The Uruguayan Government says it supports culture in response to a claim by artists

The Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay (MEC) responded to the claims of different artists and creators, among which are the singers Jorge Drexler and Rubén Rada and the playwrights Gabriel Calderón and Sergio Blanco, and regretted that the portfolio’s support for culture is not recognized.

This was stated by the MEC in a letter released this Thursday by producer Gonzalo Rius on his Twitter, sent to the promoter group Compromiso por la Cultura, which was the slogan used for the change.org platform campaign and which has received a massive endorsement since its launch in early March.

The Minister of Education and Culture, Pablo da Silveira, and the National Director of Culture, Mariana Wainstein, thanked the letter, sent on April 7, and indicated that it is “encouraging” that there is “a broad group of citizens” worry about the development of culture in the country.

“We are surprised that in its text there is no mention of what the State has been doing. We are discouraged to note that this letter could have been written in a country where there was a government totally alien to cultural activity and indifferent to culture. fate of cultural agents”, emphasizes the text.

The hierarchs assure that the silence of the letter to what has been done “hurts them” since it “means to make invisible a great effort” made by both the authorities and the officials.

In addition, the extensive text mentions the achievements of the portfolio during 2020 to support culture, such as legislative changes that allowed the generation of funds for institutions, solidarity funds to buy advance tickets when the theaters were closed and compensation for small theaters.

Likewise, those responsible for the MEC highlight that in 2020 the National Directorate of Culture invested more than 100 million pesos (about 2.4 million dollars) to the cultural sector and “several of the signatories of the letter” benefited from some of the the promulgated competitive funds.

In the manifesto, the creators and intellectuals call for “URGENT measures to avoid the destruction of a cultural fabric whose construction involved a cumulative effort of decades that could disappear in a vertiginous way.”

According to their claim, the situation of culture after the arrival of the pandemic is “extremely serious”, since it is “facing a real challenge of survival.”

When referring to the authorities, the signatories say they trust “in that capacity of agreements that historically has been admired in the world as a hallmark of Uruguay” and, appealing to it, they add, they urge “a COMMITMENT TO CULTURE that defines the implementation of a set of necessary initiatives”.

Among the measures taken by the Government of Luis Lacalle Pou to contain the increase in covid-19 cases, the suspension of public shows remains in force, at least until April 30.