1
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I'll turn over to you

2
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and you guys take it away!

3
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Ok, well thank you Neil
and also thank you to Jennifer Giuliano

4
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with whom I've corresponded
but not met.

5
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Thank you for helping me set up today
but also for the invitation

6
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to share a work in progress

7
00:00:18,345 --> 00:00:22,477
on the documents of 20th century
Latin American and Latino art

8
00:00:22,911 --> 00:00:24,949
in shorthand, just
<i>The Documents Project</i>

9
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is probably a bit easier.

10
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I'm Abbie McEwen, Assistant Professor
in the department of Art History

11
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here at Maryland.

12
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I'm very pleased to have two co-presenters
this afternoon.

13
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Olga Herrera
who is our team leader

14
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here in Washington DC

15
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hosting an inter-university program
on Latino research

16
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currently at Notre Dame
but moving to Texas?

17
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Moving to the University of Illinois
in Chicago, July 1st.

18
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Ah, ok.

19
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And then also [unclear]
an undergraduate student at Maryland.

20
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Already a graduate,
back for his second degree

21
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in Art History.

22
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He's a student, enrolled
in a directive study with me

23
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this spring, engaged with the documents
at the Archives of American Art.

24
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And then folding his research
into a paper I've hijacked

25
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for our art course.

26
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I've imagined this dialog I'm holding
maybe in four parts today.

27
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First we would like to introduce
the larger project

28
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based at the International Center
for the Arts of the Americas

29
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the ICAA, at the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston.

30
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A project that was first conceived
back in 2002.

31
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It's absolutely an international,
inter-American kind of initiative

32
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and we'll speak a bit, too,
of the project's scope

33
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as a whole

34
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in part through a film,
which actually explains it

35
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visually in much greater detail
than I can.

36
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Then we'd like to talk

37
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about the work of the Washington
working group.

38
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Olga and I met, I think,
just about a year ago.

39
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We kind of talked about this collaboration

40
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we officially launched our project
in July.

41
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And so we're more than halfway
through the recovery project

42
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and we'll speak a bit to our work
and what we have targeted

43
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as the archives, the documents
to recover from this area.

44
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And third, I'd like to speak
a bit to the pedagogical aspect

45
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of this project.

46
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Not all of the teams have engaged
students

47
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both undergraduate
and graduate students, but here

48
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hopefully first in Colombia,
but certainly in Washington

49
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,413
that has seemed to be
an essential part of our work

50
00:02:41,413 --> 00:02:44,010
and we have a number of students

51
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not only at Maryland,

52
00:02:45,168 --> 00:02:47,517
but at George Mason,
and American University,

53
00:02:47,517 --> 00:02:50,219
who are real contributors
to this project.

54
00:02:50,532 --> 00:02:53,437
And it's been exciting
and really rewarding, I think

55
00:02:53,437 --> 00:02:58,424
for all of us to involve our students
and our roles in teaching

56
00:02:58,424 --> 00:03:01,003
along with this kind of project.

57
00:03:01,350 --> 00:03:04,839
At the end, we would hope to have
a real dialog about...

58
00:03:06,183 --> 00:03:09,879
certainly on the one hand
the role and the purpose

59
00:03:09,879 --> 00:03:11,979
of this kind of recovery project

60
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but also with the challenges
that we have faced.

61
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Certainly conceptually, structurally.

62
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It is, after all, an edited archive.

63
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But also practically, on the ground.

64
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Fundraising, scanning, all of the
nitty gritty details

65
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that can be challenging, I guess.

66
00:03:32,635 --> 00:03:35,088
So, I guess we can get started.

67
00:03:35,774 --> 00:03:37,890
I should say, just on a kind of...

68
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of a primer to introducing the work
of the team at Houston

69
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this is I think the most recent poster
which presents the documents

70
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as real art objects,
almost in themselves.

71
00:03:53,328 --> 00:03:57,855
The sub-field of modern Latin American art
even within the field of Art History

72
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is rather new.

73
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It's come into its own
perhaps only in the last two decades

74
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or so.

75
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Certainly now it's one
of the hotter fields.

76
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We hope it's still continuing to trend
upward within the discipline.

77
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But what has impeded,
or held back scholarship

78
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has been the lack of access
to primary sources.

79
00:04:20,490 --> 00:04:24,048
And the lack of a kind of basic
taxonomy of the field.

80
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Who were the key players?

81
00:04:25,874 --> 00:04:29,038
Not only the artists, but the critics,
the curators

82
00:04:29,304 --> 00:04:33,396
from all of these parts of,
I guess we'll call it, art world

83
00:04:34,123 --> 00:04:37,243
that have shaped the 20th century
of the Americas.

84
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And that this impediment to scholarship,

85
00:04:40,489 --> 00:04:44,755
this lack of access
and knowledge was, I believe,

86
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really the jumping off point
for this archive.

87
00:04:48,150 --> 00:04:54,029
Which was conceived
by a real leader in our field

88
00:04:54,029 --> 00:04:58,830
Mari Carmen Ramirez, a curator,
since 2002

89
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at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

90
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She has really pioneered
her scholarship in the field

91
00:05:06,035 --> 00:05:09,314
in a way, shaped
current trends in research

92
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around modern and contemporary
Latin American art.

93
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Based through her real research.

94
00:05:17,712 --> 00:05:20,797
And it's a credit to her exhibitions
that she's put out

95
00:05:20,797 --> 00:05:23,483
in the past three years in Houston,

96
00:05:23,483 --> 00:05:26,128
and previously at
the Blanton Museum in Austin,

97
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that her shows have been bracketing,

98
00:05:30,015 --> 00:05:33,856
and really built up by
her serious scholarship

99
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In 2002, just about 10 years ago,

100
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she assembled, or began to assemble

101
00:05:43,159 --> 00:05:45,705
different teams across the Americas.

102
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And these are two maps.

103
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One, the more topical,
looking at the art movements

104
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and the other, with more speaking about--

105
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looking at the different teams
that have been assembled

106
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in these different cities

107
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stretching across the Americas,
from the United States

108
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down into Argentina and Chile.

109
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A couple of these teams
have already reported.

110
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- I think Mexico has reported?
- Ah, yes.

111
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Mexico and the US team,
the component from UCLA

112
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that managed the activities
in Puerto Rico, in Miami

113
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and New York and California, as well.

114
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And the other day we did
the Mid-West section of the country

115
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We have Mexico and Argentina as well.

116
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All the teams have completed the work,

117
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but it has the process

118
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of this documentation, takes 2 years
approximately, per team.

119
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So these are the documents
that have been uploaded now

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and are accessible to the public.

121
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The other teams have completed the work
such as the teams

122
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from Venezuela, from Peru

123
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and as well as Brazil

124
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that will be coming up
in the next two years

125
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we'll be adding periodically
to the database

126
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to building the digital archive.

127
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So, the work is in progress.

128
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I suppose we, in Washington,
are part of a second generation

129
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of teams that have been planned,

130
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and I think more teams, more projects

131
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already are targeted for coming years.

132
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I guess now, I'll check now...

133
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Certainly I can answer questions
that you may have

134
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about the larger project.

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It may be more helpful to hear
about the project from the creators

136
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just to say, Mari Carmen Ramirez
and you'll hear a few other voices

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in this film.

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♪ (Latin American guitar music) ♪

139
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<i>(Mari Carmen Ramirez) The ICAA
stands for</i>

140
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<i>the International Center for the Art
of America.</i>

141
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<i>This is the only center of its kind
in the world.</i>

142
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<i>And initially we established the center
to promote the work</i>

143
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<i>of Latin American and Latino artists.</i>

144
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<i>To organize exhibitions,
to organize symposia</i>

145
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<i>and really serve as a kind of think tank</i>

146
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<i>about Latin American and Latino art.</i>

147
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<i>One of the main problems
is the lack of proper infrastructure</i>

148
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<i>commended to archives.</i>

149
00:08:24,031 --> 00:08:29,235
<i>And out of that came the idea
to establish a very ambitious initiative</i>

150
00:08:29,235 --> 00:08:31,824
<i>which is the ICAA Documents Project.</i>

151
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<i>(Peter Marzio) One of the very important
aspects of this project</i>

152
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<i>is that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
is not collecting these documents.</i>

153
00:08:43,556 --> 00:08:46,567
<i>The documents are staying
in their home countries</i>

154
00:08:46,567 --> 00:08:51,041
<i>under the care of the archivists
or the librarians who are in charge of them.</i>

155
00:08:51,762 --> 00:08:54,188
<i>That's the beauty of the new technology.</i>

156
00:08:54,188 --> 00:08:56,360
<i>(Mari Carmen Ramirez) It's a kind of
super highway</i>

157
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<i>that allows us to connect</i>

158
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<i>all the major countries of the region</i>

159
00:09:01,824 --> 00:09:05,330
<i>through a network of professionals
that are dedicated</i>

160
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<i>towards recovering
the intellectual production</i>

161
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<i>of the artists and movements
of the region.</i>

162
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<i>Since 2004, we've had ten teams</i>

163
00:09:14,829 --> 00:09:17,866
<i>working as part of
the ICAA Documents Project.</i>

164
00:09:17,866 --> 00:09:21,901
<i>These teams have been operating
out of Buenos Aires, Argentina</i>

165
00:09:21,901 --> 00:09:23,066
<i>Santiago, Chile</i>

166
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<i>Sao Paolo, Brazil</i>

167
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<i>Lima, Peru</i>

168
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<i>Bogota, Colombia</i>

169
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<i>Caracas, Venezuela</i>

170
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<i>Mexico City, Mexico</i>

171
00:09:29,777 --> 00:09:34,175
<i>and in the United States,
out of Los Angeles at UCLA</i>

172
00:09:34,175 --> 00:09:36,536
<i>and Sound Bend, Indiana
at Notre Dame University.</i>

173
00:09:37,215 --> 00:09:38,795
<i>There have also been researchers</i>

174
00:09:38,795 --> 00:09:41,813
<i>affiliated to the UCLA
and Notre Dame teams</i>

175
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<i>operating out of San Juan,
Puerto Rico</i>

176
00:09:44,862 --> 00:09:47,735
<i>New York, Washington DC,
and Miami.</i>

177
00:09:48,227 --> 00:09:50,660
<i>The research from all these teams
is then funneled</i>

178
00:09:50,660 --> 00:09:55,400
<i>to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
which is the headquarters for the ICAA.</i>

179
00:09:56,251 --> 00:10:00,674
<i>They were housed and supported
by a number of partner institutions</i>

180
00:10:01,281 --> 00:10:04,628
<i>that range from universities
to museums.</i>

181
00:10:04,628 --> 00:10:08,621
<i>Those teams are responsible
for recovering documents.</i>

182
00:10:08,894 --> 00:10:13,330
<i>Documents that have been written
by artists, critics and curators</i>

183
00:10:13,690 --> 00:10:14,911
<i>of the 20th century.</i>

184
00:10:14,911 --> 00:10:18,041
<i>And that provide us with the insight</i>

185
00:10:18,041 --> 00:10:20,867
<i>into the intellectual foundation
of that art.</i>

186
00:10:21,078 --> 00:10:25,474
<i>The central team in Houston is responsible
for processing those documents</i>

187
00:10:25,474 --> 00:10:28,103
<i>and putting them up into a website</i>

188
00:10:28,103 --> 00:10:32,469
<i>where they will be available to anyone
who wants to have access to them</i>

189
00:10:32,469 --> 00:10:34,743
<i>free of charge, anywhere in the world.</i>

190
00:10:35,516 --> 00:10:37,889
<i>(Peter Marzio) You get the information
out there,</i>

191
00:10:37,889 --> 00:10:40,053
<i>it touches a nerve, it excites people.</i>

192
00:10:40,437 --> 00:10:42,431
<i>People want to study more.</i>

193
00:10:42,431 --> 00:10:44,476
<i>Eventually they want to collect,</i>

194
00:10:44,476 --> 00:10:47,291
<i>they want to collect, trust me,
there'll be dealers there</i>

195
00:10:47,291 --> 00:10:49,187
<i>who will want them to collect.</i>

196
00:10:50,477 --> 00:10:54,026
<i>Eventually those works of art,
or some of them, anyway</i>

197
00:10:54,026 --> 00:10:56,361
<i>will find their ways into museums.</i>

198
00:10:56,830 --> 00:10:58,967
<i>You'll begin to develop departments</i>

199
00:10:58,967 --> 00:11:02,065
<i>of Latin American art
across the United States.</i>

200
00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:04,493
<i>With the departments
of Latin American art,</i>

201
00:11:04,493 --> 00:11:05,873
<i>you'll get more students.</i>

202
00:11:05,873 --> 00:11:09,716
<i>More students will lead to more patrons,
more patrons will lead to more dealers</i>

