Category Archives: Libraries

Area Studies, Benson Latin American Collection, Humanities & Liberal Arts

Benson Collection Acquires Archive of Andrés Caicedo

April 15, 2025 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

By ADRIAN JOHNSON

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is pleased to announce the acquisition of literary and family archives of Colombian writer Andrés Caicedo. This collection joins other important regional literary collections of writers such as César Vallejo, Augusto Roa Bastos, and Julio Cortázar, increasing the importance of the Benson as a destination for students, faculty, and researchers from the United States, Latin America, and beyond.

Front page of an open book. On the right, inside a black border, a drawing in black ink of a young man with 1970s-style hair, a large chin and pursed lips, and clothing, dark sunglasses, a chain brandished in one hand and a large, bloody knife in the other. He stands in front of a graffitied wall that has a large area of its outer coating missing. His thin legs, in jeans, are in a wide stance. The title of the book, El Atravesado, is written vertically bottom to top along the left-hand side of the border in rough, handwritten all capitals; the name of the author, Andrés Caicedo, is written in the same style along the right-hand side. — Title page of “El Atravesado.” Benson Latin American Collection.

Within a decade of the publication of 100 Years of Solitude, which propelled Gabriel García Márquez and Colombia to the forefront of the Latin American literary scene, a 21-year-old Caicedo was self-publishing his first novela. El Atravesado (1975) was printed with a stamp opposite the title page reading Pirata Ediciones de Calidad (Pirata Quality Editions). Adorning the cover is a Ramones-esque sketch that the author had copied and enhanced from a bootlegged Rolling Stones album cover: a sunglasses-clad rebellious youth in front of a deteriorating and graffitied wall, a chain in one hand and a bloody knife in the other, ready for a fight. The story is one of youth in street gangs who have lost all faith in adulthood, living in the chaos of urban disorder, brawls, and parties, who yearn for a better world.

Inside cover of a book, with author's name, title, and publisher's seal. There is messy handwriting all over the page. On the left, you can see the dark illustration of a man, similar to that of the cover, from the previous page bleeding through. — Inside cover of “El Atravesado,” with handwritten dedication and Ediciones Pirata seal. Benson Latin American Collection.

An intellectually curious lover of movies and letters, Caicedo began writing at the age of 10 and never stopped. He wrote plays, published stories in newspapers, and published Ojo al Cine, a film magazine that ran from 1974 to 1976. On March 4, 1977, at the age of 25, just after receiving the editor’s copy of his first published full-length novel, Que viva la música, Caicedo died by suicide. Que viva la música went on to become his best-known work, and would give voice to a generation of Colombia’s youth, offering a socially realistic alternative to the magical realism of García Márquez and other writers of the Latin American Boom.

A magazine cover features a very faded and large image of a woman's eyes, nose, and mouth—close-up of a face, in pale grays. The title of the magazine, "Ojo al Cine" is printed in bold black type, all lower-case, along the bottom, in addition to the number 5 in a circle. Along the borders of the cover are names of authors and other writing, including the magazine's subtitle, "La crítica cinematográfica en Cuba y América Latina." — Cover of issue 5 of the film criticism magazine “Ojo al Cine.” Benson Latin American Collection.

Caicedo already had a loyal following by the time of his death, but most of his writing was never published, or was limited to local and serial publications. His father, with whom he had fraught relations, discovered many of his manuscripts several years after his death. He led the creation of a family foundation dedicated to preparing and publishing the entire corpus of Caicedo’s writing. Caicedo’s renown has continued growing as publications are translated and published until today.

Yellowed newspaper clippings from a film review in Spanish are arranged on a white background show the large title of a review of the Godfather Part 2 by Andrés Caicedo with the made-up onomatopoeic word "uuuuuuuuggf" in it. The title of the publication, at top, is El Pueblo Estravagario, dated Sunday, October 19, 1975. — Review of “The Godfather 2” by Andrés Caicedo, including creative use of onomatopoeia, published in El Pueblo Estravagario.

The Andrés Caicedo Collection contains materials collected by the author’s sister, Rosario Caicedo, and includes manuscripts, photographs, correspondence, rare publications, press clippings, and family photo albums. Some of the most important documents in the collection are letters to and from his parents, Carlos Alberto and Nellie Estela, and his sister, Rosario, in the last years of his life. Several folders in the collection document Caicedo’s involvement in the Cine Club de Cali, including issues of the magazine Ojo al Cine. Finally, family photo albums of his parents and grandparents document the life of his family in the first decades of the twentieth century.

A yellowed sheet of unlined paper, edges badly damaged with stains in some areas, contains a typewritten letter from the author to his father, whom he addresses are Carlos Alberto. It is signed in blue pen. — Letter from Caicedo to his father, signed ‘Tu Hijo (Que te pesa)’. Benson Latin American Collection.

This collection supplements the Archivo Andrés Caicedo, donated by the family to the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango in Bogotá, Colombia, and helps present a side of Caicedo that brings a wider understanding to his life and his literary corpus. View the contents of the archive at Texas Archival Resources Online.

En español: Read “El Segundo archivo de Andrés Caicedo llega a Texas” by Yefferson Ospina, UT Austin Graduate Research Assistant who worked on processing the archive.

Adrian Johnson is Head of User Services at the Benson Latin American Collection, and Librarian for the Andean Region.

