Two Mexican sisters seek to reactivate culture in Acapulco

In the city of Acapulco, Mexico, two sisters live whose goal has been to bring art and culture to their community. Azul Ramos, writer, photographer, poet, and digital strategist, and Regina Ramos, playwright and writer, have studied and learned what they know completely self-taught, since in their town there is not enough support from the Government of the state of Guerrero .

Thanks to the autonomous learning that Azul first undertook, and that she later shared with her younger sister, Regina, both have been winners of various scholarships for young creators.

“Our training has been to listen to each other; we share a lot of what we learn in our workshops and it also has to do with the fact that we get involved in cultural activities (…) Here in Acapulco there are no schools, there was an attempt at a writing school, but it was not sustained. There was an independent school, but the municipal public administration did not follow it up. For this reason, education has had to be autonomous,” explained Azul.

Regina, who is the youngest, relied a lot on her sister, who has shown her the way to prepare. It taught him what kind of scholarships and support to take for his growth.

The beginning of a dream

Both sisters, since they were little, have been attracted to art and culture, which is why they have prepared themselves and have enough to share with their community. This is how the idea of ​​creating the Cultural Center arose. Blue House, that materialized little by little.

“We have been planning it for a long time (…) First, I had undertaken a project with my mother; It was in the center, it was a restaurant with a cultural center, but then the organized group began to charge the floor (a criminal group extorted them), and we decided to close to avoid any problems. We had gone through a very sad moment; they had raised (kidnapped) a cousin, and that’s why we decided to leave the restaurant. So we continued to postpone the process of continuing with the Cultural Center. It was complicated, it didn’t even cross our minds to do it.”

When Hurricane Otis arrived, which severely hit the municipalities of Acapulco and Coyuca de Benítez in Guerrero, the sisters began to reactivate that dream of being able to share with their community.

Unfortunately, they had to experience a series of misfortunes in the Progreso neighborhood, where they live, because Hurricane Otis destroyed the homes of most of its neighbors. However, the Ramos sisters’ house was not affected.

“We had recently moved to the Progreso neighborhood, and when Hurricane Otis arrived, we had never lived so much with our neighbors. There, we began to create a community, we began to talk to neighbors to help each other. That brought us closer, because in some way they knew about us because we knew the routine.”

UNESCO support

Azul and Regina decided to set up a collection center to support their neighbors. With the help of social networks and their friends, they managed to make it known in many parts of the country, which allowed them to collect a truck full of groceries. But, not only that, The neighbors, seeing how the sisters reacted, did the same, so together they created a support network. extremely important.

This gave them the final sign that it was time to reactivate their dream of opening a Cultural Center for their community, since it was suffering from all the losses. But they were also sharing what they could, and the least they could do was return the love that everyone was putting into recovering their colony.

At that moment, Azul found a call that made them take the last step. The United Nations Heritage Emergency Fund for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) and the federal Ministry of Culture, and the Secretary of Culture of Guerrero granted financial support to proposals from workshop leaders, cultural, artistic and collective managers, as well as independent cultural spaces in Acapulco and Coyuca de Benítez that merited repair or recovery.

The initiative was part of the UNESCO program in Mexico support for the educational, cultural and social recovery of Guerreroafter the impact of Hurricane Otis in October 2023, and to accelerate its economic reactivation. The call was intended for two categories:

The first category granted 15 financial grants of 20,000 pesos for the implementation of artistic, cultural and sexual exploitation and abuse prevention workshops, aimed at children and adolescents affected by Hurricane Otis, with priority to community and group work.

The second category granted support of 40,500 pesos to independent performing spaces with capacity of 30 to 50 people, through the recognition of the best creative and artistic projectsand especially those that require restoration or recovery of their scenic or costume inputs, to mention a few.

This call was made possible thanks to the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund and its donors: the Qatar Development Fund, the Government of Canada, the Kingdom of Norway, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. North, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of Estonia, ANA Holdings INC, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Principality of Andorra and the Republic of Serbia.

cultural Acapulco

The city of Acapulco is a site of historical memory, as it was where the famous Manila Galleon, the Nao de China, arrived and left, which for more than 200 years connected Asia with the world through America.

