Summary report of the Archival City mission to Quito 25 April -5 May 2023

Georges Lomné, principal investigator of the Quito study field and Carole Lamoureux, general coordinator of the Archival City project, carried out a mission to Quito between 25 April and 5 May. This mission was made possible thanks to the financial and logistic support of the French Embassy in Ecuador and of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar (UASB). The mission included personal meetings with Quito partners and French diplomatic staff, personal and collaborative working sessions, visits to repositories and museums, and meetings to discuss new collaborations and prospects.

On 27 April, a meeting was held at the UASB to discuss the general progress of the Archival City project and the ongoing projects carried out at the UASB (data papers, archival descriptions of the Catholic workers centre among others). New project proposals were presented and discussed (processing and digitisation of the personal files of the members of the Centro católico de obreros -catholic workers center-, photographic collections of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural -INPC, national institute of cultural heritage- etc). The perspectives after the end of Archival City were also discussed.

On 3 May a meeting was held at the Archivo Metropolitano Histórico (AMH). It was attended by the archive’s staff, Patricio Guerra (former Cronista de la Ciudad of Quito), Guillermo Bustos (UASB), Santiago Cabrera (UASB) and Natasha Sanmartín (UASB). The main topics discussed were the current situation at the AMH (financial means, vacancy of the post of Cronista de la Ciudad), the report on the minutes of the Centro católico de obreros which were processed by Natasha Sanmartín and Santiago Cabrera, and the AMH digitization system which was reactivated in the framework of the Archival City project.

Figure i – Santiago Cabrera, Georges Lomné, Natasha Sanmartín and Guillermo Bustos testing the digitization system of the AMH (3 May 2023). Photo credits : C. Lamoureux.

Figure ii – Georges Lomné, Carole Lamoureux, Patricio Guerra, Sofía Granizo and Sonia Merizalde at the AMH (3 May 2023) Photo credits : AMH

Figure iii – Santiago Cabrera, Guillermo Bustos and Natasha Sanmartín at the AMH (3 May 2023), Photo credits: AMH

On 4 May a meeting was held at the French Embassy in Ecuador with Frédéric Desagneaux (Ambassador) and Apolline Blanchard (Technical Cooperation Attaché). The lunch break was an opportunity to discuss with Guillermo Bustos, Santiago Cabrera and Rosemarie Terán (UASB) their work within Archival City, as well as the post-Archival City prospects. In the afternoon, C. Lamoureux and G. Lomné visited the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural (INPC) in Guápulo (Casa Guápulo). They attended a presentation of the INPC’s initiatives and archives, including technical archives (archaeological excavation files), map library, library, geomatic service, publishing service, photographic collections and photographic database. After the visit, a meeting was held with Catalina Tello Sarmiento (executive director), Daniel González Guzmán (director of knowledge transfer and technology) and Ana María Toro (coordinator of the project of national photography) on potential collaborations between INPC and Archival City, including: the selection of a corpus of old photographs showing squares in the city of Quito, the signature of an agreement between INPC and Archival City.

Figure iv – Rosemarie Terán and Guillermo Bustos looking at an Ecuabel report in the technical archives of the INPC (4 May). Photo credits: G. Lomné

Figure v- Ana María Toro presenting the photographic collections of the INPC (4 May 2023). Photo credits : G. Lomné.

On 5 May, G. Lomné et C. Lamoureux visited the Casa del Alabado Museum with Carlos Espinosa (Universidad San Francisco de Quito-USFQ). After a presentation of the museum, they attended a meeting with Lucía Durán (executive director of the museum), Estefanía Carrera (educational coordinator) and Carlos Montalvo (conservation and research officer) on the forthcoming installation of the 3D “Quito 1532” in the museum (20 May) and the improvements that will soon be made by the USFQ team (introduction of scans of archaeological artefacts), including the imminent signature of an agreement between Casa del Alabado, Archival City (Gustave Eiffel University) and USFQ.

Several working sessions were held during the mission with Gabriela Arguello, Jeroen Derkinderen, Sophia Checa (PhD students at the UASB) and Erika Bedón (independent researcher) on their data set, archival descriptions and related data papers. On 2 May a working session was organised with Natasha Sanmartín et Santiago Cabrera to discuss the integrations of the archival descriptions of the minutes of the Centro católico de obreros into AtoM.  On the last day of the mission (5 May), C. Lamoureux and G. Lomné met with Tamara Estupiñan (independent researcher) and discussed about the imminent delivery of her INH database and original documentation, and the delivery of the corresponding data paper.

