ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE FOURTH OEA/Ser.K/XXVII.4 INTER-AMERICAN MEETING OF MINISTERS OF CIDI/REMIC-IV/RP/doc.8/08 rev.1 CULTURE AND HIGHEST APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES 15 November 2008 September 18-20, 2008 Original: Español Toronto, Canada PROJECT PROPOSAL “2010, THE GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE” (Presented by the Delegation of Chile)
Transcript
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES Inter-American Council for Integral Development
(CIDI)
PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE FOURTH OEA/Ser.K/XXVII.4INTER-AMERICAN MEETING OF MINISTERS OF CIDI/REMIC-IV/RP/doc.8/08 rev.1CULTURE AND HIGHEST APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES 15 November 2008September 18-20, 2008 Original: EspañolToronto, Canada
PROJECT PROPOSAL
“2010, THE GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE”
(Presented by the Delegation of Chile)
PROJECT PROFILE
“2010, THE GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE”
1. Project name:
“2010, THE GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE”
2. Country or countries submitting the Project:
CHILE
3. Other participating countries, agencies, and/or organizations (Please indicate which member states and/or agencies/organizations will participate in the project):
34 OAS Member States
Describe the nature of such participation:
In the framework of “2010, The Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture”, following actions are proposed to the 34 OAS Member States:
To call for participation in the “Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Poetry Competition” in their countries;
To establish the appropriate strategic partnership with educational authorities to significantly expand project scope;
To carry out commemorative activities they deem relevant, in keeping with each country’ specific conditions
Chile has made an official request to Argentina and Brazil for political and financial support, in their capacity of project estrategic partners.
4. Priority Area: Indicate under which priority area of the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Integral Development 2006-2009 the profile is presented, and make it clear how profile objectives directly relate to said area.
Priority Area: Culture
One of the main goals of OAS cultural action is to support the citizens of the member states in recognizing that they share an identity and a tradition of appreciation of the indigenous, Creole, and American contributions thereto.
One of the main objectives of CIC actions is to help member states to design and implement policies to facilitate youth engagement through culture activities and to help communities to better understand their young people’s
needs and challenges (Discussion Document “Plan of Action for Enhanced Cultural Cooperation in the Americas, 2007-2009,”p. 8).
“2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” relates to the priorities in the cultural area established in the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Integral Development 2006–2009, agreed in June 2006, which in turn are related to the priorities established by the Ministers of Culture at the III Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Culture, held in Montreal, Canada, in November 2006, such as: a) Preservation of cultural heritage; b) Strengthening the cultural content in educational programs on cultural identity, intercultural dialogue, creativity and artistic expression; c) Job creation, social and economic impact of cultural activities; d) Respect for Cultural Diversity; e) and promotion and dissemination of ethnic and linguistic traditions (protocol of intent between the CNCA and the OAS General Secretariat, Washington, D.C., December 4, 2007). The project encompasses four of these five priorities.
The project has the valuable objective of fostering, from the cultural sector and based on the Image and Work of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, Gabriela Mistral, the creativity and artistic expression among school population, at the time of facilitating young people to participate in an International project through a Poetry Competition having “America” as its theme, scheduled to be launched in 2009.
5. Execution Period: Indicate amount of months/years required to carry out the project (new projects not exceeding four (4) years )
Between 2008 – 2010
2008: September - November – December (3 months)
2009: January - December (12 months)
2010: January – July (6 months)
6. Objectives, brief description of activities and anticipated outputs:
General objective:
TO DECLARE 2010 AS “THE GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE”,
Since, on the one hand, the dissemination by the Organization of American States , OAS, of the bequest of Nobel Laureate in Literature Gabriela Mistral, designated “The Poet of the Americas”, will constitute a valuable cultural contribution to the development of our peoples; and on the other hand, because this is an initiative aimed at fostering the deployment and accomplishment of action plans articulated in the Inter-American Program of Culture concerning to promote and disseminate the cultural wealth of the Americas.
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Specific objective:
To invite the 34 member states to participate in the GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN POETRY COMPETITION.
The Competition’s main objective is to enhance creativity and promote the formation of audiences and followings by encouraging children and youth of the Western Hemisphere aged 10 to 15 to write in verse inspired by the genius and image of one of the greatest women in the history of the Americas.
Geographic coverage (regional or subregional):
Coverage is regional, directed at the 34 OAS member states, and includes all states that undertake to organize within their country the Inter-American Poetry Competition framework of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture.”
We include the Americas as divided into the following five subregions: North American, Caribbean, MERCOSUR, Andean, and Central American.
Identify project beneficiaries:
The main beneficiary is the population of the Americas, especially the sector of children and youth aged 10 to 15, preferably enrolled in education, or as determined by the criteria of each country participating in the competition in keeping with its own specific characteristics.
Impact evaluation:
Describe the project’s anticipated short- and long-term impact.
In the short-term, the project’s impact is linked to the successful implementation of the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition, which seeks to increase among the region’s children and young people appreciation for the culture, traditions, and eminent figures of the Americas, in this case based on the bequest of Nobel Laureate in Literature Gabriela Mistral.
