Baguette and rum become Intangible Heritage of Humanity

The baguette appeared in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. It's even new! With a crispy crust and fluffy crumb, it is the most consumed bread in all of France.

Every year, around 6 billion “baguettes” are sold, which means that almost 12 million consumers order them from bakeries every day. Each baguette weighs approximately 250 grams.

More than the product itself, UNESCO awards this distinction for “savoir-faire”, the particular way of preparing, kneading and baking this bread that has suffered, like so many other successes of French cuisine, the abuses of industrialization.

This inscription “also celebrates an entire culture: a daily ritual, an element that structures meals, a synonym for exchange and coexistence”, reacted the director general of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.

“It is recognition for the community of bakers and confectioners”, explained Dominique Anract, president of the French Confederation that brings together these “artisans” of flour and yeast.

The award is in recognition of traditional bakeries, which have been closing in France, especially in the interior.

In 1970 there were around 55 thousand artisanal bakeries (one for every 790 inhabitants) and today there are 35 thousand (one for every 2 thousand inhabitants), according to data from the Ministry of Culture.

Rum

For more than 155 years, eight generations of masters accumulated knowledge about the preparation of Cuban rum, to transmit it orally and in daily practice to their apprentices.

This light rum, with an alcohol content of 40%, is obtained from sugarcane molasses and is aged in wooden barrels before consumption.

The generation that currently holds this knowledge is made up of three first masters, seven masters and four aspirants.

This select group is the repository, guardian and transmitter of knowledge that originated with the agro-industrial sugar boom of the 19th century.

“For us, more than pride, it is the true recognition of the tradition of Cuban rum,” Master Asbel Morales, 54, told AFP by phone when he heard the news.

The male dominance that prevailed for decades in this world changed with the presence of two masters and three other aspirants.

Cuba developed a school for rum masters focused on the “Cuban Rum Masters Movement”, which participated in the preparation of the dossier presented to UNESCO.

Colombian and Chilean cultural heritage

This week, UNESCO registered two other ancient Latin American traditions.

One is the ancestral knowledge of the indigenous Colombians who inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain system, a vast territory that ranges from sea level to 5.770 meters in northern Colombia.

This region is inhabited by the indigenous Kogui, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuamo peoples, holders of a set of knowledge and traditions that is a heritage “transmitted to our descendants”, explained UNESCO.

The black ceramics manufactured in the Chilean villages of Quinchamalí and Santa Cruz de Cuca, whose raw material is at risk of disappearing due to forestry exploitation, was also recognized by the UN body.

(With AFP)

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