La Ruta Maya Foundation with Sofía Paredes-Maury

“There’s nothing I love more than to work with Precolumbian collections that need to be documented and registered to make them available for research and the public. La Ruta Maya is one of the collections I have inventoried and documented so it could be registered at the Cultural Property Register (Registro de Bienes Culturales), however I was given the opportunity to administrate it and give it a purpose. Although this collection lacks archaeological context, as many others, its nature is completely different as any other private collection.” La Ruta Maya Foundation is the only private organization that promotes the recovery and the return of Precolumbian artifacts to Guatemala.
Our mission is to recover, preserve, and study the cultural heritage of Mesoamerica, and through interpretive exhibitions, share these artifacts with researchers and the public.
We support educational programs through loans to museums and universities, we collaborate with academic publications, and we participate with conferences in various events about the rich cultural heritage of Guatemala.
Sofía Paredes-Maury studied Archaeology at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and holds a Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies and Caribbean & Latin American Studies from New York University, including studies from the Ancient Civilizations program at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts (IFA), and interning at several museums.
Sofía is part of the Board of Directors of the Association of Private Nature Reserves of Guatemala (ARNPG) to date and has participated in organizations such as Fundación Defensores de la Naturaleza, La Aurora National Zoo, Balam Association, Association of Museums of Guatemala (AMG) and the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Since 2007, she has been the executive director of La Ruta Maya Foundation, an entity dedicated to the recovery and repatriation of archaeological pieces for the purposes of custody, preservation, research, and exhibition to the public for educational purposes.