On Tuesday, the meeting was held for the establishment of a scientific committee in charge of promoting the process of preparing the candidacy of Asturian cider culture to Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The meeting was attended by Tino Cortina, president of the PDO Cider of Asturies; the anthropologist Xuan de Con; the ethnographer Inaciu Hevia Llavona; the president of Otea, José Luis Álvarez Almeida; Otilia Requejo, director of Cultural Heritage; Jesús Casas, director of Rural Development and Agri-food, as well as other scientific-technical advisors, members of the hostelry sector and more experts in the culture and history of cider.
It was chaired by the counselor of Social Development and Natural Resources, who said that there is a consensus around the qualities of the candidacy of Asturian cider culture for recognition. María Jesús Álvarez indicated that, in this respect, a very important step was taken in 2014 when the Governing Council declared Asturian cider culture Cultural Interest. “Also at that time we made known to the Historical Heritage Commission our intention to present the candidacy in the first of 2019” said the counselor and continued: “Now what is involved is to form a team that integrates people experts in this culture from the point of view of history, of geology, of anthropology, of ethnography, also of communication, of the business world, and of course, people who know the administrative procedures that must be carried out with the objective that the presentation is developed in the best possible way and that the documentation presented is correct, well formulated and has all the elements that are necessary to obtain the recognition”.
Similarly, the counselor said that initiatives will also be carried out in order to involve Asturian society, but in a later section. “Now the important thing is the definition of the candidacy, its configuration and presentation. For that, we do not want to rely solely on our strengths, we want to share them with people who generously participate with us with the objective of their recognition, which is a complicated objective, but which is within reach with a candidacy as powerful as the Asturian cider culture.
It must be remembered that the “Principality” announced this candidacy in 2010, and that while other candidatures announced at the same time – such as the Valencian fallas- already managed to be recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the “Principality” has not yet submitted the candidacy.
