With the aim of contributing to the effective protection of underwater Cuban cultural heritage (PCS), the Underwater Archaeology Course, Cultural Sunken Heritage Management, will run until May 28 in Santiago de Cuba.
The meeting is coordinated by the Regional Office of Culture for Latin America and the Caribbean of UNESCO, together with the National Council of Cultural Heritage (CNPC) of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba; the Regional Centre for Management and Management of Natural and Cultural Underwater Heritage (CUBASUB), the Government in Santiago de Cuba, civil society and governmental and non-governmental specialized local bodies, and the Cuban National Commission for UNESCO, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . The event is funded by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), and has the support of the Technical Office of the AECID in Cuba.
To the organizers, the course aims to help strengthen national capacities for PCS, with the use of the Underwater Archaeological Park, Naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba as a case study. And they added:
"In this work, Cuba also has the support of two members of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body of the 2001 Convention, better known by its acronym, STAB: Scientific and Technical Advisory Body, doctors Ovidio Juan Ortega Pereyra (Cuba ), vice president of that body, and Xavier Nieto (Spain). "
At the opening of the course, which occurred in the Hall of the Stained Glass Windows of the General Antonio Maceo Grajales Revolution Square, Omar Lopez, director of the Office of the Curator of the City, give a lecture entitled Santiago de Cuba, City Estate.
Later Katherine Muller-Marin intervenes director of the Regional Office of Culture for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO, and Gladys Collazo, president of the National Council of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture.
As a preamble of the course was an introduction to underwater archeology and the PCS: birth and history of underwater archeology. Relevant examples and the relationship between human beings and waterways by Dr. Xavier Nieto of Spain.
The other activities of the first day would be in the afternoon, the visit to the project My heritage, the sea, and a tour of the historic city of Santiago perimeter among other activities.
The meeting takes place within the scope of the project "Protection and management of coastal and underwater for job creation in Santiago de Cuba cultural heritage."
The Organizing Committee of the meeting is composd by Gladys Collazo Usallán MSc., president of the National Council of the Ministry of Culture Heritage; Olga Rufins Machin MSc. and engineer Lenia D. Gamonal, national program officer and assistant Culture Team, respectively, of the Regional Office of Culture for Latin America and the Caribbean of UNESCO.
Also part of the organizing team, Mr. Maickel Caceres Suarez, Specialist, Department of Underwater Cultural Heritage of the National Council of Cultural Heritage.; Suitberto Frutos, director of the Provincial Heritage Council; architect Omar Lopez Rodriguez, director of the Office of the Curator of the City; Dr. Vicente Gonzalez Diaz, Vicente Gonzalez Portuondo MSc., and Lic. Yaisel Prado Pino, director, head of the technical team, and communication specialist, respectively, of the Regional Centre for Management and Management of Underwater Cultural and Natural Heritage in Santiago de Cuba.