Resumen

LOPEZ ARELLANO, Marcela. Archives and Written Culture: Anita Brenner, Research Assistant to Ernest Gruening (1925-1927). Secuencia [online]. 2026, n.124, e2381.  Epub 09-Feb-2026. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i124.2381.

In 1928, the American politician and journalist Ernest Gruening (1887-1974) published a book titled Mexico and Its Heritage. From 1925 to 1927, he hired writer Anita Brenner (1905-1974), who lived in Mexico City, as his research assistant. They communicated through letters, which he sent from the United States and France, with research requests and instructions. The sources for this correspondence and Brenner’s diaries are found in her archive at the University of Texas at Austin. This work analyzes, using the methodology of written culture and the value of personal archives, the book’s construction workshop, based on the relationship between the boss and his assistant. These primary sources shed light on the intellectual work of a woman in 1920s Mexico and provide insight into the lessons the young woman acquired during her nearly two years of work, specially of the world of journalism, which would become a pivotal part of her life.

Palabras llave : personal archive; written culture; Mexico; intellectual work; research assistant.

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