The long-term impact is linked to the implementation and dissemination of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture”, and to the following areas of action:
1. Need identified in the area of international cooperation to join forces to strengthen public policies in order to promote the cultural diversity and heritage of the Americas.
2. Profiting from and strengthening networks and institutions at the level of the OAS member states to increase the capacity to design a work agenda shared by the education and culture sectors, with support from the CIC/OAS and CIE/OAS technical secretariats as facilitating bridges.
3. Promotion of coordination among sectors, in this case, culture and education, in public policy design to ensure both the impact of culture as a factor in development and quality of life, and in making positive long-term changes in behavior among the school and youth population.
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Describe impact verification methods, including the indicators to be utilized:
Indicator No. 1: Inclusion in the final reports of the forums and Summits with political representation the need to build a shared work agenda around education, culture, and citizenship in the framework of the celebration of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture.”
Indicator No. 2: Dissemination in the region of the convocation, number of committed OAS member states, and impact of the Poetry Competition.
The impact of indicators Nos. 1 and 2 will be verified by means of reports provided by the member states involved in the project, reports of counterpart educational institutions, the final reports of the Inter-American Meetings of Ministers of Culture, the number of poems in English and/or Spanish entered for the Competition, the poem selection process, and the dissemination and publication of the Inter-American Year in the press and other media.
In view of the dissemination approach, the project will also provide for extensive visual documentation of the activities carried out during the public award ceremony of the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition.
ACTIVITIES OF COMPONENT 1 (the Inter-American Year):
2008
Activity 1: Design of the corporate image of “2010, Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture,” the responsibility of the CNCA, August - September 2008.
Activity 2: Participation by CNCA in the Preparatory Meeting to be held in Toronto, Canada, September 2008, and Participation by CNCA and CIC/OAS in the IV Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Culture, Barbados, to request the political intent of the Ministers in ensuring that 2010 is declared the GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE in the context of the celebration of the bicentennial of the independence of Chile, country of birth of the Nobel Laureate poet. Presentation of the terms and conditions and rules for the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Poetry Competition, November 2008.
2009
Activity 1: Official announcement by the OAS General Secretariat of “2010, Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 2009.
2010
Activity 1: Celebration of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture”
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ACTIVITIES OF COMPONENT 2 (the Competition):
2008
Activity 1: Design of the rules and terms and conditions for the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition, a responsibility of the CNCA, July - August 2008.
Activity 2: Translation of the Competition terms and conditions, convocation, and documents, December 2008 - January 2009.
2009
Activity 1: Issuing by the OAS of the convocation of the member states to participate in the competition, March – April 2009.
Activity 2: Formation of the award committee by the CNCA, in conjunction with the OAS, May 2009.
Activity 3: Registration by member states for the Competition at the OAS, March 1 – April 30, 2009.
Activity 4: National dissemination by the countries of the Competition convocation, April-May 2009.
Activity 5: Poetry writing by children and youth aged 10 to 15 in each country, June-July 2009.
Activity 6: Selection, in each member state registered for the Competition, of the ten (10) best poems, August 2009.
Activity 7: Forwarding by OAS member states of the 10 poems selected in each country, September 2009.
Activity 8: Analysis and selection of poems by the award committee, October 2009.
Activity 9: Announcement by the award committee of the five winning poems of the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition at a meeting to be held in Washington, D.C., November 2009.
Activity 10: Dissemination of the winners on the CNCA and OAS websites, November 2009.
Activity 11: Design of the media and press image for the public award ceremony for presentation of Competition prizes, a responsibility of the CNCA, November 2009.
Activity 13: Design and publication of the best works of the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition, sponsored by the OAS, November – December 2009.
Activity 14: Implementation of a collaborative online, classroom-to-classroom project, and dissemination of prize winners, mainly in bordering areas.
document.doc
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2010
Activity 1: Public award ceremony, to be held at a place and date to be determined. Participating: Minister of Culture of Chile, first, second, and third place prize winners, award committee, and the donor of Gabriela Mistral’s bequest, Mrs. Doris Atkinson, as guest of honor.
Activity 2: After the public award ceremony, travel and visit by the Competition winners to the Coquimbo region, Montegrande, and Vicuña, on a date to be determined.
Activity 3: OAS launch at the Fifth Summit of the Americas of the publication of the brochure/book containing the winning poems of the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Poetry Competition as one of the activities to celebrate “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture,” at a place and date to be determined.
Describe anticipated outputs:
1. To help to promote the actions contained in the Inter-American Program on Culture to promote and disseminate the cultural wealth of the Americas.
2. To help to promote the actions set forth in the Plan of Action for Enhanced Cultural Cooperation in the Americas (2007-2009) to preserve and promote tangible and intangible cultural heritage, on this occasion by disseminating the bequest of poet Gabriela Mistral, Nobel Laureate in Literature, encouraging creation inspired by her image.
3. To promote the linkage of education and culture.
4. To seek to develop followings and audiences in the area of culture.
Describe the specific anticipated outcomes:
- 10 poems selected by each OAS member state registered for the Poetry Competition.
- 5 best works determined by an international award committee.