Area Studies, Features, Global Studies, Libraries, Read Hot and Digitized

Read, Hot and Digitized: A Digital Survey of the Scottish Witch Trials

April 14, 2025 Ian Goodale Leave a comment

The witch trials of Europe in the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, resulted in the prosecution, often violent, of over 100,000 people. Studying this history and understanding its causes—which were multifaceted, and incorporated elements of religious persecution of alleged heresy, superstition, and religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants—is an important way we can understand the motivations of past atrocities and learn from them to avoid similar violence and intolerance in the future. The Witches: Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project at the University of Edinburgh is one project that makes this history more broadly accessible and understandable both to scholars and the general public.

The site itself contains an excellent introduction to the history of witch trials in Scotland. It states:

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Scotland went through a series of changes to the state and church which fuelled the Scottish witch hunt. As a result of the Reformation, when Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church and moved towards Protestantism, the church went through an upheaval of religious belief and became much more interested in what ordinary people did and believed.

This concern led to great concern from Church and state about people’s religious beliefs and practices, deviations from behavior expected by the Church and society (such as not attending Church on a Sunday), and witchcraft. More than 4,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736, and confessions were often evinced using torture. Of people accused of being witches it is estimated that around 2,500, or roughly two-thirds, were executed, with the majority of those executed (about 85%) being women.

The main map on the site’s landing page, showing locations where witches in the database lived.

The site’s most striking feature is a map showing accused witches’ residences and details about their case and personal lives, including their occupations. This provides an intuitive and visually appealing way to explore the dataset, and allows for free exploration of the data without digging into the spreadsheets and metadata underlying the map. Users can also search the complete dataset used to make the map, exploring the same by searching for an accused’s name. In addition to these exploratory tools, the site also features a very helpful introduction that explains many details of the dataset and provides further background information, as well as a number of additional visualizations. Particularly affecting is the Story of Isobel Young visualization, which chronicles the life and death of one woman who was accused of witchcraft and executed.

The Story of Isobel Young visualization, showing a map of places where Isobel lived and background information on the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563. — The Story of Isobel Young visualization.

The site also provides a host of references that provide scholarly background on the history of witch trials in Scotland. There are also a number of resources, including a GitHub repository for the project’s website and the CSV files used to make the map. It also provides lists of accused witches, trials, people involved, and memorials and sites of interest within Scotland that users may wish to visit.

The Witches: Survey of Scottish Witchcraft site offers a robust but inviting introduction to this period of European history. I encourage you to explore the site for yourself and find out what it has to offer.

Related resources at the UT Libraries:

Witch Hunts in Europe and America: An Encyclopedia

Demonology and Witch-hunting in Early Modern Europe

Witch Hunts: A history of the Witch Persecutions in Europe and North America

Benson Latin American Collection, Collections, Collections Highlight, Humanities & Liberal Arts

Archive of Cristina Rivera Garza, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Acquired by Benson Latin American Collection

March 28, 2025 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

By LAUREN PEÑA, PhD

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is pleased to announce the acquisition of the literary archive of distinguished Mexican author and professor Cristina Rivera Garza, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship. This archive enhances the Benson’s extensive collection of materials that embody Latin American literary tradition, intellectual thought, and leadership, reflecting the stature of the library and the University of Texas at Austin campus as an invaluable resource for students, faculty, and researchers globally.

Cristina Rivera Garza, born in 1964 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, is one of the most influential and innovative contemporary Mexican authors. She has been the recipient of Mexico’s most prestigious literary accolades, including the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, which she won twice. Her writing defies traditional literary genres, blending historical research, speculative fiction, and linguistic experimentation to challenge dominant narratives and conventional storytelling.

Three women with dark hair sit on the ground. The mother is at the far left, smiling. The daughter in the middle has wavy dark hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and overalls. Her sister, on the right, has short, dark hair and a moody expression. — The author Cristina Rivera Garza, center, with her mother, left, and her sister Liliana Rivera Garza. Undated photo. Cristina Rivera Garza Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

Rivera Garza’s works, including Nadie me verá llorar (1999), Dolerse: Textos desde un país herido (2011), El mal de la taiga (2012), and El invencible verano de Liliana (2023), engage deeply with themes of gender violence, loss, and memory. Through these narratives, she explores Mexico’s complex socio-political landscape, giving voice to silenced histories.

The Benson Latin American Collection presents An Evening with Cristina Rivera Garza on Monday, April 14, 2025. Find details here.

Rivera Garza grew up along the U.S.–Mexico border, a region rich in cultural traditions and marked by the fluidity of languages, identities, and experiences. This liminal space shaped her literary and academic sensibilities, fostering a transnational perspective that permeates her work. She studied urban sociology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a premier academic institution, and later earned a doctoral degree in Latin American history from the University of Houston. This academic background plays a crucial role in her writing, allowing her to seamlessly weave together fiction, poetry, and scholarly research.

Rivera Garza’s acclaimed novel Nadie me verá llorar (1999) exemplifies her unique ability to fuse historical research with fiction. Set in a mental health institution in early-twentieth-century Mexico, the novel tells the tragic love story of Joaquín, a photographer and addict, and Matilda, a rebellious patient whose life defies social conventions. However, the novel transcends this romantic premise. It has become a powerful meditation on how medical discourse and institutional power define sanity and madness in Mexico’s tempestuous historical past. Through her prose, Rivera Garza captures the fragility of memory while critiquing the oppressive systems that define these mental states.

