Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses new ways of dealing with memories and heritage arising from colonial dynamics in LA. We will focus on city ports as interfaces of transoceanic flows and as sites endowed with great potential for transforming contentious memories into sustainable heritage solutions in the future

Paper long abstract:

Latin America coastal cities have a rich heritage which can play an important role in creating sustainable growth. A significant part of it arises from a colonial past and brings to the present contentious memories. Spontaneous and forced migrations were responsible for global transferences. Syncretic processes transformed those mixed cultural references into totally new heritages. This is now subject to active debate. Public policies and entrepreneurs, aiming at feeding tourism industries tend to sell those products without the required awareness of its meanings, excluding the actual actors and producers of those heritages. An overexploitation of some heritage sites is a problem. Organisations fighting for the rights of indigenous people denounce how public policies are responsible for hidden memories and neglected heritage. New approaches are required in order to pursue an innovative management of coastal heritages. Such challenge encompasses a transnational and interdisciplinary approach and a plan of action incorporating environmental, social, economic, cultural and historical perspectives in a coherent framework for sustainable heritage management and socioeconomic development.

CoopMar is a CYTED network, built on those challenges. CoopMar explores the relation between sea and society, with a special focus on coastal communities. It prioritises knowledge circulation among stakeholders (universities, museums, foundations, firms, public institutions and the society). Its general mission is to make an inventory of shared heritage in two European (Portugal, Spain) and four Latin American countries (Brazil, Cuba, Panama and Chile) and to hand back scientific knowledge to societies, promoting genuine interaction and empowerment of Ibero-American port cities communities