- Publication of an OAS brochure/book containing the five Competition–winning poems (first, second, and third place and two mentions), and also including a poem by Gabriela Mistral, whose cover design is a work by a internationally renown Chilean artist.
- Publication of 1,000 copies in the official Summit languages, containing the best works and other poems submitted for the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition.
Risk evaluation:
In evaluating risks, we note that the project design is based on the following assumption:
Bearing in mind that the contribution of culture is a key aspect of development and, especially, that cultural policy design is directed to the implementation of programs to promote preservation of cultural heritage and cultural identity, and at the recognition of the cultural diversity of our peoples, it
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is very unlikely that, once the CIC/OAS Plan of action for the years 2007 – 2009 is concluded, the iniciatives consigantes in the “2010, Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” and related to to the Inter-American Program of Culture to promote and disseminate the cultural wealth of the Americas, will be removed from the agenda of priorities of the 34 member states.
Based on the foregoing, potential risks might relate to the Competition’s implementation, these being:
1. Difficulty encountered by the culture sector of an OAS member state in promoting internal coordination with the education sector when the Competition convocation is issued.
2. Translation of the convocation documents.
3. Difficulties involving the budget to implement project activities.
4. Internal difficulties in each member state in issuing the Competition convocation to children and youth aged 10 to 15 years.
5. Delay by some member states in meeting the implementation schedule for the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition.
However, such risk factors are considered minor when set against the impact that implementation of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” would have for the region. In no case do such risks impact the project terms and conditions or justify changes to its objectives.
The benefits of implementing the project in disseminating the cultural wealth of the Americas and promoting the development of a following, among others, by linking education and culture, tend to mitigate the risk factors.
Describe the challenges, constraints, and potential benefits of the project:
Challenges:
The project has the valuable objective of fostering the creativity and artistic expression among school population, at the time of facilitating young people in a number of schools of the region to participate in an international project.
It is important to envision ways to maximize the benefits and to promote certain sustainability over time, e.g., through an online cooperation, classroom-to-clasroom project or by focussing dissemination of prize winners on bordering areas. Mechanisms contributing to ensure the project a real impact on cultural and educational policies in participating countries, so that benefits may extend geographically and over the time, will also be taken into account.
It is worthwhile highlighting the considerable efforts demanded in attaining political support from national and local education and culture authorities within Member States and the impact this efforts may have on the project chronogram. Another challenge posed by the project is how to guarantee Competition participation for every school on equal grounds, so that not only most fluent school populations (e.g., highest quintils of income distribution) may have the chance to participate and win. Nevertheless, the major challenge currently posed by the project relates to the budgetary issue.
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An important part of the challenge involves the dissemination of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” to expand and deepen dialogue between culture and education sectors within member states, thus promoting better understanding of the role of arts and culture in forming and strengthening the cultural identity of our peoples.
A specific challenge of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” is the promotion of Component 2 of the CIC/OAS Plan of Action (2007-2009), i.e., “Promote social inclusión: culture as a tool for youth engagement and intercultural dialogue.”
This challenge emerges from the “Discussion Document: Plan of Action for Enhanced Cultural Cooperation in the Americas”, prepared by the delegation of Canada, in its capacity as Chair of the CIC, in conjunction with the OAS Technical Secretariat, and presented on October 2 and 3, 2007, at the III Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Culture (CIC), Washington, D.C.
Potential project benefit:
With support from CIC authorities and the political intent of the Ministers of Culture of the Americas, “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” may help to promote cultural content in educational programs of member states, including elements of popular culture, traditions, values of indigenous peoples, and intercultural education, as well as preservation of cultural heritage, while serving as an example to promote the exchange of successful experiences and innovative approaches in the area of education and culture.
Describe strategies in place:
Strategies to overcome project risks:
1. Coordination with the education sector: As part of the new CIC work method, announced on April 4, 2008, by the OAS Department of Education and Culture, on May 15, 2008, a joint meeting of CIC Authorities and the Inter-American Committee on Education (CIE) will be held in Washington, D.C. Said meeting is an evident opportunity to present the project described herein and to encourage support by the CIE for its execution.
2. Translation: This proyect has being presented on time to OAS/FEMCIDI, among others, to arrange for translation of the convocation and documents on all matters related to the implementation of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture.”
3. Budget: The project will probably be financed, since Chile, in its capacity as host country, will defray a substantial share of the costs, including a budgetary allocation for the project’s implementation in the Management Plan for 2009 of the CNCA International Affairs Unit. It also includes a multilateral work and an approach to private sector.
4. Dissemination of the Convocation: Both the dissemination of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture,” and the Competition convocation and application process will necessarily include the new ways of working via the Internet and e-mail, taking into account the request of the OAS Subcommittee on Partnership for Development Policies made in March 2000. Additionally, in the framework of the protocol of intent concluded between the Minister of Culture of Chile, Mrs. Paulina Urrutia F., and the OAS Secretary General, Mr. José Miguel Insulza, on December 4, 2007, in Washington, D.C., “the OAS General
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Secretariat will ensure the dissemination and outcomes of the convocation through the schools of the OAS member states”.
