The Banco de la República Cultural Center in San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina is a space with free access to knowledge, and an emphasis on oral culture and the reclaiming, preservation, and promotion of the archipelago’s traditional knowledge. It is an inclusive place, with infrastructure to cater to people with disabilities. The center promotes a sense of citizenship and strengthens the relationship between San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina with the insular and continental Caribbean. The Cultural Center provides a wide range of information about the archipelago and its culture, with recommendations on historical sites, attractions and places to enjoy, as well as activities that allow users to reflect and deepen their knowledge of particular aspects of the island's culture.
In addition to providing access to Banco de la República’s Library Network collection of over 2,500,000 titles, the Cultural Center has a local collection designed for consultation by all audiences: both island residents and researchers can access heritage archives on the archipelago and contact other researchers, libraries, and study centers in the Caribbean to exchange experiences and knowledge. In a creation room, equipped with recording equipment, users can produce, edit, and share the stories. The audio recordings enter the archives of the Oral Memory Center, a project that collects, preserves, and disseminates the oral memory of the islands, a key factor in consolidating a sense of citizenship and mending the social fabric. Thanks to this Cultural Center, the island community can also enjoy the collections, activities, and services offered through Banco de la República’s cultural programming.
The Cultural Center also has a children's room and a room for games and workshops, specialized in encouraging reading and the island's cultural traditions among children. Reading rooms, creation rooms, and a multipurpose room also allow islanders to enjoy concerts, talks, and debates on various topics and hold meetings to safeguard memory and recognize local knowledge. In addition, activities to encourage reading are continuously programmed with materials that bring out the connections between the archipelago and the wider Caribbean.
History
On November 27, 1967, a project for the construction of a Banco de la República branch in San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina was started, which at the time was a Special Intendancy, not yet a department of Colombia. Operations began to find a space to rent as well as the necessary furniture, according to letter by Mr. Bonifacio Velez Goenaga, who was managing a property rented out as the branch director residence.
On January 1, 1969, under the direction of Mr. Roberto Bahamón Uribe, the Banco de la República began its operations on the island as an agency. Banco de Comercio, Banco Popular, Banco de Colombia, and the Caja de Crédito Agrario were already operating on the islands. In August 1976, work began at the current offices of the Cultural Center with Dr. Miguel Angel Correa as the agency director on the island. The building was inaugurated in the presence of Mr. Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, president of Colombia at the time.
In 1983, and in view of Nicaragua's claims of possession of the archipelago, Colombia began to exercise more sovereignty over the territories and the decision was made to create another branch of the central bank on the neighboring island of Providencia. It was short-lived, however, closing in 1989 after difficulties in consolidation.
In June 2005, the San Andrés branch closed its treasury and began a new phase in which it functioned exclusively as the central bank’s Cultural Center. During 2016, the agency underwent a process of resizing its services, its programming, and its building, and in July it reopened to the public as the Banco de la República Cultural Center in San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina.
The following is a list of the directors of the erstwhile Banco de la República agency, now the Cultural Center in San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina:
- Gilberto Trujillo (1979)
- Alfredo Ramón Camperos (1980)
- Gabriel Orlando Valencia (1981-1984)
- Mauricio Angarita Beltrán (1985-1986)
- María Haydee Valdés (1987-1995)
- Alicia Gordillo Amadó (1995-2003)
- Mirta Yaneth Díaz Velásquez (2003-2016)
- Weildler Guerra (2016-2017)
- Irma Raquel Bermúdez Davis (managing director, 2017)
- Weildler Guerra (2018-)
