An old love is neither forgotten nor left behind, CECUT was, is and will be an icon of Tijuana

Since the birth of CECUT (Tijuana Cultural Center) there has been a symbiotic meeting of beautiful activities that have impacted and transformed the city, particularly those that were experienced with the Tijuana Innovadora forums where a group of world-class personalities were brought in such as: Al Gore, Jimmy Wales , Carlos Slim, Chef José Andrés, Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, Economics; Rudolph Giuliani, Rosario Marín, Neri Oxman, Biz Stone, César Millán, the mayor of Tel Aviv, among other 400 international talents during the editions of 2010, 2012 and 2014.

CECUT was a partner in the initial proposal of Tijuana Innovadora, in addition to making the innovative facet of the city known internationally in contrast to the media image, it was to seek the encounter between science, technology, art and culture as they are the most refined expressions of human creativity.

When CECUT, designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Manuel Rosen Morrison, was born the city benefited with a forum for culture, joy, education and design that has been the center of conferences that take the city to international levels. It is the space considered the most important in the northwest of the country to which world-class personalities in the field of art and culture and in some way of education of the population have attended. This year it celebrates its 42nd anniversary, being inaugurated on October 20, 1982 by a romantic concept by Mrs. Carmen Romano de López Portillo.

Here’s a list of the directors that had lead the cultural center through four decades, all of whom are extraordinary and have achieved generous opportunities and support from the Ministry of Culture at the federal level: Rodolfo Pataki, Alfredo Álvarez, Pedro Ochoa (two terms), Teresa Vicencio, Guillermo Arreola, Virgilio Muñoz, and today Vianka Santana. It is also worth mentioning that prominent past and present Tijuana Innovadora members have worked at CECUT such as Claudia Basurto, Francisco Orozco and Armando García Orso.

In addition to the editions of Tijuana Innovadora, our organization has carried out other highly notable activities such as an edition of the Walk of Fame dedicated to figures of regional culture, three spectacular InnovaModa parades in 2012, 2014 and 2015; the Anne Frank exhibition, the exhibition of paintings The Soul of Tijuana by Ella Fles, with representative faces of the entire Tijuana community; the presentations of books by José Galicot such as “Ochenta y Contando” and “Libro de la OH” with the intervention of the Caracol Garden as a discotheque. The “Viva México Cañones” forum with journalists Carlos Puig and Manuel Molano. The first visit of World Design Organization directors to consider Tijuana as the headquarters of the World Design Capital. The debut performance of “La Marcha de Siqueiros”, a play written, produced, directed, musicalized, set and performed entirely by Tijuana talent.

Among the in-kind contributions from Tijuana Innovadora to CECUT, it is worth highlighting the sculpture “El Histrión” designed by the beloved architect Jack Winer, located in the fountain of the main entrance, as well as the cafeteria in the theater lobby and the projector of the Carlos Monsivais Cinematheque, which came from Studios Baja.

An event that at the time caused a stir was the exhibition of Anguiano’s Venuses in which, for 3 months and with the participation of professional models who posed in artistic nudes for local painters and the association of photographers, a very disconcerting dynamic was created and it gave life to space.

The inaugural event of Tijuana Innovadora 2010 reached 750 thousand visitors along with the most important companies in the region, turning CECUT into a place where industry, technology and art were opened to the people. The inauguration of the first two editions was attended by the President of the Republic, federal secretaries and high-level officials. It was also in Tijuana Innovadora where the mayors of Tijuana and San Diego met, for the first time in a common forum.

¿A series of firsts with imagination, talent and audacity that excited the population on both sides of the border and that found CECUT sheltering Tijuana Innovadora in an extraordinary world-class setting. It is not strange that citizens identify Tijuana Innovadora in its most brilliant moments with CECUT, nor is there any doubt that both institutions worked in cordial harmony and camaraderie, experiencing great moments that brought stellar characters and actions in the history of both institutions for the good of the city.

“…An old love is neither forgotten nor left. An old love moves away from our soul but it never says goodbye”. (“Que un viejo amor ni se olvida ni se deja. Que un viejo amor de nuestra alma sí se aleja, pero nunca dice adiós.” -Un viejo amor)