5. Delay in implementation: Those member states that register to participate but are unable to meet the work schedule periods for submission of poems for selection will in any event be able to participate in the publication of the poems of the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition. Thus the Competition’s rules indicate, as stated in Component 2 of this project profile, that: in addition to the poems that have won prizes or honorable mentions, those registered to participate will be included in the selection process for publication of a book of poetry, with OAS financing.
7. Justification of Project. Briefly describe the problem and/or timing, as well as earlier efforts to address said problem. (The Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes [National Council on Culture and the Arts] (CNCA) attaches a copy of the protocol of intent concluded between the CNCA and the Organization of American States (OAS), along with a summary providing both an analysis of the situation and a linkage to the full document):
“2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” is intended to be a tribute by the countries of the Americas to the first Latin American woman to have earned the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945). Among her many achievements, the Chilean poet and educator participated actively in the Organization of American States (OAS), inter alia, as guest of honor at conferences on identity and reality of the Americas.
In April 1956, in delicate health condition, Gabriela Mistral, in her capacity as special guest to a special meeting of the OAS, delivered an Americanist message to the member states: “I live at an equinoctial point of the experience of the Americas and what I have said or may say emanates from my passion for the essential things I love and defend: culture, democracy, liberty, and the necessary unity of the Americas”. This was her last public act. Some months earlier (December 10, 1955) she had attended the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
At the time when, at least seven (7) OAS countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Venezuela, and Chile are working together on a shared cultural agenda to celebrate the bicentennials of their independence, between 2009 and 2011, “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture,” seeks to emphasize and draw attention to the following considerations:
- Promotion and protection of cultural heritage, in its wide-ranging and organizing sense, as a main OAS action line.
- Dissemination in the Inter-American system of the hemisphere’s cultural resources and cultural heritage as an instrument facilitating and promoting hemispheric relations among the OAS Member States.
- Implementation of the Plan of Action (2007-2009) to increase international cultural cooperation in the Americas to promote, develop, and disseminate culture and the arts as integrating factors, as well as a bridge in promoting better awareness of our societies.
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- “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” is viewed as an emblematic date deserving publication by the Ministers of Culture, trough the OAS General Secretariat, to the Heads of State and Government who will come together at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, to be held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in April 2009, a month coinciding emblematically with that of Gabriela’s birth.
Description of timing:
“2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” is intended to both foster revision of shared cultural history and reflect on contemporary themes, based on the work of the so-called “Poet of the Americas.”
An important event has also recently taken place with the presentation to Chile by donor Dr. Doris Atkinson of an essential part of Gabriela’s hitherto unknown works, implying the revival and rediscovery of the study of the work of our Nobel laureate at the hemispheric level.
The timing is reflected as the occasion when the Minister of Culture and CNCA President, Mrs. Paulina Urrutia F., and the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Mr. José Miguel Insulza, on December 4, 2007, in Washington D.C., signed a Protocol of Intent to commemorate, in 2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture. Said agreement announced that the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Poetry Competition would be launched in the framework of those celebrations.
Description of problem:
Constraints (limitations):
Competencies in mathematics, natural science, technology, and reading and language skills in the official or dominant language often keep out of educational curricula the design and implementation of projects pertaining the areas of arts, culture, and foreign or indigenous languages, despite research works have shown that such programming can have an important impact on students performance in all areas of their curriculum. These arguments have been considered as fundamentals when articulating the Plan of Action designed by Canada in conjunction with the CIC/OAS Technical Secretariat.
Bearing these considerations in mind, intersectoriality between education and culture needs to be promoted, thus fostering a better understanding of the role of arts and culture in forming and strengthening youth cultural identity, while enabling them through cultural expressions to connect with their languages, traditional ways of explaining the world, belief systems, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and creative potential for self-expression, observation, appraisal, and artistic creation.
In consonance with this hemispheric need, as of 2008 Chile is moving forward into a new stage in Art Education through the pulication of a Decree on Differentiated Art Education which lays the foundations for a new educational model aimed at transforming Art Education, as never done before, in a real walk of life for children and young people with interests, aptitudes and talents for any traditional artistic discipline. Up till now, students had been given two (2) educational alternatives: scientific-humanistic and technical- professional modalities. By means of said Decree, Culture and Arts alternative has been added to the formal Educational System. Therefore, we would like take to
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advantage of this profile context to welcome the incorporation of this third educational modality, among the amendments proposed to the New Education Bill, already submitted to the Congress.
This goal of Education System Reform, promoted by the Chilean Minister of Culture, will enable Culture and Arts to be set up in the classroom on a regular, daily and systematic basis, not only because of the clear and strong evidence that students from Art educational establishements show an enhanced learning performance, but also because Culture and Arts provided us with a different understanding of the world and the way to inhabit it.
In January 2008, the CNCA International Affairs Unit requested the OAS to include the item on the working agenda for the meeting of authorities of the Inter-American Committee on Culture (CIC).
As a result, the Chief of the CNCA’s International Affairs Unit, Mr. Eugenio Llona M., participated in the meeting of CIC authorities held on January 28 and 29, 2008, in Washington, D.C., and presented the protocol of intent on which will be based “2010, THE GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN YEAR OF CULTURE” and, in that framework, the GABRIELA MISTRAL INTER-AMERICAN POETRY COMPETITION.
