Discover CERLAC's Special Collections | Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC)

Montevideo, Uruguay | Photo courtesy of Michele Switzer

This page is dedicated to short descriptions of various collections in the holdings available for researchers at the CERLAC “Special Collections”. The collections described include the primary source materials that were donated to CERLAC by the Latin American Working Group (LAWG) that functioned from the mid-1960s to mid-1995 and the International Commission for the Coordination of Solidarity Among Sugar Workers (ICCSASW) that also functioned during the same period of time.

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Interesting Finds

“Archives are not inert historical collections. They always maintain an active and dialogical relationship with the questions that the present poses to the past; and the present always poses its questions differently from one generation to the next.” Stuart Hall, Constituting an Archive (2004, p. 92)

Hall's premise invites us to center the intentionality of contemporary researchers in their efforts to engage in dialogue with the past. This teaching gives meaning to my personal interpretive efforts regarding the wealth of special collections housed at CERLAC. I begin by mentioning that there is a large number of documents—press releases, newspaper articles, and newsletters—that deal with Mexico during a historical period called the “dirty war,” which took place between the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (Mireles, V. et. al. 2021). These press releases denote several correlated sociopolitical processes: on the one hand, the Mexican state's counterinsurgency policy to repress dissident social movements and armed rural organizations, and on the other, the resistance actions of indigenous leaders in states such as Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chiapas.

Military and police repression in regions with high indigenous populations focused on encircling the territories where rural armed movements operated, persecuting community leaders of peasant political organizations that were organically linked to the guerrillas (Montemayor, 1999). These were leaders who had the courage to work tirelessly to build political projects of community resistance from an indigenous perspective. Because of their unwavering determination to mobilize support, they were disappeared and/or murdered. Such is the case of leaders Víctor Pineda Henestrosa (an indigenous Zapotec from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and Tomás Cruz Lorenzo (an indigenous Chatino from San Juan Quiahije). The events that befell them and ended their lives are described and can be found in various types of documents in the special collection and library of the Latin American Working Group (LAWG).

Víctor Pineda from Juchitán, Oaxaca, was a teacher, poet, and social activist who founded the Isthmus Peasant-Worker-Student Coalition (COCEI). He was disappeared in July 1978 by members of the army. Víctor's close relatives and members of the organization devoted themselves body and soul to demanding his return and raising awareness of the repression and selective disappearance of indigenous leaders in Oaxaca, at a time when the national government denied that there were political prisoners and disappeared persons. Years later, Tomás Cruz Lorenzo, a teacher of the Chatina indigenous language, writer, and political and cultural promoter of so-called “indigenous communalism,” was murdered in broad daylight in July 1989. This heinous murder dealt a severe blow to efforts to establish autonomy and political self-determination for the indigenous peoples of the northern mountains of Oaxaca (Cruz, 2023).

The lives of these two leaders—along with those of many other social activists—were silenced by local bosses, white guards, and hired assassins. The forced absence of Víctor and Tomás impacted the lives of family members, friends, and fellow party members. However, their legacy lives on in the collective memory and in their descendants, in the daughters and sons who today are dedicated to honoring their parents' legacy and contributing to the struggle for the resistance of their peoples through language and poetry. I mention Irma Pineda, Victor's daughter, a renowned Zapotec poet whose work has been translated into Spanish, English, and several other languages. She dedicates her poems to her people, to the enjoyment of the Zapotec language, to her mother, to the family wound that was her father's disappearance, and to the journey they had to undertake to fight to politicize and raise awareness of forced disappearances in Mexico. I mention Emiliana Cruz Cruz, Tomás' daughter, an anthropologist and linguist who is dedicated to teaching the Chatina indigenous language, ensuring the conditions for the publication of stories written in Chatino, and collecting her father's texts in which he discusses the mechanisms of land defense, social cohesion, and the defense of Chatino cultural heritage in the face of the threats of modernization and Westernization coming from outside.

Reference. -

Hall, Stuart (2024) “Constituting an Archive” [2001] in Selected Writings on Visual Arts and Culture: Detour to the Imaginary, Editor Gilane Tawadros, Duke University Press.

Mireles, V., Martínez, M., Yankelevich, J. y Sánchez, G. (2021) Buscando a los desaparecidos de la “guerra sucia”: ontologías computacionales y la búsqueda de verdad. Iberoforum. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, Nueva Época, 1(1), 1-40, artículo e000149. https://doi.org/10.48102/if.2021.v1.n1.149

Montemayor, Carlos (1999) La guerrilla recurrente. Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez: Mexico.

