FROM LEGACY to HERITAGE: the Oliveira Lima Library's Journey Abroad
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Henry Granville Widener FROM LEGACY TO HERITAGE: the Oliveira Lima Library’s journey abroad ABSTRACT: As evidenced by the work of Hallbwachs (1992) and Pollak (1989; 1992) the boundary between individual and collective memories represents a place of dispute, disagreement and contention. When one or both parties desire to resolve these contentions, a process of integration begins which must necessarily involve negotiation, compromise and a systematic reworking of terminologies, documents and their meanings and use. The Oliveira Lima Library presents us with an important opportunity to observe this process of integration into the larger Brazilian consciousness. KEYWORDS: information preservation and access strategies, preservation policies for cultural patrimony, historical memory institutions, case studies Introduction Memory is a means of survival. As a biological function, it is the means through which genetic information passes on to future generations. In human society, it is a crucial means of social cohesion which provides individuals and groups with roles and identities. Without memory, nothing can survive. Memory is stored, preserved and disseminated through various interfaces which are altered and expanded with the advance of technology. In the organism, memory is transmitted through DNA (Gallagher, 2013). At its beginning, both collective and individual human memory was passed on through oral communication. With the development of written documents, the capacity for memory increased and in turn became the basis for the study of history, which today has come to embrace the value of a vast diversity of objects, from geological records to songs and mythologies and “all of that which man says, writes, creates or touches can and should inform us about him.” (LeGoff, 1990, p. 89) These informational objects, the foundation of memory, require maintenance and care in order to survive. Indeed, memory and access are two sides of the same coin which without being preserved or accessed cannot fulfill their social function. (Galindo, 2014, p. 6) It is here, in the interest of preserving information and thus maintaining memory, that the interests of History and Information Science converge. By exploring their interactions and mutual interests, both Information Science and History can hope to advance and achieve their goals. 19th/20th century Brazil The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represent a remarkable period of change in Brazilian history. By 1889, a republic had replaced the monarchical system which had previously and curiously withstood the successful bid for colonial independence over 60 years before. A shift in economic production had, by the end of the 19th century, firmly established coffee as Brazil's primary export and shifted both economic and political focus to the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Brazilian diplomacy, after having finally achieved the long-unfulfilled task of fixing Brazil's borders, achieved greater international prestige, a position of leadership in Latin America and shifted its axis away from Europe and into the United States. As a result of all of these factors, and more, Brazilian national identity was significantly altered. Rather than looking outward, as they had previously, towards Europe for inspiration, the emergent class of political and cultural leaders in Brazil began an intense, if not long in the making, effort to emphasize and exalt their unique origins. These monumental social and political changes require a critical revision of the past. (Pollak, 1989, p. 3) The essence of Brazilian culture ceased to be based on European traditions and instead focused on the contributions of Indian, African as well as European cultures to the formation of Brazilian society. Through the efforts of men like Sílvio Romero, Aluízo Azevedo and Graça Aranha, Brazilian national consciousness embraced its mixed roots and even expressed the idea that the Americas suffered, rather than benefited, from the evils of the Old World. (Burns, 1993, p. 275) As Maurice Halbwachs explains, in order to rework or modify the framework of their memory to satisfy contemporary needs, societies may either deliberately ignore or avert their attention from the past. (1992, p. 134-135) This is certainly the case with early 20th century Brazilian diplomacy in its efforts to align itself with the United States. Thus, Brazil's longtime dependence on Europe, particularly England, could be ignored in favor of the creation of the idea of "traditional," and historically unsubstantiated, friendship between the United States and Brazil. (Burns, 1966, p. IX) As this analysis implies, these revisions of memory due to emergent contemporary needs, were also acutely dependent on documents, particularly the publication of literary works and the creation and signing of treaties, but also the formation of contracts and legislation. Of course, while creating new advantages and opportunities for new social groups and people within these