English translation of a page of No One Will See Me Cry in page proofs, with handwritten query in the right-hand margin. — Page proof of English translation of No One Will See Me Cry, with query. Cristina Rivera Garza Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

Language itself has become a central theme in Rivera Garza’s work. She experiments with form, voice, and narrative structure, often incorporating archival fragments, poetic interludes, and hybrid genres. In works like Dolerse: Textos desde un país herido, La muerte me da, and El invencible verano de Liliana, the author uses language not only as a medium of expression, but as a tool of resistance. She gives voice to the grief and trauma of gender-based violence, while simultaneously interrogating the silences imposed by official histories and institutionalized narratives.

Two young women stand outside a house. The one on the left, Liliana, is wearing white and looking down. The one on the right, Cristina, is laughing and looking at the camera, her hands in the pockets of her brown pants. — Cristina Rivera Garza, right, with her sister Liliana Rivera Garza. Undated photo. Cristina Rivera Garza Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

El invencible verano de Liliana (2021, published in English as Liliana’s Invincible Summer in 2023) is one of her most intimate and politically charged works. This book serves as a tribute to her younger sister, Liliana Rivera Garza, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in the summer of 1990. Written decades later, the text functions both as an act of remembrance and a form of literary justice. Through its narrative, Rivera Garza reconstructs Liliana’s life and the circumstances surrounding her death by utilizing her sister’s personal writings, diary entries, letters, and official documents. In doing so, she transcends traditional literary classifications and crafts a work that challenges the conventions of genre. In prose that encapsulates the intimacy of sisterhood, she deploys precise language that condemns the systemic impunity and gender-based violence that persists in Mexico.

Image from book cover. The title, El Invencible Verano de Liliana is written in green, blue, and pale lime-green. Below the title and the author's name is a photograph of a young woman with a hoop earring visible in one ear, wearing a pinkish button-down shirt. Behind her is mostly dark, although a blurry forest appears toward the top of the frame. — Cover, “El invencible verano de Liliana.”

Rivera Garza captures the essence of the women’s resistance movement against gender violence in a deeply personal yet politically charged reflection. When she writes, “These grassroots movements have attracted more and more women, younger women, women who grew up in a city, and a country, that harasses them every step of every day, never leaving them alone or offering respite. Women always about to die. Women dying and yet alive” (Liliana’s Invincible Summer, p. 9). The repetition of the word women underscores the collective suffering, while the paradox—“women dying and yet alive”—conveys the precarious existence of women living under constant threat, trapped in a liminal space between life and death.

Integrating her sister’s voice through preserved writings becomes Rivera Garza’s ultimate act of resistance—one that not only prevents the erasure of victims, but also critiques the sanitized language of legal and forensic reports, exposing the dehumanizing bureaucracy that often surrounds cases of femicide. By capturing the complexity of mourning and the struggle for justice, Rivera Garza denounces a broader social epidemic while issuing a powerful call to remember, fight, and resist.

Through her bold and experimental body of work, Cristina Rivera Garza has redefined the boundaries of Latin American literature. Her writing follows in the footsteps of a constellation of authors such as María Luisa Puga, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba, whose archives are also held at the Benson, offering readers a powerful lens through which to examine the intersections of personal and collective memory, violence, and resistance.

Cover of a literary magazine with the title in yellow and red. A thin line drawing adorns most of it. — Student literary publication from UNAM. Cristina Rivera Garza Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

Poetry by Cristina Rivera Garza printed on the yellowing pages of a student literary magazine. — Poem published during her time at UNAM. Cristina Rivera Garza Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

The Cristina Rivera Garza Papers, now part of the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, contains poetry, photographs, essays, correspondence, and manuscripts. Among the highlights of the collection are letters between the author and her sister, Liliana Rivera Garza. This rich archive offers scholars and students an unprecedented opportunity to engage with Rivera Garza’s creative process from conception to completion. Her literary contributions will undoubtedly continue to shape contemporary literature for generations to come.

Lauren Peña, PhD, is head of collection development at the Benson Latin American Collection.

Benson Latin American Collection, Collections, Libraries, Open Access, Texas Digital Library

Latino USA Radio Program Episodes Published

February 17, 2025 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

The digitized episodes have been made available online by the Benson Latin American Collection

More than 160 digitized episodes of Latino USA, the newsmagazine of Latino news and culture founded at UT in 1993, have been published by the Benson Latin American Collection. Published records include metadata and transcriptions for the episodes, which are available to the public on the open-access University of Texas Libraries Collections Portal. The publication and transcription of the episodes was made possible by a grant from the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP).

The selected episodes, which total 168, span the years 1997–2000. They are part of a larger archival collection held by the Benson—Latino USA Records, which documents the history of the radio program from early planning stages in the late 1980s through the program’s first seventeen years (1993–2010).

A newspaper page with the title On Campus features a large black-and-white photograph of people in a radio station. In the foreground, four people are in the control room—Christina Cuevas speaks on the phone, Frank Contreras holds a reel-to-reel tape, María Martin smiles and holds papers in front of a microphone on a boom stand, and Dolores García has headphones on and is smiling and looking at something. Behind the soundproof glass, a room with other people can be seen. On the wall are the words Latino USA. The people are smiling and looking into the room that is being photographed. — OnCampus feature on Latino USA’s 200th program. Latino USA Records, Benson Latin American Collection.

The newly published episodes consist of over 80 hours of material covering Latin American and Latina/o topics, including interviews with figures such as labor activist Dolores Huerta, singer Little Joe Hernandez, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, and writers Claribel Alegria, Américo Paredes, and Sandra Cisneros. Prior to their digitization by UT Libraries, these episodes had only existed in a legacy audio cassette format known as DAT, which made them inaccessible to the public.

