "Theme Market for marketing crafts."
The Municipal DIF
Takes the lead in articulating grassroots programs for social development and economic empowerment, from the perspective of gender and citizenship, strengthening widely collaborative networks that allow the inclusion of innovative methodologies in the social sector and expansion of capacities of the population in San Cristobal.
Promotes action programs that address mitigating violence, psychosocial care for children and youth, transformation and empowerment among adults, and promotes public policies aimed at human and creative development of the population.
Articulates their actions regarding food provision and production, and employment in an interdisciplinary and programmatic community care program.
It will integrate a network of community volunteers that echoes the sustainability of the actions by the neighborhoods of the municipality.
It is the driving force in the defense and support to children through public, cultural and political strategies for their protection and development.
We are convinced that through culture, sport, and education, we can reduce the levels of violence and create conditions of prosperity and human development.
The municipal committee for the monitoring and surveillance of children and adolescents’ rights through visible and replicable actions is strengthened.
With tools to strengthen respect and help guarantee equal opportunities for all the children and adolescents in our town.
The committee worked and validated a proposal for City Hall to adhere to the initiative launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Network For The Rights Of Children In Mexico (REDIM) denominated 10 in pro of childhood, becoming the first municipality to subscribe to it.
This initiative presents 10 strategic measures in favor of the children in San Cristobal de Las Casas, and in support of the principles established in the Convention on Children’s Rights, which will be promoted coherent and in tandem to the municipal development plan.
Art and play, as containers of the collective experiences of a society in its forms of interaction, allows the involvement of significant development aspects of being, such as consciousness, sense, meaning, participation, organization , and empathy. The experience of being significant results in a useful, recognizable and enormous power of knowledge transformation.[1]
Art, as a collaborator in the processes of social formation, cognitive development within educational boundaries, and emotional growth and strengthening, is a powerful trigger for people because it places interpretive points of references in our thought processes and provides new possibilities for approaching reality and coexistence. Therefore, artistic expression composes part of a dynamic whole experience that is integrated through the participation of each of its members and denotes the unique individual, giving rise to a creative approach to basic necessities of thought and emotional relationships between themselves and their environment.
Art then, as a means of intervention to assist in the processes of coexistence among children, especially girls, their ecosystem, and their family systems, triggers local and human development and strengthens the cognitive processes and goal cognition in collective learning. The sensitization towards mind-body integration, Be-Know-Do values, and concepts that involve more harmonious relationships in their daily lives between self and context are of vital importance, since, within a framework of fun and distant aesthetic parameters, art raises the attention to and care of cognitive and affective human processes. The construction of reality is formed from what the individual thinks of herself and, in correspondence, what she feels about of the situation that exists; so the artistic expressions of a culture respond to these two fields. Hence, the relevance of art in an economic model focused on people.
Here is where the arts are involved in providing opportunities and re-linking the individual with their reality and where individuals can sensitively express the meanings that environmental reality has for the girl, the woman, the man, and the youth in a creative form.
The ability to work through artistic processes with children and adolescents as protagonists of their own work allows the development of social skills, the strengthening of their expressive and social-emotional growth, the expression of creativity and qualities that enrich their personality, and the construction of citizenship.
Educational processes are anchors of social cohesion and sustainability in the development of the social fabric. Thus, it is very important to reflect on the vitality of art and culture in this time of inequality, exclusion, violence, and lack of the rule of law. As such, we must succinctly outline the present educational context in order to move towards the proposal of thematic axes development.
The present distribution of wealth and access to education in Mexico does not guarantee to society a civilized, or even inclusive, evolution. Thus, it is necessary to advocate for integration processes, inclusion, mediation, and a culture of peace through models thoroughly formative of behavior.
It is necessary to initiate actions that are able to promote the resolution of the causes, and not merely the effects, of the degradation of the social fabric based on individual development as the engine of collective transformation.
Mexico invests 5% of its GDP in education even though the Education Act speaks of 8%, a goal that still seems far away; 16% of the federal budget is invested in education, but with a failed formula, in which much is invested but little is gained.
Mexico already has coverage in basic education of 101.1 (a paradigmatic figure according to the PISA test, which is essentially a test of cognitive skills). 16% of Mexican students of basic education took this test in 2009. In the area of reading, only 16% were just shy of 1 point on a scale of 5. They were only able to spell and read but did not understand the text, much less were capable of applying the knowledge gained. 66% nationally in math scored between 1 and 2 points and the same was the case with logical-mathematical skills and writing.
Be that as it may, the reality in Mexico is lamentable. Of 166 recommendations to the new presidential administration, 83 are directed to the Secretary of Education: 13 for access to education, 10 for human rights, 10 for training, 8 to address domestic violence, 4 for sex education, and 9 for intercultural education.
There does not exist in Mexico a regulatory body or monitoring of the international education recommendations. Nor is any international educational agency widely known. This is much more the case in rural areas.
A third of the Mexican population over 15 years, about 8.4 million people, are illiterate, mostly women and indigenous people. Only 10% of indigenous women who enter universities graduate according to the report of the rapporteur Verlo Muñoz. In respect to the state of the right to education in Mexico, it mentions that 31 million young people have been left behind educationally. Of these, 6 million are illiterate and 1 million are child laborers, especially girls. This data appears to contradict reports that the Mexican state has given in terms of its educational coverage.
The access to education does not ensure better quality of life, according to CONAPASE, and social participation is a right. However, participation is an exercise in citizenship and a process of training, dialogue, and agreements that lack cohesion and articulation in Mexico.
