PROFMEX-Consorcio Mundial para la Investigación sobre México

Mexico and the World
Vol. 7, No 1 (Winter 2002)
http://www.profmex.org/mexicoandtheworld/volume7/1winter02/change_mexicos_history.html

A Necessary Change for Mexico's History
Free the AGN from a Slow Death in the Lecumberri Prison

Patricia Galeana [1]

Mexico posses the richest National Archive in America (AGN), that store a series of valuable documents: codices from the sixteenth century displaying indigenous pictorial elements, personal documents of Hernán Cortés and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the Cédula Real by which the first American university was founded, the first American printed books, and even Alexander von Humboldt’s geographical tables, among other documentary treasures, all of them part of the world’s memory.

Despite the enormous value of these documents, the AGN is physically located in a building that was originally meant to be a prison, during Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship, and consequently does not comply with any current international standards for the correct preservation of archival holdings.

Lecumberri prison is the most inadequate facility to house such an important heritage, not only because of its architectural structure but also because of its location close to the main line of Mexico City’s drainage system. Precisely within the area of the AGN the channel is not enclosed and thus is always at risk of overflowing, due to the gradual subsidence of the center of the city. Actually the building itself is more than one meter below street level which requires that any drainage inside be pumped out.

During its history the penitentiary has been exposed to numerous floods, a fact that has gained the prison its reputation as the Black Palace (Palacio Negro), a name also associated with the horrors experienced by its early inhabitants. [2] It was a mistake to place an important archival facility where there is danger of flood, and also happens to be one of the most contaminated zones of Mexico City. Needless to say, the atmospheric pollutants are speeding the acidification process, which eventually turns paper to dust.

Lecumberri’s panoptical structure means that every gallery has a different orientation, and because it was built on the grounds of what used to be the San Lázaro Basin the clayish soil has contributed to a differential subsidence of each of its seven arms. This means that there are significant variations of temperature and humidity adverse to the preservation of these archival materials. The daily fluctuations suffered by the documents in Lecumberri reduce their lives by the minute. [3]
Paradoxically, these terrible conditions at the AGN in Lecumberri prevailed while a prominent Mexican, Jaime Torres Bodet, [4] in his capacity of Director-General of UNESCO, supported the creation of the sole international organization devoted to protect the world documentary memory: the International Council on Archives (ICA).

Today UNESCO leads the Memory of the World Programme aimed at preserving the world documentary heritage. Many of the documents housed in Mexico’s AGN have been included in the Memory of the World Register. Such valuable documentary treasures are now available to researchers and to the public thanks to the historical awareness of past generations.

At the end of the Prehispanic period, Fernando de Alva “Ixtlilxóchitl” and Tezozómoc preserved the memory of the primitive inhabitants of the Mexican territory. [5] During Mexico’s Colonial period, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora risked his life saving the documents that were housed in the Viceregal Palace (Palacio Virreinal) from a fire caused by an indigenous uprising in protest against a corn shortage after an extended drought in the seventeenth century.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, a man of culture and outstanding intelligence, Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco y Padilla, Count of Revillagigedo, proposed the creation of a General Archive to keep all the documentary materials that were on the verge of disappearing due to their dispersion. The General Archive of the New Spain Viceroyalty (Archivo General del Virreinato de la Nueva España) was thus established to organize and preserve these documents. [6]

Thanks to Revillagigedo many valuable documents that attest the syncretic process of the Indigenous and European cultures were gathered. Among these splendid treasures, the AGN now keeps 1,200 codices consisting on nothing but one sheet as well as documents measuring 4 x 4 mts. This kind of material deserves to be properly cared for and stored in a building in compliance with the international norms and regulations concerning archival preservation. A necessary first step would be, of course, to take the National Archive away from Mexico City’s polluted environment.

In 1823, during Mexico’s independent period, minister Lucas Alamán introduced a proposal to the Constitutional Convention aimed at creating the General and Public Archive of Mexico (Archivo General y Público de México). This proposal intended to preserve in one institution the Viceregal Archive that Revillagigedo organized, together with more recent documents related to the Independence movement as well as the future materials.