Bio links

Victor Yodo (zapoteco) – Juchitan COCEI

Hace 45 años, soldados desaparecieron a Víctor Yodo; apenas este gobierno inicia su búsqueda

Tomas Cruz Lorenzo (chatino) - San Juan Quiahije – anarquista

Tomás Cruz Lorenzo

Versión en Español

«Los archivos no son colecciones históricas inertes. Siempre mantienen una relación activa y dialógica con las preguntas que el presente plantea al pasado; y el presente siempre plantea sus preguntas de forma diferente de una generación a otra». Stuart Hall, Constituting an Archive (2001, p. 92)

La premisa de Hall invita a centrar la intencionalidad del investigador contemporáneo en su esfuerzo por dialogar con el pasado. Esta enseñanza da sentido a mi personal esfuerzo interpretativo sobre la riqueza de las Colecciones especiales ubicadas en el Centro de Recursos de CERLAC. Inicio mencionando que hay una gran cantidad de documentos -notas de prensa, reportajes periodísticos y boletines informativos- que versan sobre México durante un periodo histórico llamado “guerra sucia”, el cual tomó lugar entre los años sesenta, setentas y ochentas (Mireles, V. et. al. 2021). Estas notas de prensa denotan varios procesos sociopolíticos correlacionados, por un lado, la política contrainsurgente del estado mexicano para reprimir a movimientos sociales disidentes y organizaciones armadas rurales, y por otro, las acciones de resistencia de líderes indígenas en estados como Oaxaca, Guerrero y Chiapas.

La represión militar y policiaca en regiones de alta población indígena, se enfocó en cercar los territorios donde operaban movimientos armados rurales, persiguiendo a líderes comunitarios de organizaciones políticas campesinas que estaban vinculados orgánicamente con las guerrillas (Montemayor, 1999). Líderes que tuvieron la valentía de trabajar arduamente para la construcción de proyectos políticos de resistencia comunitaria desde una perspectiva indígena. Por su inquebrantable afán en movilizar voluntades fueron desaparecidos y/o asesinados. Tal es el caso de los líderes Víctor Pineda Henestrosa (indígena zapoteco del Istmo de Tehuantepec) y Tomás Cruz Lorenzo (indígena Chatino de San Juan Quiahije). Los hechos que les acontecieron y cegaron sus vidas, son descritos y localizables en varios tipos de documentos de la Colección especial y la librería del Grupo de Trabajo sobre American Latina (LAWG, por sus siglas en inglés).

Víctor Pineda de Juchitán, Oaxaca, fue un profesor, poeta y activista social fundador de la Coalición Obrera Campesina Estudiantil del Istmo (COCEI). Fue desaparecido en julio de 1978 por miembros del ejército. Los parientes cercanos de Víctor y miembros de la organización dedicaron en cuerpo y alma para reclamar su retorno y visibilizar la represión y desaparición selectiva de lideres indígenas en Oaxaca, en un momento en el que el gobierno nacional negaba que había presos y desaparecidos políticos. Años después, Tomás Cruz Lorenzo, profesor de lengua indígena Chatina, escritor y promotor político y cultural del llamado “comunalismo indígena” fue asesinado a plena luz del día en julio del 1989. Este atroz asesinato asentó un duro golpe a los esfuerzos por constituir la autonomía y autodeterminación política de los pueblos indígenas de la sierra norte de Oaxaca (Cruz, 2023)

Las vidas de estos dos líderes – junto a la de otros tantos luchadores sociales- fueron acalladas por el poder caciquil, guardias blancas y asesinos a sueldo. La ausencia forzada de Víctor y Tomas impactó la vida de familiares, amigos y correligionarios. Sin embargo, su legado perdura en la memoria colectiva y en su decendencia, en las hijas e hijos que en el hoy día se dedican a honrar el legado de sus padres y abonar a la luchar por la resistencia de sus pueblos desde lo lingüístico y la poesía. Menciono a Irma Pineda, hija de Víctor, reconocida poetisa zapoteca que su obra es traducida al español, inglés y varias otras lenguas. Sus poemas los dedica a su pueblo, al gozo del habla zapoteca, a su madre, a la herida familiar que resultó la desaparición de su padre, y al caminar que tuvieron que emprender para luchar por politizar y visibilizar la desaparición forzada en México. Menciono a Emiliana Cruz Cruz, hija de Tomás, antropóloga y lingüista que se dedica a la enseñanza de la lengua indígena Chatina, en asegurar las condiciones para publicación de cuentos escritos en Chatino, y en coleccionar los textos de su padre donde habla de los mecanismos de defensa de la tierra, de la cohesión social y la defensa de patrimonio cultural Chatino frente a las amenazas de la modernización y occidentalización que vienen de afuera.

