Zonas Creativas: Italian cooperation project launches in Habana del Este

By Daily Pérez Guillén

The Zonas Creativas (Creative Zones) project, which is supported by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and seeks to promote cultural and creative industries by leveraging historical heritage, is taking its first steps in Habana del Este.

The program will last 36 months and will include the restoration of the Casa Moré, located in the coastal town of Cojímar. During the reconstruction process and once the works are completed, the building will become the center of this initiative, in which enterprises and other actors of the territory are expected to participate.

Antonio Festa, director of AICS headquarters in Cuba, sees this project as “A path for inclusive and sustainable development, including among its main results skills improvement with influential sectors and the creation of planning instruments,” and “the strengthening of citizen participation and the relationship between community and territory through the sustainable vision of heritage, as well as the consolidation of cultural expressions and values of the municipality.”

In a meeting that brought together local actors, Italian cooperation officials in Cuba, directors of the Félix Varela Center, the Center for Reference and Exchange for Community Initiatives (CIERIC) and the government, Amiris Beltrán, member of the Project Management Committee, stressed that the territory is being put in the spotlight. “This stems from a history of work through which it has been possible to improve capacities, train people and identify human, natural and patrimonial resources. Today, this project offers us the possibility of putting all those resources toward doing something that the people of Habana del Este demand and feel they need, and this is in total agreement with the municipal strategic development approach, specifically as regarding the development of tourism in the coastal strip and culture, identity and heritage,” he explained.

This municipality is the largest of the Cuban capital, with a territorial extension that represents approximately 20% of all the space of the province and which is home to the famous Playas de Este beaches; parts of the World Heritage Site of the system of fortifications of Havana; sites linked to the life and work of the Nobel Prize Laureate Ernest Hemingway who was inspired by this area to write The Old Man and the Sea; large and attractive rural areas, among other attractions; and home to prominent national artists.

Fabio Laurenzi, director of the COSPE international cooperation association in the Caribbean nation, stressed that it is a great privilege to have the opportunity to work on a long-term project that puts the territory at its center and aims to build bridges and alliances between past and present, actors and protagonists of the territory. “We have to reach beyond the bay, where there are evidently skills, creativity, experiences and opportunities with which we have to be able to connect and enhance,” he emphasized, alluding to another previous international collaboration project: “Integral transformation in the municipality of La Habana del Este: A path toward the inclusive and sustainable development of the territory.”

Through a comprehensive approach that combines the rehabilitation of historical spaces and the promotion of a dynamic cultural ecosystem, young people, women and cultural entrepreneurs will be key players in the project, which aims to revitalize and enhance the resources of the four municipalities in which it operates.

More than 3,000 young people will participate in Zona Creativa to contribute to the creation of new job opportunities and the economic and social development of the participating communities. It also includes the creation of digital platforms and other media for the promotion and management of cultural and creative industries in the different zones.

Other Italian civil society organizations such as ARCS and CISP also join the Cuban institutions.