WMU history professor discovers new stories of early Colombia

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—At the close of the spring 2023 semester, Dr. Ángela Pérez-Villa, Western Michigan University assistant professor of history, was awarded the Citizen and Scholars Institute Fellowship, a prestigious and competitive grant to continue research for her upcoming book. Perez-Villa’s work focuses on 19th century Colombia and the stories of the people who lived under a changing judicial system as that nation gained independence from Spanish rule. Her journey led her to several discoveries, unintended detours, accolades and experiences. She is now able to reflect on a rewarding experience that gave her this time away to conduct research and to reconnect with family.  

Pérez-Villa first heard about the opportunity at the suggestion of a colleague, and after a lengthy four-stage interview process and a few months of delay, was notified of the award that set her off on a year-long itinerary that took her to her native Colombia as the starting point. From there, her search for primary sources and first-hand accounts of life during early independence took her to locations around the United States and the world, totaling more than 30 cities.  

During one of her research visits to Oxford’s Bodleian Library, one of Europe’s oldest archives, the resident historian invited her to be a visiting scholar for what became a seven-month stay. 

“There is a vibrant Latin American community at Oxford, so it was very intellectually stimulating,” she says. 

It was there that Pérez-Villa gained access to vast amounts of secondary literature from the 20th century, and material written by Colombian citizens during the 1870s. She explains that much of the material from this period is difficult to view or acquire, as it is housed in only one archive in Colombia’s national library, so being invited to view the Oxford collections proved to be very useful. 

“There was this travel journal that was published in the early 19th century, of two travelers that came through Colombia in the 1870s, filled with lithographs of the country’s history,” she says. 

“There’s a chapter in [the book] about enslaved thieves who stole food during a famine. There’s an environmental catastrophe going on during this time because they have locust swarms over the lands, so there’s no food. I had been trying to find something that could show that [period] and couldn’t find anything … until I found this journal at Oxford.” 

Another phase of her research took her to Vanderbilt University, which houses the J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana, one of the largest collections of this type in the United States.  

“I got to see chronological histories of the events of Colombian independence,” she says. Items like pamphlets, court dockets, letters, case records and articles. Plus, bounded leather scrapbooks from the 19th Century she had never seen anywhere filled with portraits of independence leaders, politicians, judges and their staffs, newspaper clippings and drawings. Valued pieces that gave her a complete view of how print was used to influence public opinion or the court during this time. 

“I came across a broadside (large single-page newspaper) written by one of the judges who was outraged by public accusations against him, so everyone knew his exact position on the issue,” she says  

In August of last year, Pérez-Villa’s research took her to a retreat in Albuquerque, New Mexico to be with many past and present winners of this fellowship from the last 40 years. By the end of that retreat, conversations with these scholars allowed her to strengthen her plan to achieve tenure at Western. 

“I had so much material from Oxford & Vanderbilt, I am able to write a new chapter for my book,” and explains that it will serve as the perfect transition section between the half covering the end of Spanish rule and the half covering the early Republic of Colombia. 

Initially she planned to write about the social history as a bridge to the postcolonial era, but it transformed into being about the lives of the judges who would shape the next several decades of Colombian history and the day-to-day activities in the judicial system.  

“These judges would become critical in the 1820s and 1830s because they presided over the superior court that I study,” says Pérez-Villa. 

Her book is titled “Litigants in Time of War: Everyday Life and Legal Practice During Colombia’s Independence, 1808-1832.” 

“It has been a wonderful year and I feel so grateful,” she says.

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