Search and restitution of indigenous archives: experience of working with the archives of the Peasant Confederation of Peru

Abstract

The article introduces a brief history about the Peasant Confederation of Peru (CCP for its acronym in Spanish) and the salvaging of their documentation and archive collection accomplished by students of the Department of History of the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM for its acronym in Spanish). The archiving process was carried out from 2008 to 2017 and completed with the organization and compilation of a draft inventory of said collection. The article rescues the importance of the CCP’s documentation as it contains files on the implementation of the Agrarian Reform during the government of Juan Velasco Alvarado and the conflicts arisen with the peasantry. In addition, it shows the correspondence exchanged between the CCP and the grassroots organizations of the peasantry during the internal armed conflict. This archive collection is a very useful for scholars specialized on peasant life, its organizations and conflicts.