The educational environment in Mexico today does not know how to approach people at risk and ends up expelling them from the system. Also, there is an unusual relationship between Secretary of State and union workers in the field of education, a uniquely problematic relationship in Latin America. The state of affairs provides ample non-ideal conditions on which to reflect. There is a comprehensive picture of the processes of exclusion and inequality favoring the emergence of violent behavior at school and among populations of 10 to 21 years old, behavior that becomes replicable in adulthood and in the conception of social relations.
For San Cristobal de Las Casas, which is located in a central place for intercultural development, it is a possibility to provide a methodology leading to the mitigation of risk circumstances that curb human and local development, impacting these processes significantly and positively.
So, in Chiapas, the main points of recommendation from international agencies around the reduction of violence against women, education gap reduction, food can be met. The problem of child workers can be addressed by involving international organizations as partners of municipal actions and grassroots movements in the municipality. There can be progress towards the incorporation of participatory local governance and the boosting of cultural trade networks.
In this vein, there is investment in the development of women through the strengthening of family systems that produces food sustainability and psychosocial sustainability. At least two fundamental points towards these goals are the transmission of knowledge and productive options in three population groups: infants, youths and adults. Here then, the female is the principal catalyst of the social fabric for economic empowerment in the area.
Also crucial are the expansion of the variety of living conditions and social participation, reduction of risk conditions, and promotion of coexistence in public spaces; and these spaces should engender mobility, restoration, responsibility to the maintenance of the inhabited place, and citizenship with cohesion and equal distribution of its powers.
Within the national context, San Cristobal de Las Casas records an average degree of marginalization, ranking 1,641st among the 2,456 municipalities that participated in the study. Notably, the state of Chiapas records a very high degree of marginalization, occupying the second place in this category among the 32 states that make up the country.
Of the three economic sectors, the tertiary sector, which includes all activities related to trade and services, is the predominant, occupying 67% of the population, followed by the secondary sector, with 22% and the primary sector with 9%
The presence and persistence of ethnic groups have allowed the perpetuation of the cultural heritage of the Maya, Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Lacandon, each being fundamental parts of the intercultural conglomerate in Chiapas.
The greatest indigenous contributions to the culture of San Cristóbal de Las Casas are manifested in the immaterial, such as gastronomy, traditional festivals, rites and ceremonies, traditional medicine, and indigenous craft traditions of textile type.
As stated previously, educational processes are anchors of social cohesion and sustainability in the development of the social fabric, so it is very important to reflect on the vitality and role of art and culture in present scenarios of inequality, exclusion, and violence in child populations and adolescents with social indicators below the welfare line.
Cities and creative spaces, views from different perspectives, some examples:
1) Fight inequality and violence and attraction of talent and investment to revitalize degraded areas (FLORIDA, 2005; LANDRY, 2006);
2) Promotion of creative clusters, highlighting among the most important cultural wine regions in France, the media cluster of Montreal, creative parks
of Shanghai, and centers of new media of Peking, which describe Chengdu Xiong;
3) Transformation of cities into global creative centers, according to Kovacs in South Africa. However, not conducted properly, it can engender an
eventual gentrification and the absence of community participation, the destruction of local relations, and exclusion of small creative actions
and diversity;
We may also reflect of the restructuring of urban socio-economic fabric, based on local specificities, as is the case in Guaramiranga, with its Jazzy Blues Festival, and in Paraty, whose motto is Flip (refer to the text of Ana Carla Fonseca Reis).
This project aims at promoting the culture of sustainability and viability mainly of children, youth, and adults by fomenting the ability to internalize changes so that coexistence is optimized and participation is equal with respect to gender. Social skills should develop in a culture of peace, by reduction of violence and risk situations, and productivity, overall by enabling the city creatively.
General and basic actions, which are contemplated for the programming of a strategy of socio-community intervention, in which the vision of creative economy is essential:
· Participatory diagnosis
· Delimitation of study areas and focus groups.
· Census with cultural and economic indicators.
· Design of indicators and instruments.
· Instrumentation of model building in education and social productivity
· Training of community leaders in mediation and socio-cultural promotion
· Formation of networks of citizens trained in participatory methodologies through art for the development of social skills.
· Update of teachers of mediation and human development.
· Generation of revival of the cultural centers of the municipality as irradiation points for socio-cultural intervention.
· Creation of cultural corridors and recovery of public spaces through non-formal education strategies.
· Promotion of participatory and local policies with a cultural approach to strengthening basic education and high school, as well as childhood
and youth formal and non-formal education.
· Promotion of productive projects for the promotion of creative economies.
· Promotion of participation of civil society organizations in cultural missions.
· Formation of strategic alliances with other cities in Latin America and the world that promote culture as a means of reducing risk and violence.
· Creation of an observatory of trade and production systems in the region to monitor the impact of the proposal on income per capita, access
to services, and increased rate of people in the region becoming at least two points above the minimum well-being of the municipality.
· Building of baseline indicators in common with international organizations, government, civil society, academia, and citizens to enable models
of evaluation and transparency in accountability and new forms of participatory local governance.
Objective:
Transformation of the social fabric through art and culture for sustainability and viability in the town of San Cristobal de Las Casas; mitigation and elimination of risk situations in infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood, mainly oriented towards women; promotion of entrepreneurship and community action to strengthen the human and local development through educational psychology methodologies, and techniques for reducing psychosocial barriers of the vanguard, applied with a focus on interculturalism, gender, citizenship and neuro-artistic development.
Actions:
· Promote and encourage the development of creative economies, training methodologies, human and local development through training of community facilitators, 30 per region (or subdivided), including 5 specialists, for the implementation of a social development project in neighborhoods and for promoting creative industries, strengthening and activating the network of houses of culture, and promoting their networks.
· The state has significant support from national and international programs of prevention and response to violence, as contradictory to the high frequency instances in recent months, and by the management in cooperation with some of them. There may be a great contribution concerning budget and goals, to be accompanied by the articulation of regional networks.
