The capacity-building project to safeguard Guatemala’s intangible cultural heritage (ICH) continued with a training workshop on community-based inventorying that took place in Guatemala City and in Santa Apolonia from 5 to 11 June.

Organized in cooperation with the Vice Ministry of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the main objective of the workshop was to strengthen the institutional and human capacities of the western municipalities to define and identify the intangible cultural heritage present in their territory and to establish the technical capacities required to implement a pilot project on inventorying, with the participation of the local communities and non-governmental organizations.

Officials from the Ministry of Culture and Sports and from the Departments of San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Sololá, Totonicapán and Quiché, as well as representatives of the local communities were involved.

Divided into two sections, one theoretical and one practical, the training on the basic concepts of inventorying was held in Guatemala, while the practical exercises in the field took place in the municipality of Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango. Participants had the opportunity to perform participatory observations of local ICH elements and record them, such as the ´Torito´s dance´, local culinary traditions, weaving techniques and ceramic production.

The workshop was financed by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, thanks to a generous contribution from Azerbaijan.