203
00:11:09,716 --> 00:11:11,176
<i>and so forth.</i>

204
00:11:11,176 --> 00:11:14,541
<i>It's almost like a forest fire</i>

205
00:11:14,541 --> 00:11:16,691
<i>if you get it going in the right way,</i>

206
00:11:16,691 --> 00:11:20,466
<i>and all starts with this simple project</i>

207
00:11:20,466 --> 00:11:22,375
<i>here at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston</i>

208
00:11:22,375 --> 00:11:24,690
<i>and that's what excites me about it.</i>

209
00:11:24,690 --> 00:11:26,892
<i>is that it's so catalytic.</i>

210
00:11:27,459 --> 00:11:28,930
<i>(Dr Edward Sullivan) Latin American art
certainly should become</i>

211
00:11:28,930 --> 00:11:31,383
<i>part of the worldwide project
of Modernism.</i>

212
00:11:31,383 --> 00:11:33,992
<i>And understanding the role
of the modern world</i>

213
00:11:33,992 --> 00:11:36,958
<i>in the manifestations of art
throughout the world</i>

214
00:11:36,958 --> 00:11:40,903
<i>whether it be Asia, Australia,
or the US, Americas</i>

215
00:11:40,903 --> 00:11:46,054
<i>and certain Latin America is a critical
component of this discourse</i>

216
00:11:46,054 --> 00:11:51,542
<i>this history and the access to documents
and the access to the actual material</i>

217
00:11:51,542 --> 00:11:54,570
<i>written at the moment when the art
was happening</i>

218
00:11:54,570 --> 00:11:56,166
<i>is a major tool.</i>

219
00:11:56,468 --> 00:11:58,947
<i>(Mari Carmen Herrera) In addition
to the digital archive</i>

220
00:11:58,947 --> 00:12:02,999
<i>we're also publishing a 13-volume
book series</i>

221
00:12:02,999 --> 00:12:05,557
<i>that accompanies the digital archive.</i>

222
00:12:05,557 --> 00:12:09,780
<i>It's called "Critical Documents
of Latin American and Latino Art"</i>

223
00:12:09,780 --> 00:12:14,337
<i>the books, in many ways, serve
as a guide to the archive.</i>

224
00:12:14,367 --> 00:12:18,983
<i>(Peter Marzio) There will be 13 published
volumes, which will be translated</i>

225
00:12:19,351 --> 00:12:24,305
<i>which serve as the leading
primary documents in the various fields</i>

226
00:12:24,305 --> 00:12:26,084
<i>of Latin American art.</i>

227
00:12:26,230 --> 00:12:30,038
<i>And my hope is that students in college,</i>

228
00:12:30,038 --> 00:12:34,484
<i>particularly freshmen who don't have
Portuguese or Spanish</i>

229
00:12:34,484 --> 00:12:40,252
<i>will be able to take a course
in 101 level Latin American art.</i>

230
00:12:41,199 --> 00:12:43,861
<i>That hasn't been possible until now.</i>

231
00:12:47,855 --> 00:12:49,674
<i>(Mari Carmen Herrera) We have
some of the sketches</i>

232
00:12:49,674 --> 00:12:53,185
<i>and particularly the color charts,
that Helio Oiticica used</i>

233
00:12:53,476 --> 00:12:55,906
<i>in the creation of his Grand Nucleus
which is a work</i>

234
00:12:55,906 --> 00:12:57,425
<i>that has been partially lost.</i>

235
00:12:57,893 --> 00:13:02,147
<i>So, these things will be of use
to researchers in the future.</i>

236
00:13:02,420 --> 00:13:06,473
<i>I'll go back and try to recreate
what this work was all about</i>

237
00:13:06,473 --> 00:13:08,653
<i>and how the artist made it work.</i>

238
00:13:09,698 --> 00:13:12,016
<i>We have other instances, for instance,</i>

239
00:13:12,016 --> 00:13:14,784
<i>in relation to the artist Leon Ferrari</i>

240
00:13:14,784 --> 00:13:17,271
<i>where we have a number
of documents in the archive</i>

241
00:13:17,271 --> 00:13:20,434
<i>where he is performing sketches
or other works</i>

242
00:13:20,434 --> 00:13:24,099
<i>or writing down thoughts
that pertain to works</i>

243
00:13:24,099 --> 00:13:26,165
<i>that he was in the process of creating.</i>

244
00:13:26,377 --> 00:13:27,904
<i>And there are many more instances</i>

245
00:13:27,904 --> 00:13:30,701
<i>of these kinds of documents
in the archive.</i>

246
00:13:31,439 --> 00:13:34,021
♪ (Latin American guitar music) ♪

247
00:13:39,921 --> 00:13:42,276
<i>I wouldn't say that there are new
movements and artists</i>

248
00:13:42,276 --> 00:13:44,276
<i>that have been discovered,
so much as artists</i>

249
00:13:44,276 --> 00:13:47,420
<i>that have been re-assessed</i>

250
00:13:47,420 --> 00:13:50,754
<i>as a result of this project.</i>

251
00:13:50,754 --> 00:13:54,570
<i>And, for instance, I can cite
the specific case</i>

252
00:13:54,570 --> 00:13:58,466
<i>of the Guatemalan artist Carlos Merida.</i>

253
00:13:59,158 --> 00:14:02,181
<i>who did most of his career
in Mexico City.</i>

254
00:14:02,181 --> 00:14:06,579
<i>And he's an artist that most of us
in the field knew</i>

255
00:14:06,579 --> 00:14:09,367
<i>as having been a producer.</i>

256
00:14:09,627 --> 00:14:14,769
<i>But I think very few people knew
the extent of his writing.</i>

257
00:14:15,142 --> 00:14:17,850
<i>And it turns out
that he was a very prolific writer.</i>

258
00:14:17,850 --> 00:14:22,622
<i>He had some very, very illuminating ideas
about the art of his times.</i>

259
00:14:22,938 --> 00:14:26,283
<i>And he was also writing about the art
of his contemporaries.</i>

260
00:14:29,010 --> 00:14:31,651
<i>People tend to associate
Latin American art</i>

261
00:14:31,651 --> 00:14:35,624
<i>with so-called "magic realism".</i>

262
00:14:35,956 --> 00:14:40,084
<i>The reality is, that ever since
the 1920s and 30s</i>

263
00:14:40,484 --> 00:14:43,284
<i>there have been many important
Latin American artists</i>

264
00:14:43,284 --> 00:14:45,838
<i>and many important groups of artists</i>

265
00:14:45,838 --> 00:14:48,161
<i>who set out to recover</i>

266
00:14:48,161 --> 00:14:51,902
<i>and to assimilate important aspects
of the avant garde</i>

267
00:14:51,902 --> 00:14:54,025
<i>in Europe and North America.</i>

268
00:14:54,025 --> 00:14:57,043
<i>And these artists not only assimilated
those principles</i>

269
00:14:57,043 --> 00:14:59,684
<i>but they also
did something new with it.</i>

270
00:14:59,684 --> 00:15:03,982
<i>And in many cases,
they anticipated developments</i>

271
00:15:03,982 --> 00:15:05,669
<i>in the United States and Europe</i>

272
00:15:05,669 --> 00:15:08,996
<i>so that there has been,
in Latin America,</i>

273
00:15:08,996 --> 00:15:12,954
<i>original thinking
and production of art.</i>

274
00:15:13,257 --> 00:15:16,567
<i>And that is, perhaps,
the biggest accomplishment</i>

275
00:15:16,567 --> 00:15:18,856
<i>that I hope this project can achieve.</i>

276
00:15:18,856 --> 00:15:22,078
<i>It's one thing to say,
"Latin American art is not derivative"</i>

277
00:15:22,078 --> 00:15:25,433
<i>but to really show
why it's not derivative</i>

278
00:15:25,433 --> 00:15:28,472
<i>and to provide the evidence,
the concrete evidence</i>

279
00:15:28,472 --> 00:15:30,015
<i>what these artists were thinking.</i>

280
00:15:30,015 --> 00:15:31,996
<i>That is what
we are setting out to do.</i>

281
00:15:32,391 --> 00:15:34,364
♪ (Latin American guitar music) ♪

282
00:15:44,357 --> 00:15:47,017
<i>(Dr. Edward Sullivan) For graduate
students, this project will be</i>

283
00:15:47,017 --> 00:15:49,162
<i>of immense use and immense interest.</i>

284
00:15:49,162 --> 00:15:52,872
<i>The access to documents,
and the access to the actual material</i>

285
00:15:52,872 --> 00:15:55,729
<i>written at the moment
when the art was happening</i>

286
00:15:55,729 --> 00:15:59,930
<i>is a major tool to understand
the developments</i>

287
00:15:59,930 --> 00:16:01,874
<i>of these art movements
in Latin America.</i>

288
00:16:01,874 --> 00:16:04,670
<i>(Mari Carmen Herrera) I see the ICAA
Documents Project</i>

289
00:16:04,670 --> 00:16:09,598
<i>as being really
just the beginning of this effort.</i>

290
00:16:09,814 --> 00:16:12,533
<i>We would like to find ways
to continue to expand the project.</i>

291
00:16:12,533 --> 00:16:15,410
<i>And it will be up to future scholars</i>

292
00:16:15,410 --> 00:16:17,918
<i>to really make something out of this</i>

293
00:16:17,918 --> 00:16:23,783
<i>and to continue to build what could
become a really true amazing resource</i>

294
00:16:23,783 --> 00:16:25,688
<i>for the development of the field.</i>

295
00:16:26,618 --> 00:16:28,628
♪ (Latin American guitar music) ♪

296
00:16:38,727 --> 00:16:42,229
Ok, so that was
their presentation of the film.

297
00:16:44,427 --> 00:16:46,922
The film is available on Vimeo

298
00:16:46,922 --> 00:16:51,097
and also on the MFA Houston's webpage,

299
00:16:51,097 --> 00:16:54,908
should you wish to re-watch it.

300
00:16:55,272 --> 00:16:59,910
Certainly we can go now
or even later this afternoon

301
00:16:59,910 --> 00:17:01,785
to the webpage.

302
00:17:01,785 --> 00:17:06,165
This is a screenshot from last week.

303
00:17:06,165 --> 00:17:11,145
This is what it actually looks like
when you login to the document's homepage.

304
00:17:13,340 --> 00:17:17,134
There's a bit of background history
of the project.

305
00:17:17,496 --> 00:17:19,545
The documents, certainly,

306
00:17:19,545 --> 00:17:23,675
3,700 or so catalogued to date.

307
00:17:23,675 --> 00:17:28,249
I think the queue, Mari had told us,
was a few thousand this summer.

308
00:17:28,249 --> 00:17:31,752
I imagine it's even longer now.

309
00:17:32,043 --> 00:17:36,311
But this is some of the homepage
of the Documents Project

310
00:17:36,311 --> 00:17:42,525
as it has looked since the digital archive
launched a year ago January.

311
00:17:42,525 --> 00:17:44,592
So, we're just into the second year.

312
00:17:47,458 --> 00:17:50,687
Mari Carmen in the film mentioned that
there was also a print publication as well

313
00:17:50,687 --> 00:17:53,342
and I have this, below Olga.

314
00:17:53,342 --> 00:17:54,795
I've just a copy of the book.

315
00:17:54,795 --> 00:17:57,985
It's a pretty hefty volume!

316
00:17:58,895 --> 00:18:01,790
- Should I pass it?
- Yeah, absolutely.

317
00:18:02,234 --> 00:18:06,951
I will say it is a tremendous value
to have these sources translated.

318
00:18:07,238 --> 00:18:10,422
Certainly, for teaching,
these are documents

319
00:18:10,422 --> 00:18:13,594
that otherwise have not
at all been available.

320
00:18:14,523 --> 00:18:17,013
Certainly in this way.

321
00:18:17,696 --> 00:18:21,835
So this is the digital side,
that's the print version.

322
00:18:23,660 --> 00:18:27,176
This is probably the most important

323
00:18:28,607 --> 00:18:33,126
part of the webpage,
which is to say it's the search engine.

324
00:18:33,387 --> 00:18:38,899
I'll show you our cataloging system,
our protocols,

325
00:18:38,899 --> 00:18:43,497
so you can see how we're trying
to identify

326
00:18:45,009 --> 00:18:49,610
keywords artists so that our documents
will appear in these searches.

327
00:18:50,236 --> 00:18:54,840
But the archive is searchable
by artist name, by language

328
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:56,346
by date, by country.

329
00:18:56,745 --> 00:18:59,827
With all of these different filters.