Acapulco is a city in which at least four indigenous languages ​​are spoken: Nawatlahtolli (Náhuatl), Ñomndaa (Amuzgo), Tu’un Savi (Mixtec) and Meꞌphaa (Tlapaneco). It has a significant presence of people of African descent and It manifests a wide diversity of cultural expressions that cover all disciplines and artistic branches..

The Progreso neighborhood, which is where Azul and Regina reside, is a historic neighborhood, a neighborhood that is not close enough to the coast to be relevant for tourism. On many occasions, these types of neighborhoods tend to be forgotten by municipal governments that tend to concentrate on tourist sections.

“After that, we participated in a UNESCO call to revive culture. She [Regina] He took a drama workshop and I took a poetry workshop. We reactivated ourselves and said I think it’s time to open the Forum, it was a signal for us. We opened up the space under our house, started putting things together and painting. We have done everything, it is a very independent space, and We have faith that it will be a space that motivates our neighbors; It will be a space of expression”.

For the Ramos sisters, their cultural forum is a great achievement. Although the support offered to them at UNESCO is not enough, they have saved to be able to continue, despite the difficulties they face, such as the insecurity generated by organized crime.

“Here we have a protocol because we know that people can attack us at any time. Here we have a door that leads directly to our house; If anything happens, we all get involved. We have that, but if you’re in a space that doesn’t, what do you do? Above all, because they are minors.”

The Cultural Center is a space created for the dissemination, professionalization and sharing of experiences based on art. Both Azul and Regina teach dramaturgy and poetry workshops, and various activities are carried out, such as book presentations and cultural bazaars. The idea is to look for alternatives and strategies for neighbors to get involved.

At Casa Azul the main audience is children.

There is still a lot to do

“Art and culture has been so institutionalized that there are many things that they say do not fit into it, but we want to expand it. The idea is that in our Forum we have diverse products, everything that our neighbors make and create with their hands. We want to be an excuse to live with them.”

However, for Azul, there is still a lot to do, both on the part of the organizations and the Government, since by not having sufficient support from them, the actions that the artists carry out in Acapulco often do not grow due to lack of spaces and security.

“It is good that it is done, it is a great success; Above all, that institutions like UNESCO have actions for the cultural reactivation and recovery of spaces. But I believe that there is still no internal balance in the state and especially in the municipality, which allows these projects to be fruitful. For example, right now there is only one cultural space, there is a cultural forum that has been closed since the arrival of OTIS, and I don’t know what the reasons are, but there is an impediment to not activating it,” said Azul.

But how could all the effort that Azul and Regina are making reactivate their community? Do your actions reduce crime? For Azul, all the effort is not enough for that to happen. According to her, there has to be other types of actions.

“It would be a very heroic idea to think that the artist is going to save the world, because unfortunately the change of a city does not lie in a single person. A single person can start the change; Yes, there can be a little chain, but a single person and a single effort can change a city, no. Above all, a city as hit as Acapulco, belittled, sold to tourism, so plagued by impunity, nepotism, and many internal things; Internal politics is very colluded with the cancers that sicken the city. Until you get to live for a long time in Acapulco you don’t realize what happens, because for the tourist the idea that is sold is that it is ready, but those of us who live here realize everything that happens here,” Blue assured.

Serve the community

For Regina, the path she has decided to take has been based on love, so passion was what moved her to move forward and share with her people what she knows how to do best: art.

“It has become very important to us to provide not our own benefit, but rather the community, to serve. I believe that art serves as another tool. These spaces are of community and fraternity that we can create from love,” he said.

For Azul, it is something similar, since it is committed to mediating whatever is within its reach to be able to recover its spaces, to ensure that its neighborhood and its city are represented by its citizens.

“That is achieved with actions, not just ideas. It is important that we all take action, because it was not only Hurricane Otis, it was also the pandemic that left us hit; I believe that nature itself has made it very clear to us that it is up to us to take care of ourselves, and that taking care of ourselves is essential for everything. When you bet on projects or causes, from there we are taking a step,” he concluded.