Referencias bibliograficas. -

Hall, Stuart (2024) “Constituting an Archive” [2001] in Selected Writings on Visual Arts and Culture: Detour to the Imaginary, Editor Gilane Tawadros, Duke University Press.

Montemayor, Carlos (1999) La guerrilla recurrente. Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez: México.

Haga clic en la imagen para acceder al artículo completo.

Paginas web relevantes:

Irma Pineda: https://themarkaz.org/irma-pineda-two-poems-in-spanish-zapotec-and-english/

Emiliana Cruz Cruz: https://www.hablemosescritoras.com/writers/1674

Juan Pablo Pinto (MA student, Anthropology) has created an online exhibit about popular education in Nicaragua as part of an initiative by the Office of the Vice Provost Academic to develop classroom resources using the collections held by York research centres. The CERLAC component of this project is entitled “Popular Education in Revolutionary Times: Reflecting on Nicaragua’s Popular Education Program in the 1980s.” Pinto’s work focuses on a collection of photographs and educational materials donated to the CERLAC Resource Centre by emeritus fellow Deborah Barndt, who was a major participant in these campaigns. The exhibit features interviews with Professor Barndt and many of her photographs. To see online exhibit click here: https://scalar.library.yorku.ca/popular-education-in-revolutionary-times-nic/index

Reports

Among the collections available at the CERLAC Resource Centre are documents, newsletters, and other publications on Theology of Liberation and the social and human rights programs of the Christian churches in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. They range from the 1960s to the late 1990s, and in a few Canadian cases include newsletters that come up to the present date.

The collection is organized alphabetically according to the country of origin of a publication, and then with reference to the name of the institution that issued it. Particularly rich collections can be found there on the region as a whole; on Central America (especially El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua); Brazil, Chile, and Peru, as well as Canadian church activities in, and relations with the southern hemisphere.

With regard to the region, the Section includes, for example, the publications of the Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias (CLAI) (1980-1997), the Maryknoll missionary organization’s LADOC (Latin American Documentation) (1977-1989), the Jesuit Social Justice Secretariat’s newsletter (1992-2008, when it became available on-line), and the Centro Nacional de Comunicaciones Sociales’ publication Iglesias (1981-1998).

With regard to specific countries, the Brazil collection includes, for example, the Servicio de Documentacao reports on church activities (1975-1985) and the reports of the Comisao Pastoral da Terra (1972-1982); the Chile collection contains a very large number of newsletters and reports from the Vicaría de Solidaridad (1978-1988), the principal human rights organization that was able to sustain activity during the military dictatorship; and the Peru section contains the various publications of the Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones (CEP).

The last area in the Church Section contains examples of Canadian, American, and International church solidarity with Latin America. In Canada, the Inter-Church Coalitions were an inspiring ecumenical model of church cooperation across denominations working for social justice. The mainline churches shared resources to support twelve coalitions. The Resource Centre has material from the Inter-Church Committee for Refugees (ICCR), the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA), the Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility (TCCR) and GATT-FLY. The Coalitions operated from 1973 to 2000 when they merged to become Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.

Of particular interest to Fellows who research extractive-industry related conflicts are TCCR’s annual reports. They summarize the activities of the Task Force and provide information on its interventions with reference to the operations of specific Canadian corporations in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

The Latin American Working Group (LAWG) collection in the Resource Centre of the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) houses a broad range of publications by exile organizations from twelve Latin American and Caribbean countries. The persecution of military dictatorships and the violence of civil wars generated waves of exiles who settled in other Latin American countries, in North America, and in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. Although far from comprehensive, a rich collection of their publications can be consulted in the Resource Centre (6th floor, Kaneff Tower, York University). Below, we list the nationalities of the exiles and many of the locations where they settled and prepared broadly disseminated analyses about, and denunciations of, events in their home countries that are available in the Resource Centre. The exiles and the countries in which they published were:

Argentines in Mexico and Spain.
Bolivians in Belgium, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and USA.
Brazilians in Argentina, Chile, in Canada at York University (Brazil Studies/LARU Studies), and UK.
Chileans in Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Germany (West Berlin), Italy, Mexico, UK, and USA.
Colombians in Nicaragua and USA.
Dominicans (DR) in the USA.
Salvadorans in Canada, Ecuador, and USA.
Guatemalans in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Guyanese in Canada.
Of Hondurans in Mexico and Nicaragua.
Haitians in Canada and USA.
Uruguayans in Canada, France, Mexico, and Switzerland.

