El Salvador Hosts Latin America-wide Culture Forum

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From October 28-31, El Salvador hosted the 2nd Latin American “Living Community Culture” Congress, a massive and festive gathering of artists, collectives, producers, organizers, guilds and movements from across the continent. Hundreds of participants from 19 countries converged on the city for four days of dynamic community-based cultural activities and workshops geared to promote and strengthen popular movements and influence cultural policy.

The first Congress was held in 2013 in Bolivia, and launched a Latin American Network of Living Community Culture throughout the hemisphere, with the central demand that 0.1% of the national budget of every country be assigned to community cultural initiatives. In El Salvador, the Living Community Culture Network now includes over 100 local cultural and artistic collectives, organizations and individuals. Both the government’s Secretary of Culture and the governing leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party’s Cultural Secretariat collaborated with the Network to coordinate the Congress.

Julio Monge, Director of the Salvadoran TNT community theater project, expressed hope that the Congress will “strengthen the national and regional articulation of the Salvadoran Living Community Culture Network, enhancing the participation of youth, women, and all cultural and ethnic diversity.”

The Congress opened with a vibrant carnival in Morazán Park, in the heart of the historic central district of San Salvador, followed by a packed agenda of community visits and roundtable discussions at the University of El Salvador, and closed with a carnival parade through the capital city.

According to Cesar Pineda who directs the country’s network of government-sponsored community cultural spaces, Living Community Culture promotes “the vision of recovering the historical memory of our continent, which in its roots has a vocation for peace, revolution and solidarity.” 

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