INAH prepares a guide to prevent the theft of Mexico’s documentary heritage

Unlike the theft of archaeological pieces, the theft of documentary collections “is a little invisible” in Mexico, which is why a guide was made to prevent the looting of documents, reported the head of the National Coordination for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (CNCPC) of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Thalía Velasco Castelán, who regretted that until now “we do not have the dimension of the number of thefts of our documentary assets.”

In interview with The DayVelasco Castelán indicated that the guide was prepared with the collaboration of the General Archive of the Nation (AGN) and “the idea is that it reaches all archivists, librarians, people who work in documentation centers throughout the country, to avoid theft. It is very important to have the registry and inventories of the documents, to protect our heritage.”

He added that “if we do not have our assets cataloged and a theft occurs, it is very difficult to file a report, because we do not have a photograph or the characteristics that are requested of us to file a report. We believe that it is a strategic line of work that we will continue to promote from the institute.”

Among the conservation projects that the CNCPC worked on this year, the one carried out with the Tlatelolco Codex stands out, which was headed by Marie Vander Meeren.

It is a documentary asset that is “very important for the history of our country, it is one of these codices in amate; a very specific intervention work was carried out that earned it the INAH award in the category of conservation, restoration and research,” he commented.

On-site work

Coordination restorers also work on siteas is the case of Tulum or the graphic rock art manifestations of Baja California, Nuevo León and Oaxaca.

The CNCPC, he added, “has learned the importance of listening and working with communities to preserve Mexico’s cultural heritage. Raising social groups’ awareness of the cultural wealth they have is vital to preserving their assets. A challenge in our work is to gain their trust.”

He explained that some communities come to ask for support, but others are not very convinced because “they have a certain misgiving about the institution.”

Regarding the National Conservation Strategy, which focuses on research, education and dissemination to preserve cultural heritage, he said that “if a community is not valuing a cultural asset, it does not matter that we tell it that it is very important, because it is not going to commit to having conservation actions.”

In this sense, the CNCPC not only supports religious communities, but other groups. “We are interested in working with young people and children on the topic of documentary heritage. Working with archivists, librarians and phototherapists is essential, because they are the ones who are manipulating the archives on a daily basis. We teach them what are the manipulation measures, good safeguarding and working with users.”

For Velasco Catalán, who is also a restorer, preventive actions are essential because they prevent art objects from deteriorating.

On the topic of cultural heritage inventories, Velasco mentioned that specialists teach the inhabitants of the communities how to record the wealth they have in their temples, share preventive conservation measures and manipulation of the sculptures and, for example, explain to them that it is not good to place flowers on them.

Given the archaeological wealth of the country, he added, “we need to add more hands and eyes to help us with the tasks of registration and protection of assets. It is a need to expand efforts and get different social groups to join in the protection of our heritage.”

The head of the CNCPC pointed out that there are several projects throughout the country and work is being done in the conservation laboratories located in the Former Convent of Churubusco. “Here we bring some of the goods that are intervened and research is carried out; we also have laboratories for textiles, documentary heritage, easel painting, organic material and ceramics, among others.”