The published episodes are accompanied by complete transcriptions, funded with a grant from the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP). The transcriptions meet accessibility requirements of the digital collections platform, expanding access for the hearing impaired and people with better reading than listening knowledge of English.

Transcriptions can also provide expanded searching and digital scholarship opportunities for researchers and support additional use of these recordings in instructional settings. The transcriptions were provided by UT Austin’s Captioning and Transcription Services Team.

A stack of six audio tapes in clear plastic cases sits atop dozens more such tapes. Each one is labeled "LATINO USA" along with a number and other information. — Latino USA DAT audio tapes at the Benson Latin American Collection

The Latino USA Records at the Benson include nearly 900 program episodes that aired between 1993 and 2010, in addition to correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and other records documenting the program’s history. The Benson and University of Texas Libraries have digitized and transcribed additional episodes that they hope to publish in the future. Archival footage from the Benson was included in various episodes during the program’s 30th anniversary year in 2023, including a special episode dedicated to the anniversary and an episode that focused on the Benson. Latino USA’s special episode dedicated to the memory of the program’s founder, María Martin, also included archival footage and documents from the Benson.

Black-and-white close-up photo of journalist María Martin, who has dark hair, large hoop earrings, a beaded necklace, and a dark striped shirt on. She smiles broadly as she speaks into a large, metallic radio microphone that is suspended in front of her. — The late María Martin at the Latino USA studio. Latino USA Records, Benson Latin American Collection.

Over 30 Years of History

Launched on May 5, 1993, Latino USA is an award-winning weekly English-language radio journal created to fill a Latina/o-themed void in nationally distributed radio. It was initially produced by the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) in collaboration with KUT at the University of Texas at Austin. Radio veterans María Emilia Martin and Maria Hinojosa joined the staff in the roles of producer and host, respectively, while CMAS director Gilberto Cardenas acted as the program’s first executive producer (Martin and Hinojosa would both eventually serve in this role). Latino USA moved to Futuro Media Group in 2010.

The program was established at a time when the U.S. Latina/o population was one-third of what it is today. As Maria Hinojosa notes, the show traces the history of this immense growth, as well as that population’s participation in all aspects of politics, culture, and society.

A black-and-white photo of journalist Maria Hinojosa. She has long, dark hair and is wearing a white top with a collar. She smiles fully. One hoop earring is visible on the left. — Latino USA co-founder and journalist Maria Hinojosa, undated photo. Latino USA Records, Benson Latin American Collection.

Among the staff members who worked in this project are two graduate research assistants (GRAs), Fernanda Agüero, a graduate student at the School of Information (iSchool), and Rosa de Jong, a dual-master’s student at LLILAS and the iSchool.

As LLILAS Benson Digital Initiatives GRA, Agüero worked on the project during fall 2024, giving her the opportunity to listen to a large majority of the Benson’s now-digitized collection.

“The Latino USA collection provides a distinct opportunity to observe the key events and cultural developments that defined Latin American identity through the turn of the 20th century,” Agüero said. “It covers significant moments such as the Elián González case, the Clinton-Gore campaign, and a large focus on the arts, including my favorite episode, which featured a compilation of Latin American female ballad artists. This collection serves as a historical record, allowing listeners to situate themselves within the specific timeframes in which these episodes were produced, offering insight into the political and cultural climate of the period.”

In this black-and-white photo, a row of five people of diverse ages sits at a rectangular table, each with a microphone. At the far end, journalist María Martin looks at the others, leaning her head on her chin. In the center, media scholar Federico Subervi looks down, smiling. A young woman in the foreground is speaking into her microphone. — Undated photo, Latino USA Records, Benson Latin American Collection

De Jong, a Special Collections Graduate Research Assistant, singled out her highlights in the newly transcribed episodes.

“I especially loved the episodes focused on Tejano and Chicano traditions and cultural workers. One that stands out is titled Tejano Literary Traditions, which features interviews with literary icons Sandra Cisneros and Américo Paredes. In the episode, the authors talk about how their experiences growing up and living in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands shaped their work.” The newly transcribed programs also focused on Puerto Rico, says de Jong. “I was also impressed by the depth and scope of the reporting on Puerto Rico. Covering topics such as the Independence Movement, Puerto Rican political prisoners, and the 1999 Vieques Island protests, Latino USA episodes provide varied and rich accounts of the complex and evolving socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts both on the Island and within the diaspora. Two episodes that highlight this reporting are Latino USA Program 275, Week #39-98 and Latino USA Program 348, Week #51-99.”

Benson Latin American Collection, Digital Humanities, Digital Scholarship, Global Studies, LLILAS Benson, Uncategorized

Spanish Paleography + Digital Humanities Institute Focuses Research on Colonial Texts

February 6, 2025 Texlibris Leave a comment

Scholars and graduate students from institutions across the country gathered at the Benson Latin American Collection for the Spanish Paleography + Digital Humanities Institute. The immersive three-day program provided intensive training in reading and transcribing Spanish manuscripts from the 16th to 18th centuries while introducing participants to digital humanities tools that enhance historical research.

Funded by LLILAS’s U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Program and the Excellence Fund for Technology and Development in Latin America, the institute sought to equip researchers with specialized skills to navigate colonial texts, visualize historical data, and foster a collaborative academic community. The event was spearheaded by LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship Coordinator Albert A. Palacios, and brought together a cohort of graduate students and faculty members specializing in history, literature, linguistics, and related disciplines.

