Introduction
During her campaign, President Sheinbaum pledged to be the “President of education, science, and culture” for the PEF 2026. However, her words have not translated into actions, as evidenced by the proposed budget for culture in the upcoming year.
Proposed Budget Cuts
The proposed budget for culture (Ramo 48) for the next year is 13,097 million pesos. This represents a reduction of nearly 2,000 million pesos compared to the previous year, equating to a 16% real reduction. Moreover, this budget would be the lowest in the history of the Secretaría de Cultura.
Adding insult to injury, this budget falls far below the international standard recommendation, which suggests that culture should receive at least 1% of the total budget. In the PEF 2026, culture is allocated a mere.12% of the 10.1 billion pesos.
Impact on Key Institutions
The two main institutions that would absorb the majority of these cuts are the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL). The INAH faces a 22% reduction, equivalent to approximately 1,300 million pesos. The INBAL faces a 19.4% reduction, around 1,000 million pesos.
These institutions are responsible for preserving and managing Mexico’s cultural heritage, protecting cultural assets, training professionals, and promoting artistic education and research. Given Mexico’s significant economic interest in tourism, which is deeply intertwined with its cultural offerings, these cuts are particularly concerning.
Previous Budget Discussions
When discussing the PEF 2025, there was an initial proposal for a more than 30% cut to the cultural budget. However, after advocacy from the Movimiento Ciudadano bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, 3,000 million pesos were reassigned. Despite this correction, the cultural community has had to “beg” for a dignified budget for two consecutive years.
Sheinbaum’s Impact on Cultural Budgets
While budget cuts to culture have been common since the arrival of morenista governments, the most significant reductions occurred with Claudia Sheinbaum’s rise to power. The table below illustrates this:
-16%
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Cultural Initiatives in Sheinbaum’s First Year
The president highlighted only four actions from the Secretaría de Cultura in her first-year government report: México Canta, funding for the Escuelas de Formación Artística, eliminating enrollment fees for these schools, and an activity from the Fondo de Cultura Económica called “25 libros para el 2025.”
The “25 libros para el 2025” initiative is missing from the Secretaría de Cultura’s report, as it has not yet taken place. The Cineteca Chapultepec, inaugurated by President López Obrador in September 2024, was also mentioned but had not opened for public programming at the time of the report.
Regarding the Escuelas de Formación Artística, the report indicates a 30% increase in student enrollment during the 2024-2025 school year. However, this translates to only 3,552 students nationwide, which seems less impressive when compared to the UNAM’s Facultad de Artes y Diseño, which reported 3,444 students in 2024.
México Canta, a binational contest for young musicians in Mexico and the United States, was created in response to controversies surrounding narcocorridos and violence in Mexican music. While the initiative has garnered over 15,000 registrations and reached 2.3 million viewers in public media, its impact should be evaluated cautiously when compared to popular YouTube content or scandals like those of Natanael Cano.
Conclusion
The annual cultural report celebrates the “first-year management results” as part of a project that views culture as a primary transformation axis. While the initiatives are commendable, it is disappointing that there is little more to boast about in the first year of a six-year term that promised to place culture at its core. Now, it seems, first comes the talker, then the lame one.
