The Ministry of Culture without heads: chronicle of an institution mired in disorder

On September 17th, a letter arrived at the table from parts of the culture Ministry. It was made up of the members of the Consultative Committee on Culture of the MinCul, and in it, they expressed their interest in maintaining the continuity of the monthly meetings, which since their appointment at the end of October last year, were held following the regulations of the institution. At the requested meeting, always of a public nature (they can be found on the ministry’s website), the consultants wanted to express their concern about the changes in ministry officials, professionals of recognized trajectory who had not been replaced in their key positions. The concern was clear. The Ministry of Culture had lost its best heads.

However, there was no response to the letter signed by artists and intellectuals such as José Carlos Agüero, Ángela Delgado Valdivia, Diana Guerra Chirinos, Hilda Machuca Maza, Olinda Silvano or José-Carlos Mariátegui Ezeta. The latter, a renowned curator and entrepreneur in culture, new media and technology, pointed out that in the face of the minister’s silence, a large part of the commission will proceed to resign in the next few hours. “No later than Monday our letter of resignation leaves”, He pointed to Trade. The renowned political scientist Alberto Vergara was the first to take that step, weeks ago.

His resignations are added to many others within the Ministry of Culture, which, for weeks, kept its vice-ministries of Cultural Industries and Interculturality headless. Only in recent days, Claudia Ruiz Canchapoma, who had served as EMILIMA’s manager, took over the first of them and the second on an interim basis. Taking over from the resigning Leslie Urteaga. Ángela Acevedo, former vice minister of interculturality, was one of the first to make her position available after the then-new Minister Gálvez decided that her position should be filled by a professional of indigenous origin. Position for which, two months later, he does not find a candidate.

Likewise, Santiago Alfaro Rotondo, General Director of the General Directorate of Cultural Industries and Arts, and Mauricio Salas Torreblanca, director of the Gran Teatro Nacional, also chose to resign. In the offices of the MinCul, the political decision to make it visible that there is another government at the helm of the ministry is perceived, however, it has not been known to replace the resigners. “They have no pictures”, Point out our sources.

The fracture of the Advisory Committee on Culture is another example of the evident crisis of the institution. Its objectives, as stated in its regulations, is to advise Senior Management in matters of cultural policy, analyze, answer queries and issue an opinion on policies, strategies, plans and interventions that the Minister considers, as well as promote dialogue and generation of synergies in cultural matters between the State, the private sector, civil society and citizens. Precisely aspects in which the management of Minister Gálvez, according to the experts consulted, has shown its incompetence. “I consider that the few people who are staying are heroes. It shouldn’t be easy for them”, Says Mariátegui.

Sources from the ministry itself who still remain in their positions told the newspaper that if there is something that characterizes Minister Ciro Gálvez’s management, it is disorder. Since he began to dispatch in the MinCul, he dedicated himself to receiving visitors and traveling to participate in events whose agreements were not officially registered. “From the beginning there was a disconnection with all the lines of the ministry”, Says a source from the senior management.

“The current minister has no experience in the cultural field or in public management. Nor have his gestures so far been clear. We do not know if it will maintain the cultural policy approved last year. And if he does, how will he handle it? Differences are good when there is dialogue, debate, but the minister articulates differences without making specific gestures of what these are. It is totally ambiguous. Has no clarity”, Affirms Mariátegui.

The political pressure that the minister has been enduring translates into the hundreds of people who visited his office in his first month in office. “It was awesome. Every 20 minutes, party representatives were seen coming and going, especially from Peru Libre and people who had supported his campaign.”Recalls an official. However, sources acknowledge that party members have not entered the ministry. And this is because, most of the time, the candidatures he handled or the job requests he received did not fit the profile of the specialized positions. Added to this are some conflicts with the Executive, which does not support their proposals. It happened in the case of Gonzalo Alegría, proposed for the direction of the National Library, but who was not accepted by President Castillo, it is known within the institution.

Only in the days prior to Gálvez’s presentation in the Congress of the Republic, the minister turned to ministry teams to request proposals aligned with the promotion of indigenous rights, his only priority. But beyond that single exchange, the Mincul officials consulted agree on this image: that of two ministries operating in parallel. On the one hand, Minister Gálvez and his advisers and, on the other, all the technical areas executing their regular projects. No advisor is especially influential, but rather they function as assistants to understand, translate and guide the will of a minister who finds it very difficult to articulate ideas beyond his simplifying vision. “These are assistants who try to translate their wills into public management, since the minister’s initiatives tend to collide with regular procedures”, Explains an official.

One of the biggest collisions was, no doubt, his blunders regarding the delegation of Peruvian writers invited to participate in the Guadalajara Book Fair. “Right now it is a problem“, Confesses an official witness of the process:”They are looking for who covers the renouncers. Everything is very strange“, the Mint. It is known that Minister Gálvez has received a formal letter from the Guadalajara Fair where he is informed of the concern generated by the changes and delays, which are affecting the organization of the event itself. There they emphasize that the fair is looking forward to the visit of “international authors” from our country. Likewise, the fair has informed them that this week the list should be delivered with the final delegation, so as not to affect the organization and edition of the fair program.

But Guadalajara is only one of the first problems that the improvisation of Gálvez’s administration entails. A demonstration that the current management of the Mincul, in addition to ignoring the nature of international cultural events, does not know how to turn its discourse in the fight against inequality against indigenous peoples into clear policies. Thus, a speech of regional demand becomes mere revenge that affects the image of the country and the very institutionality of the ministry. “The paths are being mistaken. There is no technical vision, with experience in public management, but only a fairly basic look”, Says the MinCul source.

By the way, José-Carlos Mariátegui points out: “Minister Gálvez promotes a stereotypical, old-fashioned discourse that he does not construct. Instead of promoting cultural diversity by integrating people, the emphasis is on conflict, on the confrontation of groups. His speech is very elementary and seems to pose it with personal political interests”.

“I think that in Peru we always have to prioritize any initiative that integrates indigenous communities, but this must be done from a modern perspective, which the ministry does not have today. Ciro Gálvez only has opinions. And that is what can do the most damage to a ministry: that a Minister creates a King or a candidate. And he is just an official. He’s not acting like a minister”, Adds Mariátegui.

Having seen the mistakes in Guadalajara, for José-Carlos Mariátegui the current management at the MinCul could generate many more problems by focusing on what he considers one of the most powerful cultural infrastructures in the world, the recently built National Museum of Peru (MUNA) . “Such an impressive project requires a very large team, with world-class capacity and preparation. However, having a person like Mr. Ciro Gálvez as minister, what could be a milestone in our history could turn into anything”, He warns.

Mariátegui remembers the lost opportunity that the now-defunct Museum of the Nation meant. For MUNA, the specialist warns that leadership is needed. “Three years ago he should have hired his director”, He says. “The National Museum needs a definition. A clear and transparent call must be made”.