330
00:19:00,405 --> 00:19:03,722
Just as a kind of example

331
00:19:03,722 --> 00:19:07,889
I have pulled this document

332
00:19:08,933 --> 00:19:12,383
it's one by the Argentine artist
Leon Ferrari,

333
00:19:12,678 --> 00:19:16,499
just to show you
what it actually looks like

334
00:19:17,301 --> 00:19:20,282
with the cataloging
and information at the top

335
00:19:21,700 --> 00:19:25,137
and a synopsis and also an annotation.

336
00:19:25,646 --> 00:19:29,162
If you click over on the very top
right-hand corner

337
00:19:29,162 --> 00:19:34,413
you can also have this information
in Spanish, so it is a bilingual webpage.

338
00:19:34,789 --> 00:19:38,512
If you were to click
on underneath this small image

339
00:19:38,512 --> 00:19:40,006
of the document full text

340
00:19:40,868 --> 00:19:43,898
this is what one of the document,
that appears for you.

341
00:19:44,508 --> 00:19:47,048
Again, this is just as an example.

342
00:19:47,048 --> 00:19:51,990
And it comes up as a PDF
with the ICAA cover sheet.

343
00:19:51,990 --> 00:19:57,206
And then you do get within the document,
the image itself.

344
00:19:57,206 --> 00:20:00,500
Which is, for graduate students,
for scholars,

345
00:20:00,500 --> 00:20:05,635
actually a huge asset to this site.

346
00:20:09,613 --> 00:20:12,579
Mari Carmen referred to,
in the film,

347
00:20:12,579 --> 00:20:16,473
the editorial framework of the archive

348
00:20:16,473 --> 00:20:20,560
and to these different categories.

349
00:20:22,529 --> 00:20:25,668
I think it's worth noting
that researchers haven't been

350
00:20:25,668 --> 00:20:31,291
necessarily asked to go and draw up
all sorts of documents.

351
00:20:31,291 --> 00:20:37,291
And in fact, we've been tasked
to look more deliberately

352
00:20:37,291 --> 00:20:40,346
for documents that fall
within these categories.

353
00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:43,266
Certainly, these are
quite broad categories

354
00:20:43,930 --> 00:20:48,779
but there is certainly a curatorial
or curative aspect to the archive.

355
00:20:49,382 --> 00:20:51,276
Olga, did you want to speak
to some of these--

356
00:20:51,276 --> 00:20:55,571
Yes, these are some of the categories
that will form in the publication

357
00:20:55,571 --> 00:20:58,459
so these are, as Abbie said, pretty broad.

358
00:20:58,772 --> 00:21:00,624
They include, if you take them
one by one

359
00:21:00,624 --> 00:21:03,742
they include all the possibilities
within Latin American art

360
00:21:03,742 --> 00:21:05,722
but they're not limited to this.

361
00:21:06,128 --> 00:21:10,165
In fact, researchers are asked
to suggest new ones

362
00:21:10,165 --> 00:21:12,539
depending on the cases,
depending on the collections

363
00:21:12,539 --> 00:21:14,554
that we are looking at.

364
00:21:14,927 --> 00:21:16,856
For example, the collection
that we're looking at

365
00:21:16,856 --> 00:21:19,506
here in Washington DC,
the Jose Gomez Sicre

366
00:21:19,506 --> 00:21:21,705
and the Organization of American States

367
00:21:21,705 --> 00:21:23,856
that falls very much
into existing categories

368
00:21:23,856 --> 00:21:25,481
Latin American and Latino.

369
00:21:25,889 --> 00:21:29,463
He was an art critic
that was based here in Washington DC.

370
00:21:31,295 --> 00:21:34,534
He joined the Pan American Union
in 1946

371
00:21:34,779 --> 00:21:36,665
and retired in 1991.

372
00:21:36,959 --> 00:21:40,366
So he had a very long career
of promoting young talent

373
00:21:40,366 --> 00:21:41,429
from Latin America

374
00:21:41,429 --> 00:21:42,510
and introducing them

375
00:21:42,510 --> 00:21:46,002
as part of the mission of
the Pan American Union until 1948

376
00:21:46,002 --> 00:21:49,113
and then from 1948 on,
the Organization of American States.

377
00:21:49,485 --> 00:21:55,232
So, in his role, he's falling into this
looking at the hemisphere

378
00:21:55,500 --> 00:21:58,141
from the location of the US.

379
00:21:58,141 --> 00:21:59,740
Looking down at Latin America.

380
00:21:59,740 --> 00:22:04,185
But as he travels back and forth,
he is taking his knowledge.

381
00:22:04,185 --> 00:22:09,148
He's going to Argentina,
going to the [inaudible] Gallery

382
00:22:09,542 --> 00:22:12,640
collecting information,
presenting the artists here in Washington

383
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:19,140
then going to São Paolo Biennial
exchanging information.

384
00:22:19,140 --> 00:22:22,531
So he's creating all this network
that goes

385
00:22:22,531 --> 00:22:25,889
into these different categories
of what is Latin American and Latino.

386
00:22:26,140 --> 00:22:30,285
In the first volume that is circulating,
the concluding remarks

387
00:22:30,285 --> 00:22:33,321
about this idea
of Latin American and Latino

388
00:22:33,321 --> 00:22:35,025
is that these are constructions.

389
00:22:35,025 --> 00:22:36,353
They do not exist.

390
00:22:36,353 --> 00:22:39,567
But they're very much constructions
to put together groups.

391
00:22:40,021 --> 00:22:41,839
Very heterogeneous groups.

392
00:22:42,089 --> 00:22:44,489
So, we think this project,
this category,

393
00:22:44,489 --> 00:22:47,091
the documents are challenging
those assumptions.

394
00:22:47,543 --> 00:22:49,856
In the <i>National Imaginaries/
Cosmopolitan Identities</i>

395
00:22:49,856 --> 00:22:51,078
that's the second volume

396
00:22:51,078 --> 00:22:53,973
that is looking very much at the idea
of the global and the local.

397
00:22:54,593 --> 00:22:57,478
Cosmopolitanism versus nationalism.

398
00:22:57,478 --> 00:23:01,622
The organization, the construction
of the modern nation states

399
00:23:01,622 --> 00:23:05,894
and how the artists are addressing
this building of the nations.

400
00:23:05,894 --> 00:23:09,527
Are they assuming a very nationalist tone?
Or do they want to be international?

401
00:23:09,527 --> 00:23:11,650
It's that national/international binary.

402
00:23:11,650 --> 00:23:15,213
Recycling and hydrating the arts
of Latino America

403
00:23:15,213 --> 00:23:20,323
that is something that relates
to the US Latino populations.

404
00:23:23,049 --> 00:23:27,739
Appropriating icons
and appropriating histories

405
00:23:27,739 --> 00:23:31,999
and recreating histories and myths
such as the mythical land of Aslam.

406
00:23:32,429 --> 00:23:34,743
And making it part of that nationalism.

407
00:23:34,743 --> 00:23:38,189
And others that follow along those lines

408
00:23:38,189 --> 00:23:40,996
in terms of pop art, as well,
in Argentina.

409
00:23:41,436 --> 00:23:45,149
In issues of race, class and gender,
that's very much what is happening

410
00:23:45,149 --> 00:23:46,443
in the different countries.

411
00:23:46,443 --> 00:23:48,346
One of the big issues here
that looks at

412
00:23:48,346 --> 00:23:52,785
is the presence of Afro-Latin American,
the Caribbean

413
00:23:52,785 --> 00:23:55,290
not only Caribbean, but other countries
that do not fall

414
00:23:55,290 --> 00:23:57,366
within that Caribbean basin.

415
00:23:57,366 --> 00:23:59,424
Art activism and social change.

416
00:23:59,997 --> 00:24:03,648
And that goes a little bit
with this idea of...

417
00:24:06,361 --> 00:24:07,589
graphic arts.

418
00:24:08,019 --> 00:24:11,920
This idea of graphic arts
as a more popular medium

419
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,453
to pass on messages about art

420
00:24:14,872 --> 00:24:16,960
or using art to convey messages.

421
00:24:17,586 --> 00:24:20,393
Then super-realism, magic realism
and the fantastic.

422
00:24:20,393 --> 00:24:22,775
That is a category that would look
as an example

423
00:24:22,775 --> 00:24:26,958
the role of Roberto Matta, Wilfredo Lam

424
00:24:26,958 --> 00:24:29,918
and the relationship that they had
with Breton.

425
00:24:30,266 --> 00:24:33,768
Or Breton in Mexico with Frida Kahlo
or the others, and creating

426
00:24:34,043 --> 00:24:36,927
and putting together
the first realist exhibitions

427
00:24:36,927 --> 00:24:39,125
in Mexico in 1939 -1940.

428
00:24:39,125 --> 00:24:44,259
New world, American constructive utopias,
that's really Abbie's alley

429
00:24:44,259 --> 00:24:47,637
but it looks at those developments
that Mari Carmen mentions

430
00:24:47,637 --> 00:24:51,790
about the Argentinian Madi group, 1940s,

431
00:24:52,157 --> 00:24:57,566
really foretelling developments
that happened in the 1960s in the US.

432
00:24:57,912 --> 00:25:01,086
The breaking of the frame,
art experimentation with colors,

433
00:25:01,086 --> 00:25:06,276
sculptures, all these things
that were being explored

434
00:25:06,276 --> 00:25:09,528
not only by Argentinian artists
but by Brazilian as well, and others.

435
00:25:09,528 --> 00:25:11,144
And Venezuelans.

436
00:25:11,386 --> 00:25:13,921
Abstracts and figuratives
in the Cold War period.

437
00:25:13,921 --> 00:25:18,175
This is where Gomez Sicre wanted
to collect the collections

438
00:25:18,175 --> 00:25:19,541
that we're looking at in Washington.

439
00:25:19,541 --> 00:25:21,756
Really most of the documents
fall into this.

440
00:25:21,756 --> 00:25:23,153
He was...

441
00:25:24,663 --> 00:25:28,958
really the point for him
became the Cuban Revolution

442
00:25:29,837 --> 00:25:34,169
he had promoted a lot of figuration
during the 1950s.

443
00:25:34,529 --> 00:25:37,521
Beginning in 1960,
you start seeing the promotion

444
00:25:37,521 --> 00:25:41,105
of more abstraction in the artists

445
00:25:41,105 --> 00:25:43,877
even to the point that he,
for example,

446
00:25:44,285 --> 00:25:46,870
taking the case of Ecuador,
you have Guayasamin

447
00:25:46,870 --> 00:25:48,636
as one of the key artists.

448
00:25:48,902 --> 00:25:52,371
To the point that he presented
an exhibition of Guayasamin in the 1950s

449
00:25:52,371 --> 00:25:57,108
and then 1960s is a different generation,
totally obliterating

450
00:25:57,108 --> 00:26:00,982
the contribution of Guayasamin
in this debate

451
00:26:00,982 --> 00:26:03,861
and this documentation that he provides.

452
00:26:04,023 --> 00:26:06,029
But then again the graphic artists,

453
00:26:06,029 --> 00:26:08,931
this idea of art activism
and social change

454
00:26:08,931 --> 00:26:11,393
in a way they interrelate.

455
00:26:11,393 --> 00:26:15,180
Then we have the exile displacement
diaspora that has to be very much

456
00:26:15,180 --> 00:26:20,292
with artists from Latin American countries
coming to the US, moving to Europe.

457
00:26:20,687 --> 00:26:25,934
As part of self-exile
or forced exile displacement

458
00:26:25,934 --> 00:26:28,388
and the diaspora, the construction,
the migration to the US.

459
00:26:29,155 --> 00:26:33,903
These new diasporic communities
that start growing

460
00:26:33,903 --> 00:26:36,389
from the 1970s, 1960s on.

461
00:26:36,849 --> 00:26:42,455
Conceptualism, the reference
to Oiticica and others.

462
00:26:43,131 --> 00:26:44,893
Mass-media and technology in art

463
00:26:44,893 --> 00:26:47,423
what is happening,
especially with the groups in Argentina

464
00:26:47,423 --> 00:26:51,254
in late 1960s and early 1970s.

465
00:26:51,818 --> 00:26:56,415
That idea of using computers,

466
00:26:56,415 --> 00:26:59,182
using certain formats
could be regenerated.

467
00:26:59,565 --> 00:27:04,541
Very basic early 1970s technology
and traveling these exhibitions

468
00:27:04,541 --> 00:27:07,979
and putting a collective
of world artists together.

469
00:27:07,979 --> 00:27:10,626
Globalization and its Latin American
discontents.

470
00:27:10,626 --> 00:27:13,094
This really looks at
more recent developments

471
00:27:13,094 --> 00:27:16,694
in terms of the infrastructure
of the art field.

472
00:27:16,875 --> 00:27:20,600
In terms of the new fairs,
the new biennials.

473
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,541
The circulation of global artists.

