How are people good researchers? Where’s the class we take on that?
On the Fulbright, I was with all of these intelligent people who are in the middle of their doctorate degrees in History or Medicine or Historical Medicine and they all knew how they were going to get to work on their research. I mean, they had archives mapped out, masks and gloves ready (you’re handling hella old manuscripts) and they had contacts to ensure they would get to the resources they needed.
I had…next to no idea what I was doing.
I did collect some knowledge of places important to my historical figure and I used those as my trailhead. In my month in Seville, I had no contacts to speak of. But I chose my lodgings to be blocks away from Parroquia de Santa María Magdalena.
According to my research, this church has its own parish archives and within those archives are the records for Ana Caro’s death.
I wrote to the archives several times before my trip to Seville. I got no answer.
Then while in Seville, I went to the church website and noticed they have a tour of the church on Thursday mornings. Before it started, I approached the guide and asked about who I could talk to about accessing the archives. He pointed to a woman in the corner.
Reader, I started this day with the expectation that I would fail. But I didn’t mind, because I was making a valiant effort to try to get to the archives. I approached the woman and humbly said I was looking for documents from the 1600s. Perhaps they were destroyed by now. She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I have documents from the 1400s. Let’s go.”
She took me through back doors, through the sacristy, through the storage rooms for all the Corpus Cristi decorations, and into an air-conditioned room where two other people sat looking at very old books.
I gave her the record information (lucky for me, I was relying on the archive research of someone before me, so I had the information handy). Fortunately, she knew what all the numbers meant and pulled out the book.
I know. Looking at this, it looks like a bunch of squiggly lines that make no sense. Once you stare at it long enough, you find what you’re looking for. And this archivist does this weekly, helping people find records on a volunteer-basis. She looked at the numbers beside her name and explained what they meant.
She took the time to show me another special item in their archive. This is an official decree from King Felipe IV, the Hapsburg monarch of Spain during that period. Truth be told, there are tons of these decrees all over the archives in Spain. But still, getting to see one was thrilling. That big lead medallion? It’s the seal of the king, making it authentic and pointlessly heavy.
This long post goes to show that you have to take chances and be creative in your research pursuits. Talk to anyone you can because you never know who holds information that will guide your work. Here’s the other thing: I never told her I was a Fulbright scholar. To her, I was just some tourist wanting to look at old papers. It didn’t matter. This material is available to the public.
I encourage you to reach out to people, to try unorthodox ways to enter archives (bar from any Nicolas Cage “National Treasure”-type crap), and be open to the conversations you have with people along the way.
Okay, here are a few small updates:
Write in Belize: A Soul-Centered 2022 Retreat
I will be in Belize in early December to participate in their writer’s retreat. I’ve known about this program for several years now, and I’ve admired their dedication to bringing writers to a beautiful country and offering a fellowship spot to a local Belizean writer. It will be a great week of workshopping, writing, and recharging.
To Tweet or Move on?
We’ve all watched Twitter implode. It’s a shame because the literary community there has been so helpful and supportive for all of these years. I am planning to make a move to a different platform and close that account. I see people going to Mastodon and to Hive. Any opinions or recommendations?
Book Recommendation
As promised, at the end of every newsletter I will provide a book recommendation along with a link to purchase the book through Bookshop.org, where all sales go directly to indie bookstores.
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
I enjoy novels with a certain humorous slant to them that feels effortless. Toews’ novel is just that for me. A twice-divorced Yoli living in Canada is taking care of her older sister, Elf, a talented pianist who is looking to end her life. Told from the perspective of Yoli, this is an intimate portrayal of sisterhood in a Mennonite Canadian family that questions how we let our loved ones go. It was like nothing I had ever read before, and the narrative voice kept me hooked all the way to the end.
TW: suicide
Thanks for reading!
Anita, just discovered your newsletter! Wow, fascinating thoughts on research. Love hearing about your experience. Also, congratulations on the Belize retreat! That sounds incredible!
Congrats on teaching at the Belize retreat - lucky them and you! And kudos on dumping twitter! I wish I had a great alternative to suggest. This is the second time I've heard about All My Puny Sorrows in the past month, so it's on my list. Thanks for including the book rec!