In addition to the publications of the exiles themselves, the LAWG/CERLAC collections house the publications of Canadian solidarity organizations that collaborated with, and supported the various exile groups. To consult all these materials, contact: caese.levo@gmail.com or lnorth@yorku.ca

The Latin American Working Group (LAWG) collection, located in the CERLAC Resource Centre (6th floor, Kaneff Tower) contains a wide range of material on Canadian mining and other corporations and their investments in Latin America and the Caribbean (form the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s). The material is useful for the preparation of MRPs, MA and PhD theses, and research on Canadian mining and other investments in the region and also at home (e.g., INCO in Sudbury). Collected by LAWG for its own research on Canada’s trade, aid, and investment policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, these materials include:
• In-depth critical reports on corporate history and operations, by LAWG, NACLA, the Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility (TCCR), unions, and others.

Annual reports to shareholders and other corporate publications.
Newspaper clippings from Canadian national and local newspapers, with much material on conflictive issues and labor strikes that drew the attention of the press and of the TCCR and LAWG.
Articles from the business press (e.g., the Northern Miner), news magazines, and other sources, including a few chapters from academic volumes.
Letters written by TCCR and others to corporations regarding specific conflicts, especially with regard to investments in Chile and South Africa (with related letters, publications, and much relevant material in the Canadian Solidarity Section and the Country Files Sections of the LAWG collection in the Resource Centre).
The activities and reports of CALA/Canadian Association for Latin America (1969-1984), the business lobby (Box 116A).

As an aide to research on corporations, LAWG published “A Guide to Corporate Research” (written by Bob Carty) in 1979. Also helpful for navigating the history of mining and other Canadian companies is LAWG’s publication on “Canadian Investment, Trade, & Aid in Latin America”, LAWG Letter, vol. vii, nos. 1-2, May-August 1981. An early example of LAWG’s work on corporate destabilization in Chile is its pre-coup publication, Chile versus the Corporations: A call for Canadian support, January 1973, published with the Development Education Centre (DEC) of Toronto.

Some of the especially rich collections on specific corporations include:

ALCAN in Brazil (including a report from a Canadian Mission), Colombia, Guyana & Jamaica (with report by OXFAM), and Mexico (Box 114).
BRASCAN, including a book by Brazilian exiles (Herbet de Souza and others) who enrolled in York graduate programs and a report prepared by LAWG (Box 115).
Falconbridge in Brazil, Chile, and the Dominican Republic, with various reports by TCCR and LAWG; also material on strikes in Sudbury (Box 118).
INCO/International Nickel Company operations in Guatemala, including LAWG Letter, vol. v, no. 7-8, 1978 and studies/reports prepared by a research group at the Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala City (Box 121).
Noranda, especially on Chile, with reports by TCCR and LAWG (Box 123).
There are many smaller collections: e.g., on Hanna Mining Co. in Mexico; Hayes-Dana Corp. subsidiary Spicer in Mexico (Box 120), and IT&T in Chile (including a NACLA 1972 Report) (Box 121).

Most of the materials are in English, but depending on the location of the investment or a conflict, they may also be in French or Spanish.

Public History Class Placements

^{On 12 October 1492, Italian maritime explorer Christopher Columbus landed in what would be called America. He stumbled on this "New World" on a quest for gold, glory, and God, and would use all means to achieve these goals. In fact, the "discovery" began a legacy of systematic oppression and colonial exploitation that has continued for more than 500 years. To grasp just how Columbus affected the Indigenous peoples of America, one must hear their perspectives, and that is what the Indigenous Section of the CERLAC Resource Centre does. It provides unique information that covers historical and contemporary issues.}

^{During the Winter Semester of 2025, as a fourth year Public History program student, it was my responsibility to reorganize and annotate that Section. In the course of that work, I became particularly fascinated by three sets of documents: the 500 Years After Columbus Celebrations and Protests, Mexico's recent Zapatista movement, and the establishment of the Abya Yala Editorial House in Quito, Ecuador.}

