In a lively meeting of work and camaraderie, almost all the people who make up the teams of the Sol del Illimani Foundation – Cultures of the South and the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research met. The meeting took place at the house of one of the members of the Inti Illimani group.
Regarding the meeting, Soledad Silva, executive director of the Sol del Illimani foundation, valued the close spirit of sharing a house to celebrate the collaborative work that will be developed between both institutions during 2024, thanks to the fact that they will soon share an office in Santiago, Chile. .
Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, thanked the event and encouraged the teams to work together to face the challenges, and the social commitment intrinsic to the work that both teams carry out.
“Thanks to Soledad for bringing us together, it is important that our projects dialogue because the enemy is terrible. Tricontinental is a project that began 15 years ago. Today, there are 400 political organizations around the world brought together thanks to the work of this institute. This project deals with two concepts: the battle of ideas and the battle of emotions. But what's the point of the battle if we're not going to win? It is not just about existing, but also about changing everything and, for this, internationalism is a very important idea. Solidarity and internationalism is what we want to cultivate as Tricontinental in the Santiago de Chile office.
The Tricontinental Institute for Social Research is an international institution promoted by popular movements and organizations, which aims to build a bridge between academic production and political and social movements in order to promote critical thinking and stimulate debates and research with an emancipatory perspective. and at the service of popular aspirations. The Tricontinental Institute for Social Research produces a weekly newsletter, a dossier monthly, various studies and other periodicals available at thetricontinental.org.
From the Sol del Illimani Foundation, Jorge Coulon, member of Inti Illimani and president of the foundation's board of directors, called for people to close the fences and get involved in the work of the Popular School of the South, the foundation's main project for 2024:
“I like to think of the Popular School of the South as a particle accelerator, particles at high speed, in whose collision we do not always know what will result. Let's bring together experiences, cultures and dreams to collide and see what comes out of it. At Inti Illimani, we have always raised the idea of expressing oneself from one's own culture, not to enclose oneself, but to face the world with the dignity of one's own identity. We have seen how music and art change people's lives. How art dignifies people's lives. That respect that every human being deserves is what inspires us to do what we do. The Popular School of the South is going to be what we want it to be and what we are capable of building.”
For her part, Soledad Silva, executive director of the foundation and organizer of the meeting, considered that we must opt for collaborative work and associativity to achieve institutional goals, in addition to recognizing that both institutions agree on social and cultural objectives, whether from research, dissemination or action.
The Sol del Illimani Foundation – Cultures of the South, in its strategic planning design, gives a significant role to meetings with related institutions, so this is the first of them in an agenda to be implemented.