There was unanimous support for the project at that meeting.
On March 25, 2008, by Exempting Resolution Nº 777, the CNCA adopted the protocol of intent concluded by the CNCA and the OAS General Secretariat on April 20, 2007, in Washington, D.C. to celebrate “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture.”
Subsequently, at the Planning Meeting of CIC Authorities, held on May 15 and 16, 2008, in Washington, D.C., the Chilean Delegation presented a record summarizing the rationale of this project proposal, thanked for the support given to the initiative during previous CIC Authorities meeting, and committed to provide further information on proposal progress in upcoming meetings.
Accordingly, it was agreed to take the following steps:
a. The CNCA and senior staff of the OAS Department of Education and Culture will give consideration to the project’s organizational structure and draft a document thereon.
b. The project profile will be presented to FEMCIDI through the International Cooperation Agency/Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
c. The project profile will be presented by Chile at the Preparatory Meeting, scheduled for September 18 – 20, Toronto, Canada.
Subsequent efforts:
On March 25, 2008, by Exempting Resolution No. 777, the CNCA adopted the protocol of intent concluded by the CNCA and the OAS General Secretariat on April 20, 2007, in Washington, D.C., to celebrate “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture.”
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Upcoming actions:
At the Fourth Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Culture, to be held in Barbados, in November 2008, Chile will request the political intent of the Ministers of Culture to ensure that 2010 is declared the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year. It will also invite the 34 member states to implement the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Competition.
Explain how project outcomes will contribute to attaining the development objectives of the country or the region:
The activities of “2010, the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture” include a project directly linked to the Plan of Action for Enhanced Cultural Cooperation in the Americas (2007-2009) related to its second objective: “Promote social inclusion: culture as a tool for youth engagement of intercultural dialogue.”
An objective of said component is “to generate greater understanding of the relationship between culture and education and, in particular, the role of cultural activities in developing positive self-image and social skills in young people, along with the ‘democratic values’ of tolerance, participation, and fellowship, to promote diversity and build stronger communities and societies in the region” (Arguments in support of the plan of action 2007-2009, p. 8).
In the framework of the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Year of Culture and to expand and deepen dialogue between the culture and education sectors in OAS member states, the Poetry Competition for children and youth of the Americas aged 10 to 15 will foster a better understanding of the role of arts and culture in forming and strengthening cultural identity in young people while enabling them through poetry to connect with their languages, traditional ways of explaining the world, belief systems, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and potential for self-expression, observation, appreciation, and artistic creation. This as set forth in the protocol of intent concluded between the CNCA and the OAS General Secretariat in December 2007, in Washington, D.C.
OAS mandates justifying the project:
- The Quito Standards on policy for the preservation and utilization of cultural heritage.
- The resolution of Maracay, which underscores the fundamental importance of all cultural expressions as symbols of national identity, and their meaning and impact on the economic and social progress of peoples.
- OAS General Assembly resolution AG/RES. 70 (II-O/72), which identifies the cultural heritage of the Americas as means of strengthening regional integration, declaring that culture, whose great and lasting achievements strengthen the moral order and contribute to social harmony, is a most effective means to achieve the goals of regional peace and integration.
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Indicate whether other national, regional, or multilateral institutions are currently financing projects in this area in the country or countries in question:
As reference, since 1984, by recommendation of the XX regular meeting of CEPCIECC, held in Washington, D.C., in July 1979, contained in resolution CEPCIECC 83-XX/79, the OAS has awarded the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Prize to one or more nationals or organizations of an OAS member state whose work has contributed to the identification and enrichment of the culture of the Americas and of its various regions or individual cultures.
The Prize is US$30,000 and has been financed with OAS Regular Fund resources.
We are not aware of any other hemisphere-wide cultural project with these characteristics now being financed by other national, regional, or multilateral organizations.
8. Executing Institution:
Name of the organization or organizations with a key role in project management and implementation:
- Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes de Chile (CNCA)
- Consejo del Libro y la Lectura de Chile
- Área Educación y Cultura del Deparatamento de Ciudadanía y Cultura CNCA
Other national or international organizations participating in project execution:
- OAS Inter-American Committee on Culture (CIC)
- Ministries of Culture or as indicated by the cultural institutions of the OAS member states involved.
- Ministries of Education of the OAS member states.
For further information, please contact:
Names: Eugenio Llona Mouat; Pilar Entrala Vergara Posts: Head, International Affairs Unit; Officer in charge of Multilateral AffairsOrganization: Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes de Chile (CNCA)Telephone: 56 2 589 7 968Fax: 56 2 665 08 03E-mail addresses: [email protected]; [email protected]
9. Estimated costs (See Anex II)
Project Total Costs: Ch$ 66,178,000 aprox.; US$ 145,766 aprox., at Obs. Dollar: $454
Cost Requested to FEMCIDI: Ch$ 31,178,000 aprox.; US$ 68,674, for period 2009 - 2010
The theme is “America,” and only unpublished poems written in the official languages of the Summit may be submitted.
In the hemispheric Competition, each state will select the ten (10) best poems representative of its country and will forward them to the OAS.