474
00:27:23,541 --> 00:27:28,546
So, those are really very few examples
of what we could encounter

475
00:27:28,546 --> 00:27:30,353
in these different categories.

476
00:27:30,353 --> 00:27:35,307
But they're broad in their description
and they try to follow

477
00:27:35,307 --> 00:27:40,448
more a model of identity,
very fluid, very organic coming in, out

478
00:27:40,448 --> 00:27:45,400
and in the document series,
they sometimes do not fit

479
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,485
neatly into one category.

480
00:27:47,485 --> 00:27:53,422
So they fit into several ones
and it's a way to present

481
00:27:53,422 --> 00:27:56,937
a more wider perspective
of the movement of art

482
00:27:57,189 --> 00:27:59,177
in Latin America.

483
00:28:01,083 --> 00:28:04,120
The diversity of these topics
really speaks to the point

484
00:28:04,120 --> 00:28:07,621
that Mari Carmen made in the film
about moving the idea

485
00:28:07,621 --> 00:28:11,800
of Latin American art
away from its stereotyped identity

486
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,841
is just being about art activism
and social change

487
00:28:14,841 --> 00:28:19,598
or as being so closely connected
to Diego Rivero, Frida Kahlo.

488
00:28:19,598 --> 00:28:23,056
Though certainly major figures
within this history

489
00:28:23,056 --> 00:28:25,327
but certainly they weren't the only actors

490
00:28:25,327 --> 00:28:27,891
in the Americas across the 20th century.

491
00:28:28,067 --> 00:28:29,573
And the idea

492
00:28:30,373 --> 00:28:32,101
coming out of Houston,
I think expressed

493
00:28:32,101 --> 00:28:33,633
by all of these different teams
has been

494
00:28:33,633 --> 00:28:38,330
to allow a more expansive idea of what

495
00:28:38,330 --> 00:28:41,939
American or Latin American, or Latino art

496
00:28:41,939 --> 00:28:47,004
might actually have to offer, and to say.

497
00:28:49,941 --> 00:28:54,673
There are four pages of the cataloging
entry forms

498
00:28:54,673 --> 00:28:58,691
and I just thought I would show them here
to you just to give you a sense

499
00:28:58,691 --> 00:29:03,217
of what the actual work is
to get a document if we find

500
00:29:03,217 --> 00:29:08,692
for instance, an exhibition catalog
that is only five sentences of text,

501
00:29:08,692 --> 00:29:14,276
how that actually becomes part
of the documenting process.

502
00:29:14,974 --> 00:29:19,382
These are the empty documents
that we're giving to our students here

503
00:29:19,382 --> 00:29:22,640
at Maryland and elsewhere
and asking them

504
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:27,361
to categorize
within this editorial framework

505
00:29:27,361 --> 00:29:32,352
but also to do some of this other
data analysis

506
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:37,837
as it were, to think of these documents
and to catalog them.

507
00:29:37,837 --> 00:29:44,256
And to do this work
as well as the interpretive analysis.

508
00:29:44,827 --> 00:29:49,473
This is the second pages,

509
00:29:49,473 --> 00:29:53,625
the third and fourth page
of our entry form.

510
00:29:57,477 --> 00:30:00,317
This is shifting over to our...

511
00:30:00,317 --> 00:30:05,228
with our Washington team
and our working group here.

512
00:30:06,590 --> 00:30:11,508
I suppose if there are any questions
about the larger project in Houston

513
00:30:11,508 --> 00:30:15,043
this might be a good time
to answer--

514
00:30:15,241 --> 00:30:16,066
Yes?

515
00:30:16,216 --> 00:30:19,459
(audience member 1) So I saw
on the main webpage

516
00:30:19,459 --> 00:30:22,325
it said something sorta, I think "my",
it said something "my"...

517
00:30:22,325 --> 00:30:24,425
- my argu--
- (Abbie) Oh, my documents

518
00:30:24,425 --> 00:30:25,744
- (audience member 1) My documents?
- (Abbie) Yes.

519
00:30:25,744 --> 00:30:28,512
(audience member 1) And looking
at the categories,

520
00:30:28,512 --> 00:30:31,286
I wonder, is it possible to resort,

521
00:30:31,286 --> 00:30:35,187
can a user coming there,
can they effectively...

522
00:30:35,187 --> 00:30:37,204
as carefully as you've worked out
these categories

523
00:30:37,204 --> 00:30:41,466
can they start to play with,
and stretch, and re-stretch the categories

524
00:30:41,466 --> 00:30:44,406
and make things fit into different--

525
00:30:44,406 --> 00:30:46,609
because I see the "my documents" and...

526
00:30:46,609 --> 00:30:48,802
And sort of a related question was,

527
00:30:48,802 --> 00:30:51,444
you're going through
the different collections,

528
00:30:51,444 --> 00:30:53,086
and I'm wondering if there are some things

529
00:30:53,086 --> 00:30:54,725
that just fit no categories,

530
00:30:54,725 --> 00:30:58,392
and so they don't end up in this,
even though they're part of...

531
00:30:59,457 --> 00:31:03,143
identified, and part of
a rich collection,

532
00:31:03,419 --> 00:31:08,739
but there may be some things
that are just so much ephemera?

533
00:31:09,445 --> 00:31:12,549
So, those are two kind of questions.

534
00:31:13,329 --> 00:31:15,617
(Abbie) I can try
to answer them, I suppose.

535
00:31:15,617 --> 00:31:18,815
My documents, we can play with that
a little bit on the webpage.

536
00:31:19,961 --> 00:31:23,448
If you create a user account
and it's absolutely free to do this,

537
00:31:24,051 --> 00:31:28,078
then you can tab the documents
and sort them into...

538
00:31:29,142 --> 00:31:31,821
different larger folders,
as it were,

539
00:31:31,821 --> 00:31:32,837
and we give them a heading.

540
00:31:32,837 --> 00:31:36,299
So, if you wanted to look at
just Mexican muralism

541
00:31:36,299 --> 00:31:38,709
or Cuban abstraction
you could create a folder

542
00:31:38,709 --> 00:31:41,179
and then insert these documents there.

543
00:31:41,447 --> 00:31:43,540
And you have the option of making
these folders public

544
00:31:43,540 --> 00:31:45,090
and sharing them.

545
00:31:45,090 --> 00:31:47,198
So, if you wanted to say,
"Well these are all documents

546
00:31:47,198 --> 00:31:50,082
pertaining to muralism in the 1930s",

547
00:31:50,877 --> 00:31:53,869
I've gone in and found them
and I'm going to make them available

548
00:31:53,869 --> 00:31:57,243
to you, just as a collegial thing
to do, that's one option.

549
00:31:58,414 --> 00:32:00,850
I've done this on a small scale
for my teaching.

550
00:32:00,850 --> 00:32:03,862
If I've wanted to go in
and ask students to work

551
00:32:03,862 --> 00:32:06,846
on this question of Latino
versus Latin American identity

552
00:32:06,846 --> 00:32:09,393
and say, "Well, these are a few documents,

553
00:32:10,209 --> 00:32:13,864
perhaps select two out of these
and construct an argument.

554
00:32:13,864 --> 00:32:15,737
What are these different authors saying?"

555
00:32:16,034 --> 00:32:18,284
There's that possibility.

556
00:32:18,284 --> 00:32:22,450
I don't know that users can change
categorizations

557
00:32:22,450 --> 00:32:25,362
although that might be
an interesting feature.

558
00:32:25,362 --> 00:32:29,645
But that's the "my documents"
is only a personal site

559
00:32:29,645 --> 00:32:32,816
within the larger project.

560
00:32:33,419 --> 00:32:37,372
This other question about ephemeral
or one-off documents

561
00:32:37,372 --> 00:32:41,908
is one that I also have thought about.

562
00:32:42,464 --> 00:32:44,960
I think that the answer
that Maria Gaztambide,

563
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,142
she's the head of the ICAA at Houston,

564
00:32:48,142 --> 00:32:51,413
she gave to us last summer
when she oriented me in the project,

565
00:32:51,413 --> 00:32:53,764
all that has been oriented
probably many times

566
00:32:53,764 --> 00:32:55,017
she's a real veteran.

567
00:32:57,106 --> 00:33:01,406
Was if there does seem to be a document
that doesn't have an obvious artist

568
00:33:01,406 --> 00:33:06,064
who is maybe kind of to the side
of one category or the other,

569
00:33:06,064 --> 00:33:08,100
perhaps the strategy
might be to collect

570
00:33:08,100 --> 00:33:11,094
a small set of documents,
four or five,

571
00:33:11,094 --> 00:33:15,048
that would allow this artist
or this topic to be

572
00:33:15,048 --> 00:33:18,336
in a way, more fully-explained
that one document in itself

573
00:33:18,336 --> 00:33:19,709
might be able to do

574
00:33:19,709 --> 00:33:22,504
and then to add those documents
together.

575
00:33:23,384 --> 00:33:27,628
I don't know if this has happened,
but Maria says it's on the way

576
00:33:28,197 --> 00:33:30,442
is for documents to link to each other.

577
00:33:30,442 --> 00:33:34,233
And so if you pull up a document
on Frida Kahlo

578
00:33:34,233 --> 00:33:38,215
there might be a way to bracket off
another document.

579
00:33:38,488 --> 00:33:42,203
And so for artists, especially artists
who are lesser-known than Kahlo

580
00:33:42,203 --> 00:33:45,578
to be able then to link an artist
who's an awkward fit, perhaps,

581
00:33:45,578 --> 00:33:48,585
to something that is more major
or even to other documents

582
00:33:48,585 --> 00:33:53,320
that explain this moment,
or this history

583
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:57,933
it's a way of including
sideways, as it were,

584
00:33:57,933 --> 00:34:02,934
these even more marginal figures
within the larger narrative.

585
00:34:03,376 --> 00:34:04,833
Does that sound about right?

586
00:34:05,996 --> 00:34:08,877
You know your question is very important
because these categories

587
00:34:08,877 --> 00:34:12,288
that were decided in 2004,
so it's nine years ago.

588
00:34:12,288 --> 00:34:14,342
The field is changing and definitely,

589
00:34:14,342 --> 00:34:17,447
but they are very open, that is something
that of my understanding

590
00:34:17,447 --> 00:34:21,202
there is a way to communicate with them
to suggest new categories.

591
00:34:21,202 --> 00:34:24,545
And I think this is going to generate
new categories by itself.

592
00:34:24,545 --> 00:34:26,286
The availability of the documents,

593
00:34:26,286 --> 00:34:29,223
the new reassessments
of the collections of artists

594
00:34:29,223 --> 00:34:31,030
will generate newer themes.

595
00:34:31,376 --> 00:34:33,748
For example, one of the last categories

596
00:34:33,748 --> 00:34:36,661
that we had was the globalization
and its discontents

597
00:34:36,661 --> 00:34:39,356
but you don't hear so much
about globalization

598
00:34:40,277 --> 00:34:42,539
at the end of neoliberalism.

599
00:34:42,539 --> 00:34:48,422
Now it's the idea of the backwards
globalization, no longer there

600
00:34:48,422 --> 00:34:51,293
so it's just where is globalization
right now, and that's one of the points,

601
00:34:51,293 --> 00:34:55,637
because that's one of my fields
of research, globalization.

602
00:34:55,637 --> 00:34:57,665
So, right now it's very difficult.

603
00:34:57,665 --> 00:35:02,566
So, is that the valid field right now?
Maybe it isn't.

604
00:35:02,566 --> 00:35:06,892
So that's something that I think
it is set up to be more fluid,

605
00:35:06,892 --> 00:35:10,841
and absolutely, they would consider
new fields

606
00:35:10,841 --> 00:35:13,204
something else for
the researchers to suggest.

607
00:35:13,204 --> 00:35:16,480
In terms of the documents,
that's something that we usually

608
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:18,027
if there's no--

609
00:35:18,671 --> 00:35:22,066
if they don't fit neatly
within these categories

610
00:35:22,066 --> 00:35:27,121
we write a note to the project
and then they reassess

611
00:35:27,121 --> 00:35:28,755
and figure out where to put it.

612
00:35:28,755 --> 00:35:31,301
For example, in the publication,
the book,

613
00:35:31,712 --> 00:35:35,956
there are some documents
that are not really art-related,

614
00:35:35,956 --> 00:35:39,412
but they're more into the concept
of what Latin America was.

615
00:35:39,412 --> 00:35:45,794
For example, they have the original
poems from 1856

616
00:35:46,422 --> 00:35:50,432
of Caicedo, Jose Maria Caicedo,
when he refers for the first time

617
00:35:50,909 --> 00:35:53,335
to the continent as <i>Latin America</i>.

