Julio: The Godfather of the Project

By Dr. Anna Grimaldi

None of this project would have been possible without the generous support of Julio Cazzasa, the Collections Development Coordinator for Latin American and Commonwealth Studies at Senate House Library. Both on a personal level and on behalf of the team, this short text is dedicated to extending a heartfelt thank you to Julio for all his work; for coming to King’s to tell us about the collection, for warmly inviting us into the Library, and for your constant enthusiasm and encouragement.

As someone who has worked across and with many of the Library’s collections and research partners for over twenty years, Julio has been more than expertly qualified to provide the best possible guidance to the student curation team in their work on this project. Yet it has been his passion and enthusiasm for the project that has really made an impression on students over the past six months.

I first met Julio in 2015, when I came to work as a volunteer on a project to bring the Latin American Political Pamphlets collection back to life and onto the radar of scholars. At the time, I was halfway through my Masters degree, and was in all honesty just looking to bulk out my CV. But working with Julio and the collection allowed me to develop my own personal passion for the kinds of ephemeral archival materials found in the collection. In fact, I built my entire PhD project on the premise that such materials would significantly enhance scholarship on the history of Cold War Latin America.

It would be insufficient to say that Julio simply introduced me to the materials. Every day I came into work we would talk about what was going on in Latin American politics and society. He would quiz me on my studies and push me to think about how my volunteer work could help me to refine a more specific research agenda. On a number of occasions, as we walked through the corridors of the library, he would stop to introduce me to both library staff and fellow Latin Americanist researchers, ensuring I was expanding my networks at that critical point in my career.

Most importantly, and to this day, he makes sure I kept on top of my Spanish – diligently weeding out any colloquialisms that did not strictly honour the Argentine dialect. If anything makes a first impression of Julio, it is his humour.

In February 2016, Julio and I collaborated on the first chapter of Thinking Inside the Boxes, bringing together distinguished scholars in an effort to highlight the value and potential of the collection for students and researchers alike. The collection has long relied on the care and determination of the people surrounding it, and in many ways this is what we are hoping to do with this second iteration of the project.

As we peer inside the boxes and allow them to speak to us, we intend to treat them with the respect and nurture needed for their survival. In a climate of uncertainty and hardship, we hope this exhibition also acts as a reminder of the important work being carried out by people like Julio Cazzasa and everyone else who has interacted and bonded with the materials we are displaying today.