· Promote seminars, courses, and international residencies between cultural groups or agents of the countries of the network.
· The project of accompaniment, counseling, and instrumentation that can be put into action includes a breadth of work with art education regarding children and youth in communities, citizenship building, the prevention of violence, and the promotion of culture and momentum in public policy by promoting empowerment of child and youth leadership, introducing cutting edge methodologies in creative education and neuroscience applied to the arts, attention to risk situations in health, education, food, public etc. As such, the training of government staff in participatory design and management models for community action networks will ally and strengthen governance.
The Board of Education and Culture strengthens, encourages, and promotes the incorporation of programs, activities, and content prior to the agenda and formation of government policies in their local social actions.
The cultural center of Carmen promotes trading strategies and artisanal networks and provides management support and community outreach.
Actions
A proposed program is “Cuéntame el telar" (Tell me, loom), in which two craftsmen work while a scenic narrator describes the cultural property. In this manner, the artisan workshop provides an experience of cultural contact and offers its products within the neighborhood fairs. Each neighborhood will have a traditional craft that is described by a scenic narrator, who also describes the system of networked production. The center itself diversifies its cultural and creative flow in their facilities.
Strengthen the library network and position it as part of neighborhood playgrounds.
Design in conjunction with local tourism through a project named "craft passport 2014”: a cultural tour of the craft, architecture, language and traditions of the highlands of Chiapas. Tourists can be in a community for one day and engage in an experiential tour, being trained as artisans, taking part in traditional ceremonies, working as a shepherd, and making bread and tortillas, among other activities. Thus, the promotion of the creation of networks of creative industries around the tourism experience can be achieved, including youth, women, and children in the knowledge and disclosure of their culture.
Implement a "Theme Market for marketing crafts."
The Municipal DIF
Takes the lead in articulating grassroots programs for social development and economic empowerment, from the perspective of gender and citizenship, strengthening widely collaborative networks that allow the inclusion of innovative methodologies in the social sector and expansion of capacities of the population in San Cristobal.
Promotes action programs that address mitigating violence, psychosocial care for children and youth, transformation and empowerment among adults, and promotes public policies aimed at human and creative development of the population.
Articulates their actions regarding food provision and production, and employment in an interdisciplinary and programmatic community care program.
It will integrate a network of community volunteers that echoes the sustainability of the actions by the neighborhoods of the municipality.
It is the driving force in the defense and support to children through public, cultural and political strategies for their protection and development.
We are convinced that through culture, sport, and education, we can reduce the levels of violence and create conditions of prosperity and human development.
The municipal committee for the monitoring and surveillance of children and adolescents’ rights through visible and replicable actions is strengthened.
With tools to strengthen respect and help guarantee equal opportunities for all the children and adolescents in our town.
The committee worked and validated a proposal for City Hall to adhere to the initiative launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Network For The Rights Of Children In Mexico (REDIM) denominated 10 in pro of childhood, becoming the first municipality to subscribe to it.
This initiative presents 10 strategic measures in favor of the children in San Cristobal de Las Casas, and in support of the principles established in the Convention on Children’s Rights, which will be promoted coherent and in tandem to the municipal development plan.
INTEGRATION OF CREATIVE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS.
The board of Education and Culture has carried out cultural programs with pilot projects that include children:
The workshops are constant and serve as pilot programs as the subjects themselves change. Crafts from recycled materials, environmental awareness, theater, singing, music, etc., are included.
We also work with the National Fund for the Promotion of Crafts (FONART), managing the delivery of support to the production and acquisition of handicrafts, with civil society organizations that provide grassroots development programs, educational innovation, volunteer networks, and research to the proposed development plan.
Nataté International Volunteering (non-profit), proposes the creation of two non-formal education programs to contribute to the objectives of the Creative Cities Network to promote the use of the creative, social, and economic potential of local communities, and to align our programs with the objectives of the UNESCO concerning cultural diversity:
a) Work Camp San Cristobal Creative City
The work camp is a group dynamic for about twelve national and international volunteers, recruited through advertisements published in international volunteer networks to which Natate International Volunteering belongs. Without having a professional profile or skills in particular, volunteers work for two intense weeks and do cultural exchanges, in which they will organize activities that deal with the promotion and raising of awareness of the Creative Cities Network, and the role of the city.
Work camp activities will be developed in collaboration with the City Council of San Cristobal de Las Casas, the Masdedos Collective, The Leon XIII Foundation, and other member organizations of the Committee on Creative Cities San Cristobal de Las Casas.
During the early days of the work camp, volunteers receive information and training on the subject from "Las Casas, Our Heritage," a civil association, member of the local Creative Cities Committee, which has profound knowledge on the tangible cultural heritage of the city. After receiving the training, volunteers will organize events aimed at strengthening the identity of San Cristobal de Las Casas as a Creative City. The themes may be:
•The relevance of the city’s craft and artistic heritage as a factor of identity.
•Public exhibitions by local artists and food fairs.
•Workshops for children in the city in order to heighten their identity as part of a city with an artistic and artisanal spirit.
•Public events in different neighborhoods promoting the core activities of each of the local craftspeople.
•Clean-up campaigns with the aim of fostering the culture of a clean city.
•A public event closing the work camp
b) Creative City for Medium and Long Term Volunteering.
This opportunity for medium and long term volunteering is opened in order to receive a Mexican volunteer or one from a different nationality for at least 6 months to support the management and monitoring of San Cristobal de Las Casas as a Creative City.
