The Cultural Center of Weapons will open very soon, as announced by the mayor of Saragossa, Natalia Chueca, just a week ago during the debate on the state of the city. This news has been received with enthusiasm from the citizens, especially among the residents of the hook, and even more by the neighborhood associations that had been claiming their reopening for months as a cultural and social life space of the neighborhood.
One of the most active has been the neighborhood platform His request on Change.org has already added almost 2,000 digital signatures, which add up to the 3,500 physical signatures collected in the neighborhood. For them, the reopening of weapons will have an immensely positive impact on the future of the neighborhood and that, for its spokesman, Alejandro, this center is “a cultural lung, but not only for the neighborhood, but for the entire city.”
The platform also recently held a meeting with the Mayor’s Cabinet to transfer its proposals. Although Alejandro acknowledges that they cannot confirm whether his intervention was decisive, he assures that “the three key proposals we present during the meeting are completely in the line of what has finally been announced.” Among these proposals, it is that weapons is a space open to entities and groups of the neighborhood, “that there are musical and cultural performances weekly.”
An open and participatory cultural space
During these months, “let’s save our weapons!” It has not focused its activity only on the collection of signatures. Alejandro explains that at the first meeting they convened from the platform, more than 50 representatives of cultural and social entities, both of the hook and the rest of the city. “Then we have held other meetings, we have organized different participatory processes in events such as the market organized by @bloggerscgC in weapons,” explains Alejandro. Also, during the hook holidays, “let’s save our weapons!” He organized a morning of culture and vindication in which there was market, concerts and plastic actions, among other activities.
Since “Let’s save our weapons!” They are offered to actively collaborate in the definition of the activities Photo: Let’s save the weapons!
The new project for weapons contemplates its entirely public management, coordinated by the Board of Trustees of Education and libraries. The center will work as a multiservicious socio -educational space, open to neighbors, neighbors and groups, and will have a weekly cultural, artistic and leisure program.
In addition, it will host activities of the Municipal School of Music and the Popular University, will include study rooms, libraries, and a citizenship care office. An infrastructure at the service of community life that aspires to become a reference not only for the hook, but for the entire city.
For Alejandro, starting to conceptualize the reopening already means “a very important and very interesting step”, although it emphasizes that it remains to be seen how the entire project will be executed. “We consider that it would be important that it happened as soon as possible, both for the structure issues of the building and its content, and for the relative to the neighborhood and the city, which cannot be allowed to have such a space closed,” he explains.
Looking to the future: quick and well -made reopening
The group insists how important the project is executing soon is “executing it well.” Alejandro emphasizes that the current town hall approach “still needs to realize important details”, such as the specific programming of the center. Since “Let’s save our weapons!” They are offered to actively collaborate in the definition of these activities and in maintaining space as a cultural engine.
For the neighborhood collective, the reopening of weapons represents an opportunity to strengthen the social fabric Photo: Save the weapons!
For the neighborhood collective, the reopening of weapons is not just a symbolic victory. It represents an opportunity to strengthen the social fabric, energize the life of the neighborhood and return to the hook an essential space. Therefore, they will continue to work so that the process is carried out with participation, listening and continuity.
That weapons will be the sociocultural center that was, it is already a reality underway. But to “save our weapons!”, This does not end here. They will continue to drive dialogue spaces, ensuring a good execution of the project and promoting activities in external spaces while reopening arrives. “We have shown that you can do things and we will continue to do them,” Alejandro concludes. The neighborhood pulse has not only recovered a space. It has reactivated a community.
