SANTA CRUZ, Marinduque – The Cultural Mapping project here has come to a close with the publication of its local cultural profile, which was the outcome of a grant and technical support on heritage protection from October 2020 to May 2021.
The collaboration efforts of the old town of Santa Cruz, community members, Marinduque State College (MSC), and the endowment from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), are visible between these pages.
This Local Culture Profile was done from October 2020 to May 2021, from the training of local mappers, data gathering, initial follow-up visit and the following visit with a mock validation towards the actual community validation with both internal and external validators.
Until the finalization, revision and fine-tuning this month of Heritage, this is still a work in progress.
From an initial target of 200, this local culture profile opted to focus on 164 to be the sum of its parts, as follows: Natural heritage 14 elements; Tangible immovable 38 entries; Tangible movable 58; Intangible heritage 54; Significant personalities and Significant institutions.
During the community validation process, most of the local and external validators reached and deliberated the following findings: Deepen the roots of the community identity and solidarity; Expound on the initial appreciation of heritage, preservation and conservation and Pave the way for more collaborations for the protection and development of culture and arts
Despite the pandemic, the community members collectively point out the following room for improvement: Prioritize personalities and institutions; Materialize plans and input from the validation process and Mend strained relations of private and public sectors.
Also included in the Santa Cruz Local Culture Profile are the proposed entries for future validation. The other towns in Marinduque that are conducting their respective cultural mapping projects are four out of six towns namely Mogpog, Buenavista, Gasan and Torrijos is also finalizing its schedule for training. While the Marinduque capital town of Boac has already completed its cultural mapping with the Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics sometime in 2012.