The volunteer will work with the World Heritage office in San Cristobal de Las Casas, and Nataté International Volunteering, as an active member of the Creative Cities Committee. The volunteer will collaborate jointly with all associations, institutions, universities and other committee members in the following activities:
•Keeping a record of meetings and events scheduled by the Creative Cities Committee. Public relations and the promotion of international programs on cultural and artistic exchange that promote the identity of San Cristobal de Las Casas as a Creative City, having as an objective the participation of vulnerable sectors in such programs.
•Assistance in the management of cultural activities and folk art handicrafts, in the organization of public events, and in the participation of members of the Creative Cities Committee in activities related to the topic of Creative Cities.
•Update of information on Internet sites related to Creative Cities.
•Participation in the development of the annual file of the Creative Cities for the implementation of the policies and activities related to the network.
Masdedos Bazar: Their plans for 2014 and 2015 are to further strengthen their collective with new projects and trainings. Since December 2013 they have been carrying out discussion sessions on the topic of Ethical Trade and Costing, looking to tie costing criteria for craft products from the region and create the Code of Ethics to be used as a guide for our work model.
In 2014, it is organizing to receive advice and training for the group on tax issues, given the new tax and fiscal reforms in the country, and it is seeking, above all, the most appropriate ways for the administrative operation of the projects.
On April 24, 2014, MASDEDOS joins the global movement of Fashion Revolution Day (http://www.fashionrevolution.org) with a series of activities to be held in San Cristobal de Las Casas in order to reflect and make others reflect on the manufacturing of the clothes we wear.
The Malacate project is developing the first steps to the "Meeting of Knowledge and Skills in the New Textile Handicrafts (Chile-Mexico),” scheduled for 2015. Continuing with their base activities each year, MASDEDOS is planning four bazaars during 2014, hoping to invite speakers and trainers in textiles and ethical trade issues to complement their sales event.
Comunittas Consultores
Mission:
"To work participating with children, strengthening their development as human beings and the construction of citizenship as social individuals and the subjects of rights. To be an organization that strengthens personality, identity, and citizenship, in a sensitive and meaningful manner through educational, pedagogical, therapeutic, and cultural programs based in the arts, and for the benefit of children. To promote culture and economy for human development and governance.
Vision.
A creative world, inclusive and without poverty, where all people have access to be what each of them decides through collective, organized and safe learning.
In accordance to the current needs of educational strengthening and social development for children, within a framework of equity and harmony in our country, they design economic and development processes through culture and communication.
Non-formal education (non-school), which generates spaces that promote the development of self and integration with the community, through participation, freedom, self-fulfillment, inclusion, respect and love.
They create programs and activities that enhance the development of children's personality, their human and spiritual potential through artistic activities that trigger values and attitudes that enable them to be actors and creators of their reality and social context in a manner that is critical, conscious, responsible and equitable.
It is an interdisciplinary collective, composed of professionals in art, psychology, education, communication, social anthropology, and neuro arts with a wide and proven track record of working with pediatric populations, specializing in profiles with high social or emotional vulnerability, as well as creative management.
They work with the professionalization and attention to the stakeholders who are linked to the child population and interact in their evolution, strengthening and promoting public policies and participatory governance.
The consultation integrates the research of culture, economy, and development through culture, the design and implementation of programs, consultation and advisory services in international cooperation programs, training, and development, and the promotion of entertainment for Mexican children. The artistic processes that occur within circumstances of social imbalance, disaster, and vulnerability, emotionally and culturally root participants; generate processes of belonging and integration in emergency situations, restore the links, the vehicles of expression and communication that are part of the reconstruction process of the collective structures and the social fabric as well as the empowerment of the individual in both his self and community participation.
Comunittas works directly with children in places of origin, work centers, community centers, school settings, camps, etc. in emergency situations or alongside the school context, as well as with socially vulnerable populations (indigenous, displaced, homeless etc.) or emotionally vulnerable populations (due to violence, exploitation, discrimination or cultural uprooting).
The planning and development of artistic and cultural activities, in search of better spaces for coexisting for children, youth, and adults to strengthen their development and expand the means of expression in groups of children and young people is their mission.
For this reason, both the content and the way they work are aimed at:
• Activities that consider experience as a means or starting point to socialization and expression.
• Knowledge and information obtained from activities, which can be transferred to other everyday situations and forms of expression.
• Providing situations for analysis and problem resolution related to the most important issues of society in order to help interpret and resolve them.
• Providing situations that stimulate reflection and participation in society .
• Promote values and attitudes that foster coexistence.
• Promoting economic empowerment and protagonism in their platonic and emotional relationships.
• In specific cases, the prevention of risk and reintegration to social groups.
• Strengthening participatory local governance
• Promoting creative economy.
The workshops are constant and serve as pilot programs as the subjects themselves change. Crafts from recycled materials, environmental awareness, theater, singing, music, etc., are included.
We also work with the National Fund for the Promotion of Crafts (FONART), managing the delivery of support to the production and acquisition of handicrafts, with civil society organizations that provide grassroots development programs, educational innovation, volunteer networks, and research to the proposed development plan.
Nataté International Volunteering (non-profit), proposes the creation of two non-formal education programs to contribute to the objectives of the Creative Cities Network to promote the use of the creative, social, and economic potential of local communities, and to align our programs with the objectives of the UNESCO concerning cultural diversity:
a) Work Camp San Cristobal Creative City
The work camp is a group dynamic for about twelve national and international volunteers, recruited through advertisements published in international volunteer networks to which Natate International Volunteering belongs. Without having a professional profile or skills in particular, volunteers work for two intense weeks and do cultural exchanges, in which they will organize activities that deal with the promotion and raising of awareness of the Creative Cities Network, and the role of the city.
Work camp activities will be developed in collaboration with the City Council of San Cristobal de Las Casas, the Masdedos Collective, The Leon XIII Foundation, and other member organizations of the Committee on Creative Cities San Cristobal de Las Casas.
