Unveiling Stories: Writers in the General Archive of the Indies

by Carolina Orloff (Editor)

Ten writers respond to the world's largest and most significant archive of Spain's colonial project and legacy of empire.

In Sevilla, Spain, the General Archive of the Indies has, for 240 years, been a repository for centuries of materials and documents gathering a record of the daily life of empire. Now ten writers from Spain and Latin America have a chance to respond to this 80-million-page trove.

With contributions from:

Carlos Fonseca (Costa Rica)
Carlos Granés (Colombia)
Cristina Bendek (Colombia)
Juan Bonilla (Spain)
Karina Pacheco (Peru)
Liliana Colanzi (Bolivia)
Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia)
Martín Caparrós (Argentina)
Mayra Santos-Febres (Puerto Rico)
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar (Mexico)

160 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2026

Reviews

[Andrew Ferguson]

The third in a series of essays published by Charco Press, a group of writers from across the Spanish speaking world were given access to the assembled General Archive of the Indies - the largest, oldest, and most complete documentary archive of colonialism in existence - and told to "breathe life into the past." The result is a truly peerless work of literary art. Each of the nine entries begin with a photograph of a record directly from the Archives, and the ensuing piece speaks directly to that relic. One very powerful story - Memorial to the Shining Serpent - uses final recorded correspondence of mestizo rebel leader Tupuc Amaru written in his own blood.

Two things struck me reading this compilation: The first is how obscured or glossed over so much of this history is. Before this, I had no knowledge of Tupuc Amaru, of the origin of words like "canoe" or "hurricane," or the history of the first doctor in the Americas. The second is just how deeply personal and present these events are to our current lived experience. The process of colonialization and subjugation is only quiet after the fact, when the subjugator removes all public records. But these preserved records speak to both the brutality and dehumanization of Empire as well as the bravery and courage of those who resisted for the good of their families and their culture.