Cartagena, Bolívar, May 7, 2024 (@mincultura) #GobiernoConLosBarrios. A few hours before starting a new day of #GobiernoConLosBarrios, the community of the El Pozón neighborhood, located in the southeastern area of Cartagena, organized around music and dance to receive President Gustavo Petro, along with his cabinet of ministers .
“El Pozón has changed, it has been transformed, and yes, this has been a product of art. “Many of the young people from the gangs that I knew are now part of artistic initiatives,” said Luis Cárcamo, dancer from Street Team, a group from El Pozón that opened with urban dance.
The event began as a true party and celebration at the Citizen Integration Center with the invitation of the Minister of Cultures, Juan David Correa, to give strong applause to the cultists of Colombia. “The cultural organization in Colombia is a virtuous, strong, resilient, complete association. We must understand the culture with greater emphasis in the country”said.
In his speech, Minister Correa made several announcements from the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge, host of this stop of the #GobiernoConLosBarrios, for the city and specifically for the El Pozón sector, a receptacle for migrations and displacements from places such as Cantagallo, San Pablo and Trujillo.
Caribbean dance and music inaugurated this meeting with the community of this popular neighborhood of Cartagena.
There, the Minister of Culture announced the creation of the Artistic District of the El Pozón neighborhood, in addition to a library and residences for artists, in alliance with the La Magdalena foundation. The bet is to promote the territorial fabric.
“Today, in El Pozón, I want to announce that the decentralization of the Ministry of Culture begins in Cartagena”, stated the minister. This portfolio acquired Casa Bolívar, in the historic center of the city, where a regional center for cultures, arts and knowledge will be located that will shelter the Caribbean region, from San Andrés to the south of Bolívar. In these territories, teams are already working that will be in charge of consolidating this community space. That place was chosen because it represents the emancipation of the Colombian republic.
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Along the same lines, the minister announced that Minculturas, in alliance with the Mayor’s Office of Cartagena, will support the commemoration of November 11, a carnival that honors a historical date for the Walled City and for the country. “We are going to support it as a popular event, as a neighborhood event that is already celebrated”Correa assured.
Cartagena has great heritage wealth and Minculturas has expressed its interest in defending it. For this reason, he left firm the demolition of the Acuarela building, which put at risk the declaration of the city as a World Heritage Site. On January 15 of this year, this process began, which should be completed in four months. To date, four floors have been demolished and monitoring continues so that the surrounding buildings and the Castillo San Felipe, located 200 meters away, are not affected.
Regarding the Galeón San José, the minister announced the creation of a scientific research laboratory so that girls and boys from popular neighborhoods have a space for professionalization related to their territory. For this, the National government allocated 16 billion pesos and it will be a project between the Ministry of Cultures, the National Navy and the Ministry of Defense. For Minister Correa, this “It is not a treasure, it is an archaeological weight that belongs to the people of Cartagena, to the fishing communities, to the people who have had a historical relationship with this bay”.
Regardless of the heat, men and women approached the Citizen Integration Center.
Precisely, to understand this relationship between people and their territories and their customs, Minculturas will create the Benkos Biohó House, named after President Petro, in the so-called ‘house of the inquisitor’, located in the center of the city. This space will be redefined with the name of the leader of the Maroons and will be at the service of the arts, hospitality learning and traditional cuisine; a space for citizen meeting.
“President, this neighborhood was waiting for you, this neighborhood was singing, it was dancing because life is going to prevail over death”said the minister, Juan David Correa, at the end of his speech, which was the beginning of a series of agreements proposed by the different portfolios to dignify the Colombian Caribbean.
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