During the early days of the work camp, volunteers receive information and training on the subject from "Las Casas, Our Heritage," a civil association, member of the local Creative Cities Committee, which has profound knowledge on the tangible cultural heritage of the city. After receiving the training, volunteers will organize events aimed at strengthening the identity of San Cristobal de Las Casas as a Creative City. The themes may be:
•The relevance of the city’s craft and artistic heritage as a factor of identity.
•Public exhibitions by local artists and food fairs.
•Workshops for children in the city in order to heighten their identity as part of a city with an artistic and artisanal spirit.
•Public events in different neighborhoods promoting the core activities of each of the local craftspeople.
•Clean-up campaigns with the aim of fostering the culture of a clean city.
•A public event closing the work camp
b) Creative City for Medium and Long Term Volunteering.
This opportunity for medium and long term volunteering is opened in order to receive a Mexican volunteer or one from a different nationality for at least 6 months to support the management and monitoring of San Cristobal de Las Casas as a Creative City.
The volunteer will work with the World Heritage office in San Cristobal de Las Casas, and Nataté International Volunteering, as an active member of the Creative Cities Committee. The volunteer will collaborate jointly with all associations, institutions, universities and other committee members in the following activities:
•Keeping a record of meetings and events scheduled by the Creative Cities Committee. Public relations and the promotion of international programs on cultural and artistic exchange that promote the identity of San Cristobal de Las Casas as a Creative City, having as an objective the participation of vulnerable sectors in such programs.
•Assistance in the management of cultural activities and folk art handicrafts, in the organization of public events, and in the participation of members of the Creative Cities Committee in activities related to the topic of Creative Cities.
•Update of information on Internet sites related to Creative Cities.
•Participation in the development of the annual file of the Creative Cities for the implementation of the policies and activities related to the network.
Masdedos Bazar: Their plans for 2014 and 2015 are to further strengthen their collective with new projects and trainings. Since December 2013 they have been carrying out discussion sessions on the topic of Ethical Trade and Costing, looking to tie costing criteria for craft products from the region and create the Code of Ethics to be used as a guide for our work model.
In 2014, it is organizing to receive advice and training for the group on tax issues, given the new tax and fiscal reforms in the country, and it is seeking, above all, the most appropriate ways for the administrative operation of the projects.
On April 24, 2014, MASDEDOS joins the global movement of Fashion Revolution Day (http://www.fashionrevolution.org) with a series of activities to be held in San Cristobal de Las Casas in order to reflect and make others reflect on the manufacturing of the clothes we wear.
The Malacate project is developing the first steps to the "Meeting of Knowledge and Skills in the New Textile Handicrafts (Chile-Mexico),” scheduled for 2015. Continuing with their base activities each year, MASDEDOS is planning four bazaars during 2014, hoping to invite speakers and trainers in textiles and ethical trade issues to complement their sales event.
Comunittas Consultores
Mission:
"To work participating with children, strengthening their development as human beings and the construction of citizenship as social individuals and the subjects of rights. To be an organization that strengthens personality, identity, and citizenship, in a sensitive and meaningful manner through educational, pedagogical, therapeutic, and cultural programs based in the arts, and for the benefit of children. To promote culture and economy for human development and governance.
Vision.
A creative world, inclusive and without poverty, where all people have access to be what each of them decides through collective, organized and safe learning.
In accordance to the current needs of educational strengthening and social development for children, within a framework of equity and harmony in our country, they design economic and development processes through culture and communication.
Non-formal education (non-school), which generates spaces that promote the development of self and integration with the community, through participation, freedom, self-fulfillment, inclusion, respect and love.
They create programs and activities that enhance the development of children's personality, their human and spiritual potential through artistic activities that trigger values and attitudes that enable them to be actors and creators of their reality and social context in a manner that is critical, conscious, responsible and equitable.
It is an interdisciplinary collective, composed of professionals in art, psychology, education, communication, social anthropology, and neuro arts with a wide and proven track record of working with pediatric populations, specializing in profiles with high social or emotional vulnerability, as well as creative management.
They work with the professionalization and attention to the stakeholders who are linked to the child population and interact in their evolution, strengthening and promoting public policies and participatory governance.
The consultation integrates the research of culture, economy, and development through culture, the design and implementation of programs, consultation and advisory services in international cooperation programs, training, and development, and the promotion of entertainment for Mexican children. The artistic processes that occur within circumstances of social imbalance, disaster, and vulnerability, emotionally and culturally root participants; generate processes of belonging and integration in emergency situations, restore the links, the vehicles of expression and communication that are part of the reconstruction process of the collective structures and the social fabric as well as the empowerment of the individual in both his self and community participation.
Comunittas works directly with children in places of origin, work centers, community centers, school settings, camps, etc. in emergency situations or alongside the school context, as well as with socially vulnerable populations (indigenous, displaced, homeless etc.) or emotionally vulnerable populations (due to violence, exploitation, discrimination or cultural uprooting).
The planning and development of artistic and cultural activities, in search of better spaces for coexisting for children, youth, and adults to strengthen their development and expand the means of expression in groups of children and young people is their mission.
For this reason, both the content and the way they work are aimed at:
• Activities that consider experience as a means or starting point to socialization and expression.
• Knowledge and information obtained from activities, which can be transferred to other everyday situations and forms of expression.
• Providing situations for analysis and problem resolution related to the most important issues of society in order to help interpret and resolve them.
• Providing situations that stimulate reflection and participation in society .
• Promote values and attitudes that foster coexistence.
• Promoting economic empowerment and protagonism in their platonic and emotional relationships.
• In specific cases, the prevention of risk and reintegration to social groups.
• Strengthening participatory local governance
• Promoting creative economy.
