GLAM/Newsletter/June 2020/Contents/Mexico report
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México free and diverse representation
Wiki Loves México 2020
From May 1 to 31 we had the second edition of Wiki Loves Mexico photographic contest, organized by Wikimedia Mexico and the Mexican Secretariat of Culture centered on the visual documentation of the great diversity of the festive, cultural and popular expressions of our country, recognized by UNESCO as one of the world's largest holders of intangible heritage and of which there are very few photographs on Wikimedia Commons. This contest aims to portray the complex cultural diversity and the different representations of Intangible Heritage in our country.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic represents new challenges in the dissemination and reception of photographs, fortunately this didn’t limit participation. This year we received over 2,500 photos, ready to be shared with free licenses and to illustrate hundreds of articles that still don’t have free images. One important support was that Secretariat of Culture included Wiki Loves Mexico contest as a cultural offering in “Contigo en la distancia” social distancing program which improved the reach of the contest’s national call.
As a side event we organized an online conversation on May 16 with Cecilia Barraza an expert in Intangible Heritage, Rodrigo García a professional photographer and Carmen Alcázar, president of Wikimedia México. All of them discussed and problematized topics as the multiple visual representations of Intangible Heritage and the importance to be shared it with the world in the light of the actual discussions around the complexity behind the multiple expressions in one country and how needs to be represented more over a simplistic vision of “traditions”. This perspectives will support us to enrich our concepts and the selection of the topics we will cover in this contest in the next years.
Carmen Alcázar, considers that Wiki Loves México “is a wonderful approach to the cultural diversity that exists in México. It’s understand the material and intangible heritage we have and showing it on the main reference site on the Internet”.
