IN STEREO

I don’t know how they have done the streets in La Paz, for example. Their homes, their parks – they seem to be colonial places, don’t they? [It’s by] raising awareness, isn’t it, to maintain their colonial areas. It seems to me that there are penalties, with fines for destroying it. I believe we can stop this in that way: that the municipal government be stricter, let’s say, in not painting houses any colour. If you realise, in Sucre, the entire old town is painted white. It is forbidden to paint it another colour. It [also] has to be colonial tile, you see – not other artificial tiles it seems others put. So I believe it must start from there, from the municipal government. Protect the whole historic centre and all places that are historical, right? Many people like the most modern, don’t they? [It’s] perfect to make places very modern.

[But] here in the old town we must maintain our heritage as it is. That’s why I told you it depends on the [national] government and the municipal government. They are the ones who have to show initiative. Because you, as a neighbour of this street, will not mobilise. You’re never going to say, “Ah, I’ll put the cables in the ground!” You’re not going to bury your cable when the others are still hanging. So I think there has to be a municipal law that every neighbour must have the sidewalk this way. Because the sidewalks are under their authority, aren’t they? They are right in wanting to make a nice image of the city but if they tell them to do it with their own resources, they will never do it. If the government or the mayor says, “We are going to give you this material; you do the work,” they do, they do. – Amilcar