Paper short abstract:

I will present the case of repositories which I call "archivos latientes" (latent/beating archives) in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. They are kept by individuals engaging in local Zapotec history and diverge from the conventional categories used by institutional archives.

Paper long abstract:

I will share a field experience from my long-termresearch in Teotitlán del Valle, a community in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. There I discovered several personal archives dealing with local Zapotec history in private spaces that are dispersed. In comparison with local cultural heritage presented in Teotitlán’s community museum, the private collections are handled according to diverging criteria of valuation and affectivity. I therefore call them archivos latientes (latent/beating archives). This example serves to reflect on the way we anthropologists work with certain archives, which often do not fall into the category of "musealizable". At the same time, I will provide some ideas on the possible uses that individual anthropologists' archives could have within the communities of origin where they collected their materials, that is, ways in which they can be reactivated and put into circulation.