618
00:35:53,335 --> 00:35:54,938
It's very much, it comes from--

619
00:35:54,938 --> 00:35:57,965
It's a French construction
rather than an American,

620
00:35:57,965 --> 00:36:01,042
The American usage of <i>the Americas</i>

621
00:36:01,042 --> 00:36:04,573
was <i>the older American republics</i>
up until 1945.

622
00:36:04,883 --> 00:36:09,732
And that's what you see in the official
documents from the national archives

623
00:36:09,732 --> 00:36:13,118
related to art exchanges
with Latin America.

624
00:36:13,487 --> 00:36:15,759
It's very much
<i>the older American republics</i>.

625
00:36:17,121 --> 00:36:21,628
So it is definitely changing,
but that's something very interesting.

626
00:36:22,257 --> 00:36:24,791
So if you are using it in the future
and see something that you want

627
00:36:24,791 --> 00:36:28,812
to suggest, by all means,
that would be very welcome!

628
00:36:32,768 --> 00:36:34,903
If there are no more questions
about the Washington part of it.

629
00:36:34,903 --> 00:36:37,472
We can certainly
cycle back.

630
00:36:37,959 --> 00:36:42,142
This is just a brief overview
of the Washington team.

631
00:36:42,927 --> 00:36:47,689
I guess it's an introduction
of the different partner institutions

632
00:36:48,378 --> 00:36:52,252
of their research team and then
an incomplete list of students.

633
00:36:52,252 --> 00:36:58,031
We have still to add the six students
in my graduate seminar this term.

634
00:37:00,986 --> 00:37:05,347
The idea of bringing the Documents Project
to Washington was really Olga's.

635
00:37:06,529 --> 00:37:11,610
And perhaps you would want to speak
to your idea of bringing it here?

636
00:37:11,944 --> 00:37:14,539
Well, yes, this is something
very interesting

637
00:37:14,539 --> 00:37:17,916
and it's a conversation that has been
going on since about 2006.

638
00:37:18,451 --> 00:37:22,805
When the current director of
the Documents Project, Maria Gaztambide

639
00:37:22,805 --> 00:37:27,228
worked for the Archives of American Art
in the late 1990s,

640
00:37:27,228 --> 00:37:30,745
she completed surveys
of Latin American, Latino artists

641
00:37:30,745 --> 00:37:32,344
in New York and Puerto Rico,

642
00:37:32,344 --> 00:37:34,401
and someone else did it for Florida.

643
00:37:34,401 --> 00:37:38,264
So there was that foundation,
previous year of work

644
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:43,528
Previous years always come together,
so Maria was very much aware

645
00:37:43,528 --> 00:37:45,849
of what was at the Archives
of American Art

646
00:37:45,849 --> 00:37:50,014
in terms of this Mari Carmen
was very knowledgeable

647
00:37:50,014 --> 00:37:53,900
about the work of Jose Gomez Sicre
and the lack of documents

648
00:37:53,900 --> 00:37:55,234
about his criticism.

649
00:37:55,234 --> 00:38:00,427
There were some articles in newspapers
as well as some of the essays

650
00:38:00,427 --> 00:38:03,632
that he would write for the bulletin,
the Artes Visuales

651
00:38:03,632 --> 00:38:06,050
of the Pan American union
of the OAS.

652
00:38:06,050 --> 00:38:08,191
But other than that
there was not much

653
00:38:08,191 --> 00:38:12,375
and when he passed away in 1991,

654
00:38:12,590 --> 00:38:17,228
he retired from the Museum
of the Art of the Americas in 1981

655
00:38:17,804 --> 00:38:20,891
and fortunately, and this is the issue
with archives

656
00:38:20,891 --> 00:38:24,216
and with the technology
that really is amazing

657
00:38:24,216 --> 00:38:26,743
there's usually one person
that really values

658
00:38:26,743 --> 00:38:28,771
these collections of papers
at the same time.

659
00:38:28,771 --> 00:38:32,213
So, in this case, they were put
in bankers' boxes,

660
00:38:32,213 --> 00:38:35,373
13 of them, and we, for this project,

661
00:38:35,373 --> 00:38:39,070
the idea was to go over these 13 boxes,

662
00:38:39,422 --> 00:38:42,796
catalog them, put them in archival boxes,

663
00:38:42,796 --> 00:38:46,164
create the finding aids, and then
scan them and digitize them.

664
00:38:46,164 --> 00:38:49,717
So, that's been the work that we've been
doing since July.

665
00:38:50,283 --> 00:38:54,881
So, the knowledge of these collections
at the Archives of American Art was there,

666
00:38:54,881 --> 00:38:58,195
Washington was an important point
for the introduction

667
00:38:58,195 --> 00:39:00,081
of Latin American artists.

668
00:39:00,081 --> 00:39:03,228
Of course, we have that connections
from Mexico to New York,

669
00:39:03,228 --> 00:39:06,651
the galleries, the development
of the 1920s

670
00:39:06,651 --> 00:39:10,727
the interest in the mural movement
and priority at the World Fairs.

671
00:39:10,727 --> 00:39:15,739
Those were really huge windows
into showing Latin American culture

672
00:39:15,739 --> 00:39:19,328
from different countries
to the world.

673
00:39:19,328 --> 00:39:22,208
But Washington was that special place

674
00:39:22,208 --> 00:39:26,172
and the idea, the conversation
really started in 2006.

675
00:39:26,172 --> 00:39:29,805
They tried to engage
the Smithsonian Institution,

676
00:39:29,805 --> 00:39:32,145
were not very successful,
and at that time,

677
00:39:32,145 --> 00:39:33,495
at the University of Notre Dame,

678
00:39:33,495 --> 00:39:35,878
we were doing the Midwest project,
and recording

679
00:39:35,878 --> 00:39:39,936
which was really going house-to-house,
visiting artist-to-artist,

680
00:39:39,936 --> 00:39:44,407
organizations, and going to the basements,
pulling the archival collections,

681
00:39:44,407 --> 00:39:45,642
digitizing them.

682
00:39:45,642 --> 00:39:49,111
So, we had that experience
and this was a conversation

683
00:39:49,111 --> 00:39:50,377
that continued after that.

684
00:39:50,377 --> 00:39:52,263
Why don't we do Washington DC?

685
00:39:52,868 --> 00:39:56,017
So, the opportunity really arose
last year,

686
00:39:56,017 --> 00:39:59,237
and we said "if we don't do it this year,
it's not going to get done."

687
00:39:59,474 --> 00:40:02,949
And this, the DC Project,

688
00:40:02,949 --> 00:40:07,013
along with the Uruguay Project
are the last ones.

689
00:40:07,013 --> 00:40:11,108
They were planning to do one in New York,
but it hasn't been solidified

690
00:40:11,943 --> 00:40:15,360
in looking at the different
Latin American organizations

691
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:16,981
that existed, and galleries.

692
00:40:16,981 --> 00:40:21,057
Some papers strong, very fragile galleries,

693
00:40:21,057 --> 00:40:26,382
very small control centers
that are always at risk of disappearing.

694
00:40:26,629 --> 00:40:30,312
So, this is one of the freelance projects
that we're doing.

695
00:40:30,584 --> 00:40:35,324
And with this, the idea
for the consortium was Maria's

696
00:40:35,536 --> 00:40:40,757
based on the success
of the Colombian team project

697
00:40:40,757 --> 00:40:43,793
that engaged students from
Universidad de los Andes,

698
00:40:44,334 --> 00:40:46,554
from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano,

699
00:40:46,554 --> 00:40:50,573
they were very involved, and that was part
of the goal of the project itself,

700
00:40:50,573 --> 00:40:54,181
to try to bring new scholars,
to try to engage students

701
00:40:54,181 --> 00:40:55,710
into the project.

702
00:40:55,710 --> 00:41:00,032
So, this has been the idea
to include the universities.

703
00:41:00,334 --> 00:41:03,927
Michelle Greet is
at George Mason University.

704
00:41:03,927 --> 00:41:08,541
She was out... she has had...

705
00:41:09,625 --> 00:41:12,327
she is working on a project,
so she had one year off.

706
00:41:12,327 --> 00:41:15,327
So, I taught a class
at George Mason University

707
00:41:15,327 --> 00:41:18,881
on 20th century Latin American art
last semester

708
00:41:18,881 --> 00:41:20,919
and engaged the students
from George Mason.

709
00:41:20,919 --> 00:41:23,648
We still have one working with us
this semester

710
00:41:23,648 --> 00:41:26,305
so that has been the participation
with George Mason.

711
00:41:26,305 --> 00:41:28,430
With the University of Maryland,
we're very thankful

712
00:41:28,430 --> 00:41:32,183
to Abbie and to the department
because we have wonderful our students

713
00:41:32,183 --> 00:41:36,175
working along, and one of them is Eloy,

714
00:41:36,420 --> 00:41:39,639
who is working with the collections
of the Archives of American Art.

715
00:41:39,639 --> 00:41:42,144
And basically we're engaging
Alejandro Anreus

716
00:41:42,144 --> 00:41:44,912
who's the chair of the art department
at William Paterson.

717
00:41:44,912 --> 00:41:48,484
He worked at the Organization
of American States

718
00:41:48,484 --> 00:41:53,699
he did conduct some long interviews
with Gomez Sicre

719
00:41:53,699 --> 00:41:59,930
so he has followed that idea
of publicizing what his curatorial vision was.

720
00:42:00,357 --> 00:42:03,171
Michelle Greet, as I mentioned,
George Mason University,

721
00:42:03,171 --> 00:42:07,230
Liza Kirwin, who is the acting director
of the Archives of American Art,

722
00:42:07,639 --> 00:42:12,118
Adriana Ospina, who is the registrar
at the Art Museum of the Americas

723
00:42:12,118 --> 00:42:17,322
I've been working with her
in terms of cataloging the archives.

724
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:22,550
We have a list of some of the consortium
of graduate students as students,

725
00:42:22,550 --> 00:42:27,003
we had Rebecca Cosgrove
from Maryland as well, last semester.

726
00:42:27,003 --> 00:42:32,300
And we have this semester, Eloy,
and a longer list that Abbie has

727
00:42:32,300 --> 00:42:35,247
of the names of the students
from Maryland.

728
00:42:37,186 --> 00:42:39,439
(Abbie) These are just, again,
some screenshots

729
00:42:39,439 --> 00:42:41,905
of the Archives of American Art

730
00:42:41,905 --> 00:42:46,871
where Eloy is working
on the Giulio Blanc papers.

731
00:42:46,871 --> 00:42:51,934
Blanc was a major curator and writer
of Cuban, Cuban-American art.

732
00:42:51,934 --> 00:42:55,464
Unfortunately passed away very young,
but his archive

733
00:42:55,464 --> 00:42:57,782
is actually quite a tremendous asset.

734
00:42:57,782 --> 00:43:00,783
And this is just the webpage,

735
00:43:00,783 --> 00:43:04,260
as it looks at
the Art Museum of the Americas,

736
00:43:04,638 --> 00:43:07,793
just off the National Mall
in Washington.

737
00:43:08,209 --> 00:43:10,189
In addition to the Gomez Sicre archives,

738
00:43:10,189 --> 00:43:15,107
they do actually have incredible
country files, artist files.

739
00:43:15,678 --> 00:43:19,202
Unfortunately, not cataloged
and not very well organized,

740
00:43:19,202 --> 00:43:26,061
but as a resource for Latin American art
the actual documents,

741
00:43:26,061 --> 00:43:31,923
newspaper clippings, from all of the OAS
offices across these cities,

742
00:43:31,923 --> 00:43:36,099
across the Americas,
are actually incredibly valuable.

743
00:43:36,099 --> 00:43:39,177
But this is just if you were to go
to these sites, you could click through

744
00:43:39,177 --> 00:43:41,583
and see the different papers and records

745
00:43:41,583 --> 00:43:43,428
and archives and so on.

746
00:43:43,969 --> 00:43:47,447
This is just an example of one document
that one of our graduate students,

747
00:43:47,447 --> 00:43:50,978
Caroline Shields, is actually working on.

748
00:43:50,978 --> 00:43:53,783
The documents are often quite short.

749
00:43:53,783 --> 00:43:56,777
There isn't always a lot of text.

750
00:43:56,777 --> 00:44:00,718
But in a way, in targeting Gomez Sicre,
in making him the big focus

751
00:44:00,718 --> 00:44:03,661
of the project in Washington,

752
00:44:03,661 --> 00:44:07,377
even what seemed to be
almost a minor document

753
00:44:07,377 --> 00:44:09,459
with very little analysis

754
00:44:10,653 --> 00:44:16,055
seen in numbers of 20 or 50,
they begin to articulate

755
00:44:16,055 --> 00:44:20,523
a curatorial vision,
or even an agenda.

