The knowledge of the masters of Cuban light rum, the craftsmanship of the French baguette and the manual ringing of bells in Spain seek to be consecrated next week as a World Heritage Site during a UNESCO meeting in Morocco.
The Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee will examine in Rabat from November 28 to December 4 the 56 candidacies for its lists, which already include the Ecuadorian “corridor”, the tango, the Mexican mariachis or the partying of San Juan de Venezuela.
Intangible cultural heritage, or “living heritage”, is an inheritance “from our ancestors and transmitted to our descendants”, UNESCO notes. This includes oral traditions, rituals, social practices, among others.
Gastronomy is the star of this edition with the most international proposals: in addition to the craftsmanship of the baguette and light rum, the menu is completed with the traditional techniques of making tea in China and knowledge about the “harissa” from Tunisia.
Emerged in Santiago de Cuba in 1862 and since then dispersed throughout the island, the master of light rum is a guardian of the knowledge transmitted between generations, ranging from a moral code to knowing the history of each barrel, according to the candidacy.
The French candidacy also appeals to know-how, tradition and a “culture” that became general after the Second World War. What is your secret? The baguette has four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast or sourdough.
And, from these ingredients, “each baker, playing with his region, the dosage, the kneading, the ‘pointage’ (fermentation time), the molding and the cooking, will obtain a unique baguette, consumed daily in France” , underlines the French dossier.
Guatemala, Colombia and Chile
Cuba thus chooses to include its fifth element in the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, which has 530 in total, including almost a hundred registered in other classifications before the launch of the current one in 2008.
In this edition, Guatemala seeks to consecrate its Holy Week, which “is experienced through the five senses”, and Colombia the ancestral knowledge system of the Arhuaco, Kankuamo, Kogui and Wiwa indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
In addition to the manual ringing of the bell –a secular “sound language” on the “brink of extinction”–, Spain proposes, together with Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Poland, the inclusion of the “maderada”, that is, the culture of transport wood river.
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For its part, handicrafts top the four proposals for the list of urgent safeguarding (72 items currently registered). Chile proposes to include the pottery of Quinchamalí and Santa Cruz de Cuca, and Vietnam the pottery art of the Cham people.
Spain and Portugal also presented the initiative “Ponte…nas Ondas!”, on the Galician-Portuguese intangible heritage, for the registration of good safeguarding practices. In addition, the committee must examine a request from Malawi for international financial assistance. Unesco annually receives hundreds of requests from the 180 states that have ratified the convention, but agrees to consider just under 50. Its experts present favorable or unfavorable recommendations to a committee made up of 24 countries, which makes the final decision.
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