From the editor.

• Author: Kiernan, James Patrick
• Position: Editorial

Thirty years ago, UNESCO began to designate various "special" places in the world as part of mankind's universal patrimony. Communities and their national governments worked hard to fulfill UNESCO's prerequisites in order to gain this distinction. Sites so recognized are elevated in the consciousness of their citizens as well as beyond their national boundaries. The UNESCO designation further assists these communities in gathering resources and support to restore and preserve theft special places for future generations.

In this issue of Americas, we explore two of these sites. Ricardo Carrasco Stuparich stunningly portrays his visit to the wooden churches of Chiloe, Chile, which were recently designated as part of the Patrimony of Humanity because of their artistic singularity, architectural uniqueness, and the extent to which they complement and blend with their natural surroundings. And I describe the colonial town of Paraty, Brazil, which is soon to be nominated to UNESCO as an integrated site of cultural and natural patrimony, and where the restored historic center, surrounded by rain forests and the sea, will be joined to the already UNESCO-designated ecological preserves in the Atlantic Rain Forest.

In the conservation of its culture--beyond historical structures and natural preserves--Brazil has used the term pro-memoria, because memory is the key to the whole process of protection, how and why things are made, what symbolizes a culture, and how cultural identity resides in our memory. As he muses about the...