18 collections join the Mexico’s national registry of the Memory of the World

Mexico City, February 26, 2024.- For years, one of the typewritten copies of the draft of “Cien años de soledad” (One Hundred Years of Solitude), the seminal novel by writer Gabriel García Márquez, was "semi-hidden" in the library of the late Mexican chronicler Guillermo Tovar y de Teresa. Yesterday, the document of exceptional universal value became part of Mexico's national registry of the UNESCO Memory of the World programme.

The "reappearance" (in 2019) of the document by the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature was national and international news, as even "Gabo" himself fueled the story that it was lost. With its inscription in the Memory of the World Registry, its safekeeping and preservation are guaranteed and access to it for anyone interested in exploring it.

The typewritten and corrected draft of the Colombian writer (submitted by the Soumaya Museum and the Carlos Slim Foundation) is one of the 18 documents (collections and/or sound, graphic, cartographic, and documentary archives) that were registered in the Registry starting from the 2023 Call. The Mexican national list totals 107 registrations now, resulting from the work and a wide network of institutions and professionals dedicated to preserving memory, identity, and collective heritage.

Were also registered: 

1. The radio program “Transfiguraciones sonoras en la voz de Eduardo Lizalde (1993-2022)” (Sound Transfigurations in the Voice of Eduardo Lizalde) submitted by the Mexican Institute of Radio (IMER);
2. the radio series "En los andamios de la creación (1987-1989)” (In the Scaffolding of Creation), presented by Radio Educación;
3. “Nuestras culturas viven: música, voces y sonoridades de México (1972-2021)” (Our Cultures are living: Music, Voices, and Soundscapes of Mexico), a series proposed by the Mexico’s Fonoteca and the Directorate-General of Popular, Indigenous, and Urban Cultures;
4. the “Archivo John y Colette Lilly: un testimonio sonoro y fílmico de la cultura Wixárika de Tuapurie (1969-1983)” (John and Colette Lilly Archive: A Sound and Film Testimony of Huichol Culture from Tuapurie), presented by the Metropolitan Autonomous University, in collaboration with the national Fonoteca and Cineteca.
5. Historical Archive of Mateo Emiliano Zapata Pérez: Memory of a Zapata (1912-1971), submitted by Edgar Rafael Castro Zapata;
6. Planoteca Found and Architecture Workshop proposed and safeguarded by the Sordo Madaleno Foundation;
7. Archive and Library of the Ateneo Español de México, from the same institution;
8. Topographic Map of the City of Guanajuato by Lucio Marmolejo (1866), safeguarded by the University of Guanajuato;
9. Collection of Lottery Tickets of Mexico (18th-21st centuries), presented by the National Lottery of Mexico.
10. Historical Collection of the National Archaeology Archive-INAH, Prehispanic Monuments Directorate Fund (1915-1959)
11. Ana Victoria Jiménez Archive of the feminist movement in Mexico (1970-1990), presented by the Ibero-American University;
12. File on the Adjudication of the Ocotepec Hacienda to Leona Vicario, submitted by the Judiciary of the State of Mexico;
13. San Ildefonso College Fund (1524-1867), registered by the Historical Archive of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (AHUNAM) and the Institute of Research on the University and Education (IISUE-UNAM);
14. The documentary series "Hijuelas", preserved in the General and Historical Archive of Michoacán Government (1828-1929);
15. Marquises of Jaral del Berrio Collection, from the National Bank of Mexico;
16. Tierras Documentary Group, 1531-1900 (16th-20th centuries), originating from the archives of the Land Court and the General Indio’s Court, from the National Archive of the Nation;
17. Obedience and Instruction granted to Fray Martín de Valencia, from the Franciscan Fund of the National Library of Anthropology and History (1523).

During the awards ceremony held on February 25, 2024, in the chapel of the Palace of Mining, Catherine Bloch, President of the Mexican Committee of the Memory of the World, highlighted the organizing, disseminating, and knowledge creation work that the Committee has been carrying out for 27 years and acknowledged the interest and effort that the applying institutions (libraries, archives, documentation centers, and private archives) dedicate to the preservation of Mexican documentary heritage. However, she emphasized the need to redouble efforts to save collective memory.