[Reader-list] A Digital Archive of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art and A Companion Book Series

[Sabih .]

 ***Some 10,000 primary-source documents will be available worldwide for the
first time, launching with materials from Mexico, Argentina and the American
Midwest.*

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and its research institute, the
International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), have devoted ten
years and 50 million USD to initiatives in 20th-century Latin American and
Latino art. In January 2012, the MFAH and ICAA will reach a milestone in
these efforts: the initial launch of a digital archive of some 10,000
primary-source materials, culled by hundreds of researchers based out of 16
cities in the U.S. and throughout Latin America. The online archive will be
available worldwide, free of charge, and is intended as a catalyst for the
future of a field that has been notoriously lacking in accessible resources.
The phased, multi-year launch begins with 2,500 documents from Argentina,
Mexico and the American Midwest. Documents from other countries and
communities will continue to be uploaded and made available. The first
volume in a companion series of 13 annotated books will be published with
the archive launch, with subsequent volumes in the series published
annually.

The online archive is rich in artists' writings, correspondence and other
unpublished materials, as well as in texts published in newspapers and
period journals by artists, critics, scholars and others who have played a
vital role in shaping the cultural fabric of the countries and communities
in which the Documents Project has had a presence. The material brings to
life the ferment of international cultures, ideas and personalities that
swept across 20th-century South America, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and
the North American Midwest, as artists, writers and intellectuals sought to
define or challenge notions of a national art; art movements emerged in
response to changing local political regimes, as well as to what was
perceived as the onslaught of North American culture; and the contribution
of Latin American artists to the early stages of avant-garde global
movements that resulted in highly original artistic manifestations. The
archive also highlights the common interests and affinities shared by Latin
artists working in North and South America, allowing for first-hand
comparative studies of these broad-based, highly heterogeneous groups.
Documents from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the
United States will continue to be added to the website over the next three
years, with the entire selection of holdings to date available by 2015. As
the ICAA research initiatives progress, the website will continue to develop
in perpetuity, making it an indispensable provider of Latin American and
Latino primary-source documents.

A series of 13 books to be published over the next dozen years, *Critical
Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art*, will accompany the
digital archive initiative. Selections from the archive will be translated
into English and organized by theme, rather than country or chronology. The
general, non-Spanish speaking reader will have access to Latin American
primary-source materials in English, while the specialized reader can
cross-reference the books with the archive, accessing both the original and
the translated versions of the texts. Co-published by the MFAH and Yale
University Press, the series is the most ambitious editorial venture of its
kind. The release of the first anthology, *Resisting Categories: Latin
American and/or Latino?*, by Mari Carmen Ramírez with the late Olivier
Debroise, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, and Héctor Olea, is timed for the *Documents
* website launch.


Media Information:
MFAH Communications:
Mary Haus, Dana Mattice and Lisa Sursavage; (713) 639-7554
mhaus at mfah.org<https://webmail.aaa.org.hk/owa/redir.aspx?C=acf7d672c3ad4fcc8cd9ac880dd805fb&URL=mailto%3amhaus%40mfah.org>;
dmattice at mfah.org<https://webmail.aaa.org.hk/owa/redir.aspx?C=acf7d672c3ad4fcc8cd9ac880dd805fb&URL=mailto%3admattice%40mfah.org>;
lsursavage at mfah.org<https://webmail.aaa.org.hk/owa/redir.aspx?C=acf7d672c3ad4fcc8cd9ac880dd805fb&URL=mailto%3alsursavage%40mfah.org>
Website<https://webmail.aaa.org.hk/owa/redir.aspx?C=acf7d672c3ad4fcc8cd9ac880dd805fb&URL=http%3a%2f%2fmfah.org%2fnews%2f>
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