The Minister for Culture, Ernesto Villegas, formalized this Friday before the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO, for its acronym in English) the delivery of the File for the nomination of the Venezuelan arepa as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
"The arepa was born in Venezuela, it is Venezuelan, and Venezuela shares it with all of humanity," said Villegas at the headquarters of the organization in Paris, France, together with the Venezuelan ambassador, Rodulfo Pérez, in a simultaneous connection with the National Art Gallery, where authorities from the Ministry of Culture witnessed the event, and an artistic activity was held with the children around the arepa.
Villegas expressed that with the delivery of the file, an instruction from President Nicolás Maduro has been fulfilled, who ordered the document to be substantiated with the help of the communities.
"The Cumanagoto indigenous people of eastern Venezuela gave their name to this food. The word 'aripo' gives its name to both the arepa and the budare, the metal plate, usually round, on which it is cooked. From there, the arepa travelled along roads and reached all corners of the world," explained the minister.
He also thanked the Center for Cultural Diversity, the National Institute of Nutrition and the Ministry of People's Power for Food for their contributions in the preparation of the file.
The arepa file was prepared over months by a team led by Benito Irady, president of the Center for Cultural Diversity of Venezuela.
The next file will be about casabe
Irady, from the GAN, indicated that the arepa file is number 13 to be submitted to the secretary of the convention for the safeguarding of heritage, and announced that casabe, another fundamental food of the Venezuelan gastronomic and cultural identity, is also about to be registered.
Food war
Villegas, who stated that the initiative to nominate the Venezuelan arepa As Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity it has absolutely nothing to do with commercial brands, he said that "they will surely try to take economic advantage of what happens around the arepa."
He pointed out that "some of these brands joined a food war strategy against the Venezuelan people. The versions of precooked corn flour disappeared from Venezuelan homes as part of a political strategy to twist the general will of the Venezuelan people, but the people's love for their arepa then made the arepa feed on other materials, and then they invented arepas made of ocumo, yam, and cassava, in an act of human, cultural, and gastronomic resistance."
The arepa is a typical dish of Venezuelan cuisine that is part of its culture. It is also consumed in other neighboring nations, which is why it has different versions. It is a very thick, circular, flat tortilla made with precooked corn flour. It is prepared grilled, fried or baked, and the most common way of eating them is filling them with meat, cheese, salad, beans or various sauces, or as an accompaniment to other foods, similar to bread.
