2 weeks ago
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The group Community of Artists for Cultural and Historical Endeavors (CACHE) is continuing its quest to have Centennial Park in Benque Viejo declared a national heritage site. The park, which houses the first cemetery for Benque Viejo, is over a century old and holds major significance for community residents. Yesterday, CACHE met with Minister of Culture Francis to discuss a formal declaration of the site. At the meeting, they also discussed the development of a preservation framework to safeguard its cultural, historical, and spiritual significance. CACHE, through a memorandum of understanding with the Benque Viejo Town Council, has been the trustee tasked with the upkeep of the park for over 20 years. CACHE’s Secretary General, David Ruiz, told Love News that the push for the declaration began in the 90s after a former council tried to have the space repurposed to create an entertainment space.
David Ruiz, Secretary General, CACHE: “Centennial Park in Benque Viejo to begin with is a very important area for the community. It’s very significant in the sense that it’s a cemetery. It was the first cemetery for Benque Viejo. It was open back in the late 1800s and proves to be significant because it holds the remains of the founding mothers, the founding fathers of Benque Viejo Town. So that when the community of artists with its parent entity back in 1992, started lobbying to preserve the grounds, it did so in that spirit of caring and holding sacred the patrimony, the heritage of the community so that it counteracted moves to make of the park, of the area of the municipal, of the area in the cemetery as the grounds to to build a dance hall for the municipal fair. And so knowing that the remains and the grounds are very, very significant and sacred, we made attempts to preserve the cemetery.”
Ruiz says that follow-up discussions are expected with the aim of materializing the declaration sooner rather than later.
David Ruiz, Secretary General, CACHE: “The whole idea of a declaration as a heritage site for Centennial Park in Benque stems from the year 2000 when the trust was put forth on CACHE and we lobbied before the government, the Department of Archaeology to make a declaration. And that was on the table. It was left hanging. And I believe, CACHE believe that it’s time to move this forward. and aim a declaration in writing to protect this site. Now the minister was very open and very supportive of the move. And he expressed his commitment to follow it up through the Department of Archaeology, the Institute of Archaeology in NICH. So we remain very hopeful that it will be soon because we cannot wait much longer. We need to have something in writing to establish, define the partnership and the status of the site for posterity. I feel, Benjamin, that as Belizeans, really don’t have yet the, we don’t see the importance of heritage sites. We seem to believe that it’s only the Mayan temples, the Mayan ruins, but no, each community has its own history and sites that are very sacred.’
CACHE was formed out of the Cultural and Historical Association of Benque Viejo, which came about in 1992. It is a volunteer organization that has raised over a quarter million dollars for infrastructure development in the Centennial Park.
English (US) ·