Abstract

HERNANDEZ, Antonio J.  and  PEREYRA, Guillermo. Memory entrepreneurs and archival practices. The archive of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba). LiminaR [online]. 2022, vol.20, n.1, e876.  Epub Sep 12, 2022. ISSN 2007-8900.  https://doi.org/10.29043/liminar.v20i1.876.

The general objective of this article is to analyze the activities of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), a non-profit civil organization located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, in terms of memory and archival practices. Information was gathered through interviews and documentary analysis. In particular, we endeavor to understand and discuss how Frayba workers document and analyze human rights violations (not just judicially), based on victims’ testimonies and on how they classify and curate their archive. In our opinion, Frayba’s human rights activists are “memory entrepreneurs” (E. Jelin) working in a violent context. A distinctive feature of their registry, collection, and archival practices is political activism, which underlies their political project that builds, and reconstructs, a troubled past.

Keywords : Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center; historical memory; archive practices; political activism.