UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

03/06/2023 | News release | Distributed by Public on 03/06/2023 16:56

National Register of the Memory of the World incorporates 14 new inscriptions

Mexico City, March 5, 2023.- The National Register list of the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) is enriched with the addition of 14 inscriptions, including photographic collections, audiovisual and sound records, judicial files, religious archives, ancient manuscripts, handwritten scores, prints, and other collections of outstanding universal value.

The Memory of the World Mexican Committee incorporated heritage and collections in the custody of institutions in Guadalajara, the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Nuevo León, Morelos, and Mexico City, as well as national institutions such as the Mexican Institute of Radio (IMER), the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the National College and individuals.

With the participation of invited specialists, including Graciela de Garay, Rosa María Fernández de Zamora, Víctor Manuel Heredia, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Ana Rita Valero, Gustavo A. Guerra Reynoso, Alicia Gojman, Yolia Tortolero, Elvia Carreño, José de Jesús Gil Rendón, Clementina Battcock, Marco Arturo Moreno, Celia Mercedes Alanís and Rosa Casanova, for example, the Mexican Committee chaired by Catherine Bloch carried out the ruling on 19 files received from the 2022 Call.

14 new national inscriptions in the Memory of the World
Comité Mexicano de Memoria del Mundo/Gabriela Velázquez

Among the selected photographic collections, those of Walter Reuter stand out, made up of 97 thousand images and 52 books; the Tres Ríos Shared Archives (1970-2022), which bring together more than a million documented photographs by three authors, and the sound recordings of the radio programs created and hosted by the Mexican scholar Ernesto de la Peña (1992-2012), recorded for IMER.

Likewise, the audiovisual heritage of El Colegio Nacional, which includes 5,000 iconographic materials, 52,000 photographs, 25,000 negatives, 10,000 videos and 1,000 audio recordings, and the INAH Word Archive (1910-1960), with sound recordings of interviews to witnesses of historical, social, political, and cultural events of modern and contemporary Mexico, especially the Mexican Revolution.

It also recognized two judicial archives in the custody of the Judiciary of the State of Mexico: the testamentary succession trial (in Spanish and Nahuatl) promoted by the indigenous Jusepe de Santiago; as well as the accusation against Ignacio Ramírez, "El Nigromante", for the crime of printing. The latter is one of the first known documents that bear witness to freedom of the press in Mexico.

From the Judiciary of Nuevo León, the document "Ejercer la medicina sin título: el caso del Niño Fidencio (1929)" (Practicing medicine without a title: the case of the Niño Fidencio). It is about the complaint of the Health Council of the entity against Fidencio Constantino for medicating people without having a professional degree in medicine, a peculiar story, a popular legend of that region.

Also included the collection of the Plutarco Elías Calles and Fernando Torreblanca Archives Trust (Guadalajara, Jalisco), a collection of historical interest that corresponds mainly to the period of the Mexican Revolution and Post-Revolution (1910-1945) and the manuscripts of the 18th century "Pasatiempos de cosmología acerca de la disposición del universo" (Cosmology hobbies about the disposition of the universe), by Andrés de Guevara y Basuasabal, in custody of the Armando Olivares Library, of the University of Guanajuato. Like the exquisite print "El cantar de los cantares de Salomón" (Song of Solomon), translation from Hebrew by Jesús Díaz de León, in the Press of J. Trinidad Pedroza de Aguascalientes (1891), which is kept by the General Directorate of Libraries and Digital Services of UNAM information.

The Historical Archive of the Diocese of Texcoco, made up of the sacramental books and disciplinary documents of the Franciscan convents-parishes of Tezcoco, Chiautla, Coatlinchan and Huexotla, and the Dominican convents-parishes of Chimalhuacan and Tepetlaoztoc (1585-1930).

The old collection of the Historical Archive of the INAH Library (15th- 20th century), formed in 1944 from the collection "Manuscritos y ediciones raras y curiosas" (Manuscripts and rare and curious editions) of the Library that at that time belonged to the National Museum, which consists of 900 volumes with documents from the 16th centuries to the first decades of the 20th.

Likewise, the family archive of Manuel M. Ponce (1882-1948), which is preserved by the Cultural Institute of Aguascalientes (ICA). It is made up of three series of documents: those corresponding to Manuel M. Ponce (1882-1948), his sister María del Refugio Ponce (1880-1956) and his wife Clementina Maurel Ponce (1891-1966). It is made up of personal documents, hand programs, photographic albums, posters, diplomas, valuable books, as well as a wide collection of unpublished scores by the composer María del Refugio "Cuquita" Ponce. This is a valuable documentary heritage of international relevance, scattered in institutions in Mexico City, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, and Jerez.

With the incorporation of these collections, the National Register of Memory of the World already has 88 inscriptions and distinguishes efforts to preserve documentary heritage in Mexico by recognizing funds and collections protected by institutions from different latitudes of the country.

The Memory of the World Mexican Committee is a body made up of members appointed by institutions with national and heritage collections and ad hoc specialists. Its Board of Directors has Catherine Bloch, as president, Daniel Sanabria and Baltazar Brito, as vice-presidents, and Martha Romero and Daniel de Lira, as secretaries.

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