La Triple Alianza: primera cobertura fotográfica de guerra de América Latina y el Caribe

On March 1, 2016, at 7:00 p.m., in Montevideo, the Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Getachew Engida, will present the National Library and the National Historical Museum of Uruguay with the certificate of registration in the Memory of the World Programme for the collection “The War of the Triple Alliance: Iconographic and Cartographic Representations,” along with institutions from Brazil. The Memory of the World Programme was created in 1992 by UNESCO to preserve, facilitate permanent and unimpeded access to, and promote the global ownership of the documentary heritage of all humanity. Since then, it has mobilized its partners and Member States worldwide to rescue important collections that suffer the disastrous consequences of war or neglect, are looted, dispersed, illicitly traded, improperly stored, and even destroyed. Referring to the Memory of the World Programme Register, Edith Moraes, Undersecretary of Education and Culture of Uruguay, noted in an interview with UNESCO the importance of a dynamic review of the past by countries to project themselves into the future. In this sense, documentary records constitute a fundamental tool. Regarding Uruguay's recent inclusion, she highlighted the role of the Memory of the World Programme in bringing together countries of the sub-region in the joint recovery of their shared memory. In 2014, the National Historical Museum of Uruguay was invited by the Imperial Museum of Brazil to submit, along with other Brazilian institutions, a joint application to the Memory of the World Programme. The selection consists of three main groups of photographs: a series of collectible visiting cards from the period; photographs taken during the war by the Uruguayan company Bate y Cía., authorized by the government in 1886 for reproduction; and photographs documenting Uruguay's restitution to Paraguay in 1885 of the trophies obtained in the war. For its part, the National Library contributed a collection of 95 photographic records taken on the battlefield between 1866 and 1908, the acquisition of which began in 1947. “This initiative has allowed Uruguay to recover and preserve the first photographic coverage of a war in Latin America, a fact that earned it the name ‘Illustrated War’,” highlights the Director of the National Library, Esther Pailós.