Proposal
This project focuses in the research and analysis tourist concept that Centro Maria in New York City gives their young residents. Centro Maria is a place where young women stay for short, medium or long terms in New York City. It is a space to live the transition between your country of origin and NYC. This place is part of a religious mission established by Maria Vicuña in Spain. Today, there are more than 40 centers around the world, as well as missions and schools. Centro Maria far from being a tourist site it is a loop of time and space in NYC where more that 13 countries live together in a four floor building in 54th Street in New York City.
This project represents a closure not just for my MA program, but in a more personal way as I was one of these residents during my first semesters in New York City. Centro Maria in New York run by religious women that are constantly rotating their positions between other houses in the same family. This house is always open to receive young women that will study, work, or stay to live in this city. One of the characteristics of the New York base is that it does not restrict the entrance to Catholics, but the religious activities have a strong presence in the house. More that 100 girls are received every year as residents, visitors, or workers. The house has an agenda that promotes tourism in every country that is represented by the girls as well as the tourism in New York City. They organized lectures, presentations, performances, and festivities of every country. They organize trips to cities that are close to NYC such as Washington, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls, and other places. But what it is of interest to this project is that every activity is realize in groups with the guidance of a nun. These creates a stage bound between the residents bring up many issues of tourism and quality of life for the girls. I am interest in this research because more than feeling secure in the house is the over protection that manipulate my first impression of NYC and the information that I receive from the countries that the girls where representing.
This project requires a profound analysis of the history, structure, and tourist practices that Centro Maria shares with the residents. For this I will need to go back to Centro Maria and interview the director, some residents, and workers. I will search for film that had record activities that presents the different cultures that are represented in the Centro and some photographs of the outdoor activities program by the nuns. For this analysis I am interested to engage with Dean MacCannell to understand the cultural experience, work experience, and the structure of tourist settings in the space of Centro Maria. In my experience I know that Centro Maria is more that just a mission and analyzing their activities within their structure. The challenges of this project is to leave behind my personal narrative, reencounter the site from a new approach, and be able to articulate ideas that are still struggling in me but I know they will be of great interest in the field as it will reach a honest analysis This project will be able to articulate a fine critic of a religious mission that has become in a “tourist site” or a meeting point of other cultures as a way to promote tourism in their country.