An idea of a Three Americas Commission of UNIMA was created and proposed by the past General Secretary of UNIMA, Jacques Trudeau at the 22nd UNIMA Congress in Tolosa/San Sebastián, Spain, in 2016. It was approved by the congress and formed the same year. It emerged from the union of 2 commissions: Latin America (CAL) and North America (NAC).
The objectives of the commission
- To offer representation, information, support and assistance to the puppetry movement in the region and to the existing and emerging national centers.
- To promote a better communication, exchange and formation.
The 2016-2020 team
The Three Americas Commission is composed of a President and 4 Regional Vice-Presidents.
- Dr. Manuel A. Morán – Puerto Rico/USA, President
- Rubén Darío Salazar – Cuba, Regional Vice-President (Caribbean)
- Isabelle Payant – Canada, Regional Vice-President (North America)
- Kembly Aguilar – Costa Rica, Regional Vice-President (Central America)
- Gustavo (Tato) Martínez – Uruguay, Regional Vice-President (South America)
We are also inviting all Presidents of the National Centers of the region to be part of the Commission.
Projects
13 presidents and delegates of 12 countries met from December 8th – 10th in Matanzas, Cuba. Together they worked in a collective spirit to draw the great lines of the operations and principals of this new working Commission. Here are the fields identified as priorities and the actions proposed to address them.
Training
- To facilitate the exchanges between various training opportunities on the territory.
- To offer training grants to members of UNIMA in the Three Americas. (Events may offer these to puppeteers).
- To gather a calendar of festivals, workshops to pool our energies and maximize the opportunities.
- To offer a financial support to artists and artisans to facilitate their training on the territory.
Communication
- To remind the National Centers the importance of communicating the information to their members.
- To resume the publication of the web newsletter La Hoja Titiritera that will contain feature articles and information for the members. The web publication will be realized three times a year at a fixed dated. (TBD).
- To print and distribute every two years (Council and Congress) a publication containing a collection of articles taken from the newsletter Hoja del Titiritero. These articles wee be presented in their original languages and in translated into English.
- The only official webpage authorized to present the work of the commission is on the UNIMA international website.
- A closed Facebook group has been created to facilitate the work of the members of the commission.
- A Facebook page of the commission will be accessible to all UNIMA members.
Representation
- To work with the idea of insuring a presence in Charleville-Mézières in 2017 in the UNIMA tent promoting the Commission of the Three Americas. To prepare a presentation containing visual documents, music and much more to promote the Americas and the Caribbean.
- To work at having a strong representation of the countries of the Three Americas at the Councils and Congress.
- To work towards means of facilitating a virtual presence of our members in international events that would be recognized as real. (with a right to vote).
World Puppetry Day
- To engage our Centers in celebrating the World Puppetry Day. To share our actions with the international community.