A Princeton resident is on a mission to save Tierradentro Archaeological Park in Columbia.
Diego Maya is using Kickstater to raise funds to produce a documentary about the park, which has been damaged by volcanic activity and poorly supervised excavations.
Tierradentro Archaeological Park is UNESCO World Heritage Site #743 comprised of 78 architecturally laid out shaft and chamber tombs covering 1295 square miles in the Andes Mountains. The tombs contain statues and zoomorphic paintings carved into sheer volcanic rock.
Indigenous people carved the tombs long before conquistadors landed in South America. Over the years, the tombs have been damaged, vandals have written on the walls and left drug paraphernalia in the area.
Through his documentary, Saving #743, Maya plans to show viewers some of the park’s most rugged mountains reaching 6561 feet above sea level. Maya’s objective is to give a view to indigenous life, art and architecture by capturing the natural beauty of the park with aerial footage and interviews of area people.
Maya hopes his documentary will open the doors for dialogue and a well-organized strategy for sustainable tourism principles which ultimately respect Tierradentro and other world heritage sites.
Maya is a multimedia strategist who studied at Princeton High School, Mercer County Community College and Rider University.
In 2001, Maya became the founder and editor of the first Spanish Yellow Pages in Central New Jersey called Hablamos Espanol, a publication his company designed, printed and distributed to 50,000 homes in various Hispanic communities of New Jersey.
In recent years, Maya focused on producing and directing Hispanic media for corporations and government agencies. In 2008, He produced A Tribute to Daniel Jara – New Jersey Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 20th Year Celebration, which is a 27 minute documentary in which Daniel Jara appeared with former President George W. Bush and other political leaders such as Governor Christine Whitman, Governor Jim McGreevey.