INITIATIVES RELATED TO THE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
PURPOSE
Transforming the social fabric through arts and culture for viability and sustainability in the municipality of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, to mitigate and eliminate at-risk situations in childhood, youth, and adults ,mainly aimed at women, boosting preservation, the creation and development of handicrafts and folk art of the city through the articulation of regional networks in which the participation of different social and economic sectors of the population are involved.
Specific purposes
• Create a committee institutionalized for the tracking of projects for the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
• Create and strengthen neighborhood committees to foster sustainability.
• Create relationships with governmental and non-governmental institutions responsible for the preservation of crafts and folk art of the city.
• Create programs to raise awareness of the conservation of crafts, folk art, multiculturalism and identity within the public service .
• Create relationships with business groups and socially responsible companies to create awareness programs for the private sector, for the care of crafts and folk art and their economic potential.
• Create relationships with academic institutions at an undergraduate level for the development of projects, workshops, conferences, artistic media, audio visual media, new technologies, didactic materials, among others, through the participation of thesis, social service provider or international volunteering.
• Create relationships with academic institutions at a high school level, for the inclusion and participation of young volunteers and social service providers in the development of projects and cultural activities for the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art, while fostering entrepreneurship and human development.
• Create relationships with academic institutions at middle school, elementary and pre-school levels for their inclusion and participation as actors in the programs and events in support of crafts and folk art, economic empowerment, human development and entrepreneurship.
• Create relationships with artistic and cultural institutions for the development of community projects related to the themes addressed within this text, for the preservation of crafts and folk art.
• Create programs for the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art of indigenous peoples.
• Create relationships with the leading international support agencies, networks and associations that promote grassroots development and creative economies.
Courses of action
• Verify, analyze, renew, and promote public policies that relate to the protection of handicrafts and folk art, and copyright under the umbrella of creative cities and their economic impact.
• Create a forum for expression, reflection, and academic, cultural and artistic exchange under the thematic impulse of the creative economy, culture, development, and preservation of crafts and folk art of the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
• Create an annual arts and culture festival for the valorization of crafts and folk art from the intangible heritage of the city, promoting trade and collaboration networks.
• Promote the creation of a municipal regulation on the conservation of crafts and folk art.
• Create a social marketing campaign for the dissemination of crafts and folk art as part of the strategy of Culture, Tourism, and Development of the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• Creation of training materials, manuals, matrices, indicators, and operational surveys by engaging students at PhD, Masters, and Bachelors levels from different fields, within the scope of the themes in this document and boosting the promotion of crafts and folk art
• Promote commercial and marketing strategies for the inclusion of local and transnational entrepreneurs to distinguish themselves as responsible institutions regarding the preservation of crafts and folk art for the development of a creative economy.
• Creation of workshops and training for leaders and workers of different public and private institutions.
GOALS
Short-term goals
• Carry out a city management based on the creative economy
• Create a committee for the protection, dissemination, and development of handicrafts and folk art in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, that integrates the principles of creative cities and acts as a catalyst node for the culture and development of the region.
• Establish operational guidelines (manuals and regulations) of the committee for the proper launching, after its creation.
• Develop and manage the printing of workbooks that are used as didactic material and support in the forums during the first year of work.
• Formalize working agreements with major universities in San Cristobal de Las Casas to promote the participation and interest of their students in this project.
• Formalize working agreements with major trading institutions in San Cristóbal de Las Casas to promote the participation and interest of their members in this project.
• Integrate the members and representatives of local civil society organizations (Councils and other organizations) engaged in the protection, conservation, and dissemination of handicrafts and popular, cultural, and historical arts as an engine of development for the work of the committee.
• Encourage the creation of new areas of education and knowledge for the innovation of crafts and folk art.
Medium-term goals
• Involve and encourage the participation of at least 200 college and high school level students to strengthen and support the operation of the committee and to multiply or replicate their actions.
• Hold meetings with private companies, chambers, and organizations with the interest of promoting the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art within the creative economies and their production networks.
• Manage, with the leaders of neighboring communities and producers, the integration and joint participation in the protection of handicrafts and folk art from the different areas of collaboration and promote a regional network of trade and cultural tourism.
• Involve social groups and NGOs working with artisan communities to recover and take advantage of the experience, methodologies, boosting mechanisms, and promotion of crafts and folk art.
• Set a specific time frame for the completion of the major festivals of intangible heritage in the city.
• Perform, in conjunction with private companies and organizations, education and awareness campaigns on the importance of handicrafts and folk art in economic and social development.
• Strengthen transparency and participatory local governance together with the city’s authorities to monitor the programs, actions, and activities encouraging participation in the projects of the committee.
• Disseminate, through the creation of a newspaper, magazine, or brochure, the importance of protecting, preserving, and disseminating crafts and folk art, through the different specializations and branches that this includes.
• Create a trust for the functioning and operation of the committee and for carrying out forums and events that promote the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art.
• Stop, reduce, and prevent the destruction of crafts and folk art by promoting public policies that shelter the intangible heritage of the city.
• Promote the management of this committee and the organization of neighborhoods as an operational and implementational model in different sites that have similar economic and socio-cultural characteristics to those of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• Maintain the preservation state of crafts and folk art in San Cristobal de Las Casas, and, if necessary, improve it, while promoting creation and innovation.
Strategic support to the economic and social momentum
• Develop a policy for the establishment, regulation, and intervention of public spaces in accordance with urban planning instruments that promote and encourage the development of local economic flow.
• Promote the coordination and regulation of functions between the different government departments, regarding the creation of crafts and folk art.
• Promote coordination between public and private actions in relation to the handling and management of the various components of crafts and folk art and the economic growth of the region.
