Mara Lezama Hands 27 Instruments to Traditional Music Groups to Preserve Cultural Heritage

Chetumal, Quintana Roo — Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa handed 27 musical instruments to five traditional ensembles, part of an effort to preserve cultural heritage and pass ancestral knowledge to younger generations.

The instruments — including timbales, flutes, rattles, conch shells and violins — went to groups that perform pre-Hispanic music, charanga jaranera and mayapax, a traditional Maya musical form. The Institute of Culture and the Arts (ICA) distributed the equipment.

Lezama said the instruments would let the musicians “keep producing, generating that music for the benefit of so many people” and share their talent “with more and more girls, boys and young people.”

Support for Maya communities

The donation is aimed at strengthening musical practice in communities including Felipe Carrillo Puerto, José María Morelos and Bacalar, along with other localities covered by the program. Officials said the goal is to back both the performers and the teachers who transmit these traditions and keep them current.

The institutional support is intended to give the ensembles better conditions to develop their projects, strengthen the local community economy and share their knowledge with children and young people, ensuring the traditions that form part of Quintana Roo’s identity continue.

At the end of the ceremony, the group from Bacalar’s Casa de la Cultura recited the Maya poem “Ha Lal Ja,” which means “Reeds of Water,” in front of the governor.

ICA director Lilian Villanueva Chan attended the event, along with deputy Saulo Bernés Aguilar, who represented the state Congress, and Melisa Verduzco Flores, secretary general of the Othón P. Blanco municipal government, who represented Mayor Yensunni Martínez Hernández.