Participation is open to children and youth aged 10 to 15, preferably enrolled in education, or as determined by each country participating in the Competition in keeping with its specific national characteristics.
The OAS will have responsibility for member states registration in the Competition.
Chilean CNCA and the OAS will have responsibility for translation into the official Summit languages of all Competition documents, and for distributing and disseminating the convocation of the Competition and its terms and conditions.
Additionally, the terms and conditions and other Competition details will be disseminated via a page devoted to the topic in the OAS and CNCA websites, and will be distributed to schools and educational centers by mutual collaboration between each country’s ministry of culture and ministry of education. The Competition will receive special emphasis in schools in the Hemisphere named for Gabriela Mistral.
An international award committee of five members will be installed, three of whom will be designated by the OAS, in conjunction with the CNCA, in its capacity as host. It will be chaired by the Minister of Culture of Chile, or someone she designates, and Dr. Doris Atkinson, donor of the Gabriela Mistral bequest in the United States, will also be invited to serve as an award committee member, as will the State of Chile, for the dissemination and hemispheric study of said bequest.
The award committee will meet only once, in Washington, D.C.
The international award committee will have responsibility for determining the five (5) best of all poems previously selected by the states registered for the Competition.
The first, second, and third place prizes will be awarded in a public ceremony, to be held at a site and date to be determined. The CNCA will defray the costs of airfare, domestic transportation, accommodation, and meals for the winners of the first three (3) prizes, and guest of honor and donor Dr. Doris Atkinson.
The authors of the first, second, and third place poems will travel to Chile on a date to be determined, and will be entitled to be accompanied by a family member, if required, from their country of origin to the Coquimbo region to visit Vicuña, the birth city of Nobel Laureate in Literature Gabriela Mistral, and Montegrande, where she is buried, next to Yin Yin. The costs of airfare, domestic transportation, meals, and accommodation will be defrayed by the CNCA.
Description of prizes and mentions:
1st prize: Airfare, domestic transportation, meals, and accommodation to visit Vicuña, in the Elqui Valley, and Montegrande, in the Coquimbo region, of Chile, and a CNCA/OAS honorary diploma.
2nd prize: Airfare, domestic transportation, meals, and accommodation to visit Vicuña, in the Elqui Valley, and Montegrande, in the Coquimbo region, of Chile, and a CNCA/OAS honorary diploma.
3rd prize: Airfare, domestic transportation, meals, and accommodation to visit Vicuña, in the Elqui Valley, and Montegrande, in the Coquimbo region, of Chile, and a CNCA/OAS honorary diploma.
1st mention: The complete works of Gabriela Mistral and a CNCA/OAS honorary diploma. The books and diploma will be sent to the respective country.
2nd mention: The complete works of Gabriela Mistral and a CNCA/OAS honorary diploma. The books and diploma will be sent to the respective country.
The winning poems will be disseminated on the websites of the Summits of the Americas and the National Council on Culture and the Arts of Chile. Countries so wishing may in turn disseminate them on their respective web pages.
One brochure/book to be defrayed by the OAS (FEMCIDI) will be published containing the winning poems, in the official Summit languages. It will indicate the names of the award committee members and will be prefaced by a short poem by Gabriela Mistral. For its part, Chile undertakes to donate for the front cover the design of a plastic artwork by a Chilean painter with an international record of achievement.
It is also proposed to consider for selection for inclusion in a book of poetry, together with the poems that have won prizes or mentions, poems by those registered to participate, for publication in 2010, with the translation and printing costs of its first 1,000 copies to be defrayed by the OAS (FEMCIDI). The poems will be published in their original languages and the book will contain a presentation, in the official Summit languages, emphasizing the life and works of Gabriela Mistral as a cultural figure of the Americas.
The use of all participating Competition works will be subject to their corresponding copyrights.
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GABRIELA MISTRAL THROUGH THE OAS
It is hardly surprising that in the spacious green gardens surrounding the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters building, in Washington, D.C., (17th Street between C Street and Constitution Avenue, NW), a marmoreal bust of the Chilean Nobel Laureate Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), our Gabriela, has been erected. “Poetess of America”, the commemorative plaque reads. No longer Chile’s poet but the poet of a whole continent. A valid tribute paid by the most important regional organization to a woman well deserving the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945). And the Chilean poet and educator was at the OAS, as a guest of honor, delivering revealing addresses on American identities and realities.
Between 1924 and 1956 Gabriela Mistral was repeatedly invited to the Pan American Union Palace, firstly, and to the OAS Hall of the Americas, subsequently, to receive honours and homages denoting deep admiration to her person and work. Nonetheless, she had also attended this high International tribune to express her feelings and longings of a woman of the Americas. Thus, Gabriela Mistral revealed herself not only as the poet writing verses burdened with intensity and human sense, but above all as a 20th Century Chilean woman who knew how to masterly express her reality and identity, encompassing realities and identities of the rest of the American peoples, through her thoughts and actions intended to promote the idea of a single America.
