Cough, cough

0.5 hours writing, 4.5 hours researching, 1 hour meeting, page count = 139

I spent much of the day at the national archive, examining the newly released files from the President's office in the 1950s. Since this period includes a conflictual civilian government, a military government, a placeholder military junta, and a civilian government featuring 50-50 power-sharing, it's a really significant period, and these files are a great new resource that hasn't really been tapped yet. When I got the first folder and gently opened it, I got an actual shiver up my spine at the sight, smell, and feel of fresh primary documents: the translucent onion-skin paper, the sometimes clumsily typewritten text, the florid signatures in brightly colored ink, the faintest smell of attic.

Much of the day was cataloging what's available and what I want to potentially look at, but I did also start actually reading (and scanning for later) documents. This was an incredibly hectic time in Colombian history, and there are a lot of requests from state and local actors for recognition, help, or relief. I started writing up some general impressions, and I want to try to keep up that discipline even as I delve further into the data.

Had a great lunch meeting with a professor who's one of the premier "violentologists." He had many thoughtful suggestions and useful contacts, and was very gracious when I got ridiculously lost on the way to his apartment and was atrociously late. So much for my stubborn love of public transit - or more truthfully, my stubborn belief that I could walk around after 4 years and "figure it out." I did a pretty decent job in the end, but it just took too long and I wore out a lot of shoe leather - as well as more than a few bits of lung tissue. Some of the main avenues are SO smoggy. Yeesh. But I got the hang of it by the time I headed back downtown. Now I'm going to have dinner with a former Berkeley colleague who lives here now. The fieldwork is off to a good start!