For seven years, the La Ladera Terreno Cultural space located in the Tetecuintla area in Huitzilac, has been a very important place for the community in terms of cultural and social development through coexistence, recreation and entertainment; that has been fundamental for the infantile public mainly, but without a doubt, it has benefited people of all ages.
“The project was started by Carmen Díaz and Ana Luisa Alfaro, who, faced with a rather tragic event, reflected on the opportunities that children and young people had in this geographical area, and began to work with very small workshops, because the capacity was five six children. A couple of months later, I moved to the place, I met them and joined the project, ”Isis Villanueva said.
Thus, through independent and voluntary work, Carmen Díaz, Ana Luisa Alfaro and Isis Villanueva have generated this important space where cultural activities are carried out mainly, aimed at the whole family, but especially at the children of the community every Sunday in every month, with the intention of becoming a space for families to feel safe and secure.
“One of the objectives is to be a space where the community can find other forms of expression, beyond what is in the municipality, which fortunately is growing and new cultural and artistic proposals arise. And thus motivate the community to become aware and reflect on different issues that help us learn, we do not really intend to educate people, but to offer them an option through cultural events and scientific dissemination, so that they are the engine of everything “.
Isis mentions that at first it was difficult to get people to approach the space, and they had very little capacity, however, over the years, the place has been consolidated and has grown, thanks to the community, the artists and scientists who have provided their work for non-profit purposes.
“It was difficult for us to convince people to attend and integrate, because they did not know us and did not know what it was about, at first there were only a few children accompanied by their relatives, but little by little the project grew and had a lot of acceptance on the part of the residents of the area, and we are also visited by people from Cuernavaca and Mexico City who come to find out or come to support the artists. In these seven years, it has been an important task of convincing people and breaking a barrier that for cultural reasons there are people who resist opening up and living with other neighbors, but it has been achieved and currently this space is a benchmark within community”.
The activities within La Ladera Terreno Cultural take place on Sundays at 1:00 p.m., during the months of February to November. All activities are totally free.
For three years, La Ladera Terreno Cultural has had a library that emerged from donations, and which has undoubtedly become a fundamental space for the children of the community.
“At the beginning the idea was to collect books to give to the children who visited us for Children’s Day, but they were used books that were not in a position to give away, but they could not be wasted either; We put them on a table and thus a library was generated. The children have become very interested in reading, and the library has grown, in fact we are part of a program to promote reading. And it is incredible to see how children look for their books for pleasure, not out of obligation, and how they can take them home, we see that self-managed work of responsibility that they have developed by taking charge of the book and returning it when they finish it.
Before the pandemic, this space had a capacity of 150 people per show. With the health situation we are experiencing, they had to suspend their activities, which they resumed at the end of 2020, and have continued according to the possibilities offered by the epidemiological traffic light.
“We closed in March when the pandemic began, and we resumed activities in approximately November with the yellow traffic light. And during the months that we were inactive in the space, we decided to make a donation campaign through social networks for the construction of our perimeter fence because one of the distinctive elements of our space is that it is just that, a land without infrastructure. So we built our fence in collaboration with a group of architects in the area who have an ecological project, making it a sustainable fence. And part of the retribution to those who helped us with donations, we did a series of virtual talks on various topics ”.
It should be noted that both the promoters of this project, as well as the artists and experts who have carried out activities in the place, do so for free, without receiving any financial compensation.
“During these seven years, everything has been possible thanks to the sum of wills, artists, scientists, groups and experts in different areas who have found in this space a place to consolidate the social fabric in our community and who have opted to join and generate this coexistence. We highly value the work of artists and scientists, the doors are open for those who wish to collaborate, we are very interested in promoting their work and thus channeling this type of cultural and scientific thinking among the children of the community ”.
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