THE ARCHIVE AS A BATTLEFIELD

Juan Pivel Devoto’s Role in the Formation of the Artigas Archive

Abstract

This article examines the process of discussion and implementation of the Artigas Archive (1944) in Uruguay, focusing on the role played by Juan Pivel Devoto during the formation of the project. Drawing on unpublished documentation and institutional archives, it reconstructs the internal conflicts within the honorary commission responsible for the collection, with particular emphasis on the confrontation with Eduardo Acevedo Vásquez—an influential figure of the Colorado Party and of positivist historiography in the first half of the twentieth century.

The research argues that the clash between Pivel and Acevedo was not merely about technical or personal matters but rather reflected a deeper conflict between two historiographical models: one, based on the chronological organization of documents and the supposed neutrality and objectivity of historical narrative; and the other, advocated by Pivel, favoring a thematic arrangement with explicit pedagogical and political intentions.

The article highlights how Pivel, backed by political support and growing intellectual legitimacy, managed to impose his methodological vision and assume a leading role in the project. It concludes that the case of the Artigas Archive reveals how archives—far from being neutral repositories—function as battlegrounds where meanings, power positions, and historiographical legitimacies are contested.