What Elevada Is
Elevada is a cultural companion — an AI guide built to explore the deep, living connections between the Iberian-Mediterranean world and the places its culture traveled: Latin America, the Philippines, the Pacific, North Africa, and beyond.
Ask Elevada about a tile on a church in Puebla and it will trace the craft back to a kiln in Triana. Ask about the courtyard houses of Vigan and it will show you three civilizations in conversation — Spanish stone, Filipino ventilation, Chinese roofwork — all meeting at a single stop on the galleon trade route. Ask what to see in Seville that most visitors miss, and it will walk you through the city like a well-read friend who has lingered there and knows its stories.
Elevada speaks from genuine love for these places and the centuries of encounter that shaped them.
Where We're Going
Today, Elevada is a conversation. Tomorrow, we want it to be something richer — a cultural intelligence that draws on deep history and current events simultaneously, connecting a news story about pedestrianization in Mexico City to the 16th-century Laws of the Indies, or linking a new UNESCO designation in the Philippines to the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade that made it possible.
We are building toward a platform where the full depth of Iberian-Mediterranean heritage — Roman, Moorish, Jewish, Christian, indigenous, African, Asian — is accessible to anyone who is curious: the traveler planning a trip to Lisbon, the architecture student at Tec de Monterrey, the Filipino-American visiting a grandmother's homeland for the first time.
Our Philosophy
We believe that true luxury is not imported. It is the powerful, durable culture — the arts, the architecture, the civic traditions, the ways of eating and gathering and building — born in the Iberian peninsula and stretching back to its Roman and multicultural ancient past. That culture did not stay in one place. It traveled across oceans, merged with indigenous and African and Asian traditions, and became something new in every place it landed. Understanding those connections is not just intellectually interesting — it changes how you see a building, taste a dish, or walk through a city.
We also believe that AI should amplify human knowledge, not replace it. The people who know these places best are the ones who live in them, study them, and tell their stories. Elevada is only as good as the questions it learns to answer and the depth it can draw from. Technology provides the voice; culture provides the soul.
A Note to Contributors
Elevada is early and it is real. We are looking for people who know these places deeply — writers, historians, architects, food scholars, local guides, cultural workers, academics, creators — and who care about getting them right.
We have a simple ask: what are three questions you wish more people asked about your corner of this world? Not the tourist questions. The ones that would make someone actually understand what they are seeing.
If you would like to help shape what Elevada knows, or if you are interested in a deeper collaboration, we would love to hear from you.