756
00:44:20,523 --> 00:44:26,436
Gomez Sicre is often criticized as being
a <i>Cold Warrior</i>, as it were.

757
00:44:26,436 --> 00:44:30,566
But we can see that shifts
in his own ideas

758
00:44:30,566 --> 00:44:35,362
in his own philosophy
about abstraction and figuration

759
00:44:35,362 --> 00:44:39,271
through the changing in the tone
of some of these texts.

760
00:44:39,271 --> 00:44:43,895
And so, to have them not just
as a one-off, but as 20, as 50,

761
00:44:43,895 --> 00:44:47,614
you begin to get a bigger picture
of him as a writer.

762
00:44:47,614 --> 00:44:49,590
But this is just one example.

763
00:44:49,590 --> 00:44:54,480
This is another example,
this is one that I'll be writing up.

764
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:59,660
I'll say that,
particularly I'm very excited

765
00:44:59,660 --> 00:45:02,301
to be part of the Documents Project.

766
00:45:02,301 --> 00:45:05,081
For me, it's been a bit
of a reacquaintance

767
00:45:05,081 --> 00:45:06,618
with actually some of these documents

768
00:45:06,618 --> 00:45:09,514
because I've already
gone through the archives

769
00:45:09,514 --> 00:45:13,815
or have seen these documents
in the course of my own research

770
00:45:13,815 --> 00:45:17,125
and, certainly the idea
of the Documents Project

771
00:45:17,125 --> 00:45:21,030
isn't just to kind of
assemble the documents

772
00:45:21,030 --> 00:45:26,514
but also to see them as a catalyst
for research, scholarship and publication.

773
00:45:26,810 --> 00:45:29,218
to get the document, and a way,
to put the documents

774
00:45:29,218 --> 00:45:32,340
into art historical use.

775
00:45:32,798 --> 00:45:35,580
Albizu was a Puerto Rican artist
who Gomez Sicre

776
00:45:35,580 --> 00:45:41,206
was really the first to introduce
to the United States-based audience.

777
00:45:41,770 --> 00:45:46,215
She fell, almost immediately,
into a kind of obscurity.

778
00:45:46,215 --> 00:45:49,157
This is a very early exhibition.

779
00:45:50,761 --> 00:45:55,513
Albizu, I think is about to have
a bit of a resurgence.

780
00:45:55,513 --> 00:46:00,104
This is a work of art,
a fantastic painting

781
00:46:00,104 --> 00:46:03,519
that JP Morgan has just donated
to the Smithsonian,

782
00:46:03,519 --> 00:46:05,504
I think just earlier this year.

783
00:46:05,504 --> 00:46:10,432
It will be a real highlight
of the exhibition of Our America

784
00:46:10,432 --> 00:46:14,251
that Carmen Ramos is preparing
right now, as we speak,

785
00:46:14,251 --> 00:46:20,042
scheduled to open in October
of this year at the Smithsonian.

786
00:46:20,663 --> 00:46:23,457
It's significant, in part, because Albizu

787
00:46:23,457 --> 00:46:26,009
has not always been considered
an American artist

788
00:46:26,674 --> 00:46:29,113
even though Puerto Rico
is certainly a commonwealth.

789
00:46:29,113 --> 00:46:32,976
She's an artist who spent her career
in New York.

790
00:46:32,976 --> 00:46:39,161
But to see her becoming recognized
through acquisition

791
00:46:39,161 --> 00:46:42,176
but also through,
and at the documentary level,

792
00:46:42,176 --> 00:46:45,838
have seen the history of Albizu
in Washington or New York.

793
00:46:45,838 --> 00:46:48,382
It's a way of rounding out
a former picture of this artist

794
00:46:48,382 --> 00:46:50,307
and who she was.

795
00:46:51,454 --> 00:46:53,084
This is another example, again,
of a document

796
00:46:53,084 --> 00:46:57,619
that I'll be writing up,
of again, for me, a Cuban artist,

797
00:46:57,619 --> 00:47:02,275
Agustin Fernandez, who also had
one of his very early

798
00:47:02,275 --> 00:47:08,387
and important exhibitions
at the Pan-American Union,

799
00:47:08,387 --> 00:47:09,810
as it was.

800
00:47:10,459 --> 00:47:13,687
Then I've featured Fernandez, in part,

801
00:47:13,687 --> 00:47:17,212
to also mention
the Agustin Fernandez Foundation.

802
00:47:18,045 --> 00:47:23,692
One of the great opportunities
that the Documents Project has afforded

803
00:47:23,692 --> 00:47:28,593
is for otherwise obscure,
and very little known artist foundations

804
00:47:28,593 --> 00:47:31,870
and estates, to have a bit
of extra publicity.

805
00:47:32,729 --> 00:47:34,912
It's possible,
and certainly this will be the case

806
00:47:34,912 --> 00:47:40,561
where Fernandez, for the document entries
to make reference to the estate

807
00:47:40,561 --> 00:47:46,372
to a foundation, for them to be listed
as also a collaborator.

808
00:47:46,372 --> 00:47:50,175
And for so many of these artists'
families, the artists themselves

809
00:47:50,175 --> 00:47:55,244
the foundations, it's a real boost
to have this kind of recognition

810
00:47:55,244 --> 00:47:59,669
and attention, which can otherwise
be very difficult, unfortunately,

811
00:47:59,669 --> 00:48:01,074
to come by.

812
00:48:02,985 --> 00:48:07,617
These are two documents that Eloy
has actually identified

813
00:48:07,617 --> 00:48:09,881
from the Archives of American Art.

814
00:48:10,113 --> 00:48:14,157
Both on a Cuban artist, again,
Amelia Pelaez.

815
00:48:16,579 --> 00:48:18,111
(Eloy) Yeah, 
I was going to say.

816
00:48:18,111 --> 00:48:20,178
Basically there was a lot
of information there,

817
00:48:20,178 --> 00:48:24,449
so I really had to narrow it down
to something that is doable.

818
00:48:25,110 --> 00:48:27,898
And I narrowed it down to the
Julio Blanc papers.

819
00:48:28,490 --> 00:48:32,723
Which has a lot of information
about different Latin American artists.

820
00:48:33,587 --> 00:48:36,122
And further, there, I had to
narrow it down

821
00:48:36,122 --> 00:48:38,948
to one particular artist.

822
00:48:38,948 --> 00:48:40,657
I actually looked at Wilfredo Lam


823
00:48:40,657 --> 00:48:43,441
and there's some interesting
material there for him.

824
00:48:43,441 --> 00:48:47,357
And there was actually some audio
material that I listened to

825
00:48:47,357 --> 00:48:51,187
that was by Lydia Cabrera,
who is actually a sociologist

826
00:48:52,225 --> 00:48:56,342
in Afro-Cuban culture,

827
00:48:57,083 --> 00:48:59,312
and collaborated very much
with Wilfredo Lam,

828
00:48:59,312 --> 00:49:01,282
and has some of his works.

829
00:49:01,282 --> 00:49:03,403
And that was actually interesting,
listening to her.

830
00:49:03,403 --> 00:49:05,725
Of course, at the time
when the interview was made

831
00:49:05,725 --> 00:49:08,397
she was probably in her eighties
at the time.

832
00:49:09,457 --> 00:49:12,210
But then I began to concentrate
on Amelia Pelaez

833
00:49:12,210 --> 00:49:14,428
mainly because I wasn't sure

834
00:49:14,428 --> 00:49:16,507
how much material
there was out there.

835
00:49:17,926 --> 00:49:21,915
And the collection has

836
00:49:21,915 --> 00:49:26,724
a series of things from catalogs,
exhibition catalogs

837
00:49:26,724 --> 00:49:30,412
including her first exhibition in Paris
back in 1933.

838
00:49:31,020 --> 00:49:33,618
And it goes on
through different exhibitions

839
00:49:33,618 --> 00:49:37,986
including some posthumous exhibitions
here in the United States.

840
00:49:37,986 --> 00:49:41,636
as well as one in Cuba,
starting in the late 60s,

841
00:49:42,151 --> 00:49:43,751
'68, after she died.

842
00:49:44,220 --> 00:49:46,643
Newspaper clippings, articles.

843
00:49:47,044 --> 00:49:50,623
So what you see here is,
believe this first one is...

844
00:49:51,968 --> 00:49:56,214
is actually by Giulio Blanc,
a paper that Giulio Blanc started writing.

845
00:49:56,214 --> 00:50:00,316
And this is his draft, obviously,
and that's recorded there.

846
00:50:00,908 --> 00:50:05,470
The next one that you see was one that was
actually written by Jose Gomez Sicre,

847
00:50:05,470 --> 00:50:06,755
in a...

848
00:50:07,917 --> 00:50:12,059
I guess it was a journal
called The Metropolitan

849
00:50:12,501 --> 00:50:14,338
which is actually associated with the--

850
00:50:15,449 --> 00:50:18,278
it was actually not in New York,
that's one of the things I found out,

851
00:50:18,278 --> 00:50:19,993
because it involves a lot of research

852
00:50:19,993 --> 00:50:23,144
when you start writing
the annotations later.

853
00:50:23,144 --> 00:50:27,601
But it's in Miami,
it started actually in Coral Gables

854
00:50:27,917 --> 00:50:29,294
and then later became part of

855
00:50:29,294 --> 00:50:32,206
the Museum of Modern Art in Miami.

856
00:50:32,206 --> 00:50:34,978
And then that section got closed
and that was part of the...

857
00:50:38,852 --> 00:50:40,948
FIU in Miami.

858
00:50:42,086 --> 00:50:45,258
So, what I do is I go through these

859
00:50:45,258 --> 00:50:47,848
and I basically end up
filling out the forms

860
00:50:47,848 --> 00:50:50,606
that were shown earlier.

861
00:50:50,782 --> 00:50:55,253
And what really takes a lot of the work
aside from just the description

862
00:50:55,253 --> 00:50:59,712
is the actual looking at the annotations
and doing the research, and trying to--

863
00:50:59,712 --> 00:51:01,255
But it's very interesting.

864
00:51:02,392 --> 00:51:06,912
in some of them I was telling Olga earlier,
that I saw one of the catalogs

865
00:51:06,912 --> 00:51:11,499
that was actually done in Cuba
in November of 1968,

866
00:51:13,227 --> 00:51:14,896
shortly after she died.

867
00:51:14,896 --> 00:51:16,323
It was very comprehensive.

868
00:51:16,323 --> 00:51:20,089
And it actually has pictures
that go back to her time in Paris

869
00:51:20,769 --> 00:51:26,977
along with other Cuban artists
there that were co-students

870
00:51:26,977 --> 00:51:28,538
with her in Paris.

871
00:51:29,073 --> 00:51:33,752
It also shows her, aside from a lot
of the paintings that she has done

872
00:51:33,752 --> 00:51:37,505
she also did ceramics
and she had a workshop in Havana

873
00:51:38,047 --> 00:51:39,903
so it shows a lot of her ceramics.

874
00:51:39,903 --> 00:51:42,288
That's something that a lot of times
you don't get to see.

875
00:51:42,590 --> 00:51:44,717
So, it's been very interesting.

876
00:51:44,717 --> 00:51:48,317
I, myself, come--I'm a neophyte,
really, to this, to the art history.

877
00:51:48,317 --> 00:51:51,294
I come more from
the practicing artist end

878
00:51:51,294 --> 00:51:54,197
and so it's very interesting
to see all of these works

879
00:51:54,197 --> 00:51:57,827
which actually end up
influencing you as an artist, as well.

880
00:52:00,471 --> 00:52:02,139
- Yes?
- (audience member 2) Can I jump in?

881
00:52:02,139 --> 00:52:04,324
So, I was fascinated listening to how

882
00:52:04,324 --> 00:52:06,512
you narrowed down
to this particular artist

883
00:52:06,512 --> 00:52:10,553
and it sounds like you are swimming
in a sea of documents

884
00:52:10,553 --> 00:52:14,973
and trying to bite off
and masticate that one portion.

885
00:52:15,766 --> 00:52:18,290
Are you making notes
about all the other things

886
00:52:18,290 --> 00:52:20,294
that you don't end up focusing on?

887
00:52:20,294 --> 00:52:23,095
So that others can narrow their searches?

888
00:52:23,095 --> 00:52:25,752
(Eloy) That's a good question,
it's a very difficult one to answer

889
00:52:25,752 --> 00:52:29,428
because there is so much material in there
as you go through it.

890
00:52:29,428 --> 00:52:31,661
And some of it is a little bit
clearer to see

891
00:52:31,661 --> 00:52:34,782
than others, just because of the quality
of the microfilm

892
00:52:34,782 --> 00:52:38,276
but I'm basically using
my own judgment in there

893
00:52:39,722 --> 00:52:42,353
And I talk with Olga sometimes
and there are some things that--

894
00:52:42,353 --> 00:52:47,425
I make a list of different things
and then she can call it further,

895
00:52:47,425 --> 00:52:50,849
and say "This, I think it's good
to concentrate on."