The institute focused on three key objectives: providing paleography training, introducing participants to digital humanities tools, and fostering a collaborative research network. Participants engaged in hands-on workshops to develop their ability to accurately read and transcribe colonial manuscripts. They also received instruction on open-source technologies for text extraction, geospatial analysis, and network visualization. The program fostered a community of scholars who will continue sharing insights and resources beyond the institute.

Participants had the opportunity to work with historical materials, including royal documents, inquisition records, religious texts, and economic transactions. Case studies were examined through paleography working groups, where scholars collaboratively deciphered difficult handwriting styles and abbreviations.

To apply their newly acquired digital humanities skills, each participant developed a pilot research project using Spanish colonial manuscripts. These projects utilized handwritten text recognition (HTR) technology, geographical text analysis, and data visualization tools to enhance historical inquiry. The final day of the institute featured a lightning round of presentations, allowing scholars to showcase their preliminary findings and discuss future applications.

This year’s participants hailed from universities across the U.S., including the University of Chicago, the University of North Texas, Columbia University, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of California-Santa Barbara, Purdue University, City College of New York, West Liberty University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of California-Merced. The interdisciplinary nature of the group enriched discussions, providing diverse perspectives on archival research and manuscript interpretation.

A highlight of the institute was the introduction and use of the handwritten text recognition (HTR) model the LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship Office trained and recently launched on 17^th and 18^th century Spanish handwriting preserved at the Benson. This innovation is expected to significantly accelerate the study of colonial-era documents and democratize access to these historical resources.

Additionally, the program provided a comprehensive list of recommended paleography resources, including books, digital collections, and online tools to support continued scholarship in Spanish manuscript studies.

Palacios is leading an online Spanish version of the institute for participants worldwide this spring and fall. He will be leading another onsite institute June 4-6, 2025.The demand for the LLILAS Benson Spanish Paleography + Digital Humanities Institute in the Colonial Latin Americanist field underscores the growing interest in merging traditional archival research with computational methodologies. By equipping scholars with both paleographic expertise and digital tools, the institute is paving the way for innovative research on the Spanish Empire and its historical records.

Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson

Ernesto Cardenal’s Centennial

January 17, 2025 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

The papers of Nicaragua’s beloved poet-priest-politician reside at UT’s Benson Latin American Collection; January 20, 2025, is the centennial of his birth

Admired and controversial, Ernesto Cardenal was a towering figure in Central American culture and politics. As Nicaragua’s minister of culture under the Sandinista government, which took power in 1979, he oversaw a national program that taught poetry to Nicaraguans of all ages and all walks of life.

A black-and-white photo shows many children in the background, facing the camera under a grassy roof open-air structure. In the foreground, several men are seated on a wooden floor. A microphone is being held above them to the left. The man on the left at the front of the photo is Ernesto Cardenal, wearing a black beret, wire-rimmed glasses and a simple collarless white shirt. He has shoulder-length white hair, and a full white beard and mustache. Another man to the right of him is speaking to an interviewer whose face is not visible. — Ernesto Cardenal (left of center) as Minister of Culture in Nicaragua. Undated photo, Benson Latin American Collection.

His relationship with the Sandinista government would eventually sour. As a result, the safety of his literary archive was in peril, leading to its eventual acquisition by the Benson in 2016.

In honor of Cardenal’s centennial, we link to previously published writings by UT Austin faculty and staff that examine various aspects of his life.

Ernesto Cardenal Papers

Ernesto Cardenal, photo by Sandra Eleta

“The archive features rare editions of Cardenal’s writings, translations of his poetry, interviews, photographs, videos, newspaper clippings, documentaries about his life and work, and hundreds of letters to and from key protagonists of Nicaraguan culture and politics.”
Read more: Papers of Nicaraguan Luminary Find a Home at the Benson Latin American Collection

Ernesto Cardenal Papers on Texas Archival Resources Online

Cardenal at LLILAS Benson

Color photo of Ernesto Cardenal at age 91, reading his poetry at the Benson. He is wearing his black beret, a dark jacket, wire-rimmed glasses, and his hair is white, covering his ears. He holds a piece of paper in one hand and gestures with the other. — Cardenal reads his poetry to a packed house at the Benson. Photo: Travis Willmann.

The opening of the Ernesto Cardenal Papers is celebrated at a roundtable and bilingual poetry reading at the Benson. At the event, Cardenal reads his own poetry, which is passionately interpreted into English by poet Celeste Mendoza.
Watch video (poetry reading starts at one-hour mark): “Ernesto Cardenal in Word and Action” Reading and Roundtable

Cardenal in Hard Times

LP cover for Cardenal's libro-disco recording of Oración por Marilyn Monroe and other poems. The cover features Andy Warhol's alterations of Monroe's photo (or a copy thereof), in color, four in a square. — Warhol-inspired libro-disco cover. Caracas, 1972. Benson Latin American Collection.

