Building patrimonial stories: technologies, knowledge and voices authorized in the patrimonialization of the Feast of the Virgin of the Candelaria of Puno before Unesco

In late 2014 the Festivity of Virgin de la Candelaria of Puno in Peru was inscribed onto UNESCO s Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The application process, prior to this, had lasted approximately two years and had involved the Peruvian state and civil society working together to prepare a nomination file. To achieve this common objective, the various actors involved in the festival s development and production came together to seek discursive consensus about it. Thus, dancers, musicians, embroidery artists, local intellectuals, academics, representatives of the Catholic Church, and government officials had to negotiate the meanings, knowledge and perspectives that the festival had for them. This article provides an account of this heritage making process and seeks to analyse the technologies of power used to achieve an agreed heritage narrative, where the existing socio-political tensions are spatialized at local, national and global levels.