groups, massive political change also removed these opportunities from others. With the rise of the Republic came the fall of the monarchy and many of its supporters, both formal and informal. Economic shifts which decisively put coffee and the coffee producing states at the center of Brazilian society also decisively marked the end of the once powerful, a long-struggling, Brazilian sugar barons of the northeast. As emergent, newly prominent social groups embark on the massive task of altering collective memories, the "memory of a period clearly at an end no longer finds reinforcing elements in its midst." (Halbwachs, PDF 142) This situation leads to a period of silence, though not forgetfulness, by the groups out of power who "molded by the anxiety…of being misunderstood" (Pollak, 1992, p. 7) begin to safely and jealously guard their memories. These memories also anchor themselves in documents and must also be cared for and organized to be preserved. It is here, in the completion of this task, that we encounter Manoel de Oliveira Lima and the Oliveira Lima Library. Manoel de Oliveira Lima Manoel de Oliveira Lima was born on Christmas Day of 1867 in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, son of a Brazilian mother and a Portuguese father. In 1873, at the age of six, Manoel's father returned with his family to his native country, to the city of Lisbon, where Manoel would spend the rest of his adolescence. Though distant from Brazil, Oliveira Lima would later write that throughout his childhood his family would remain Brazilian at heart and in the kitchen, and that even his Portuguese father was always ready to refute any disparaging remarks about Brazil. "And so I grew up" Oliveira Lima writes in his Memories "in intimate exaltation of Brazil." (Lima, 1986, p. 11) Oliveira Lima's lifelong career in the Brazilian foreign ministry would likewise keep him distant from his dear native land, although proudly in its service. Beginning as an attaché at the age of 23 in Lisbon, Manoel de Oliveira would move on to Washington in 1896 under ambassador Salvador de Mendonça. From Washington he would move to London, Berlin, Tokyo, Stockholm, Brussels, and Caracas. Manoel de Oliveira Lima's diplomatic career placed him in the company of some of Brazil's most important political figures. In London alone, Oliveira Lima would work alongside the likes Joaquim Nabuco, Eduardo Prado and Graça Aranha. Beginning in 1902, Oliveira Lima would serve under foreign minister José Maria da Silva Paranhos Jr., the Baron of Rio-Branco, under whose leadership the Brazilian Foreign Ministry entered an exceptional period of success. From an early age, Manoel would foster a love of letters and of history. At 14, while still in preparatory school in Lisboa and with a "sense of reality" which would later characterize his intellectual/diplomatic efforts at promoting Brazil internationally (Memórias, p 16), Manoel de Oliveira would found a monthly review entitled Correio do Brasil. By the end of his career, Lima had authored over 20 books, including "Dom João VI of Brazil" (1908) and "The Evolution of Brazil Compared with that of Spanish and Anglo-Saxon America" (1914) Just as with his diplomatic career, Oliveira Lima's literary activity put him in dialogue, both publicly through his prolific literary production and privately through correspondence, with such literary greats as Machado de Assis, Euclides da Cunha and Gilberto Freyre. Throughout his life, Manoel de Oliveira Lima would form great friendships, one of the most enduring and significant of which was formed in 1917, when a curious young prep school student came knocking at the door of Oliveira Lima's home in Recife, nervous but intent on asking the intellectual a few questions. This student, none other than Gilberto Freyre, would later write of that day and the intimate friendship that would follow for the rest of Lima's life. "I can't think of any other master, except [Franz] Boas, who would come to exercise such a powerful, formative influence on me…his house in Washington…would be a bit my house, his books, still a bit disorganized, would be in part, my books." (Lima, 1986, p. 3) Thanks in part to his direct nature, and courageous, yet risky personal and political attitudes Oliveira Lima did not lack enemies, from the Baron of Rio-Branco, to Joaquim Nabuco and Graça Aranha. Accused, not unjustly, by Pinheiro Machado of monarchism, Oliveira Lima's political career suffered a downturn. In 1913, Manoel de Oliveira Lima retired from diplomatic service. In 1920, he moved with his wife and lifelong companion Flora, to Washington , D.C., where he took up a position as a professor of international law at the Catholic University of America. In 1928, while in the midst of writing several books, Manoel de Oliveira Lima passed away and was buried in Mount Olivet under a headstone which reads simply "here lies a friend of books." The Oliveira Lima Library Testimony to Oliveira Lima's love of books and history can be found in the collection of over 40,000 print and non-print materials housed today in the Oliveira Lima Library at Catholic University of America.