AWARDEE BIO
Aida is a lawyer from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru, master’s in public policy management and Doctor in Law, both from Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal, Peru.
She is a professor and coordinator of the Archivistics and Record Management degree at the Universidad Catolica Sedes Sapientiae, Lima, from 2010 to date.
She joined the General Archive of the Nation (AGN acronym in Spanish) on June 15, 1977, in the position of Assistant Archivist. In 1981 she studied archival science at the School of Documentalists in Madrid, Spain, which allowed her to begin an additional activity to her training as a lawyer in the field of archival science. Later she was promoted to positions such as Professional Technician 7, Archive Supervisor, Legal Advisor of the AGN and in January 1992 she was called by the Minister of Justice, the ministry to which the AGN depended at that time, to hold the position of Institutional Head of the AGN, which is the institution where she developed most of her professional career linked to the archives.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Distinguished members of the Emmett Leahy Award (ELA) Committee, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen present:
I am in this room at an event which is part of the activities for the International Council on Archives Barcelona Congress 2025 “Knowing pasts. Creating futures, and I must say that I’m overcome with emotion.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Award Committee of the prestigious Emmett Leahy Award (ELA) in the field of records and information management and Preservica for sponsoring it. This award represents not only a major milestone in my professional journey but also the possibility of rewarding the labor of other professionals with a passion for archival studies in Latin America. This is the first time the award is granted to someone in our region which, for me, represents, from an academic perspective, a great commitment to continue striving in this line of work I have pursued for decades. My commitment is to keep contributing to the development of archival studies from my professional training as a lawyer and my experience in this field.
Receiving this distinction reminds me that the true value of my work lies in the impact it can create in the several generations of archivists whom I have had the privilege to train or teach at the Archivist Training Center between 1982 and 1994; at the then National School of Archivists, currently the National School of Archival Science 1995 and 2004 both belonging to the Peruvian National Archives; at the Archival Studies and record Management Program at Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientae del Perú from 2010 to date; and currently at the training programs of the Association of Latin American Archivists.
Academic studies, at the technical level as well as at the university level, is much more than just a transfer of knowledge, it is also promoting the importance of record-keeping, getting the students interested in nurturing critical thinking skills and advocating so that access to information in record-keeping becomes a fundamental right of users. I am convinced that the key for archivists’ development, recognition and positioning lies in university studies. Latin America has made progress in this topic thanks to the thirty-two (32) professional degrees in Archival studies throughout several countries. Its students are the future generation of archivists in this region.
At this moment, I want to put the spotlight on the Latin American Archival Science students, they are the reason for my work as well as my responsibility at the University where I am the Coordinator for the Archival Science and Record Management Program. These students ask questions and show enthusiasm and dedication which only strengthens Archival studies, a field that many of us ventured into from different occupations. In my case it was Law that helped me significantly in my archival endeavors because I link these two fields in many different aspects, but I am convinced that the major asset for Archival studies in this century is specialized university education for archivists in order for them to carry out an interdisciplinary role in their respective institutions. I am confident that professionalizing Archival and record management will empower them as leaders in the field. I stress this academic background for professionals because it represents the means of acquiring knowledge, skills and values through a comprehensive training in general, specific and specialty courses that teach them to manage, protect, preserve and disseminate the documentary heritage of society.
Archival work presents many challenges that need a solid academic background to face them professionally. This is due to the evolution of Archival sciences in relation to other related sciences which are constantly and relentlessly changing, particularly in the field of Information and Communications Technology, considering that technological tools can aid us, but we should be wary of them too. Therefore, there is a need for archivists that are aware of the new but fragile benefits offered by IT. Currently we have Artificial Intelligence, which is in every academic area, and that is also the case for Archival science. We welcome AI with expectation, but at the same time we must apply a rigorous ethical judgment and legal reasoning in order to ensure consistency regarding its rules of application and guaranteeing justice. There are still many questions, let us raise a few: How do we apply AI to archive science while considering its vulnerabilities? Do we assume legal liability as archivists? What is our ethical and legal position on this matter? From an academic perspective and with a solid foundation on archival studies, we can progress as long as these debate topics are considered in a university setting through the Archival study programs in Latin America that review our own reality.
Therefore, a key element in archivists’ education is to highlight the importance of nurturing ethics, integrity, values and national legal systems, as well as international standards that have an impact on archives and their records. These principles are essential because archivists have the responsibility of managing and handling records that contain valuable information of the institutions where they work. In this context, in order to guarantee an international collective memory, documentary preservation requires public policies involving a clear and simple legislation that can be easily understood by those obliged to comply with it, as well as the implementation of strategies, programs or processes that facilitate their effectiveness so that legal procedures and sanctions can be applied when archival records have been affected, thus ensuring their protection, given that archival records contribute to the development of any society demanding legal security and enabling its citizens to keep being informed by making use of their right of access to information.
I hereby reaffirm my commitment to the professional training of archivists and to the preservation of the invaluable documentary heritage of Latin America through a solid legal framework, thus, I will remain dedicated to the field of teaching and to the strengthening of archival legislation from wherever I happen to be. In both activities, I highlight the transcendental significance of the valuable information that archives preserve, because through them we get to KNOW THE PAST, and we CREATE FUTURES by training new professionals and promoting the recognition of this field due to its fundamental role in our society.