| Article by Paco Guerao.
Architect | A few days ago, I made a comment, to a statement about La Bastida, made by a political representative of the Regional Assembly.He agreed with her that Culture and Heritage should not be considered a simple expense for the Administrations.Indeed, Culture and Heritage are much more than all that.
They are a source of wealth for our culture and our education, but they are also a source of material wealth for all industrial and commercial sectors of our society.And that wealth, well managed, is going to benefit us all, we have to know how to consolidate, invest and enhance it.In the penultimate controversy about the Bastida Site, in the end, there is only one phrase that is repeated as a motto: "We are not going to allow the archaeological remains to leave our town."Sounds good to me.
I don't want them to come out either, but that's not the main issue.The main issue is that we have a great wealth of heritage in La Bastida and it is not being invested properly.It said, in the comment to the statements that I mentioned before, making an economic simile, that a reasonable and intelligent businessman or investor would hardly think of keeping their values ??in a box in their storage room.
And more, when that safe, is costing you a price that does not contribute anything to spread your product and make its potential profitable. This investor, in a wise decision, would bring his products to the market and invest them in a diversified way, in solid and reliable products, which would allow him to continue growing and strengthening the future of his company.
But for this, he would have previously designed a project, a strategy, that would lead him to achieve the goal he had set for himself, and that when bifurcations appeared in the path outlined, he would know how to recognize and choose the path that closest him to his goal.In our case, and according to my criteria, the most appropriate thing would be to create an exhibition and museum space, capable of housing all the existing pieces of our historical past, capable of exposing and disseminating all the cultures that have passed through our land: Argárica, Ibérica , Roman, Arabic.Can you imagine the convening capacity that this space would have? And from here, acting as a shuttle, visitors could go to the Sites of La Bastida or Las Cabezuelas or La Tira del Lienzo.Or do you have to make a museum in each of those places? Would it not be more reasonable to make a single place of exhibition of all our archaeological values ??instead of making branches distributed throughout the municipality? Doing a Museum of Archeology in the town would not reduce content or visits to La Bastida, on the contrary, it would multiply the interest in visiting the Site.Now, to achieve this goal, the appropriate budget is needed, something that the Totana City Council cannot currently afford.What could be the actions that could be taken to achieve it? First of all, draft the appropriate musealization project.With this document, request in all possible instances, public and private, the funding to make it possible.
And from this very moment, stop spending public money on those activities that are not producing any progress in the final goal that we must set ourselves, the Archaeological Museum of Totana.Of course, I am talking about removing the archaeological pieces from the Bastida site, pieces that, due to their mere presence in a place, make the existence of a security system essential with the expense that this entails.And what can we do in the meantime with the archaeological pieces? Well, in addition to temporarily depositing them in the spaces enabled for these purposes by the General Directorate of Cultural Assets, they could be deposited in municipal facilities or the Local Police, where an extra surveillance would not be necessary to the one that already exists.These facilities, if they did not have the right conditions, would require a minimal investment to provide it.And in the meantime, we would be saving much-needed money, more than € 125,000 a year, to invest in the definitive facilities of the future Museum.We will be multiplying and optimizing our resources and wealth, because it would benefit all sectors of Totana, cultural, patrimonial, social, economic, tourist, ...For this reason, all of Totanera society, especially its political representatives, should be able to join forces to achieve this beneficial goal for the general interests of Totana.Kind regards to all.
Paco Guerao.
Architect.