Likewise, minister José María Lafragua was well aware of the importance of preserving the nation’s historical memory and strove to regulate the collection of archival material in the General and Public Archive of Mexico. [7] Thus, the National Archive never lost their national character during the nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of the twentieth century, soon after the Mexican Revolution was over, the National Archive was split. During Venustiano Carranza’s Administration Mexico’s General and Public Archive was fragmented and all the documents pertaining international matters were removed and later transferred to the Diplomatic Historic Archive at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. International archivists abide by a golden rule: archives that are already organized should never be dismembered. It is regrettable then that the unity of our nation’s historical memory was fractured, and that the efforts of Revillagigedo, Alamán, Lafragua and of those who in the nineteenth century looked after such valuable materials were undermined.

At the end of last century, the AGN suffered yet another fragmentation when all the judicial documents were moved to the Supreme Court Archive. Although in detriment of the National Archive, perhaps in the future these materials will be preserved in a more adequate environment away from Lecumberri.

Hopefully, the AGN will keep digitalized copies of these documents, since otherwise the unity and integrity of the National Archive may be lost. Not only because of the archival material that has been taken away but also because while kept in Lecumberri the space limitations of the former prison no longer allow new storage. The AGN now cannot keep the Presidential Archives or the archives of the ministry of the interior, which now oversees the AGN.

It is desirable that the Transparency and Access to Information Law that has been introduced to the Mexican Congress would create a suitable legal frame that should necessarily consider tackling the many hurdles archival preservation faces.

Revillagigedo tried to protect the Viceregal Archive from the annual flood, one of the worst problems of Mexico City. Since the city used to be seat of numerous rivers and lakes, a true Venice, floods have been a constant problem. However, Revillagigedo wasn’t able to fulfill his project and the Viceregal Archive was left within the Viceregal Palace itself [8] .

During most part of the nineteenth century, while the unstable political and social conditions that shaped the Mexican State prevailed, the archival situation was not as urgent as other matters. The government had to deal with internal wars as well as foreign invasions, and thus there was little time left to plan where to build new facilities for the National Archive, which remained at the Viceregal Palace.

While housed in the National Palace (former Viceregal Palace), the AGN was constantly moved from one place to another and suffered largely for that matter. After the liberal reform of 1859, once the ecclesiastical properties were nationalized, the National Palace became an insufficient facility to store so many archival materials, and therefore a large part of them was relocated in some of the churches of the city. [9]

Keeping the National Archive within the National Palace proved to be altogether unsustainable halfway the twentieth century. Therefore, the National Archive was moved to the Communications Palace (Palacio de Comunicaciones, now National Museum of Art), but eventually the building was also an inadequate and insufficient facility.

It was then that idea of adapting the former prison to accommodate the AGN was set forth. Despite adverse opinions, such as that of historian and former National Archivist, Ignacio Rubio Mañé, the idea gave place to what has been the AGN’s house since more than 15 years ago.

Those historians fascinated by the plan were able to convince the President in turn that the adaptation of the building would be much less expensive than building up new facilities. Some of the arguments that supported this idea were that the metal plaques used to prevent convicts from escaping would be ideal to avoid fire hazards. Nevertheless, they certainly didn’t consider the proximity to the main line of the drainage system nor the inadequate architecture of the building. As stated above, the natural subsidence of the place requires the mechanical extraction of water from the precinct. [10]

The idea that Lecumberri, a place where once the State watched those who were convicted could be transformed into a place where the citizenship could watch the State was quite attractive. With this spirit all bars and doors of the prison were removed, leaving the archival materials in the open, exposed to the pollutants’ acidification that ravages them irreversibly.

But the atmospheric pollutants are only one of the many hazards that affect the documents in the AGN. Not a single archive in the world have their storage without doors, which in the case of the AGN leaved the documentary material exposed to all kinds of potential dangers: theft and destruction by acids. [11]

In order to transform the prison’s facilities to accommodate Mexico’s National Archive the structure of the building was destroyed. Once the spinal column was removed, that is to say, the surveillance tower, the seven arms that form its panoptical structure were left without structural support, a decision that has caused various problems to the building.