• Establish standards and urban indicators to respond to the requirements and demands of the conservation, production, and dissemination of crafts and folk art in different urban and social scales.
• Promote public policies that expand the funding sources for the creation, maintenance, and recovery of crafts and folk art, establishing procedures to ensure proportional distribution of the benefits between public and private sector investment.
• Promote an effective and efficient collaboration with the private sector, formal and informal, in the process of recovery, renewal, and improvement of crafts and folk art.
• Establish measures regarding economic externalities generated by the production and consumption of crafts and folk art, in order that these are achieved without affecting or decreasing the collective social use, gradually assuming a creative economic methodology.
• Ensure the survival of traditional and regional craft production through government or private funding and support and community dispersion.
• Establish a program that supports the artisans, the improvement, reduction, and optimization of costs of the crafts, through the creation of new designs and production methods.
• Create an economic link between the different stakeholders and processes that exist in craft production, starting with raw materials, then production, commercialization, and on to the marketing and exportation of the products, breaking the economic, hierarchical, industrial and traditional schemes.
• Manage the funding from international organizations and the support from the member cities of the Network, for the establishment of the Workshop School of Crafts and Folk Arts and development initiatives.
• Manage international resources to support the preservation of crafts and folk arts, as well as the social development of the artisans.
• Promote the development of crafts and folk arts in different coverage scales: city, community, and neighborhood, improving their design, production, and distribution.
Urban public spaces, poverty and social construction
· Encourage the production and consumption of popular arts and crafts by the citizenry through the development of recreation, socio-cultural activities, entertainment, etc. This is an effort to strengthen the sense of belonging and collective ownership with greater confidence on the part of various groups for their own cultural elements.
· Orient investments in the production of handicrafts and folk arts, with special emphasis on low-income sectors in order to ensure their continuity.
· Strengthen local participatory processes, involving diverse actors.
· Involve the collaboration of public agencies, private interests, and civil associations in the planning, design, management, and use of crafts and folk arts, specialized by type.
Social strategies.
· Strengthen leadership and facilitation of actions of social organizations and reinforce coexistence between neighbors, promoting the ability to reach agreements among local actors (organizations, municipalities, NGOs, etc.).
· Promote the integration of artists, artisans, and producers of different sexes and ages, as individuals, partners, or groups; intersperse and develop diverse and dynamic activities.
· Promote more intensive and diverse use of public spaces with the goal of strengthening the development of artistic, cultural, and social activities from a perspective attentive to gender, intercultural relations, and citizenship.
Transforming the social fabric through arts and culture for viability and sustainability in the municipality of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, to mitigate and eliminate at-risk situations in childhood, youth, and adults ,mainly aimed at women, boosting preservation, the creation and development of handicrafts and folk art of the city through the articulation of regional networks in which the participation of different social and economic sectors of the population are involved.
Specific purposes
• Create a committee institutionalized for the tracking of projects for the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
• Create and strengthen neighborhood committees to foster sustainability.
• Create relationships with governmental and non-governmental institutions responsible for the preservation of crafts and folk art of the city.
• Create programs to raise awareness of the conservation of crafts, folk art, multiculturalism and identity within the public service .
• Create relationships with business groups and socially responsible companies to create awareness programs for the private sector, for the care of crafts and folk art and their economic potential.
• Create relationships with academic institutions at an undergraduate level for the development of projects, workshops, conferences, artistic media, audio visual media, new technologies, didactic materials, among others, through the participation of thesis, social service provider or international volunteering.
• Create relationships with academic institutions at a high school level, for the inclusion and participation of young volunteers and social service providers in the development of projects and cultural activities for the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art, while fostering entrepreneurship and human development.
• Create relationships with academic institutions at middle school, elementary and pre-school levels for their inclusion and participation as actors in the programs and events in support of crafts and folk art, economic empowerment, human development and entrepreneurship.
• Create relationships with artistic and cultural institutions for the development of community projects related to the themes addressed within this text, for the preservation of crafts and folk art.
• Create programs for the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art of indigenous peoples.
• Create relationships with the leading international support agencies, networks and associations that promote grassroots development and creative economies.
Courses of action
• Verify, analyze, renew, and promote public policies that relate to the protection of handicrafts and folk art, and copyright under the umbrella of creative cities and their economic impact.
• Create a forum for expression, reflection, and academic, cultural and artistic exchange under the thematic impulse of the creative economy, culture, development, and preservation of crafts and folk art of the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
• Create an annual arts and culture festival for the valorization of crafts and folk art from the intangible heritage of the city, promoting trade and collaboration networks.
• Promote the creation of a municipal regulation on the conservation of crafts and folk art.
• Create a social marketing campaign for the dissemination of crafts and folk art as part of the strategy of Culture, Tourism, and Development of the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• Creation of training materials, manuals, matrices, indicators, and operational surveys by engaging students at PhD, Masters, and Bachelors levels from different fields, within the scope of the themes in this document and boosting the promotion of crafts and folk art
• Promote commercial and marketing strategies for the inclusion of local and transnational entrepreneurs to distinguish themselves as responsible institutions regarding the preservation of crafts and folk art for the development of a creative economy.
• Creation of workshops and training for leaders and workers of different public and private institutions.
GOALS
Short-term goals
• Carry out a city management based on the creative economy
• Create a committee for the protection, dissemination, and development of handicrafts and folk art in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, that integrates the principles of creative cities and acts as a catalyst node for the culture and development of the region.
• Establish operational guidelines (manuals and regulations) of the committee for the proper launching, after its creation.
• Develop and manage the printing of workbooks that are used as didactic material and support in the forums during the first year of work.
• Formalize working agreements with major universities in San Cristobal de Las Casas to promote the participation and interest of their students in this project.
