Mayan Culture Boost: $2.3M in Grants Delivered

Bacalar, Mexico — Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa and Paz Georgina Salvador Almazán, Director of Regional and Municipal Development for the Unit of Living Cultures, Intangible Heritage, and Interculturality of the Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico, led the ceremony for the delivery of stimulus grants from the Program of Support for Municipal and Community Cultures (PACMyC) 2025.

The grants will finance 21 groups from the municipalities of Bacalar, Benito Juárez, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, José María Morelos, and Othón P. Blanco, with a total investment of 1 million 818 thousand 192 pesos. The objective is to strengthen local talent by promoting opportunities for growth and collective well-being.

Separately, as part of the "Strengthening of Mayapax and Charangas Jaraneras Groups" program under the Support for State Cultural Institutions initiative, instruments were delivered to 2 charanga groups and 3 Mayapax groups from the municipalities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Puerto Morelos, and Felipe Carrillo Puerto. The instruments, which included a bombo, trolas, and violins for the Mayapax groups and metal, wind, and percussion instruments for the Jarana groups, represent an investment of 513 thousand 146 pesos.

Recognition for Artisanal Creativity

"We are here to deliver these stimuli, these supports, to you, women and men of various ages from our communities, who received knowledge from your grandmothers, great-grandmothers, mothers, fathers, and today you turn it into what you know how to do in the present, this history that passes from generation to generation and that we cannot lose: speaking the Mayan language, our traditional festivals, our music," said Governor Mara Lezama.

Lezama emphasized that her humanist government with a feminist heart will continue working every day so that this knowledge continues to be passed down from generation to generation, through the "magic hands that transform threads and wood into true pieces of art."

She highlighted that through the Institute of Culture and the Arts (ICA), her administration provides resources for cultural strengthening and the safeguarding of intangible heritage and production to master female and male artisans, as well as for project financing and artistic training scholarships for distinguished Quintana Roo artists, promoters, and cultural managers.

A Program with 36 Years of History

Director Georgina Salvador Almazán noted that this year the PACMyC celebrates 36 years since its creation, with the support of each Mexican state. She explained that because culture is not a luxury but a right, the Unit of Living Cultures promotes interculturality. For this reason, she paid recognition to the cultural diversity of Quintana Roo.

For her part, Lilian Villanueva Chan, Director of the Institute of Culture and the Arts (ICA), highlighted that this year a significant economic support was allocated to finance 21 projects involving 113 people. She reported that several charanga groups will be formed, and one comprised entirely of women will be established in Kantunilkín.

Bacalar Municipal President José Alfredo Contreras Méndez expressed gratitude for the support from this program, which he said dignifies the female and male artisans of Bacalar.

Also present at the event were Verónica Lezama Espinosa, Honorary President of the Quintana Roo DIF System; Magistrate Heyden Cebada Rivas, President of the Superior Court of Justice; Eder Enrique Chuc Cen, Director of the Institute for the Development of the Mayan People and Indigenous Communities of the State of Quintana Roo (INMAYA); and beneficiaries María Isabel Ortega Medina and Joaquín José Hernández Gómez.