New Publication on Community Archives in El Salvador

Four members of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project have published the article “Toward Healing and Justice: Building Equitable Relationships with Community Archives in El Salvador” in the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies.

The article draws on the partnership's ongoing collaboration with Centro Arte para la Paz [Center Art for Peace, CAP] in Suchitoto, Cuscatlán, as the authors reflect on what it means to build archival projects based on trust, reciprocity, and long-term relationships. Focusing on the experience of co-creating the Mediateca of CAP, the publication brings together the perspectives of several members of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador team. Giada Ferrucci, Postdoctoral Associate at Western University, Amanda Oliver, Head of Archives and Special Collections at Wilfrid Laurier University, Tom Belton, Head of Archives and Special Collections at Western Libraries, and Fernando Chacón, a graduate student researcher with the project.

The article emerged from conversations and collaborations with members of CAP developed through the partnership since 2021. It highlights the importance of recognizing community members not simply as participants in research, but as custodians of knowledge whose experiences and priorities should shape how archives are created, managed, and shared. As the project continues to work alongside survivors, community organizations, and memory initiatives across El Salvador, this publication offers one example of how collaborative archival work can help preserve histories that might otherwise be lost while supporting communities in telling their own stories on their own terms.

The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.