The non-governmental organization American Capital of Culture selects one city or state in the Americas annually to serve as the American Capital of Culture for a period of one year. The organization's leaders claim the initiative is based closely on the European Capital of Culture program; it enjoys the backing of the Organization of American States, but the OAS is not involved in the selection process.
The organization was founded in 1998 with the objectives to raise awareness of culture in the Americas and to promote the city selected as the Capital of Culture for the year. The chosen city is publicized on the television networks Antena 3 and the Discovery network.
While the NGO claims that the designation "is aimed at all the countries of the Americas", the 26 locations (includes two in 2003) designated as the American Capital of Culture have only been chosen from Latin America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, the designation has increasingly become Mexico-centric; Mexico has dominated the program since 2014, being given the designation six times in the 11 years from 2014 to 2024.
List of dates of American Capital of Culture +American Capitals of CultureYear City Country2000, 2017 Mérida 2001 Iquique 2002 Maceió 2003 Panama City Curitiba 2004 Santiago 2005 Guadalajara 2006 Cordoba 2007 Cuzco 2008 Brasília 2009 Asunción 2010 Santo Domingo 2011 Quito 2012 São Luís 2013 Barranquilla 2014 Colima 2015 Mayagüez 2016 Valdivia 2017 Mérida 2018 Anzoátegui 2019 San Miguel de Allende 2020 Punta Arenas 2021 Estado de Zacatecas 2022 Ibagué 2023 Aguascalientes 2024 Nayarit 2025 San Luis Potosí 2026 Puebla de Zaragoza
See also
References
External links