Epistolary document heritage: current challenges in memory interventions of european emigrants to America

Abstract

Researchers of historical migrations who have sought to go beyond official sources have faced a number of theoretical, methodological and ethical challenges over the last century. These have been compounded by the impact of the digital revolution on the materiality of documents and their processing, as well as on the preservation and publication of collections. A brief overview of the formation of collections of private letters of Spanish and European emigrants to America, complemented by the analysis of specific cases and personal experiences, allows us to a ddress the old and new problems that condition the study of the memory of emigration in its multiple forms and media. For a more comprehensive and efficient management, which includes the documentary and social context of the popular correspondence of emigration, it is proposed to consider it as intangible cultural heritage.