Central America Hub

Partner organization: Casa K’Ojom

Since: 2018

Region of action: Central America

Overview: According to the World Resources Institute, Central America is among the most vulnerable in the world in respect to climate change. It is also the most urbanized region in the world. These phenomena pose increased risks for objects of cultural heritage.

Extent and sources of risks: High and posed by natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and floods, and man-made disasters such as pollution and accidental fires.

Heritage at risk: Archives and libraries, museums, archaeological sites and underwater cultural heritage.

Main goals and activities

• Establish a regional hub to develop emergency response materials, initiate risk mapping, mitigation and preparedness action, and provide emergency response training.
• Advocate the integration of cultural first aid in disaster relief efforts
• Coordinate local responses to affected cultural heritage in the region.

Partner profile

Casa K’ojom is a private, educational, non-profit documentation centre and museum dedicated to research, documentation, preservation and dissemination of the traditional music of Maya peoples from Guatemala. Since 1984, founder and current Director Samuel Franco Arce has conducted extensive fieldwork in this area by visiting various Maya communities during patron saint celebrations and other rituals, recording the music that accompanies these rituals and documenting the ceremonies through photography. The result is an important audio-visual archive of sound recordings, photographs and video footage.

Mission:
Research, document, preserve and disseminate traditional Mayan music, dance and related practices.

Objective:
Increase appreciation and practice, and improve safeguarding, of traditional music as part of the Mayan Intangible Cultural Heritage through educational programs, activities and publications.