Inter-American Notes

Archival News

Anarchist Archives In Buenos Aires

There are two small private archives in Buenos Aires that provide useful information regarding the anarchist labor movement in Argentina and libertarian ideas. The first of these is run by the Federación Libertaria Argentina. Its address is: FLA, Brasil 1551 (1154), Capital Federal, Argentina. It is located near the Constitución train station and its local telephone number is 4305-0307. The center contains meeting rooms, a bookstore, a non-circulating library and archives dating back at least to the 1930s. The bookstore sells works in Spanish on anarchism either published by an affiliated editorial, Reconstruir, or by other publishers. The library contains many hundreds of books in Spanish or Spanish translation, old and new, on anarchism. They have developed a computer database that can search books based on keywords.

Their greatest gem is the archive. The material is stored in the attic of an unheated hanger, where volunteers have been sorting and organizing newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, minutes of meetings and photographs that had accumulated over the years. Now mostly organized into labeled cardboard boxes, the material is more easily accessed. One can find several years' editions of the Argentine anarchist newspaper La Protesta (not as many years as in the National Library, but many in better condition), the Spanish anarchist newspaper Solidaridad Obrera from the 1930s, magazines Caras y Caretas, Revista Blanca, and others from Argentina and many European countries. There is also a pile of minutes, notes, and correspondence regarding assistance to Spanish refugees at the end of the Civil War. Diego Bugallo serves as volunteer archivist and is both a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide to the material. There is a box full of photographs of meetings, members, and assemblies. Many photographs are undated and as yet unidentified, but they are trying to get older members to help sort and identify the pictures. Researchers in the field would be well advised to utilize the center's resources, human and printed. It is open Monday through Friday after 6 PM.

The other anarchist archive in Buenos Aires is the Biblioteca Popular "José Ingenieros" at J. Ramirez de Velasco 958 (1414) Capital Federal, Argentina. It is open for several hours after 4 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesday evenings are reserved for board meetings. They cannot yet afford a telephone at the center, so one must either write or go there in person. They do ask for donations from anyone requesting information or photocopies of materials, but are very willing to help.

This popular library contains hundreds of works on anarchism: theory, labor and Argentine history. Don José, the librarian, is a helpful guide to the material, some of which goes back to 1895. Two books I found very useful were Hechos Y Comentarios, by the turn of the twentieth century anarchist writer, E.G. Gilimón about his life and times, and La Fora Ante Los Tribunales, the account of the anarchists' legal proceedings to fight the law that made membership their unions illegal and resulted in many arrests and deportations after the 1930 coup by General José F. Uriburu. Upstairs, there is an archive with many periodicals, including La Protesta, mostly through the 1920s. Hernán Scandizzo helps maintain this information and also does research himself. He coauthored "El crucero de los indeseables," in Todo Es Historia (número 384, Julio, 1999, 56-63) about the deportation of anarchist prisoners to Europe in 1932. Hernán provided me with photocopies of information he thought would help me, and made several suggestions about sources.

These two small archives specialize in anarchist material that will not be of general interest. Nevertheless, they do provide a unique source of information and contacts with others working in the field. For those specializing in this area these contacts could prove very productive.

James A. Baer