The International Scene: Report on the Second Caribbean Archives Conference October 27-31, 1975

Abstract

Ten years ago, in September 1965, the First Caribbean Archives Conference was held at the University of the West Indies in Mona, a suburb of Kingston, Jamaica.1 On October 27-31, 1975, after much planning, a Second Caribbean Archives Conference was held, this time in the French islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique. Most of the support for this second conference came from French sources, including funds made available by two of the French ministries in Paris, and also by the departments of Guadaloupe and Martinique, which are considered a part of France. There were sixty or more registered attendants at the conference, and at the formal sessions place assignments were by country. Barbados, Curacao, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico had from two to five representatives present. The United States had four representatives in attendance. Unfortunately the United States was not the only major country greatly involved in Caribbean history that had a small representation at the conference. There was no one present from Great Britain, which played such a large role in Caribbean history, nor from the mainland of Spain, Britain's chief rival. The Central American countries were another area totally unrepresented. Colombia and Venezuela, the two main Caribbean countries of South America proper, were represented only by Fr. Alberto Lee Lopez, director of the National Archives of Colombia and president of the In terAmerican Association of Archivists established at Lima in 1974. This may mean that Spanish-speaking countries bordering on the Caribbean feel they should belong to the InterAmerican Association of Archivists rather than to the Caribbean Association of Archivists. It would seem they should belong to both. Certainly the two associations must cooperate closely, and we may hope Father Lee's presence symbolized recognition of this fact. Two of the Spanish-speaking islands, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, were well represented, but Cuba remained completely unheard from. Possibly these absences may be due to shortcomings in the invitation system. But also there was little publicity in archival journals. It was especially unfortunate that the United States was not better represented since we are planning to have the International Congress in Washington, D.C., next September. There should have been