GLAM/Newsletter/June 2014/Contents/Mexico report
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Edit-a-thon of Museo Soumaya; simulthaneous edit-a-thon in Argentina, Mexico and Spain about Spanish Exile; new cultural partner of Wikimedia México
Edit-a-thon at Museo Soumaya
On June 6th, we perform a first Edit-a-thon in Museo Soumaya, a private museographic institution belonging to Fundación Carlos Slim, in their Plaza Carso venue. Prepared previously with the museum curators about topics related to their collections.
As first activity, the Wikimedia México community attendees receive a special backstage guided tour with closed museum. At 10 a.m. we begin the marathon of edition and a begginers workshop for the people who attends the event and does not have any previous experience in the wiki edition. The event occured in the lobby of the museum, a plain and blank area surrounded by master workshops as an exact replica of Michelangelo's Pietà and Rodin's Kiss, plus mexican masters Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera murals. The event generated awareness into the visitors of the museum, some of which they were informed by the volunteers of the Mexican chapter of the activity we had been performing.
The Wikimedia Mexico volunteers in conjunction with the museum, create 9 articles in Spanish Wikipedia and one in Wikivoyage. Rufino Tamayo works as Naturaleza Muerta and El Día y la Noche, or Woman bathing by Edgar Degas, now have an article on the main internet reference. This event was actively supported by the director of the museum, Alfonso Miranda, as well as his research and outreach staff, who provided the information necessary to give depth to the writing and verifiability. Officialy the event ended at 3 pm, but part of the chapter members remained at the museum discussing and improving the contents written with the support of Soumaya staff until 10 pm.
This event was part of the GLAM initiative between the mexican chapter and Museo Soumaya. The event was covered by the media and was mentioned in some relevant:
- "Editatón 2014 en el Museo Soumaya", TV report broadcasted in UnoTV
- "Mexico ranks 1st among Wikipedia readers in Spanish", report in El Universal (most read media in Mexico, in English)
First Spanish Republican Exile Edit-a-thon
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The Spanish Republican Exile forced to hundreds of spanish citizens to leave their country after the Spanish Civil War and the aftermath of persecution period at the end of the war by the Francisco Franco dictatorship. Nearly 220 thousand supporters of the Second Republic left Spain to other countries such as Argentina and Mexico, who welcomed him differently.
To mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of Sinaia vessel to the Mexican port of Veracruz, the Wikimedia chapters in Argentina, Spain and Mexico, run the First Spanish Republican Exile Edit-a-thon of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource about historical facts, biographies and testimonials related to this process.
The coordination of this event performed under the Iberocoop initiative, meant that the work will be done at different times on June 16th. Articles was written in Spanish and Catalan. The event in Mexico City was held at Centro Cultural de España en México and in Buenos Aires, at Casal de Catalunya. The editors from Spain participated from their houses in the Spanish territory.
>>Watch the video about the event in Mexico City.
New GLAM friends on board
Wikimedia Mexico have a new partner: the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco (CCUT), who belongs to Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). This center, housed in a former venue of Foreign Affairs Secretariat of Mexico, is placed near to Plaza de las Tres Culturas ("Square of the Three Cultures"), a place with a historical richness due to the significative episodes occured here. It was a prominent prehispanic city and the scenary of one of the final battles between the Spanish and Aztec armies in 1521. In 1967, the Treaty of Tlatelolco signed here. On October 2, 1968, ten days before the start of the 1968 Summer Olympics, the plaza was the scene of the Tlatelolco massacre. More than 300 student protesters were killed by the army and police who were trying to suppress the protests, and in September 19, 1985, the zone was one of the morde damaged in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, causing a strong self-organization that led to future civil organizations who leds major changes in the democracy of the Mexican capital. This cultural center is one of the most dynamic emerging venues in recent years, it hosts a wide range of cultural activities as well two museums related to the archaeological site next to the center, and the events of 1968.
This new alliance of the Mexican chapter adds to those made with other two important cultural centers in the north of the historic downtown of Mexico City, also leaders in their respective fields: the Museo Universitario del Chopo and Biblioteca Vasconcelos, venue of Wikimania 2015.
