Zaida Cristina Reynoso has spent just shy of three years trying to bring order out of chaos as head honcho at Chapala’s municipal archives. When she took up the director’s job in October 2012, she was appalled to find a priceless collection of historical documents mixed up with mountains of government records, heaped together in total disarray.
She faced the arduous task of sorting through hundreds of cardboard boxes filled with papers, piles of maps and vintage photographs and plastic bags stuffed with miscellanea, steadily accumulated since the archive was founded in 2001. Some of the folders were rotted from exposure to the elements, and the contents coated with mold. Other materials had been torched, rendering them unidentifiable.
And if getting it all sorted out wasn’t enough of a headache, a year into her job Reynoso was instructed to pack up everything and move to temporary housing in a back room of city hall while renovations to the archives office were getting under way. The project has yet to be completed.
With the help of assistants Ana Luz Alcántar Medeles and Francisco Mendoza, Reynoso has managed to make big strides in organizing the archives, storing the collection of historical papers in 240 file containers and government records in 550 boxes, categorized by the corresponding decade. Eight packages of periodicals, 14 boxes of photographs, 17 cases of books and three bundles of maps have likewise been set aside.
The staff’s most challenging and intriguing work has been the careful culling the oldest of the historical documents, dating back as far as 1828. Everything pertaining to the 19th century has been separated into chronological and geographical order.
Papers from San Nicolás de Ibarra, Santa Cruz, Atotonilquillo, San Antonio Tlayacapan and the old Haciendas de la Labor and del Cuije have all been scanned in digital format and transcribed onto computer files, no small task considering that each of the crumbling hand-penned pieces was scrawled out in antiquated Spanish by early officials who for the most part were barely literate.
In the process, Reynoso compiled some of the most interesting and curious extracts for the publication of a collection entitled “Chapala Siglo XIX. Volume One,” focusing on only San Nicolás, Santa Cruz and Hacienda de la Labor, that was released last February. Volume Two, dedicated to Atotonilquillo, San Antonio and Hacienda del Cuije, came off the presses this month. An accomplished author in her own right, Reynoso pieced together the tidbits from yesteryear with her own complementary editorial notes for historical context and fuller comprehension.
As her term of office rolls to an end, she has finished 50 percent of the scanning and transcription of documents from 19th century Ajijic, leaving the remainder and all of Chapala proper’s papers of the era as a mission for her successor.
To prepare for the transition, Reynoso has already drawn up a seven-point list of pending matters for the archives, along with a suggestion for the permanent separation of historical documents from more current government paperwork.
Meanwhile, Mayor Joaquín Huerta has given his recommendation that the incoming administration keep her in charge, but it remains to be seen if she can be coaxed into accepting a repeat assignment. While advocating continuity in the preservation of Chapala’s historical patrimony, Reynoso is equally anxious to get back to polishing off several novels and other pursuits that she has kept on a back burner in the long months she has been buried in the dusty vestiges of the past.