Orfilio Peláez

Specialists from the National Archives of the Republic of Cuba recently completed the restoration of the Máximo Gómez Documents Collection, in particular the correspondence from the General in Chief of the Liberation Army during the wars of independence and up until his death.

Master in Sciences, Marilín Iris Molina López, a specialist from the Communications Group of the body, which is governed by the Ministry for Science, Technology and the Environment, explained to Granma that they are currently in the process of restoring the original Constitution of Jimaguayú, which was signed September 16 1895, as well as the correspondence that forms part of a series of documents from Tomás Estrada Palma.

Files, books, academic titles, certificates, letters, dictionaries, honorary diplomas and manuscripts belonging to Cuban figures from across the ages have also been restored.

Among the wide range of services offered by the institution, those relating to studies on the microbiological quality of the air (only stored in the National Archives) and how this influences the environmental conditions for the conservation of collections, as well as the health of personnel working in heritage centers, is an area that stands out.

So far the results of this important work have benefited the Cuban Office of Industrial Property in 2012, and most recently the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.

Founded on January 28, 1840, the National Archives was the fifth of its kind in Latin America and holds thousands of treasured historical documents from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, in addition to image collections in various formats.