“[T]he voice of Ernesto Cardenal broke with our routine of studying a limited range of literary texts, mostly focused on intimate, politically inoffensive themes,” writes Professor Luis Cárcamo-Huechante. “In the midst of times of censorship and coercion, it was Cardenal’s verses that awoke me to an unexpectedly revelatory linkage between poetry and social issues, literary writing and collective history.”
Read Cárcamo-Huechante’s essay in English or Spanish

Interview in Managua and Digital Exhibition

Ernesto Cardenal, his arms aloft and outstretched, is saying mass in this black-and-white photo. He wears a poncho. One the table in front of him is a metal wine cup. He has shoulder-length whitish hair, beard, and mustache, and dark-rimmed glasses. Behind him hangs a white sheet illustrated with drawings. — Saying mass. Ernesto Cardenal Papers, Benson Latin American Collection

In spring 2016, José Montelongo, former Benson librarian, visited Cardenal in Managua. The occasion was the Benson’s recent acquisition of Father Cardenal’s personal papers. In these excerpts from their conversation, Cardenal talks about poetry, science, and religion, about the famous poetry workshops he helped create, about the successes and failures of the Nicaraguan Revolution, and more.
Watch the video (in Spanish with English subtitles)

The digital exhibition “Remembering Ernesto Cardenal: Selections from His Archive,” organized by Latin American Archivist Dylan Joy, traces key moments in the life of the poet, priest, revolutionary, liberation theologist, sculptor, and activist.
Visit the digital exhibition

Hasta siempre . . .

Black-and-white close-up of an older Ernesto Cardenal, who is looking directly into the camera. His black beret is visible. He wears wire-rimmed glasses. His white hair is in bright relief with a black background. — Ernesto Cardenal, undated photo. Benson Latin American Collection.

“Ernesto Cardenal was a fighter: for justice, against dictatorship, for equality, for his faith, and for the power of art and beauty to shine light in a dark world. He was tireless in this lifelong struggle, striving until his final days for a better Nicaragua and true justice for all people. LLILAS Benson is proud to help to carry on his legacy.”

— Virginia Garrard, Professor Emerita of History; former director, LLILAS Benson
Read the Obituary: “Ernesto Cardenal Is Dead at 95: The Nicaraguan Poet, Priest, and Revolutionary Chose the Benson Collection for His Archive”

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Benson Latin American Collection, Collections

Benson Acquisition: Augusto Roa Bastos Papers

November 25, 2024 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the literary archives of César Vallejo and Augusto Roa Bastos, two giants of Latin American letters. These archives augment the Benson’s already significant collection of materials that represent the region’s writers, thinkers, and intellectual leaders, making the library, and the UT campus, an invaluable resource for students, faculty, and researchers from all corners of the globe.

By MELISSA GUY and DANIEL ARBINO

Paraguay’s most significant writer, Augusto Roa Bastos (1917–2005) is known for his contributions to the Latin American Boom and the post-dictatorship novel, particularly through his works Hijo de hombre (1960) and Yo el Supremo (1974). The latter is a historical fiction of the José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia dictatorship in the nineteenth century.

The book cover of a commemorative edition of "Yo, el Supremo" is a dark mustard-yellow and features a woodblock-print image of a black fist jutting across the page horizontally from the left. Falling from the hand is a large, bright-red drop of blood. — Cover of a commemorative edition of “Yo el Supremo,” published on the centennial of the author by the Real Academia Española.

Roa Bastos grew up in Iturbe, a provincial town where his father worked as an administrator on a sugar plantation. It was there that he was exposed to Guaraní, and developed a tremendous love for Paraguay’s most spoken Indigenous language. He later went to Asunción for his formative school years and, as a young man, served in the Chaco War as a medical auxiliary. Significant portions of his life were spent outside of Asunción, allowing the writer to have a deeper knowledge of the country at large.

Like the characters in Yo el Supremo, Roa Bastos was no stranger to the effects of dictatorship during his lifetime. In fact, he fled to Argentina in 1947 along with 500,000 other Paraguayans to escape the iron fist of President Higinio Morínigo. Roa Bastos would live over four decades in exile between Buenos Aires and Paris before returning to his homeland in 1989 after the fall of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship. However, his commitment to Paraguayan culture never wavered as his literary career, which produced short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays, and children’s literature, demonstrated a commitment to the South American nation through his themes: collective memory, bilingualism (Guaraní/Spanish), and Indigeneity. His style, which pulled from magical realist and neobaroque tendencies, blended different time periods (pre-colonial and contemporary) to interrogate Paraguayan society.

Two yellowing sheets of paper side by side have a handwritten list with items numbered 1 through 42. The left-hand sheet is titled Índice (Index). Each line has a short title written in cursive by the author. — Handwritten index related to “Yo el Supremo.” Augusto Roa Bastos Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

“In acquiring the literary archives of the great Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos, the Benson Latin American Collection is today blessed with the author’s handwritten notes relating to Yo el Supremo, one of the region’s most exorbitantly ambitious, baroquely virtuosic, groundbreaking novels of the late twentieth century,” writes Professor César A. Salgado of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. “The novel was published in 1974 as part of an agreement among top Latin American Boom writers to produce ‘dictator novels’ that dissected authoritarian regimes in their respective countries. In a group that included Alejo Carpentier’s El recurso del método (1974), Gabriel García Márquez’s El otoño del patriarca (1975), and Carlos Fuentes’ Terra Nostra (1975), Yo el Supremo outdid these other immensely accomplished works by structuring its penetrating, thoroughly researched psychological portrait of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (Paraguay’s undisputed ‘enlightened despot’ from 1811 to 1840) as it were a lively philosophical debate about how dictation, writing, literacy, orality (including Guaraní traditions), absolute power, and impermanence could be both complicit and antithetical to each other. If the ludological radicality of Rayuela galvanized the Boom in 1962, Yo el Supremo brought it to a close in 1974 by showing how deep-seated mechanisms of supremacist rule, set up at the start of nation formation in Latin America, could easily resurface across its history. With Yo el Supremo, Roa Bastos thus launched a fully postmodern critical and creative agenda for the region.”