• Formalize working agreements with major trading institutions in San Cristóbal de Las Casas to promote the participation and interest of their members in this project.
• Integrate the members and representatives of local civil society organizations (Councils and other organizations) engaged in the protection, conservation, and dissemination of handicrafts and popular, cultural, and historical arts as an engine of development for the work of the committee.
• Encourage the creation of new areas of education and knowledge for the innovation of crafts and folk art.
Medium-term goals
• Involve and encourage the participation of at least 200 college and high school level students to strengthen and support the operation of the committee and to multiply or replicate their actions.
• Hold meetings with private companies, chambers, and organizations with the interest of promoting the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art within the creative economies and their production networks.
• Manage, with the leaders of neighboring communities and producers, the integration and joint participation in the protection of handicrafts and folk art from the different areas of collaboration and promote a regional network of trade and cultural tourism.
• Involve social groups and NGOs working with artisan communities to recover and take advantage of the experience, methodologies, boosting mechanisms, and promotion of crafts and folk art.
• Set a specific time frame for the completion of the major festivals of intangible heritage in the city.
• Perform, in conjunction with private companies and organizations, education and awareness campaigns on the importance of handicrafts and folk art in economic and social development.
• Strengthen transparency and participatory local governance together with the city’s authorities to monitor the programs, actions, and activities encouraging participation in the projects of the committee.
• Disseminate, through the creation of a newspaper, magazine, or brochure, the importance of protecting, preserving, and disseminating crafts and folk art, through the different specializations and branches that this includes.
• Create a trust for the functioning and operation of the committee and for carrying out forums and events that promote the dissemination and preservation of crafts and folk art.
• Stop, reduce, and prevent the destruction of crafts and folk art by promoting public policies that shelter the intangible heritage of the city.
• Promote the management of this committee and the organization of neighborhoods as an operational and implementational model in different sites that have similar economic and socio-cultural characteristics to those of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• Maintain the preservation state of crafts and folk art in San Cristobal de Las Casas, and, if necessary, improve it, while promoting creation and innovation.
Strategic support to the economic and social momentum
• Develop a policy for the establishment, regulation, and intervention of public spaces in accordance with urban planning instruments that promote and encourage the development of local economic flow.
• Promote the coordination and regulation of functions between the different government departments, regarding the creation of crafts and folk art.
• Promote coordination between public and private actions in relation to the handling and management of the various components of crafts and folk art and the economic growth of the region.
• Establish standards and urban indicators to respond to the requirements and demands of the conservation, production, and dissemination of crafts and folk art in different urban and social scales.
• Promote public policies that expand the funding sources for the creation, maintenance, and recovery of crafts and folk art, establishing procedures to ensure proportional distribution of the benefits between public and private sector investment.
• Promote an effective and efficient collaboration with the private sector, formal and informal, in the process of recovery, renewal, and improvement of crafts and folk art.
• Establish measures regarding economic externalities generated by the production and consumption of crafts and folk art, in order that these are achieved without affecting or decreasing the collective social use, gradually assuming a creative economic methodology.
• Ensure the survival of traditional and regional craft production through government or private funding and support and community dispersion.
• Establish a program that supports the artisans, the improvement, reduction, and optimization of costs of the crafts, through the creation of new designs and production methods.
• Create an economic link between the different stakeholders and processes that exist in craft production, starting with raw materials, then production, commercialization, and on to the marketing and exportation of the products, breaking the economic, hierarchical, industrial and traditional schemes.
• Manage the funding from international organizations and the support from the member cities of the Network, for the establishment of the Workshop School of Crafts and Folk Arts and development initiatives.
• Manage international resources to support the preservation of crafts and folk arts, as well as the social development of the artisans.
• Promote the development of crafts and folk arts in different coverage scales: city, community, and neighborhood, improving their design, production, and distribution.
Urban public spaces, poverty and social construction
· Encourage the production and consumption of popular arts and crafts by the citizenry through the development of recreation, socio-cultural activities, entertainment, etc. This is an effort to strengthen the sense of belonging and collective ownership with greater confidence on the part of various groups for their own cultural elements.
· Orient investments in the production of handicrafts and folk arts, with special emphasis on low-income sectors in order to ensure their continuity.
· Strengthen local participatory processes, involving diverse actors.
· Involve the collaboration of public agencies, private interests, and civil associations in the planning, design, management, and use of crafts and folk arts, specialized by type.
Social strategies.
· Strengthen leadership and facilitation of actions of social organizations and reinforce coexistence between neighbors, promoting the ability to reach agreements among local actors (organizations, municipalities, NGOs, etc.).
· Promote the integration of artists, artisans, and producers of different sexes and ages, as individuals, partners, or groups; intersperse and develop diverse and dynamic activities.
· Promote more intensive and diverse use of public spaces with the goal of strengthening the development of artistic, cultural, and social activities from a perspective attentive to gender, intercultural relations, and citizenship.
REFERENCES
[1] In reference to the objectives and principles of the Convention of 2005 regarding the protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expressions, UNESCO. Consult: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002253/225383S.pdf
[2] Consult: http://www.productosmarcachiapas.com.mx/
[3] HORACIO, Gómez Lara. Indígenas mexicanos y rebeldes. Procesos educativos y re significación de identidades en los altos de Chiapas. CESMECA, UNICAH, CONACyT.2011
[4] Primero que la cultura humana brota del juego-como juego- y en él se desarrolla; el juego es más viejo que la cultura; en cuanto tal, traspasa los límites de la ocupación meramente biológica o física. Es una función llena de sentido. En el juego “entra en juego” algo que rebasa el instinto inmediato de conservación y que da un sentido a la ocupación vital. Todo juego significa algo” Homo Ludens, J. Huizinga, Alianza Editorial, Madrid 1972.