The Benson Latin American Collection is pleased to announce the acquisition of the archive of Jacqueline Barnitz (1923–2017). The life and collection of the late art historian and professor emeritus will be celebrated in the Benson’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room on Tuesday, March 27, at 3 p.m. Selected materials from the archive will be on view in an exhibition titled The Legacy of Jacqueline Barnitz.
The Benson Latin American Collection is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Alicia Gaspar de Alba Papers. Contents include drafts of creative works such as Calligraphy of the Witch (2007), La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge (2003), and Sor Juana’s Second Dream(1999) as well as notable academic publications like [Un]framing the “Bad Woman” (UT Press, 2014), Our Lady of Controversy (UT Press, 2011), and Making a Killing (UT Press, 2010).
How can we process 80 million pages of historical documents?
The question is a philosophical one, about the ability of our minds to conceive of such a large number of documents. The Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional (Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive, AHPN) in Guatemala City contains about eighty million documents, or about 135 years of records from the National Police of Guatemala.
The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is pleased to announce the opening of the María Luisa Puga Papers. Puga (1944–2004) was a Mexican novelist and short-story writer, winner of prestigious literary awards, and highly esteemed by her peers. She left a voluminous diary consisting of 327 notebooks spanning from 1972 through 2004, now available for consultation at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room of the Benson Collection.
Event: “Escritura y autofiguración en los diarios de María Luisa Puga” with Irma López and Patricia Puga. This event is free and open to the public. Lecture in Spanish without translation.
When: 4 p.m., Thursday, February 15, 2018.
Where: Benson Latin American Collection, 2nd floor conference room
An ambitious fall semester project in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies provided the opportunity for cross-campus collaborations that brought together the Harry Ransom Center and the Benson Latin American Collection.
Melissa Guy has been named Nettie Lee Benson Librarian and Director. Guy has served as Head of Collection Development for the Benson since November 2015. Prior to coming to the Benson, she was the subject specialist for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Arizona State University Libraries.
A librarian and two truckers are on a mission. They will travel for 27 hours, through four states, and at least one of them won’t get much sleep. Their journey involves high-security cargo, a climate-controlled 18-wheeler, and some rare documents from the 16th century. There will be truck stop food, photos with Snapchat filters to document the trip, and, by the end, an invitation to a wedding.
Event: “Deudos / Death Debt: The Art of Eduardo Lalo.” Exhibition of works by Puerto Rican photographer Eduardo Lalo.
When: Regular library hours through Wednesday, January 31, 2018.
Where: Second floor gallery, Benson Latin American Collection, SRH 1.108.
On Monday, October 9, 2017, the City of Austin celebrated its first official Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The auspicious occasion also marked the launch of the newly migrated and updated Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA), a digital language archive of recordings, texts, and other multimedia materials in and about the indigenous languages of Latin America.
