BETWEEN INFORMATION AND SILENCE

Memory Politics and Oblivion in the Manuscript Collection of José Américo de Almeida

Abstract

José Américo de Almeida was a prominent and multifaceted figure in the Brazilian context of the twentieth century. Throughout his life, he produced and received a substantial volume of documents, later gathered by the Fundação Casa de José Américo (FCJA), an institution created in his honor. However, a severe vision impairment affected the legibility of his handwriting, which hindered the process of organizing and archiving his manuscripts. As a result, these documents were stored without any identification and separated from his personal collection. This situation lasted for more than 40 years, until 2021, when a team was hired to begin the treatment of this documentary set. Thus, this article aims to discuss the archival silencing of this documentation and the factors that contributed to the postponement of its organization, reflecting on the implications of such erasure for memory preservation. The study adopts a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive approach, based on documentary and bibliographic analysis. To process these manuscripts, archivists and paleographers were engaged in identifying and organizing the information, while an Artificial Intelligence system is being developed to assist in the recognition of graphemes. It is concluded that the delay in treating this collection compromised the right to information and memory, revealing that archival practices are not neutral but shaped by intentional decisions that determine which narratives are preserved and which remain silenced.