A yellowing sheet of paper, heavily creased in the middle, bears both typed notes and handwritten notes. Some of the typed lines are scribbled over with wavy lines written in pen. The elegant handwritten part looks to be written with an ink pen. — Handwritten and typed notes titled “Themes for Paraguayan Stories,” Roa Bastos Papers. Courtesy Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

The Augusto Roa Bastos Papers is a versatile collection that spans the author’s career. It contains poetry, speeches, essays, correspondence, and manuscript drafts. Among the jewels of the collection are letters between the author and his daughter, Mirta Roa Mascheroni, and handwritten comments regarding Yo el Supremo and his novel Madama Sui. This collection provides researchers with profound insight into the writer’s life, particularly his time during exile, and his creative process from beginning to end. It pairs well with the Miguel Ángel Asturias Papers for similar topics regarding exile and the Boom.

The Roa Bastos acquisition was made possible in part by the Drs. Fernando Macías and Adriana Pacheco Benson Centennial Endowment.

Melissa Guy is director of the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

Daniel Arbino is former Head of Collection Development for the Benson.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Archives, Benson Latin American Collection, Collections Highlight, Poetry

Benson Acquisition: César Vallejo Papers

November 25, 2024 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the archives of César Vallejo and Augusto Roa Bastos, two giants of Latin American letters. These archives augment the Benson’s already significant collection of materials that represent the region’s writers, thinkers, and intellectual leaders, making the library, and the UT campus, an invaluable resource for students, faculty, researchers from all corners of the globe.

By ADELA PINEDA FRANCO

Peruvian poet César Vallejo (1892–1938) is considered one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century Latin American literature. Born in the Andean city of Santiago de Chuco, he moved to Lima as a young university student, producing there his first collection of poems, Los heraldos negros (1919). Seeking wider cultural and intellectual opportunities, Vallejo left Peru for Europe in 1923, spending most of his remaining fifteen years in self-imposed, impoverished exile in France, with periods in Spain and two trips to Russia. He died in Paris in 1938 at the age of 46.

Close-up black-and-white photograph of a man with dark hair, wearing a dark suit. He is resting his chin on one hand and looking into the distance. — César Vallejo, undated. Benson Latin American Collection.

Vallejo’s poetry has no precedent in the history of modern poetry. Written during a period that witnessed the crude consequences of war, imprisonment, and displacement (1919–1922), his avant-garde masterwork, Trilce (1922), challenges the reader with compelling paradoxes, abrupt syntactical turns, irregular spellings, rarefied lexicon, and verses arranged in unfamiliar visual displays.

However, this experimental register goes beyond the drive toward the new that was characteristic of the avant-garde movements. Vallejo’s poetic language is also a consequence of his search for the stark concrete expression of human affect. This is why in Trilce abstract notions of time, space, and being are conflated with raw emotions. No other poet has given shape to the silence that sustains the remembrance of things past with such precision:

Aguedita, Nativa, Miguel,
cuidado con ir por ahí, por donde
acaban de pasar
gangueando sus memorias
dobladoras penas,
hacia el silencioso corral, y por donde
las gallinas que se están acostando todavía,
se han espantado tanto.
Mejor estemos aquí no más.
Madre dijo que no demoraría.

“Poema III,” Trilce, 1922

[Find English translations of the poems cited here at https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520261730/the-complete-poetry]

César Vallejo in Fountainebleu, France, 1926. Courtesy Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

On the other hand, Vallejo’s poems embody the collective rather than the egotistical self. Familiar references are always a window into the vulnerability of human nature and the resilience of collective struggle, both in his homeland of Peru and in the entire world. A poem on the death of a soldier in the Spanish Civil War reads:

Pedro también solía comer
entre las criaturas de su carne, asear, pintar
la mesa y vivir dulcemente
en representación de todo el mundo.
Y esta cuchara anduvo en su chaqueta,
despierto o bien cuando dormía, siempre,
cuchara muerta viva, ella y sus símbolos.
¡Abisa a todos compañeros pronto!
¡Viban los compañeros al pie de esta cuchara para siempre!

“Solía escribir con su dedo grande en el aire,” España, aparta de mí este cáliz,1939

Vallejo’s oeuvre is thus an affective journey through the troublesome history of the twentieth century. Evidence of this is his posthumous poetry, which pertains to his last years in Europe: Poemas humanos (Human Poems), grouped under this title by his widow Georgette María Philippart Travers in 1937; and España, aparta de mí este cáliz (Spain, Take This Cup from Me,1939), his testament of the Spanish Civil War. Both collections are a centerpiece of the Benson’s recent acquisition.

A yellowed sheet of lined notebook paper, bearing three holes along the right side. The paper is filled top to bottom with Spanish words written in pencil, most of them with commas after them. — “Poemas humanos” manuscript, César Vallejo Papers. Courtesy Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

Beyond the recurring debate as to whether Human Poems is an appropriate title for this posthumous corpus, it is certain that these poems are an honest and critical reflection on the role of the lettered poet in a world charged with misery and human suffering:

Un albañil cae de un techo, muere y ya no almuerza
¿Innovar, luego, el tropo, la metáfora?

“Un hombre pasa con un pan al hombro,” Poemas humanos, 1937

Vallejo’s poems will always be contemporary, as they shed light on the devastating consequences of societal fragmentation, displacement, and exile. At the same time, his poems remind us of the need to keep longing for human empathy and love, even in times of war. We celebrate the arrival of Vallejo’s papers.

