Barao da Ponte Ribeiro: Memory of the World Register for Latin America

Brazilian Collection added to the Memory of the World Register for Latin America   The “Barão da Ponte Ribeiro: the making of Latin American identity (1794-1884)" collection has been inscribed in the regional Register of the Memory of the World by the selection committee of the Memory of the World for Latin America (MOWLAC). The collection comprises manuscripts and cartographic documents collected or created by the Baron Duarte da Ponte Ribeiro and is housed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's Center for Historical Documentation, in Rio de Janeiro. The Memory of the World Program was created in 1992 by UNESCO to ensure the preservation of the documentary heritage of worldwide significance, to assist universal access to documentary heritage and to increase awareness of the existence and significance of documentary heritage.     Duarte da Ponte Ribeiro was born in 1795. A physician, diplomat and cartographer, he worked on behalf of Brazil in Spain – where he negotiated the recognition of Brazil’s Independence –, in Portugal, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. His diplomatic work in the establishment of Brazilian borders is comparable to the achievements of Alexandre de Gusmão in Brazil’s colonial period and of those of the Baron of Rio Branco in the republican era. This is the twenty-first time a Brazilian heritage collection has been added to the Memory of the World Latin America Register since MOWLAC’s inception in 2000. Among the previous registries are the West India Company Archives, the 1808 Decree Opening the Maritime Ports to Trade with Friendly Nations, the Oscar Niemeyer Archives, the Indigenous People Protection Service (SP) Archives and the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Southern Cone Countries (CLAMOR) Collection.