^{The Fifth Centennial (1992) of Columbus' arrival was initially conceived to aid Spain's standing in the world stage and improve her leverage in international trade. However, many indigenous nationalities and organizations had a major problem with these plans. They remembered the arrival of Columbus as the beginning of a conquest that stripped sovereignty from millions of people and exposed them to steadily worsening racial oppression. Instead, in 1989, they proposed a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Adopted by the UN in 2007, the Parliament of Canada finally signed it in 2021 as part of the Reconciliation process.}

^{Below, I focus on two additional sets of documents: Mexico's Zapatista rebellion and the research and publications promoted by Juan Bottasso regarding the Shuar People of the Ecuadorean Amazon.}

^{The CERLAC Resource Center houses a variety of works about the Zapatistas (EZLN), ranging from academic articles to newspaper clippings, and it covers the events of the rebellion in English, Spanish, and Italian. The fact that the collection houses sources from Italy means that it offers perspective apart from the traditional pan-American media. The conflict began on New Year's Eve 1993, when the Zapatista guerilla army, mostly teenagers and young adults from the Indigenous Maya of southern Mexico, seized the Mexican state of Chiapas. Agrarian and deeply poor compared to the rest of Mexico, Columbus’ legacy there had left a world divided by racism and by rich versus poor. A 1993 EZLA statement called the rebels the “descendants of those who truly built this nation” and called others to “join our crusade, the only option to avoid dying of starvation!” Today, parts of Chiapas exist as an autonomous region of Mexico with the capacity to self-govern and distribute agricultural land according to Indigenous values.}

^{Another unique collection that housed at the Resource Centre and found nowhere else in Canada are the Mundo Shuar publications. Inspired by Italian missionary, writer, and philosopher Juan Bottasso, these publications documented the history and society of the Shuar peoples of the Amazonian region of Ecuador. In 1971, Bottasso was appointed professor of theology at the Catholic University of Quito, and it was in that capacity that he began shifting his focus towards anthropology. Founding the Editorial Abya Yala in 1983, named for a term used by the Kuna Indigenous people of Panama to refer to “this whole land”, the Editorial specialized in disseminating knowledge about the Shuar to the broader public. Bottasso critiqued traditional missionary approaches that focused on assimilation, a tactic employed since the days of Columbus’ first landing. He used his platform to argue instead for the preservation of Indigenous cultural traditions, language, and customs, dedicating a special series of publications to the Mundo Shuar (Shuar World) inside the Abya Yala umbrella.}

^{As a Public History student, I feel enriched by my work in the CERLAC Resource Centre. I have highlighted three sets of documents that demonstrate the breadth of research that can be conducted here. However, the Indigenous Section contains much, much more, and it is a fascinating resource for advancing knowledge.}

My Winter 2025 task at the CERLAC Resource Center involved the annotation of historical documents/files on Guyana that form part of the Latin American Working Group (LAWG, apx. 1965-1995) collection. As I read the files, I realized that the history of everything I had previously learned about the place that I called home for the first 13 years of my life was clouded by information that had been filtered by my parents to protect me.

I was shocked to discover human rights violations and the assassination of Walter Rodney, an academic critic of the presidency of Forbes Burnham (apx. 1964-1980). I also learned about the gold and sugar industries, including the strikes and conflicts about labour laws and wages. Reading about the truth of what had happened led me down a rabbit hole of questions and shook me to my roots.

Despite the eye-opening revelation, to my amazement, in the files, I also found a picture of my uncle, Ahnand Rajkumar (see Fig. 1) in a GUYSUCO sugar estate file. He worked as a crop scientist for sugar estates until his resignation in 2005. My decision to interview him allowed me to learn more about Guyana's history and my own family history.

Fig. 1: Circled picture of Ahnand Rajkumar, a crop agronomist.

Video #1:(1141) paramountacy - YouTube

His comments encouraged me to learn more and more about the history of Guyana and especially about participation of common folk in the making of that history -- the involvement of emigrees in overseas voting; people's protests against rigged elections, the violations of human rights, and poor living conditions; and the numerous strikes called by labor leaders. The eventual positive results brought fresh air to the politics of the country and improvements in the economy and society. The second video refers to all of this.

Video # 2: (1141) human rights - YouTube

The third video speaks to my uncle's decision to leave his home, something that he had never thought he would do. That video depicts both his patriotism, despite all that he had lived through, and it refers to the corruption and dissatisfaction that he could no longer tolerate. He had opportunities to return, but he did not take them. But he and my family do enjoy their visits to Guyana.

Video # 3: Migration

My experience of reading and annotating the files in the LAWG collection of CERLAC enriched my understanding of Guyana, my country of origin, and of my family's hist