Al fin de la batalla,
y muerto el combatiente, vino hacia él un hombre
y le dijo: “No mueras, te amo tanto!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Se le acercaron dos y repitiéronle:
“No nos dejes! ¡Valor! ¡Vuelve a la vida!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Acudieron a él veinte, cien, mil, quinientos mil,
clamando: “Tanto amor, y no poder nada contra la muerte!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Le rodearon millones de individuos,
con un ruego común: “¡Quédate, hermano!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Entonces, todos los hombres de
la tierra le rodearon; les vio el cadáver triste, emocionado;
incorporóse lentamente,
abrazó al primer hombre; echóse a andar . . .

“Masa,” Poemas humanos, 1939

The César Vallejo Papers consist of materials dated from 1918 to 1992, and include manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and some published copies of his written work.

This acquisition was funded in part by the Janet and Jack Roberts Peruvian Endowment.

Adela Pineda Franco is Lozano Long Endowed Professor in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies, and director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at The University of Texas at Austin. Biographical research on César Vallejo was contributed by Benson Exhibitions Curator Veronica Valarino.

Benson Latin American Collection, Fine Arts Library, Outreach, Zines

Another Successful Year at Lone Star Zine Fest

November 7, 2024 tinatran Leave a comment

The UT Libraries tabled at the 8th Annual Lone Star Zine Fest on October 19th and 20th. We Librarians were able to connect with the local community of zinesters through outreach as well as purchasing new materials for the collection.

What is a zine? To put it simply, a zine is a DIY publication, traditionally made on printer paper, meant to spread awareness of a particular issue or to find certain communities that share the same interests. Historically, zines have been used to bypass the barriers of traditional publishing, making them a speedy and inexpensive way to share information utilizing print materials.

The Blue Genie Art Bazaar (the site chosen to host the fest) was filled to the brim with zines that October Weekend. With over 100 vendors, we zine librarians had our work cut out for us. Not only did we table at the fest to promote UT’s free-to-read zine collection, we also prepared for purchasing and were eager to find new titles to add to the stacks.

Tabling at the fest brought a few new challenges. Last year’s fest ran for one day, while this year it grew into two. This is due to the huge success of the previous year’s event, with over 1000 people attending the fest. We spread the word to the UT Libraries community and received interest from fellow staff and graduate research assistants in assisting us with our outreach efforts. Having volunteers as extra eyes at the event proved to be more helpful than we thought. They brought back fabulous purchase suggestions as they perused the vendors throughout the building.

With pen and paper in hand, we scoured the building looking for locally-made zines that would add oomph to our current collection, such as comic zines for the Fine Arts Library and chapbooks for the PCL Poetry Center. We also looked for zines on topics that would resonate with students and could be added to our teaching toolkit for zine workshops we hold periodically throughout the year. Two of our favorite vendors – Chan Channel and Table for Two Publications – are alumni from the College of Fine Arts who often visited the Fine Arts Library. They were excited to meet us and thrilled to have their work represented in our zine collection for future art and design students. All in all, we purchased over 100 zines at the fest for the Libraries!

Our outreach at the Lone Star Zine Fest was a major success. We talked to over 400 attendees about the collection, surprising many with the fact that the UT Libraries are open to the public. Many expressed interest in visiting campus (we look forward to seeing y’all)! This concludes our sixth year tabling at the fest and we hope to continue to do so for many years to come.

Are you interested in learning more about the UT Zine Collection? Please visit our LibGuide here.

Benson Latin American Collection, Books, Global Studies, LLILAS Benson

Primeros Libros Triennial Takes Place in Oaxaca

November 6, 2024 tex libris Leave a comment

The 2024 Primeros Libros Triennial Partner Meeting and Symposium, held at the Francisco de Burgoa Library in Oaxaca on October 10–11, brought together scholars, librarians and cultural heritage experts to celebrate and examine the legacy of early Mexican printed books and their impact on understanding the colonial period.

The Primeros Libros de las Américas project is a collaborative digital initiative to preserve and provide access to the first books printed in the Americas during the 16th century. It emphasizes the creation of a comprehensive digital corpus to promote global access and scholarship. With contributions from institutions across Europe and the Americas, the project embodies the shared heritage of colonial Mexico and serves as a vital resource for understanding the history of print, culture and language in the New World.

Day 1 of the gathering opened with a keynote lecture, “The Christian Doctrine in Mixtec by Fray Benito Hernández (1567-1568): Its Historical and Current Context,” delivered by a panel of experts, including bilingual educators, psychologists, and philologists. The presentation highlighted efforts to preserve indigenous Mixtec texts through interdisciplinary research.

Panel discussions throughout the day explored the artistry and subversion in 16^th-century Mexican prints, including analyses of the unique Franciscan Library’s “Warnings for Indian Confessors” and the survival of anti-colonial Nahuatl codices.

A virtual presentation from the Biblioteca Statale di Lucca shed light on the discovery of rare early American prints in European collections, illustrating the transatlantic reach of colonial print culture.

The second day delved deeper into the lives of early printers, such as Pedro Ocharte and the Calderón family, with a spotlight on technological advances in printmaking during the colonial era. Discussions also explored the circulation and reception of printed works across the Americas, including a case study of an indigenous sacristan in Zacatecas who risked punishment to preserve knowledge.

The symposium also included a visit to the Juan de Córdova Research Library and concluded with a book presentation on the history of engraving in Mexican print. Scholars and participants hailed the event as a critical platform for fostering collaboration and preserving the shared heritage of the Americas.

For more information about Primeros Libros and ongoing preservation initiatives, visit primeroslibros.org.