Wounds and Wanders of Two Manuscript Collections from the Spanish Colonial Period: Guadalajara’s Audiencia and Bishopric Records in the Early Twentieth Century

Paper title:

“Wounds and wanders of two manuscript collections from the Spanish colonial period: Guadalajara’s Audiencia and Bishopric records in the early-twentieth century.”

Abstract:

This paper traces the history of the transfer of the Archivo de la Audiencia de Guadalajara from an abandoned storage room to Jalisco’s Public Library in the 1940’s. It also reckons with the dismemberment of the old archives of the Diocesis of Guadalajara before 1920, when it was partially transferred to the same Public Library. In both cases local authorities stressed the Nation’s best interest as an argument for the preservation of both collections, although practical concerns and infrastructure-related problems led those persons in charge of the recently acquired collections to take actions that jeopardized those holdings. As a result, important portions of these archives have been lost for good. In its final section, the paper reflects on the negative impact of this partial destruction on the historiography of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century New Spain.