There are few cities that, without being the capital of a State, can boast of a Cultural Project like Mazatlan; have an opera workshop that exports singers abroad, a professional Camerata, one of the three best contemporary dance groups in the country, the best Contemporary Dance School in Mexico and one of the three best in Latin America, just to mention some of its achievements, is not small and is not something that can boast the majority of city councils in the cities of Mexico.
Mazatlan, the most tropical of the tourist destinations in Mexico, is the exception of the rule in the municipalities of the country for its Cultural Project that is equated with that of any capital of a State and is even higher than many of them because it is more ambitious and effective.
A history of 25 years
Social and cultural projects are not made by decree, that is more than demonstrated, they have to adopt them as their own communities, make them their own, weave them slowly in their emotion and in their thinking, that’s why they take between 20 and 30 years to consolidate.
This process has already been lived by the community of Mazatlan and, after 25 years of daily work, the city has a solid Cultural Project, which if it has continuity, will continue to bear fruit and a promising future.
José Ángel Pescador, as Mayor, founded it in 1989, created the legal foundations for the existence of a Department of Cultural Diffusion in the structure of the City Hall, Jane Abreu as its second director brought the program of Youth Orchestras and hired a singing luminary, the choirmaster Antonio González, who created the Angela Peralta Choir.
Ricardo Urquijo was brought to reside in Mazatlan to the Delfos Danza Contemporánea Company, which founded in the port what is now the best Contemporary Dance School in Mexico, which made the agreement with Cuba for ballet masters on the Caribbean Island to define the structure and philosophy of what is now one of the best Ballet Schools in the country.
Enrique Patrón de Rueda settled in this his hometown and brought with him one of the most important songs improvement workshops in the country, and every year since he has been riding an opera in Mazatlan, placing this tourist destination on the operatic map of Mexico for the quality of its assemblies.
The Benefits to Mazatlan
- The most important thing is that the town is the one that has taken advantage of the benefits that the culture spills in the community. Highlighting among others:
- 90% of the students of the Municipal Arts Center belong to the middle or lower middle class, and the shows in the Theater mostly attend the middle class.
- The cultural work that has been done in the most vulnerable colonies has benefited thousands.
- Raúl Rico managed to give excellence to all of the above, taking the cultural project to the level of professionalism that allows him to compete, producing with the local artistic group’s world-class shows and convincing with facts the tourist businessmen, that it was a good decision to turn see the culture and support it.
Culture a jewel for tourism.
Carlos Berdegué Sacristán, hotel leader of the town, told a local media and on several occasions referred him to Mazatlán Interactivo, that Mazatlan’s promotion program was already launched both nationally and internationally and in which businessmen Local, State and Federal governments spend millions of pesos, which is based on the Cultural Project that exists in Mazatlan and its Historical Center, its professional artistic groups of contemporary dance, ballet, folklore, music, its celebrations such as El Día de la Music, Day of the Dead, Carnival, Cultural Festivals, Dance, Theater, all with a level of excellence.
Tourists learned to value the Cultural Project of Mazatlan and are betting on it to compete with other destinations that only offer beach and sun, Mazatlan gives visitors the option to enjoy a professional cultural program and first level, that is the difference that is placing this city and destination as a better option for national and international tourists.
An obvious example of this is, like The Gordon Campbell Season, a music festival that takes place between January and March of each year, since six, and that is focused, above all, to foreign tourists and residents, which has achieved that the permanence of this segment is prolonged to enjoy the whole program of classical music offered over 13 or 14 consecutive Sundays.
The Valorization of the Cultural Project
Undoubtedly, this cultural project has given Mazatlan that extraordinary differential value that it needed so much, that it has been able to combine with another of the differential values of this tourist destination: the Tropical Historical Center, which houses nineteenth-century buildings, which many of them were part of the history and where many fortunes were woven or were the result of these and, of course, in them the present bases of Mazatlan that we enjoy today and of events such as Carnival were woven.
The Great Challenge of the Mazatleco Cultural Project
Mazatlan and its cultural project are facing a phenomenal challenge: What to do with the cultural project before the new political horizon that already exists ?.
On the one hand, we have to; We must all be respectful of the decisions of the new authorities, we trust that no arbitrary measures will be taken without prior analysis.
On the other, we are aware that this type of project is evolutionary if you analyze the content of the present well, you will see that many Mazatlan and other foreign characters have been part of it, that is, it has evolved, which is natural in this type of large-scale and long-term projects. Not doing it means condemning them to an unforgivable setback.
Then: what to do so that this cultural project continues to grow qualitatively? and here: it is worth mentioning, that this project is not only of the municipality of Mazatlan, it is of the Mazatlecos, of the public, local and foreign, of the artists in their different disciplines and, of course, of the Sinaloans and Mexicans.
We reiterate it cannot remain static, it has to adapt to the times and challenges that the Mazatlecos will face in the coming decades. But neither in this process can be taken lightly or that they are loaded with bad intentions. We consider that we must act, government, society, public and artistic community, with great seriousness and professionalism with respect to the decisions that are going to be taken.
We are also aware that there is a lot of talent in Mazatlan, much more, this cultural project has been the natural belly of this talent, although we also know that the accumulated experience of its current director is comparable to that of an institution. Hence, we can not act lightly.
Public opinion is essential
It would be very healthy, that like us, associations, cameras, society in general, public, artistic communities and, why not, the media, also express their views, of course under the perspective of professionalism and real needs that we have about this cultural project.
