Photos: Omara Garcia Mederos. ACN.
Havana, December 15th (RHC) The National Council for Cultural Heritage and the Cuban National Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) highlighted this Thursday in Havana the high honor and commitment shown to the knowledge of Cuban light rum entails being master of intangible cultural heritage of mankind.
At a press conference in Havana, the Presidents of the institutions, Sonia Virgen Pérez and Dulce María Buergo, expressed that Cuba was very satisfied with the decision taken on November 30th by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. Intangible during its XVII. Conference in Rabat, Morocco.
In evaluating the files presented by our country, the aforesaid committee recognized how the knowledge of its rum masters “enables the transmission from generation to generation of scientific knowledge, traditional practices, cultural and social values linked to the formation of the country’s agricultural sugar industry . industrial heritage”.
Now it is a matter of developing more measures aimed at preserving and protecting such legacies, their bearers and actors involved, from the rum factories and areas where they are located, to institutions and local governments and at the state level, explained Pérez Mojena in his capacity as President of the National Council for Cultural Heritage.
In the presence of the First Rum Masters Juan Carlos González Delgado and César Augusto Martí Marcelo, they expressed that so far Cuba has had four nominations declared Cultural and Intangible Heritage, all related to art, music and dance for which it is of importance is that a module related to technology and industry is added.
The President of the Cuban National Commission of UNESCO declared, on a special occasion and of greater symbolism, that the inclusion of the knowledge of the Cuban masters of light rum in the Representative List of the Cultural and Intangible Heritage of Humanity with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the inclusion of the Caribbean country in this international organization.
González Delgado thanked the accompaniment of the Cuban State over the years for having worked to achieve such a high level of recognition, pointing out how much culture there is in these practices, in the way, knowledge and experience related on production and preservation passed from generation to generation generation of Cuban light rums from the colonial era.
We are custodians and guardians of this knowledge linked to the formation of the Cuban nation, its sugar industry and the history of the country, he told representatives of local and foreign media.
His colleague, César Augusto Martí, shared how exciting it was to be in Rabat, Morocco, to witness Cuba receiving the aforementioned award.
He reiterated that this worldwide recognition goes to all those people and institutions that are linked every day to the production and commercialization of Cuban light rum, the training of technicians and related specialists, including the universities that host, for example, the career of chemical engineering and industrial engineering .
He is a visiting professor at the Central University of Las Villas Marta Abreu, where he also passes on his knowledge to future experts in these fields.
Both First Masters of Rum told that the sample that Cuba brought to Morocco under the name 1724 (number of the file submitted to the UNESCO Intergovernmental Commission) is the result of the contribution of teachers and apprentices from all over the country, for the they have organized various encounters. (font:ACN).