In 1968, the Global Festival of Children’s Drawings took place: “A World of Friendship,” one out of 20 events of the Olympic Games Cultural Program, organised by Mexico.
Children from 80 countries of the 5 continents sent 1,800 drawings and painted 120 murals, thus creating “A World of Friendship,” a world painted by children, a place without borders, where barriers imposed by distance and language were overcome.
Those pieces of work were presented simultaneously with the Gymnastics performance at the National Auditorium, whereas the murals had been placed on one of the most iconic boulevards of Mexico City, “Paseo de la Reforma” [Promenade of the Reform].
The purpose of the project “A World of Friendship. 50 Years” is to commemorate the fiftieth Anniversary of the initiative, by finding those children, today adults, who participated 50 years ago in the respective festival.
The project is organized by a civil association known as the “Patronato Ruta de la Amistad” [Route of Friendship Board] with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, which played an active role in attending the diplomatic missions to find and contact those people who participated in the program to interview them, make a compilation with their declarations and congratulate them for their contribution within the Olympic Games Cultural Program of Mexico 68.
In Romania, thanks to the information provided by the Ministry of National Education, 
successfully contacted were 3 (namely Rodica Popescu, Florina Simion and Elena Cioclu) of the 7 participants in the festival held 50 years ago, who will receive a commemorative box named “MEXICO 68”, offered by the Route of Friendship Board, with a digital file of their paintings, together with the printed version of their piece of work in high resolution.
In Mexico, a huge mural will be created with the 398 paintings, with two big screens: one, which will show the records of the meeting with different participants around the world; and the other one, will tell the story of the project with images from 1968. The terrace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico will be home of the original murals and several copies will be exhibited on the bars of Chapultepec.
In order to contact the Romanian participants to the Painting Festival 50 years ago, the Embassy of Mexico has published the art creations made 50 years ago, hoping that its overtures to popularise the initiative will be successful in also finding other authors of the paintings that represented Romania at the event that took place half a century ago.
“By publishing the art creations made 50 years ago, the Embassy of Mexico wants to find and contact the Romanian participants to the Painting Festival, in order to interview them and to recognise their contribution to the Olympic Games Cultural Program of 1968, thus answering the interesting initiative of the Mexican Government, which recreates a bridge between our people, through visual arts and culture,” reads a posting on the Facebook account of the Mexican Embassy to Romania.
As a matter of fact, in a recent conversation with H.E. Jose Guillermo Ordorica, Ambassador of the United Mexican States to Romania, which took place during a courtesy visit to the Nine O’Clock editorial office, the Mexican diplomat pointed out how much the Embassy staff got involved in the success of this overture.
The Mexican Ambassador appreciated particularly the excellent collaboration he had with Romanian authorities in this regard, and he proudly emphasised that the Mexican Embassy to Romania can take pride in the performance of finding, so far, most of the artists who sent art creations to the Mexico City festival 50 years ago, back when they were children.
