Grants talk:TPS/Thelmadatter/New Mexico Association of Museums annual conference

Questions

Dear Thelmadatter, sorry for letting you wait so long before responding to your request! As a member of the Participation Support Committee, I would like to thank you for submitting the request. Also, I would be very glad if you could expand a bit on the context of your request. What is the significance of the conference in the US for your GLAM related activities in Mexico? Is there anything available on-line regarding your cross-border project? It sounds truly fascinating, and it would be very helpful indeed if you could provide a little info on what the state of this project is (or provide a linke to a summary, if one exists)... Could you say a few words about what kind of activities you plan to engage in during the conference, what format of presentations you plan to make? --Johannes Rohr (WMDE) (talk) 15:32, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

My apologies... I forget that these things do not seem so obvious to those outside the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. and Mexico have had a close, if not always amicable, relationship, both economcially and culturally. This is particularly true of the U.S. Southwest, which used to be part of Mexico. The U.S. has heavily influenced Mexico but less known is how Mexico has been influencing the United States. One reason for this is the large influx in Mexican immigrants into the U.S. now in most parts of the country rather than just the Southwest (California, Arizona, etc). However, Mexican influence remains strongest in the Southwest, especially the border states. For example, I recently rewrote the article on Mariachi in en.wiki to reflect the music's importance not only in Mexico, where it originated but also in the US where mariachi groups have even replaced some school bands!

The invitation is to present to the New Mexico Associations of Museums annual conference, which attracts attendees from the entire state. New Mexico is a border state, with a strong Mexican heritage, which is important for them to maintain. Having a speaker who is American but has worked for a long time on Wikipedia projects in Mexico offers the chance to show the multiculturalism of Wikipedia. It also shows these museums other opportunities to cooperate with Mexican institutions so that people on both sides of the border can have better understanding Mexico's cultural heritage and presence (not just piñatas, tequila and mariachi music) and how this culture has adapted and changed on both sides. This is the purpose of the Cross border project (en:Wikipedia:Mexico-US_cross_border_project), which is already working with the Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art, a US cultural institution which promotes handcrafts and folk art from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The main reason why the Associations of Museums is excited to have me as a speaker is that they are sure that it will bring other interested parties such as the University of New Mexico (I work with the Wikipedia Education program as well). This means that we can reach two parties for the price of one in an area in which Wikipedia activity is quite weak.Thelmadatter (talk) 16:39, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments, Leigh. This request is approved. We will be in touch by Email regarding the paperwork. Wolliff (talk) 16:07, 22 August 2012 (UTC)