Spotlight on Staff: Maritza Arrigunaga

Maritza Arrigunaga is Special Collections' longest-serving staff member. Her relationship with Special Collections began in 1974 when she was hired by library director John Hudson to microfilm local records in Honduras and Yucatán. Maritza spent about five years traveling from one location to another and microfilming records of local government and ecclesiastical agencies, sometimes traveling by donkey. It turned out to be a life's work, as she still is working to edit film and write finding aids describing the records she filmed. As part of the arrangements made when UT Arlington was permitted to film, the Library provided the custodians of the original records with copies of the microfilm of their records. The importance of Maritza's efforts was brought home in October 1998 when Hurricane Mitch destroyed many original records in Honduras and left the microfilm the sole documentation. Alas, disaster struck again in April when the archives in Comayagua were destroyed by fire, once again leaving the microfilm the only record, and unfortunately not a complete one.

Maritza plays a unique role in Special Collections. Not only is she a pillar of the program area's institutional memory and a voice of wisdom and experience, but she of course has an extensive knowledge of our holdings and a wealth of ability to assist patrons of all variety. She personally assists a great number of Latin American researchers and often is responsible for answering more reference questions than anyone else per month. For years she has been active in assisting not only the preparation of publications and conference presentations, but the organization of the conferences themselves and the creation of exhibits associated with them. In recent years Maritza has been elected Technical Director to the Sociedad Yucatanense, General Coordinator to Investigaciones Docentes del Sureste, and to the Advisory Committee to the Juan Alvarez Association. Her years of service to Latin American historical scholarship recently culminated in her election as Asesora de la Preservacion Documental de Archivos Eclesiasticos.

Also dear to Maritza's heart is the physical care and preservation of the items in our collections. Although she has little time these days to devote to it, she is always delighted to have the opportunity to construct an enclosure for a fragile item or to conduct a workshop in paper marbling. She is our expert on Mexican broadsides and other Mexican publications and on Spanish-language manuscripts, and is of invaluable assistance in the acquisition of materials for Special Collections. No one else among us has her breadth of knowledge of our holdings or a fraction of her expertise in her areas of specialty. She is an essential asset to Special Collections' operations, researchers and staff. If all that weren't enough, she keeps us laughing, too.

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