Cultural heritage and the teaching of local history

Historical heritage is part of cultural heritage to the extent that humans have left legacies, inheritances, and testimonies that are inscribed in time as a result of their ongoing relationship with the surrounding environment. Cultural heritage is a specific set of tangible, intangible, and natural assets that are part of social practices, to which values are attributed to be transmitted and then reinterpreted from one era or generation to the next. This is the subject of the following research, which aims to demonstrate how cultural heritage can influence social development. It highlights local history as an important instrument for social development, with knowledge and preservation of our culture playing a fundamental role. The example used is the Viñales Valley, declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, which serves as a successful model of heritage education. Additionally, the study of cultural heritage and its relationship with local history seeks to contribute to the recognition, safeguarding, and social development of heritage. The main results identified show that the relationship between cultural heritage and local history is evident in how cultural heritage works should be used as sources of historical knowledge and can be employed as teaching content in the local history teaching-learning process.