In the framework of the commemorative celebrations for the eightieth anniversary of the creation of the “Artigas Archive” Collection, by Law No. 10491 of 13 June 1944, the venue for the Intergovernmental Council Meeting of the Iberarchives Programme will be in the city of Montevideo, in April 2024, hosted by the General Archive of the Nation of Uruguay.
The purpose of this commemoration is to recognise the archives that preserve the original documents from which, after their palaeographic transcription, they were incorporated into the aforementioned Edited Collection. These archives were those belonging to the former United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the archives of Spain and Portugal, as well as other European and American archives.
General José Artigas was born in Montevideo on 19 June 1764 and died in the Quinta de Ibiray in Asunción del Paraguay on 23 September 1850. This personage stood out as a military man and statesman; and acted during the War of Independence of the former Eastern Province, today the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
In Uruguay he is the national hero, the greatest hero of the independence process, and according to the aforementioned law he is considered “Founder of the Oriental Nationality and Hero of the American Democracy”.
This work, in thirty-eight volumes, offers a systematisation and contextualisation of Artigas’ public and private life. The first volume begins with the arrival of Artigas’ grandfather in Buenos Aires in 1717, a Spanish soldier descended from an Aragonese family. A series of volumes that compile a shared memory of Ibero-America and of Artigas’ passage that illustrates an era and a social process.
Therefore, within the framework of the XXVII Meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the Iberarchives Programme and the Ordinary General Assembly of the Latin American Association of Archives, this commemoration will take place as a recognition and homage to the archives that contributed documentation to the “Artigas Archive” Collection.