896
00:52:50,849 --> 00:52:55,542
But it's very easy to spend
tons of time on that

897
00:52:55,542 --> 00:52:57,477
so at some point,
in order to actually be productive

898
00:52:57,477 --> 00:53:00,223
and produce something
you have to use your own judgment.

899
00:53:01,036 --> 00:53:04,575
I should tell you a little bit
why I chose--

900
00:53:04,575 --> 00:53:07,445
why I narrowed it down
to these two artists,

901
00:53:07,445 --> 00:53:08,972
and especially to Amelia Pelaez.

902
00:53:08,972 --> 00:53:13,161
I'm originally from Cuba,
so I have some knowledge

903
00:53:14,537 --> 00:53:15,785
about the culture.

904
00:53:15,785 --> 00:53:19,960
I grew up there and then came
to the United States in the 60s.

905
00:53:20,827 --> 00:53:25,342
So, some of the things that I read
are a little bit easier

906
00:53:25,342 --> 00:53:28,310
to associate with and to understand.

907
00:53:28,310 --> 00:53:30,688
A lot of the material
is actually in Spanish.

908
00:53:30,688 --> 00:53:32,121
These two happen to be in English,


909
00:53:32,121 --> 00:53:33,950
but there's a lot of others
that are in Spanish.

910
00:53:33,950 --> 00:53:35,913
Some of it is also in French.

911
00:53:36,589 --> 00:53:39,993
So, as I write about the documents
I also end up translating them.

912
00:53:40,524 --> 00:53:44,424
But yeah, you're right,
it's a matter of choice


913
00:53:44,424 --> 00:53:46,593
and judgment.

914
00:53:48,601 --> 00:53:50,089
I don't know if
I've answered your question.

915
00:53:50,089 --> 00:53:51,735
(audience member 2) No, no,
that's perfectly fine.

916
00:53:51,735 --> 00:53:53,422
That's what I figured
you were going to say!

917
00:53:53,422 --> 00:53:55,498
I was just curious how the--

918
00:53:55,498 --> 00:53:58,109
You don't want those little,
that flotsam and jetsam

919
00:53:58,109 --> 00:54:00,573
to be flotsam and jetsam,
to be lost forever--

920
00:54:00,573 --> 00:54:05,481
(Eloy) And some of it's a little bit...
of a reputation, for example,

921
00:54:06,698 --> 00:54:09,071
I read something,
and then I read something later,

922
00:54:09,071 --> 00:54:12,484
another newspaper article
and it repeats it.

923
00:54:12,484 --> 00:54:16,644
For example, the case of Pelaez,
later in the 90s, I believe,

924
00:54:16,644 --> 00:54:19,557
when they started doing some shows
in Miami

925
00:54:19,557 --> 00:54:23,089
there was some antagonism
from a certain group

926
00:54:23,089 --> 00:54:25,575
a more conservative group
of the Cuban community

927
00:54:25,575 --> 00:54:26,731
that opposed that,

928
00:54:26,731 --> 00:54:29,986
because she was obviously from Cuba
and she died in Cuba.

929
00:54:30,709 --> 00:54:33,276
And there were some
newspaper articles on that.

930
00:54:33,276 --> 00:54:37,061
But then there was also movement
from within the Miami community

931
00:54:37,061 --> 00:54:39,653
that said, "Hey, you know,
this is not fair, this is not right.

932
00:54:39,653 --> 00:54:40,708
Let's...Let's...

933
00:54:42,902 --> 00:54:45,989
Let's pay homage to this woman."

934
00:54:46,433 --> 00:54:49,441
And I think one of the things that Olga
mentioned about Jose Gomez Sicre,


935
00:54:49,441 --> 00:54:51,540
I think you implied that there was a--

936
00:54:51,540 --> 00:54:53,676
I think you used the term <i>Cold Warrior</i>...

937
00:54:54,778 --> 00:54:58,090
in there, and there was also
some articles about him.

938
00:54:58,090 --> 00:55:02,762
For example, he actually was
very favorable towards Amelia Pelaez

939
00:55:02,762 --> 00:55:06,661
because most of her art
is really non-political.

940
00:55:07,139 --> 00:55:10,024
He was not as favorable,
I think in some cases

941
00:55:10,024 --> 00:55:13,165
than was [Wilfredo Lam],
who tended to be more...

942
00:55:15,310 --> 00:55:17,111
leaning socialist, and all that.

943
00:55:17,111 --> 00:55:20,729
So that's one of the things
that I do find in doing this research

944
00:55:20,729 --> 00:55:25,199
is how the politics
begin to play in here.

945
00:55:26,837 --> 00:55:29,621
(Mari Carmen) Yeah, and for
Gomez Sicre, the politics,

946
00:55:29,621 --> 00:55:31,569
you have to take into consideration

947
00:55:31,569 --> 00:55:34,763
that he is of the Organization
of American States,

948
00:55:36,435 --> 00:55:38,051
he is an employee,

949
00:55:38,051 --> 00:55:42,215
so he has to follow
this political position

950
00:55:42,215 --> 00:55:44,297
within the organization itself,

951
00:55:44,297 --> 00:55:48,319
even though he worked from 1946 on,
but he's so many things.

952
00:55:48,319 --> 00:55:54,450
He was part of, he saw McCarthyism,
then he saw the Cold War

953
00:55:54,450 --> 00:55:58,319
the changes to the Alliance for Progress
in Latin America and those shifts.

954
00:55:58,319 --> 00:56:00,689
So, he would see money coming in,
money taken out,

955
00:56:00,689 --> 00:56:01,917
money coming in...

956
00:56:01,917 --> 00:56:04,473
The foundations themselves,
the Rockefeller Foundation

957
00:56:04,473 --> 00:56:07,005
giving him money in the 1960s,

958
00:56:07,005 --> 00:56:10,265
and the Rockefeller Foundation
giving money in 1945,

959
00:56:10,265 --> 00:56:13,504
prior to him joining
the Pan-American Union

960
00:56:13,504 --> 00:56:16,072
to create the archive,
the actual archive

961
00:56:16,072 --> 00:56:19,048
to what we see today
at the Art Museum of the Americas

962
00:56:19,048 --> 00:56:21,748
that came as a grant
from the Rockefeller Foundation

963
00:56:21,748 --> 00:56:23,465
during World War II.

964
00:56:23,465 --> 00:56:28,124
So, that is something that we,
in reading between the lines,

965
00:56:28,124 --> 00:56:30,528
as Abbie said, these are very short
documents,

966
00:56:30,528 --> 00:56:32,380
but when we put them together
as a group

967
00:56:32,380 --> 00:56:36,404
we start seeing what was happening
in terms of his politics.

968
00:56:36,404 --> 00:56:39,842
One of the surprises
in the archives for us

969
00:56:39,842 --> 00:56:43,235
was finding newspapers from Cuba

970
00:56:43,235 --> 00:56:47,472
from between 1963 and 1964
which at the time

971
00:56:47,472 --> 00:56:52,328
seems that he was being investigated
at the FBI, at the CIA.

972
00:56:52,328 --> 00:56:56,337
But he had this relationship
with Alejandro Carpentier

973
00:56:56,337 --> 00:57:00,083
that went all the way 20 years back
and he was the one

974
00:57:00,083 --> 00:57:03,676
sending these newspapers
that were coming to his residence

975
00:57:03,676 --> 00:57:07,140
and he would move
into the OAS for protection.

976
00:57:07,140 --> 00:57:10,249
So, there's a little bit of that
<i>Cold Warrior</i>...

977
00:57:10,249 --> 00:57:13,873
in the public imagination, but I think
this opened more lines of inquiry

978
00:57:13,873 --> 00:57:17,579
to really looking at what is,
from the institutional point of view,

979
00:57:17,579 --> 00:57:21,267
what is happening
and how he's choosing his politics.

980
00:57:22,060 --> 00:57:26,173
Hard to understand certain curatorial
normals that he's following.

981
00:57:26,173 --> 00:57:28,228
(Eloy) And there's that,
and there's other issues,

982
00:57:28,228 --> 00:57:31,271
for example, one newspaper article,
I didn't actually document that,

983
00:57:31,271 --> 00:57:35,293
but then I found it was from
Wilfred Lam's wife,

984
00:57:35,853 --> 00:57:40,295
in which she basically said
that in Cuba, actually,

985
00:57:40,555 --> 00:57:45,089
in a hotel, I think it was, it probably
used to be the Hotel Nacional,

986
00:57:45,089 --> 00:57:47,419
and now it's called Habana Libre,

987
00:57:47,419 --> 00:57:51,820
in a store there they were selling
fakes of Wilfredo Lam.

988
00:57:51,820 --> 00:57:55,824
And so that came to her attention
and she ended up writing a letter

989
00:57:55,824 --> 00:58:00,273
that basically said unless it has a seal
that I have actually signed,

990
00:58:02,570 --> 00:58:08,886
do not consider it to be
a genuine Wilfredo Lam.

991
00:58:09,301 --> 00:58:12,586
So it's... I'm just kind of giving you
some of the things I find

992
00:58:12,586 --> 00:58:15,905
that may not make it
into all of this information.

993
00:58:15,905 --> 00:58:18,482
But it's just interesting to see
that it's going on,

994
00:58:18,482 --> 00:58:19,979
that it's happening.

995
00:58:20,692 --> 00:58:25,761
I will say that this year-long project
has focused on the Gomez Sicre papers

996
00:58:25,761 --> 00:58:29,417
and to a small degree, with [inaudible]
Eloy and the Giulio Blanc papers,

997
00:58:29,417 --> 00:58:32,134
but at both the Archives of American Art
and certainly

998
00:58:32,134 --> 00:58:34,254
at the Organization of American States,

999
00:58:34,254 --> 00:58:37,289
there are many other archives,
and for this project

1000
00:58:37,289 --> 00:58:42,178
to be funded for additional years,
there's actually an incredible amount of work

1001
00:58:42,178 --> 00:58:44,523
and documents to be recovered.

1002
00:58:44,793 --> 00:58:49,311
But that's forecasting a bit ahead
to the future.

1003
00:58:49,311 --> 00:58:52,355
But certainly, even in a year,

1004
00:58:52,355 --> 00:58:56,611
we hope to have contributed
almost 400 documents

1005
00:58:56,611 --> 00:59:00,096
but there are three and four times
that many, potentially,

1006
00:59:00,096 --> 00:59:02,657
that could fall into this project.

1007
00:59:03,135 --> 00:59:06,189
And just to kind of go on
with teaching a little bit.

1008
00:59:06,189 --> 00:59:09,720
These are the six students
who are in my graduate seminar

1009
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:12,048
this spring,
and these are their assignments.

1010
00:59:12,455 --> 00:59:16,862
And they each have, I guess,
between four and five documents

1011
00:59:17,659 --> 00:59:20,163
I know Lindsey Muniak,
she's an undergraduate student

1012
00:59:20,163 --> 00:59:23,292
in the department, who's hoping
to actually take on a bit more

1013
00:59:23,292 --> 00:59:27,131
after her honors paper is concluded,
and perhaps to write a bit

1014
00:59:27,131 --> 00:59:30,100
over the summer as well.

1015
00:59:30,100 --> 00:59:34,705
And their topics range
from someone like Torres Garcia

1016
00:59:34,728 --> 00:59:39,840
to a more contemporary figure,
Juan Downey, for instance,

1017
00:59:40,649 --> 00:59:42,570
a video art pioneer.

1018
00:59:42,984 --> 00:59:48,413
They are from the later 1940s
through the 1980s.

1019
00:59:49,363 --> 00:59:53,783
I think in each case the documents
correspond at least in some way

1020
00:59:53,783 --> 00:59:57,206
to the conference paper
the resource that they're putting together

1021
00:59:57,206 --> 00:59:58,551
for the seminar.

1022
00:59:58,551 --> 01:00:02,840
So I tried, in a way, to assign
or to suggest documents

1023
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:07,525
that have a significance
beyond just the Documents Project

1024
01:00:07,525 --> 01:00:12,182
but that could, in a way,
feed into their other work,

1025
01:00:12,182 --> 01:00:14,150
and their work for their coursework,

1026
01:00:14,150 --> 01:00:17,929
and for me, within the department.

1027
01:00:18,224 --> 01:00:22,809
I have to say, it's been interesting
for me to have had these students

1028
01:00:23,939 --> 01:00:25,573
to involve in this project.

