Sharing memories and preserving heritage in Latin American port cities: A project in motion: CoopMar –Transoceanic Cooperation, Public Policies and Ibero-American Sociocultural Community

Abstract

Seaports were, for centuries, the most continuous exchange platform between Europe, Africa and America. Port cities emerge as structures and social constructions with their own characteristics. Taking them as study foci favours the debate of issues related to urban and social complexity, as they usually bring together marks of diversity, both human and cultural, and for this reason they present themselves as privileged places for the development alterity and permeability studies, including cultural. Port cities in Europe and Latin America are also challenged by risks arising from the high levels of development of a tourist industry. This one exploits heritage, material and immaterial, built, symbolic or natural, often without benefits for the makers and heirs of those assets — the local communities. This matter becomes more acute when we are dealing with memories and heritage historically built through colonial dynamics. Many questions arise around the management of these memories and these inheritances. Today communities in Latin America demand recognition of indigenous identities and values and call for different concepts and practices for the preservation of their own memories and heritage. These are the main challenges faced by the project supported by the CoopMar Network, whose objectives, strategies and achievements this article deals with.