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Sergio Ramírez Papers

This collection consists of the personal, political, and literary papers of
Sergio Ramírez Mercado.The Writings section of the collection includes both drafts and final versions in
manuscript and typed manuscript format of most of Ramírez’s fiction, nonfiction,
and short expository works, covering the period 1954 to 2004. It also includes
interviews and translations of Ramírez’s works by others into at least ten
languages. Some manuscripts are accompanied by related items such as publishers’
proofs, correspondence, and source materials. Also included in this section are
writings in printed format when this is the only format that preserves a
work.The extensive Correspondence section covers the period 1960-2004, and includes
letters from family members, letters about a specific work, general
chronological correspondence, and correspondence with a wide range of renowned
writers and politicians, such as Claribel Alegría, Arnoldo Alemán, Violeta
Barrios de Chamorro, Mario Benedetti, Ernesto Cardenal, Jimmy Carter, Julio
Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, Felipe González, Augusto
Monterroso, Ronald Reagan, and Mario Vargas Llosa.The Political Archive consists of two main sections. The first section follows
Ramírez’s political activities, from the early actions of his student days in
the 1960s, to his retirement from the political field in 1997. It includes
documents and materials about Ramírez’s participation in the Sandinista
revolution against the Somoza regime, the Junta de Gobierno de Reconstrucción
Nacional, his activities as vice president and as leader of the Sandinista
Party, the foundation of the Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista, and his
participation as candidate for president in 1996. The second section consists of
documents and materials collected by Ramírez related to Nicaraguan political
history, mostly related to Augusto C. Sandino, the Somoza family, and various
political events of the twentieth century before the Sandinista revolution.Of special interest is the Writings of Others section, which includes adaptations
of Ramírez’s works, essays and reviews about Ramírez’s writings, and a small
collection of writings by other authors in different formats, including Claribel
Alegría, Ernesto Cardenal, Abelardo Cuadra, Carlos Fuentes, Fernando Gordillo,
Ernesto Mejía Sánchez, and Octavio Paz.This collection also includes documents and materials about awards, literary
contracts, teaching activities, trips, and some cultural and social projects in
which Ramírez was involved.Free-standing photographs, and other graphic materials related to Ramírez’s
literary and political career, can be found in Series 7. However, some
photographs and graphic materials were kept in their original context and can be
found throughout the collection.Finally, the collection includes many miscellaneous and printed materials. Of
special interest are the materials about Masatepe (Ramírez’s birth place) in
Series 8 and the wide array of printed materials that include Ramírez’s short
writings. These printed materials not only show the context in which Ramírez’s
short writings were published, but also represent a rich collection of ephemera
from Latin America, difficult to find outside the local context.