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August 10, 2021
Sitting a few steps from home to chat with the neighbors at nightfall, after a day of intense heat: it is a tradition still alive, especially in summer, in different areas of Spain. In Algar, a small town in the province of Cadiz (Andalusia), however, there is a mayor worried about the possibility of the custom being lost: according to this local administrator, thanks to the growing diffusion of "social networks". And so, an idea was born that caused media repercussions at a national level and beyond: to declare the "chitchat al fresco" in which the inhabitants of Algar participate as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
The municipality of the Andalusian town has already communicated the start of the procedure to be able to submit the application. As the newspaper El País explains, receiving a positive response will not be easy or immediate. But the mayor, José Carlos Sánchez, is determined to obtain it, convinced of the social utility of this tradition and its psychological benefits for people: "Being able to chat with your neighbors is like therapy," he said in statements to the same. Journal.