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Proyecto Adrienne: A Canada-Chile ProjectNicole Caissy, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services
In May 2001, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, completed a one week State visit to Chile accompanied by an important delegation of Canadian political, artistic and scientific personalities, including Roch Carrier, Canada’s national librarian. This State visit, intended to strengthen the existing bilateral connections between Canada and Chile and to establish new relations between leaders in several sectors, led to the signature of agreements between the two countries. On May 10, 2001, in the Medina Hall of the National Library of Chile in Santiago, in the presence of the Governor General of Canada, Roch Carrier and Clara Budnik Sinay, Director of Libraries, Archives and Museums (DIBAM) Branch of the National Library of Chile, signed an agreement creating Proyecto Adrienne. Following the agreement, both organizations decided to unite their efforts to safeguard and return to Chile the intellectual works of Chilean writers and artists who were exiled following the coup by General Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973. Within the scope of this project, the National Library of Canada assumed the mandate to contact Chilean exiles in Canada and, with their permission, assemble their works and arrange, in cooperation with the Canadian Embassy of Chile, for the transfer of the collection to Chile. The DIBAM’s mandate is to maintain the unique character of this special collection. Following the June 6, 2001, press release announcing the creation of the project, I gladly accepted to coordinate Proyecto Adrienne. At that time, several authors, publishers, booksellers and Canadian library employees contacted me to offer their help. Starting in the summer of 2001, intensive research was initiated to find Chilean authors and artists living or having lived in Canada. This wasn't an easy task. Through a piece of good luck, in September 2001, a colleague sent me an e-mail announcing that a group of Ottawa Chilean authors, the "El Dorado" group, would be meeting, as they usually do on the last Friday of each month, to discuss literature and read poetry, with Latin American music playing in the background. The e-mail was the beginning of a fruitful correspondence with Chilean authors from Ottawa as well as from other regions of Canada. Accepted works The National Library of Canada accepts published or non-published works of fiction, scientific or sociological writings or writings on any other topics, films, videos, theses, articles, anthologies, magazines, record albums, CD-ROMs, newspapers, etc. It also accepts works produced in languages other than Spanish, French or English. Although Proyecto Adrienne is meant for Chilean authors and artists having lived or currently living in exile in Canada, others, who are not exiles or do not consider themselves as such, have chosen to participate in the project. Furthermore, some Canadian authors close to the Chilean literary community in Canada have graciously offered their own works because they were influenced by such great Chilean authors as Pablo Neruda. Others have sent their works of literary criticism of or tributes to Chilean authors. Finally, some have contributed in the project by sending books written by Chilean authors from their personal collections. Activities The Chilean literary community is one of the most active and dynamic in Canada. Since their arrival in Canada, authors have continued to write, create literary journals, cultural groups and publishing houses, and participate in numerous seminars and meetings about Chilean and Latin American literature. During the course of these activities, I have had the opportunity to attend book launchings and a symposium on Chilean literature in Canada, organized by the group Boreal. The first meeting took place in the Escuela de extensión en Canadá (ESECA) of the Universidad nacional autónoma de México (UNAM) in Hull, last January. Roch Carrier made a presentation at the opening of the symposium in which he told the audience about the Governor General's desire to set up a project of a literary nature between Canada and Chile during her State visit. While in Chile, the idea of collecting works from Chilean authors exiled in Canada and transferring them to Chile became an agreement. Dr. Carrier described the emotion that prevailed during the signing of the agreement and the joy of the Chileans present at the idea of seeing compatriots exiled since 1973 having their works return to the national library of their country. Ms. Clarkson has "put her whole heart into it" (Roch Carrier). In honour of her gesture, Roch Carrier suggested naming the cultural project "Proyecto Adrienne." To date, 51 authors and donors have sent 250 works to the National Library of Canada as part of Proyecto Adrienne. A total of 35 other authors have confirmed their participation. Although the project will end on September 30, 2002, authors and donors have until October 31, 2002, to send their works to the National Library of Canada, after which the organization of the transfer of the documents to Chile will begin. For more information on Proyecto Adrienne, please contact: Nicole Caissy |