1029
01:00:25,573 --> 01:00:28,242
It seemed like a good opportunity
for graduate students

1030
01:00:28,242 --> 01:00:32,124
to give them an opportunity
to publish and to contribute to

1031
01:00:32,124 --> 01:00:37,141
what I think is going to be a real key
document and archive in the field,

1032
01:00:37,141 --> 01:00:41,714
and for them to be credited as authors,
both in the digital version

1033
01:00:41,714 --> 01:00:45,103
and in the print form
of the Documents Project,

1034
01:00:45,343 --> 01:00:47,127
but also to expose them

1035
01:00:47,437 --> 01:00:50,970
to this digital humanities
initiative in general.

1036
01:00:51,598 --> 01:00:54,609
To see what the process is
for cataloging

1037
01:00:55,137 --> 01:00:58,597
even if they don't get into the selection
of documents.

1038
01:00:58,597 --> 01:01:01,913
And then to write them up,
in two parts.

1039
01:01:01,913 --> 01:01:03,710
I don't know if we explained this.

1040
01:01:03,710 --> 01:01:07,058
There's a short synopsis,
perhaps 100-200 words

1041
01:01:07,336 --> 01:01:10,057
and then a longer annotation,
300-400 words

1042
01:01:10,406 --> 01:01:14,294
in which the students--and I think
the drafts I have received

1043
01:01:14,294 --> 01:01:16,048
have been quite intelligent--

1044
01:01:16,048 --> 01:01:20,880
The students then put their document
into the larger context

1045
01:01:20,880 --> 01:01:23,988
both within the Gomez Sicre papers,
in their case,

1046
01:01:24,542 --> 01:01:28,033
but then within the field itself,
of Latin American

1047
01:01:28,033 --> 01:01:31,121
or just of modern art.

1048
01:01:31,121 --> 01:01:34,222
So, I enjoyed working with these students.

1049
01:01:34,222 --> 01:01:38,033
I'm just beginning to get the first drafts
of their documents in.

1050
01:01:38,597 --> 01:01:40,590
We have a session coming up
in a couple of weeks

1051
01:01:40,590 --> 01:01:44,215
where we'll workshop
these entries together in seminar,

1052
01:01:44,824 --> 01:01:49,473
and kind of polish them to refine them,
before sending them to Olga!

1053
01:01:50,018 --> 01:01:52,989
And then she will eventually send them
down to Houston

1054
01:01:52,989 --> 01:01:56,334
and we'll look forward, of course,
to seeing them come out

1055
01:01:56,334 --> 01:01:59,810
in digital and in print form.

1056
01:02:01,652 --> 01:02:05,249
That's really the end of the presentation,

1057
01:02:06,697 --> 01:02:09,152
my part, or our part of the presentation
that I had planned.

1058
01:02:09,152 --> 01:02:13,138
These are just, again,
taking familiar images.

1059
01:02:13,138 --> 01:02:17,116
I guess in the time that we have left,
I'd love to have a conversation about

1060
01:02:18,610 --> 01:02:20,501
the challenges,

1061
01:02:20,501 --> 01:02:23,753
the real meaning, the importance
of this kind of project,

1062
01:02:24,204 --> 01:02:27,110
not only for Art History
but within the humanities.

1063
01:02:27,387 --> 01:02:29,310
I'll say, I think I mentioned this
to someone earlier,

1064
01:02:29,310 --> 01:02:31,038
this has been my first venture

1065
01:02:31,038 --> 01:02:33,800
into anything digital in Art History.

1066
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:36,455
And I have to say, I confess
to a real ignorance on my part.

1067
01:02:36,455 --> 01:02:42,533
I don't know that there are comparable
archives elsewhere in the humanities

1068
01:02:42,533 --> 01:02:45,944
and how something like this
at a Museum of Houston

1069
01:02:45,944 --> 01:02:50,324
might actually correlate to other efforts
within Latin America,

1070
01:02:50,324 --> 01:02:54,225
as you were saying earlier,
with the libraries or other projects.

1071
01:02:54,654 --> 01:02:57,800
Certainly more
[unclear] to take questions!

1072
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:00,849
(audience member 4) We only have
a few minutes left,

1073
01:03:02,667 --> 01:03:04,852
but if you do have a question
or a comment

1074
01:03:04,852 --> 01:03:06,259
please feel free.

1075
01:03:06,521 --> 01:03:09,403
(audience member 5) I have a question
just about student participation

1076
01:03:09,403 --> 01:03:10,737
in the project.

1077
01:03:12,213 --> 01:03:17,137
It's always a tricky thing when students
are doing intellectual work for a project

1078
01:03:17,137 --> 01:03:19,459
to make sure
that they get sufficient credit

1079
01:03:20,506 --> 01:03:22,309
for the work that they do.

1080
01:03:22,309 --> 01:03:25,784
So how will their work be recognized
in the larger archive

1081
01:03:25,784 --> 01:03:29,117
once it moves through to it?

1082
01:03:30,266 --> 01:03:34,966
(Mari Carmen) We are giving them credit
if the entries are outstanding.

1083
01:03:35,453 --> 01:03:37,442
They appear as researchers.

1084
01:03:37,442 --> 01:03:40,244
If they're fine, they appear
as collaborators

1085
01:03:40,244 --> 01:03:44,118
after the name of the person
who looks at the reviews.

1086
01:03:44,118 --> 01:03:49,196
So, for example, the synopsis
and annotations from Maryland

1087
01:03:49,196 --> 01:03:52,041
if they're outstanding, they would be
by themselves.

1088
01:03:52,041 --> 01:03:56,055
If not, they would have Abbie's name
and then their name, as collaborator.

1089
01:03:56,279 --> 01:04:00,695
And that is part of the publishing idea,
and part of the project

1090
01:04:00,695 --> 01:04:04,370
in motivating the engagement
or artists, of students,

1091
01:04:04,370 --> 01:04:07,461
and creating these very young scholars
to start developing,

1092
01:04:07,461 --> 01:04:09,787
and providing that foundation
for them

1093
01:04:09,787 --> 01:04:13,306
in terms of publication and participating
in larger projects

1094
01:04:13,306 --> 01:04:16,409
that are recognized in a scholarly
point of view.

1095
01:04:16,409 --> 01:04:19,399
(audience member 5) I think
this kind of work is really important.

1096
01:04:24,659 --> 01:04:27,434
(audience member 4) Any other questions,
comments, before we wrap?

1097
01:04:30,680 --> 01:04:32,788
(audience member 6) You all mentioned
the importance of linking the documents,

1098
01:04:32,788 --> 01:04:35,127
and that there was beginning
to be some work in that.

1099
01:04:35,127 --> 01:04:40,093
I was curious as to, how is the group
considering linking them?

1100
01:04:40,093 --> 01:04:41,980
Is it going to be in a more
curatorial process?

1101
01:04:41,980 --> 01:04:45,955
or do they directly connect this work
to this other work explicitly?

1102
01:04:45,955 --> 01:04:48,206
Or will it be through
a tagging system possibly?

1103
01:04:48,206 --> 01:04:51,256
like grouping together
categories via tags?

1104
01:04:53,103 --> 01:04:55,086
(Mari Carmen) In the forms
that are filled out,

1105
01:04:55,086 --> 01:05:00,730
because this is digital,
but there's a lot of handwriting

1106
01:05:00,730 --> 01:05:04,481
a lot of typing that goes into the
actual papers that we see.

1107
01:05:04,481 --> 01:05:08,052
There are certain keywords
that we include for each document,

1108
01:05:08,052 --> 01:05:13,088
so we're asked that we,
the researchers, include as many,

1109
01:05:13,385 --> 01:05:15,602
could be locations,
could be workgroups

1110
01:05:15,602 --> 01:05:17,830
could be dates, could be the countries.

1111
01:05:17,830 --> 01:05:22,168
So there are wider keywords
for the searchable part

1112
01:05:22,168 --> 01:05:26,285
of the search engine to work.

1113
01:05:27,321 --> 01:05:31,573
That's the way that it is,
in terms of if you write...

1114
01:05:33,906 --> 01:05:37,132
for example, a country, Chile,

1115
01:05:37,132 --> 01:05:39,744
so that will pull all
the documents from Chile.

1116
01:05:39,744 --> 01:05:42,403
If you say <i>Downey</i>,
then that will connect Downey

1117
01:05:42,403 --> 01:05:45,576
with his presence, not only in Chile
but in Washington, DC.

1118
01:05:45,753 --> 01:05:49,941
And the other way that we're doing it,
in looking at the overall, for example,

1119
01:05:49,941 --> 01:05:52,611
for Washington DC,
especially these collections

1120
01:05:52,611 --> 01:05:56,213
that interconnect, we are writing
in the annotation,

1121
01:05:57,040 --> 01:05:59,313
"if you're interested in this topic,
see document..."

1122
01:05:59,313 --> 01:06:03,870
and we provide the number of
the document, the database number,

1123
01:06:03,870 --> 01:06:06,633
so people can look at
those documents as well.

1124
01:06:06,633 --> 01:06:11,980
But I think that will be the next stage
of the development of the database

1125
01:06:11,980 --> 01:06:16,083
which is a custom-made database
out of Sao Paolo, Brazil

1126
01:06:16,083 --> 01:06:19,687
with a team of database designers.

1127
01:06:20,299 --> 01:06:23,457
So, that's something that is constantly
evolving and I guess

1128
01:06:23,457 --> 01:06:28,290
with the changes in technology,
we hopefully will see it.

1129
01:06:28,290 --> 01:06:30,794
And I think they're considering it
at this moment.

1130
01:06:32,279 --> 01:06:34,668
And, if not, we will let them know...

1131
01:06:34,668 --> 01:06:35,762
(audience laughs)

1132
01:06:35,762 --> 01:06:38,403
...about this presentation,
about these suggestions.

1133
01:06:39,807 --> 01:06:43,276
(Abbie) Olga and I are working also
on adding a couple of sentences

1134
01:06:43,276 --> 01:06:46,461
a short paragraph to all of the entries
that are coming out

1135
01:06:46,461 --> 01:06:48,136
of the Gomez Sicre papers.

1136
01:06:48,136 --> 01:06:51,060
Just so that the people
who maybe happen upon

1137
01:06:51,060 --> 01:06:55,693
one of these documents,
not necessarily looking for them

1138
01:06:56,115 --> 01:06:59,568
would know actually the site,
the repository from where it came.

1139
01:06:59,568 --> 01:07:02,276
And so that they just don't see
these documents as well,

1140
01:07:03,294 --> 01:07:05,758
this exhibition on Downey,
maybe it actually did come out of Santiago

1141
01:07:05,758 --> 01:07:10,331
in fact, there's a very specific site,
site-specificity as it were,

1142
01:07:10,331 --> 01:07:15,824
for these documents, and we want
to actually retain that in our annotation.

1143
01:07:15,824 --> 01:07:18,836
Just to kind of recognize that,
and even call attention to it,

1144
01:07:18,836 --> 01:07:20,759
even if it's given in the cataloging
information

1145
01:07:20,759 --> 01:07:24,585
just to highlight its location.

1146
01:07:26,577 --> 01:07:27,439
You had a question?

1147
01:07:27,439 --> 01:07:28,613
(audience member) They're on next.

1148
01:07:29,356 --> 01:07:32,994
(Mari Carmen) I wanted to comment
something on digital humanities.

1149
01:07:32,994 --> 01:07:36,597
This project, there is a project
out of the University of Houston

1150
01:07:36,597 --> 01:07:38,466
and it's Latino literature.

1151
01:07:38,466 --> 01:07:43,353
And it follows certain similarities
in terms of the format

1152
01:07:43,353 --> 01:07:45,239
of this project.

1153
01:07:45,239 --> 01:07:50,165
That was started by
Nicolas Kanellos in the 1990s

1154
01:07:50,165 --> 01:07:53,596
and it looks at US-Latino production
in literature.

1155
01:07:54,656 --> 01:07:58,082
So, there's a conversation
between the Houston Museum

1156
01:07:58,082 --> 01:08:02,577
and the University of Houston
in terms of exchanging the know-how

1157
01:08:02,577 --> 01:08:05,496
and also the best practices.

1158
01:08:06,347 --> 01:08:10,288
And [inaudible] Martin,
who was the first cataloger,

1159
01:08:10,288 --> 01:08:11,798
she worked for the project

1160
01:08:11,798 --> 01:08:13,982
and in fact she was recruited
after working there

1161
01:08:13,982 --> 01:08:16,586
to come to work on this project.
So there's a little bit


1162
01:08:16,586 --> 01:08:19,515
of that interconnection
in terms of the digital humanities.

1163
01:08:22,299 --> 01:08:25,155
Well, with that,
let's thank our presenters

1164
01:08:25,155 --> 01:08:27,579
for a very interesting presentation.

1165
01:08:27,579 --> 01:08:29,207
(audience applauds)