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Documentary Heritage Increases in the Mexican National List of UNESCO
Institutions and organizations received from the the certificates of inscription of eight collections in the National Register of Mexico of the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) and two collections incorporated into the Regional Register for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024.
The eight collections, from the fields such as architecture, literature, radio journalism, photojournalism, radio dramas, letters, and diaries, are irreplaceable witnesses to the country's historical, social, cultural, economic, and political transformations and serve as an invitation to dialogue. With their inclusion, the national list now comprises 115 entries.
The collections incorporated into the National Register of Mexico of the UNESCO Memory of the World through the 2024 call are:
Archive of the National School of Architecture, 1920-1970 (Historical Archive of the Faculty of Architecture, National Autonomous University of Mexico —UNAM).
Correspondence of Manuel Gómez Morin, 1908-1972 (Manuel Gómez Morin Cultural Center, A.C.).
Plaza Pública, a radio series by Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa on Radio UNAM, 1994-2011 (Directorate-General of Radio UNAM).
Inquisition Archive (General Archive of the Nation of Mexico).
50 Years of Mexican Radio Dramas on Radio Educación, 1974-2023 (Radio Educación).
Dialogues: The Journalistic Legacy of Margarita García Flores on Radio UNAM (1969-1985) (Radio UNAM and Fonoteca Nacional).
Photographic Archive of Photojournalist Marco Antonio Cruz (María de los Ángeles Torrejón Becerril).
Vrbe, by Manuel Maples Arce, 1924 (National Library of Mexico).
Besides, the following records received their inscription certificates in the Regional List for Latin America and the Caribbean: Preservation of Linguistic Memory: Manuscripts in Extinct Indigenous Languages, safeguarded by the National Library, and the Dr. Alfredo Dugès Collection, preserved by the University of Guanajuato. With these additions, Mexico now has 33 entries in the regional list.
Documentary heritage is a source of knowledge for understanding the various processes of communities and groups regarding permanence, changes, and responses to their needs and challenges, and their progress. It provides tools and perspectives for addressing emerging issues that transcend humanity and are key to mutual understanding.
However, documentary heritage —including audiovisual and digital materials— is among the most vulnerable, due to theft or illicit transfer, natural disasters, catastrophes, and the inherent fragility of its physical supports or technological obsolescence.
According to the from 2022, 40 out of 63 memory institutions worldwide reported having no emergency plan in case of disaster. This highlights the need to strengthen technical capacities and underscores the necessity of greater funding and recognition for documentary heritage and those who enable its identification, rescue, preservation, research, and promotion.
The UNESCO Representation in Mexico expresses its sincere gratitude and recognition for the Mexican Committee of the Memory of the World management under the presidency of Catherine Bloch, who concluded her tenure as head of the Committee with the ceremony for the recognition of the 2024 national and regional inscriptions.
From books and official reports to artistic works, films, and digital data, documentary heritage enables dialogue and transformations. UNESCO launched the MoW program in 1992 to promote the documentary heritage preservation and universal access, while raising public and social awareness of its significance, recognising its importance and belonging to people.
Within international frameworks, such as UNESCO’s 2015 Recommendation concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage including in digital form, and the General Guidelines for the Safeguarding of Documentary Heritage, UNESCO promotes, in addition to international, regional, and national listings, the strengthening of capacities and the use of documentary heritage as a resource for transformative education and intercultural dialogue. In turn, education reinforces collective memory and its various recording formats.
The International Register of the Memory of the World lists 496 historical records of global significance and a wide variety of materials, including 13 records from Mexico. Two registered in partnership with other Member States: The Work of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, jointly registered with Spain and Italy, and Colonial American Music: A Sample of Its Documentary Wealth, jointly registered with Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru.
