The Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) is a Guatemalan non-profit foundation of an educational, scientific, academic and cultural nature. With more than 40 years of life, she has been internationally recognized for her permanent interest in the rescue, organization, conservation, safeguarding and dissemination of the visual and documentary historical heritage of the Mesoamerican region, with an emphasis on Guatemala.  

In 1978 the historian Christopher H. Lutz and the archaeologist William R. Swezey founded CIRMA as a small library of publications, not available then in the country, and a meeting center for researchers in the social sciences. A year later, the Guatemala Photo Library was founded, initially inspired by the work of photographer Mitchell Denburg, and currently considered one of the most important visual collections in Central America. Later, in 1997, the Historical Archive was founded, which has played a critical role in the recovery of the historical memory of Guatemala.

Currently, CIRMA is focused on expanding the availability of all its contents and at the same time disseminating good practices for the preservation and management of collections to all those interested in the protection of cultural and historical heritage.

Collections

Lutz and Swezey linked their libraries with those of Julio Pinto Soria, Julio Castellanos Cambranes and Stephen Webre, thus creating the CIRMA Social Sciences Library. Currently, the Library has more than 65,000 titles, 8,000 documents and an extensive range of magazines. In addition, it is proud to house in its Special Collections Room two collections made up of authentic bibliographic jewels: The Personal Collection of Franz Termer, with works dating from the first years of the 17th century, and the Collection of Ancient Books, which safeguards relics of early 18th century to mid-19th century.

The Guatemala Photo Library was founded in 1979 and represents the most significant effort to preserve the visual memory of Guatemala. With its 205 collections totaling more than 1.5 million photographs, it portrays the different ethnic, social and political groups from 1850 to the present and provides a rich record of the country’s historical evolution.

 

In 1997 CIRMA founded the Historical Archive, which plays a critical role in the recovery of the historical memory of Guatemala. Its collections, some recognized as the nation’s cultural heritage, date from the 16th century to the present, emphasizing the contemporary era from 1944. It currently houses 149 collections made up of more than eight and a half million documents.