Carole Lamoureux & Annalaura Turiano

On April 5,  a conference on the archives of the Centro Católico de Obreros (CCO) was held at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar-Ecuador,  in partnership with the university Gustave Eiffel and the Archivo metropolitano de Historia de Quito. Speakers (including Patricio Guerra, Santiago Cabrera and Natasha Sanmartín, members of the Archival City Project) debated about the importance of the Center as a source for research into Quito’s urban social history and as part of the city’s heritage. The process of conservation and cataloguing of the CCO’s historical archive, resulting from the collaboration between the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar and the Archivo metropolitano de Historia was presented.

First slide of the poster presented by Santiago Cabrera and Natasha Sanmartín

Courtesy of Santiago Cabrera

The CCOQ is one of the oldest workers’ organisations in Quito. It was founded in 1906 by a group of conservative intellectuals under the principles promoted by the Encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) issued by the Pope Leo XIII. Catholic intellectuals looked for alternatives to the leftist trade union organizations and were inspired by the work of French Catholic centres aimed at developing edifying links between workers.

The CCOQ archive hols a documentary collection of great relevance for the study of the social memory of both Quito and Ecuador. Speakers in the conference underlined the importance of the centre as part of the urban heritage of the city as shown by its geographical position. Indeed, it is located in a highly symbolic position, in the street 24 de mayo, which represents an imaginary border between the heritage space of the city as it is conceived for touristic purposes and the quarters of the historical centre of Quito considered as being popular.

Concerning the documentary collections, the CCOQ minutes (from 1906 until now) are the most important body of documents preserved. The center keeps other relevant sources for the history of workers’ sociability (membership registers, accountancy books, magazines, documents on mutual and cultural activities, posters, etc.). In order to prevent this documentary collection from damage and risks of natural catastrophes, a preservation project has been conceived. It entailed the transfer of 11 linear metres of documentation to the Quito Metropolitan Historical Archive for technical processing.

Digitalisation process at the  Quito Metropolitan Historical Archive

Photo credit: Archivo metropolitano de Historia de Quito

This was possible thanks to the commitment of the City Chronicler, Patricio Guerra, Georges Lomné (Principal investigator of Archival City Ecuador), Guillermo Bustos (coordinator Archival City UASB-E) and Santiago Cabrera Hanna (coordinator of the intervention project Actas de Sesiones del CCOQ). The project consisted of three main phases: the description of the documentary collection, the preventive conservation process, and the digitalisation  which are detailed in a forthcoming data paper co-authored by Santiago Cabrera Hanna and Natasha Sanmartín Monteros  who was responsible for the technical treatment.

The recovery of the CCO-Q minutes represents an important step in safeguarding  Quito’s working class cultural heritage and facilitating academic research. One of the challenges is the recognition of the CCO-Q archives as an integral part of the documentary heritage and social history of the city of Quito.  The work done makes this documentary heritage more accessible to national and international researchers and users.

5^th April 2023, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar

On Wednesday 5 April at 5pm, a meeting will be held at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (Área de Historia) in Quito on the archives of the Centro Católico de Obreros in partnership with Archival City and the Archivo metropolitano de Historia de Quito. The CCOQ was founded on March 18, 1906 by a group of conservative intellectuals from the city of Quito who looked for alternatives to the leftist trade union organizations. It was inspired by the work of French Catholic centers and  aimed at developing edifying links between workers. 

The CCOQ archive has a documentary collection of great relevance for the study of the social memory of both Quito and Ecuador. The department of History of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar and the Archivo metropolitano de Historia have been collaborating on the conservation of theses archives, in partnership with Archival city. The intervention process includes registration, conservation, and inventory.

Storage & labeling

Conservation status record

Photos by Santiago Cabrera Hanna & Natasha Sanmartín Monteros

The event on the 5^th April proposes a dialogue on the importance of  the Centro Católico de Obreros (CCO) as a source for research into Quito’s urban social history and as part of the city’s heritage. The results of the process of conservation and cataloguing of the CCO’s historical archive will be presented. Speakers will include Patricio Guerra, Santiago Cabrera and Natasha Sanmartín, members of the Archival City Projet Quito.

The meeting will be broadcasted on the facebook page of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar and that of the Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad. It will also be recorded.

More information on the event can be found here.