Archives and Activism in Latin America: My Experience at PILAS and SLAS 2025

This April marked my first PILAS Conference and my second SLAS Conference, following my participation in the 2023 edition in Queen’s Belfast. Both events – held at the University of Bristol – have been among my favourite academic events during my three years in the UK. I had the pleasure of co-organising a double panel with my supervisor, Marieke Riethof, titled “History, Archives, Activism, and Utopia in Latin America: Futures Imagined in the Past.”

Our panel aimed to reflect on how archives can serve as tools for envisioning and rescuing hopes and unrealised projects – and how these past visions remain deeply relevant for today’s political struggles. By connecting historical experiences with present-day demands, archives have the potential to foster intergenerational conversations and inspire better futures.

I presented two papers exploring the history of the National Archives of Chile between 1962 and 1973. At PILAS (8 April), I discussed the directors of the archival institution as agents of state power within Chilean bureaucracy. At SLAS (11 April), I focused on two unsuccessful modernisation agendas promoted by Juan Eyzaguirre (1962-1971) and Claudio Vidal Lazo (1971-1973) and how these failures offer valuable lessons for current archival debates and demands in Latin America.

I particularly enjoyed the keynote by Nicaraguan-born poet and scholar Carlos Grigsby, who reflected on academic research as a form of activism – especially from Global South – challenging Eurocentric narratives and canons. This deeply resonates with my identity as I call myself an activist archivist. My research and actions seek to drive social and political transformation, addressing the precarious conditions of archives in Chile and Latin America.

I do not view the past as a museum piece, but as a living resource – a repository of dreams, struggles, and failed projects from which we can draw inspiration to build more just and creative archival futures. The past is not only our prologue – as Canadian archivist Terry Cook once said – it is our archive.

Claudio Ogass

PhD student on Archive Studies, University of Liverpool