A liberty-conscious woman and an innate educador, mainly in an epoch when the Americanist theme grew stronger, longing for didactics embracing it: “America, America. Everything for her, since everything will come onto us from her”, she would state in a pedagogical paper. “Tell everything about your America; ¡America and only America! ¡What a rapture for such a future, what a beauty, what a vast reign for liberty and the higher excellences!”
Our author, in addition to her trascendental poetic and prose works would not remain unaware of the circumstances and contingencies of her America, “America, the ours”, as she always said, or “Our America” as expressed by Martí, the Cuban patriot and poet whom Gabriela so much admired. Irrespective where she were, American issues would not let her indifferent: now pleading for the principles of non-intervention and self-determination of peoples, now advocating for books and libraries for those same peoples: “A coffee-growing and learned Colombia; a petroliferous and social Mexico; a sugar-producing and international Cuba; a rubber-producing and colonial Peru, I would have have them in volumes following a native land scheme: rich folklore, bright-carats history, indigenous costumes, exciting fauna and simply splendid flora.”
In May 1924, during her first visit to the United States, after some years of teaching in Mexico, Gabriela Mistral was honored at the Pan American Union, in Washington, D.C., where she gave an eminently personal and revealing lecture tittled “Christian Union of the Americas”: “I am not an artist. What I am is a woman in whom exists, vividly, the longing for melting down in my race, as it has melted deep inside me, a religiousness with a hurtful desire for social justice. I do not have for my humble literary work the burning interest that drives me concerning peoples’ fate. Certainly, I am not a suffragette. This is bound up with a teacher’s justice-loving heart; an educator who has worked for deprived children and who has known the poverty of laborers and peasants in our countries.”
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Gabriela Mistral’s expressions, besides their remarkable beauty, orally or written, show the energy given by the moderation and the truth of her language. Throughout her “recados” (messages) and articles comes and goes the live and free-from-myths history of our peoples: “Our Northern and Southern heroes, Bolívar as well as Washington, Lincoln as well as San Martín, seem to have been conceived in the very same hour by the very same design, being laborers in an identical task. Our Constitutions, fruit of their insight, are enlightened by a very same light and throw into relief a fraternal profile, as plants nurtured by a common humus.” (GM: Students' Pledge on Pan American Day, April, 1931.)
Long before that first visit to Washington, Gabriela Mistral already had her devotion, thinking and feeling for the American theme. “Describe your America”, “Spread your America”, she demanded herself as a daily lesson and as a rule or behavior guideline for her teaching set square. “Promote love for the shining Mexican plateau, as well as for the green Venezuelan steppe and the black Southern jungle. Tell all about your America. Tell how people sing in the Argentinian pampa, how pearls are extracted in the Caribbean, how the Patagonia is colonized by white people. Divulge its Bello, its Sarmiento, its Lastarria, its Martí. Teach Bolívar’s dream; Bolívar, the prime seer. Stick it into your pupils’ soul with the sharp hook of conviction. Think that the time is coming when we will be just one.” (El grito, Repertorio Americano, San José, Costa Rica, 17 de abril, 1922).
To celebrate the Pan American Day, or Day of the Americas, established by the Governing Board of the Pan American Union to “exalt the ideals of peace and continental solidarity”, its Director General, Leo S. Rowe, invited Gabriela Mistral to write a commemorative message. Thus, on April 14, 1931, the Chilean poet red her Students' Pledge on Pan American Day to representatives of the, by then, twenty-one American Republics, gathering in Washington, D.C. Pledge or commitment of Americanism going far beyond the scope of commemorative intentions: “We, Americans of North and South America have accepted with our heritage of geographic unity a certain common destiny which should find a threefold fulfillment on our continent in an adequate standard of living, perfect democracy, and ample liberty.” And she would address the youth of the continent a call “to repudiate violence in the treatment of our nations and to reject injustice as a diminishing agent of its glorious honor, from which we live and will go on living.”
The American theme, with its corporal volumes from the Andes mountain range to tropical fruits constitute not only the fundamentals of Gabriela Mistral’s complete work but also one of her permanent cravings: passion and will attentive to our continent’s fate. Americanist by vocation (Martinian, from Martí; Bolivarian, from Bolívar, and Sarmientina, from Sarmiento) emotionally and in feelings, in approaching the vivid realities of the human, the ethnic, the historic, the geographical, and the social components, as well as the upcoming future. But above all, a single America as a reflection of the unity between nation and nation and between people and people. “The members of the espiritual life of our countries go detached as tribes not having learned articulation yet; and because of detached, unfortunate; and because of unfortunate, rebellious, with a certain steadfast suicidal expression on their faces.”
During the 1930’s Gabriela Mistral traveled through Central America, the Antilles, the Caribbean, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico ignited by a feverish desire of getting acquainted with and teaching in those countries that will constitute her permanent geographies (“this attachment of mine to the Tropic”, she would say), as well as a marvelous subject matter to her poetry and prose works. This is how her essays and articles would come to life: “Flying over the Antilles” [“Volando sobre las Antillas”], “Centro American Geography” [“Geografía centroamericana”], “Eulogy to the Island of Puerto Rico”, [“Elogio de la Isla de Puerto Rico”], “Conversation on the soil with Puerto Rican Women” [“Conversación sobre la tierra con las mujeres portorriqueñas”], “The Antilles Again” [“Las Antillas otra vez”]. As for the latter, she would write in February 1930: “The Antilles
have lived, I am not certain, if unaware of us or forgotten by us, despite being the beautiful infant of the Americas, the disarticulated waist, the very same reflection of the disarticulated union between both Americas… The Antilles display a geographical aristocracy, plenty of light, shapes and stimulating airs.”