The central tower was replaced with a dome and the arms were tied down to it so they wouldn’t sink, but such an architectural device almost tore down the dome. During the last administration the arms had to be removed from the dome and the whole structure was bolstered seeking to comply with the city’s regulations on public facilities, established after the 1985 earthquake. However, the building shows permanent cracks caused by the building’s subsidence, and therefore the investment on the adaptation of the former prison has been as onerous as fruitless. [12]

Furthermore, the corridors’ yards were sealed with inadequate materials causing that during the warm season the place becomes a real greenhouse. Due to the configuration of the building it is extremely expensive to regulate temperature and humidity conditions of each of the 876 cells located along the galleries, as well as the conditions of the dome whose proportions are likened to those of a bus station. It would be necessary to rebuild the structure in some other place using adequate materials, which makes it more logical to construct a carefully planned facility. Lecumberri is definitively the worst place to house any kind of archival materials since even the stones are subjected to damage in such adverse conditions.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the National Institute of Nuclear Research are the only Mexican institutions where specialists on engineering, architecture, and chemistry have worked with nuclear energy applied to preservation of materials. Scientists from both institutions developed a joint research for more than three years and suggested to take away the AGN not only from Lecumberri, but from Mexico City’s polluted area, and relocate the National Archive in dry, cold and pollution-free facilities. [13]

It is quite possible to build whatever is needed wherever is wanted –one can travel from Paris to London underwater through the Eurochannel, for instance. In this sense, it is possible to build in Mexico City an intelligent building that stores the AGN. Nevertheless, the costs are extremely high due to the fact that every grade of temperature and humidity that must be controlled is translated in many dollars, not only with respect to the construction itself but to its necessary maintenance, not to mention the deacidification process from atmospheric pollutants. Furthermore, the environment-friendly architecture of the new century seeks to use natural ventilation aimed at avoiding atmospheric pollution. [14]

With these factors in mind, the specialists recommended a ventilated, dry and cold place, built upon an adequate terrain, which would guarantee that the document are properly looked after. Among the proposals to move away the AGN were those that considered places not far from Mexico City, such as Querétaro and Hidalgo. [15]

The proposal was published but the AGN’s current administration vetoed the idea and it was filed for the posterity. This action was promoted by a group of historians of which 90% has not set foot in Lecumberri in 10 years as shown by the visitor’s registers.

Despite they are not really frequent visitors to the AGN, they didn’t accept the idea of moving the Archive to some other location, partly because of personal reasons –some of them may have supported the original idea of keeping the AGN in Lecumberri, and some others may not be willing to drive one hour to get to the new location—, and partly because of mere ignorance of those who erroneously think that the Mexican Constitution determined that the National Archive should remain wherever the Federal Government is physically located. Yet another explanation is the perennial centralism that objects to the idea of taking offices, institutions and organisms away from the capital (as if the rest of the Mexican territory was not part of the nation), even though it is undeniable that we are all asphyxiating in such a crowded and polluted environment.

It is really regrettable that there is virtually no documentation from the second half of twentieth century, due not only because there aren’t any federal or national laws regarding the archival legacy, but also because Lecumberri’s space limitations have restrained considerably the acquisition of new materials. If such inadequate conditions of preservation are the actual situation of the AGN, one can only imagine what conditions prevail in other archives kept in damp basements, exposed to rodents and other pests, which are feeding upon the documentary memory of Mexico.

With the dispersion of documentary material researchers will have to visit twenty, fifty archives to gather information; this if the mountains of papers within the public offices are not destroyed in order to gain space.

Today we are able to implement a perfect solution for this problem: digitalization. It is no longer important where the documents are kept because through the new information technology tools they can be conveniently preserved, avoiding therefore theft, harm and destruction. But also, new technologies guarantee researchers easy access to information from their places of work, which makes it even more important to store our documents in the best place where they can be properly cared for.

The richest Archive of the Americas is in danger; it is the duty of every person interested on the world’s memory to claim for its salvation. Let’s liberate the AGN from a slow death at Lecumberri.

