The Community of Madrid has a long and enriching history shared with the American continent, forged over centuries of movement of people, knowledge and goods from the other side of the Atlantic. This constant back and forth flow is essential to achieve a rich and complex understanding of the current configuration of the region. But the ignorance of the patrimony of American origin in Madrid jeopardizes its necessary conservation and prevents its enjoyment by the citizen.
Recovering this valuable legacy (documentary, artistic, historical, scientific, natural…) and making it accessible to both a general and specialized public, visiting or residing in Madrid, is the main objective of the AmerMad Projecta regional research consortium in Social Sciences and Humanities that seeks to make visible the traces of the “most American Madrid”, through the development of different lines of research and by planning a detailed program of activities.
Thanks to the sponsorship contract signed with the General Directorate of Tourism of the Community of Madrid For the year 2022, researchers from the AmerMad Consortium have designed three complementary cultural itineraries (The American routes in the Community of Madrid AmerMad 2022), which seek to promote a quality tourism offer that is within the reach of all citizens in emblematic places of the capital , thus optimizing the activities and research that have been carried out within the regional R&D project “America in Madrid. Interconnected Heritage and tourism impact in the Community of Madrid» (AmerMad), co-financed by the Community of Madrid and the European Social Fund.
These three new routes are the result of extensive research carried out by one of the nine research groups that are part of the Consortium, the TURUAM Group (composed of researchers from the Tourism sector from the Autonomous University of Madrid), as well as the synergies that have emerged between all the groups of the Consortium. It is therefore AmerMad’s first knowledge transfer project to society.
Researchers from the UAM Turismo (TURUAM Group) during the presentation of the American Routes in Madrid.
The three routes developed, which will be available very soon for consultation, are the following:
-Route 1. Museum of America + Parque del Oeste + gastronomic tasting. Aimed especially at a family audience with children between 7 and 12 years of age, it combines visit to the Museum of America (pieces from pre-Hispanic America) with a dynamic activity in Parque del Oeste, an emblematic green space in the city that houses monuments in memory of personalities who played an important role in America, and finally includes a gastronomic experience to taste traditional Peruvian dishes in La Morocha Restaurant. This itinerary, designed in all its stages to capture the interest of minors, lasts approximately 3 hours, without counting the time of the gastronomic stop.
-Route 2. Buen Retiro Park + aperitif + Naval Museum. In line with the other two proposals, this route combines a visit to two representative places that are closely related to each other. It also offers the possibility of enjoying two different environments (outdoors and indoors), in which to enjoy two guided tours in the traditional way to discover the abundant and surprising American heritage in the Buen Retiro Park (monuments tribute to the Republic of Cuba, Justo Arosemena, Pedro Vargas Mata or Andrés Eloy Blanco; inspiring places like the Gate of Spanish America; plant species such as sweetgum or ahuehuete; etc.) and in the naval museum (with models, parts, weapons and original instruments of the most relevant ships in our historical relationship with America, along with pictures of key characters and situations, or valuable maps such as the Universal Letter of Juan de la Cosa). The Ibero-American gastronomic experience serves as a transition between both visits, as an informal appetizer. This tour designed for adults lasts approximately 4 hours. In the future, it is proposed to adapt the route to families with children (including recreational activities with participatory dynamics), or to be inclusive (providing means to satisfy an audience with special needs).
-Route 3. National Museum of Anthropology + Royal Botanical Garden + aperitif. It offers the adult public the possibility of enjoying, on the one hand, the valuable natural environment of the Royal Botanical Garden, with a tour of the most attractive species from Latin America, from a practical perspective: their traditional use as dyes for the colorful Ibero-American textile tradition, their valuable influence on our diet, the links between nature, legends and spirituality. On the other hand, a visit to the Americas room of the Museum provides a cozy environment where you can explore the arts and customs of these interesting peoples (with works of art such as the Tigua paintings of Julio Toaquiza, Shipibo vessels or basketry; hunting weapons or a shrunken head; musical instruments, feather ornaments or Teotihuacan and Taino figures for worship, etc.). The tour ends with a visit to an Argentine restaurant. With an approximate duration of 3.5 hours, this route can be adapted to seasonal changes and, in the future, to the participation of families with children and people with special needs.
The AmerMad Project (“America in Madrid. Interconnected heritage and tourist impact in the Community of Madrid”) aims to identify, value and exploit in an innovative way the historical, cultural and natural heritage generated by the profound influence of America in the Madrid region and in the worldviews, customs and material culture of its inhabitants. This project, which is part of the R&D Activities Programs between research groups of the Community of Madrid in Social Sciences and Humanities (H2019/HUM-5694), co-financed by the European Social Fundseeks to develop innovative, interactive access routes adapted to all users that promote the recovery of this valuable legacy.
Three historical routes to discover the deep American footprints of Madrid