Most of these prose subjects will also be poetically addressed in almost every Gabriela Mistral’s book. In Ternura [Tenderness] (1924), for instance, the feeling of the Americanism is displayed in children’s games, lullabies, and cradle songs. And eminently in Tala (1938), one of her most important books, Gabriela testifies of her deep experiencing of the “This America of ours”, as she states in her magnificent poem-anthems dedicated to The Tropic’s sun [Al Sol del Trópico], The Caribbean Sea [Al Mar Caribe], The Andes mountain range [A la Cordillera de los Andes], The Corn [Al Maíz], The Tamborito Panameño, and other outstanding materials. In many opportunities she would define herself as “a woman with a staunch-American tongue in the very criolla tonada that is my poetry.”
In February 1939, during her third visit to the United States, Gabriela Mistral gave a lecture titled Geografía Humana de Chile [Human Geography of Chile] at the Pan American Union Palace, Washington, D.C., drawing a parallel with the other one, the physical geography she travelled through in a sort of consent to good seeing, good thinking, and good doing. And she would read, as unpublished texts, her magnificent poems Salto del Laja [Laja waterfall], Volcán Osorno [Osorno volcano], and Lago Llanquihue [Llanquihue lake]. Poems that, in some recreating manner, became the enduring prolongation in her recollections of her homeland, and that will compose her posthumous book Poema de Chile [Poem of Chile] (1967).
Eight years later, in March 1946, the Governing Board of the Pan American Union had assembled in an extraordinary session to pay her the official tribute of the Americas for her literary achievement. “This place causes my old recollections to shake inside me. Twenty-four years ago, the Pan American Union received me and later on it opened its agile doors to me again”, would evoke the illustrious guest before delivering her speech La faena de nuestra América [Our America’s Task]. And mentioning the Brazilian Ambassador, Mr. Martins, Chair of the Governing Board, she would continue: “I declare my faith in this institution, and to it I entrust myself as to an entity sound and strong in storm or danger. […] Your task, sirs — and you have never had a greater — is to keep the continent free from worldwide madness, from physical misery, and from the fatalistic and resigned depression that grows out of it.” And echoing her life-long truths she would affirm: “I am attentive to one of the immediate obligations which is the peace, but securing a peace married to social justice, and moreover, to economic justice, and by no means on a gram-basis proportion, since what we do ask for is not only being supported through Dollars and machinery, but as the utmost consideration, to be understood. Only in that way it will translate into an effective aid, without a trace of superiority and stewardship.”
The various and amazing recados Gabriela articulated on her America, constitute her almost physiological bond to the most wide-ranging continental issues. Those recados, or very peculiar prose texts, testify of her word-thougth, her word-truth, and her word-passion. Her innermost concerns were America’s past history as well as America’s upcoming days, the destiny of a whole continent. Let us remember that the Swedish Academy when awarding Mistral the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945), stated in one of its grounds for its determination, that Gabriela Mistral’s poetry was “inspired in poweful emotions transforming her name into a symbol of the idealistic ambition of the whole Latin American world.”
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In this pluralist Mistralian map a great deal of realistic and human history as well as an ample recorded Americanist vision can be found. Gabriela Mistral would say: “I am neither a patriot nor an Americanist enraptured by the grandness of the continent. I have come to know almost the whole hemisphere, from Canada to Tierra del Fuego; I have eaten at the grandest and the humblest tables; my very flesh is permeated with an infusion of the soil of this continent. And I dare to say, not fearing to be seen as a “phenomenon", that the misery of Central America is as relevant to me as the misery of the Tierra del Fuego natives, and that the bareness of any Negro inhabiting the Tropic burns my flesh as painfully as it does to the very inhabitants of tropical regions.” (Our America’s Task, speech addressed to the Governing Body of the Pan American Union, 19 March, 1946.)
In April 1956, in evident delicate health condition, Gabriela Mistral, in her capacity as special guest to a special meeting of the OAS, delivered an Americanist message to the member states: “I live at an equinoctial point of the experience of the Americas and what I have said or may say emanates from my passion for the essential things I love and defend: culture, democracy, liberty, and the necessary unity of the Americas”. This was her last public act. Some months earlier (December 10, 1955) she had attended the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Only some months later the OAS Secretary General, Mr. José A. Mora, mourning her passing (January 1957) would say: “We, Members of the Pan American Union, whom have been so infinetely enriched by her poetry and by her warm an stimulating personality, lament her decease, but we are perfectly aware that she will leave forever through her poems, which constitute her bequest to all mankind.”
So she was. So she is. “Poet of the America”, as that commemorative bust through its plaque proclaims in the vast and green gardens surrounding the OAS headquarters building. Nevertheless, not only the “Poet of the America” but also the loyal citizen of that America, in her days as well as in these days.
