By Angélica Hernández
On April 5th and 6th, Digitizing the Barrio, along with the National
Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (NMPRAC) and the Museum
of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), hosted the Puerto Rican Archives:
Preserving Community Memory symposium. The first of its kind, it was filled
with scholars, archivists, and community members eager to learn and share crucial histories. In connection with
the MCA’s exhibition entre horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico, this symposium was
meant to expand on the archival materials featured in the exhibition that documented the political movements and
community organizations that have shaped Puerto Rican Chicago. Similar to the exhibition, which sought to make
a tangible connection between Chicago and Puerto Rico, we took this opportunity to strengthen our ties to other
Puerto Rican archives, archivists, and memory workers. Through this symposium we were able to host guests from
Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Archivo Histórico de Vieques, Archivo Comunitario LGBTQ+ de Puerto Rico, and Memoria Decolonial; and CENTRO in New York.
Day one was devoted to four distinct panels, each highlighting the work and perspectives of our guests. Panel one, Puer-
to Rican Archives Across Space and Scales, allowed each guest to discuss what motivated them to join this profession and introduce their important projects. In panel two, Archiving 101, each archivist gave insight into basic archival processes and approaches. The goal was to provide tangible examples about what archives and archivists do. Panel three, The Politics and Ethics of Memory, explored how archives themselves are often contested sites of memory, heavily influenced by colonial practices in terms of how materials are organized, described, and presented. Each of our guest speakers revealed how they challenge these inherent practices through counter narratives and decolonial archival methods. Panel four, History-Making and Meaning-Making, highlighted three community projects as they address gaps and silences in community histories and create space for public engagement with such histories.
For day two, our focus shifted to community. We started off the day with a workshop, Building Personal and Family Archives, where community members received instruction on what documents to keep, what information was most relevant to record, and how to store those items for long term preservation. Participants had the opportunity to share deeply personal stories about their materials and jump start their family archives. Following the workshop was an in-depth conversation between community leaders José E. López and Michael Deutsch, moderated by Cristina Pacione-Zayas. They each provided unique perspectives and crucial historical context about a tumultuous time when Chicago’s Puerto Rican community faced intense political repression. López and Deutsch detailed the extreme surveillance Puerto Rican anti-colonial activists faced and the powerful solidarity that helped shape this community. And finally, CENTRO’s directora Dr. Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez closed the symposium with an incredible keynote address, highlighting the heartbreaking limitations but bright possibilities of archives. With so many stories still left to tell, we hope to continue this symposium for many years to come.