[1] Historian. National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico City). Former Director of the Diplomatic Historical Archive (Archivo Histórico Diplomático Genaro Estrada) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; she was also National Archivist (1994-1999). The text La Situación del AGN en Lecumberri is available in CD-Rom. E-mail: [email protected].

[2] The facility is also known as the “Black Palace” because of the horrors that took place there while a prison (the assassination of President Madero, the imprisonment of students during the 1968 uprising, the confinement of David A. Siqueiros, among other personalities). But also its obscure reputation derives from the fact that when the drainage channel overflowed the Palace was flooded with sewage waters that left the walls smudged in black.

[3] At the beginning of the last century when Lecumberri was built, the panopticon was the structure in vogue because it facilitated the surveillance of convicts (since it was constructed radially so that someone at a central position could observe all parts of it). Nevertheless, this characteristic that may be useful for a prison is quite inappropriate if one seeks to control humidity and temperature accurately.

[4] Torres Bodet’s efforts included the foundation of Mexico’s National School of Library Science and Archives (Escuela Nacional de Biblioteconomía y Archivonomía) while Secretary of Education.

[5] These authors’ chronicles on the “encounter of two worlds” were compiled by Miguel León Portilla in his book La visión de los vencidos, one of the most often translated works of a contemporary Mexican writer.

[6] Viceroy Revillagigedo conceived the documentary holdings of the Viceroyalty’s General Archive as a fundamental support of the administration, upon which the viceregal government would be based. In fact, his administration is deemed as one of the best of Mexico’s colonial past. Among many positive things during his period, was the Census that enabled Baron Alexander von Humboldt to write his Tablas geográficas sobre la Nueva España.

[7] In his address to the House, with great vision Lafragua deemed the Archive as an inexhaustible source of knowledge, of “lights, facts and rights”, as the first National Archivist, Ignacio Cubas, said. In those archives, the chief executive would find the compass to lead and give direction to the State’s ship, to guide the nation’s steps through a safe road, and the intellectual community would resource to seeking for knowledge.

[8] Floods have destroyed many of the city’s buildings, for instance the first building that housed the School of Santiago Tlatelolco in the XVI century. The building that we know today dates from the seventeenth century.

[9] For instance the Guadalupe Church (Templo de Guadalupe), known as the “Yellow House” (Casa Amarilla), and to Santo Domingo Church (Templo de Santo Domingo).

[10] A book that I coordinated attests the whole prison’s transformation. See Clementina Díaz y de Ovando et al., Lecumberri: un palacio lleno de Historia (AGN: 1994).

[11] Due to the removal of the building’s doors we have lost valuable documents of Mexico’s history, many of which have been sold to foreign countries. Fortunately, we were able to recuperate a very important letter from Fray Junípero Serra that was about to be auctioned at Sotheby’s. On the other hand, however, the acids from the atmospheric pollutants of Mexico City ravaged, for example, documents related to the Banco del Avío founded by Lucas Alamán in 1830.

[12] The whole project of adaptation, which supposedly would be an inexpensive task has proven to be quite the opposite. The AGN has to pay for maintenance services in order to keep in good conditions the hydraulic piles that give support to the dome, where a bubble has formed, not to mention the cost of the many reparations to the dome that we explained before. The extremely bad quality of the galleries’ roof made that its construction was the only cheap work. Nevertheless, the Declaration of Independence and the Mexican Constitutions among other valuable documents that are kept in those galleries have suffered largely for that matter: in order to avoid the spreading of fungi all the documents had to be fumigated page by page.

[13] This kind of measures have already been taken up by several European countries and the United States, where the National Archives are not in Washington, D.C. but in Maryland.

[14] In the most modern European archival facilities, like those of Austria and Sweden, it is customary to inject air into the coldest part of the buildings, over the night, in order to keep the temperature and humidity at the required levels without having to use air conditioning systems, which contaminate as much as they foster the proliferation of fungi.

[15] The governors and business men from both states were really interested on the project and they where willing to supply the terrain and the investment to fulfill the construction. Thus, the AGN would have been housed, for the first time, within adequate facilities built especially for that purpose.