Publications & Outreach
A desire to expand the understanding of Hispanic and Iberian texts and narratives has nourished Verónica’s partnership with historians, curators, librarians, and scientists. These collaborations have resulted in interviews, blog posts, and publications highlighting the relevance of studying underutilized Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian repositories within U.S. institutions. Additionally, she has sought opportunities to publish about various treatments conducted during her graduate education while highlighting their context.
Scroll down to explore Verónica’s articles and participation in outreach initiatives.
Abstract
Illuminated manuscripts are relatively well studied, but the available publications greatly focus on religious manuscripts of a geographically limited area. In contrast, technical examinations of illuminated legal documents have received far less attention, e.g., Spanish cartas ejecutorias de hidalguía (executory certificates of nobility). These documents are suitable case studies to deepen current knowledge of manuscript-making in Spain for two reasons: First, they are dated (late fifteenth to early eighteenth centuries); and second, they are unusual and understudied from both the textual and materials analysis standpoints. Cartas contain judicial proceedings whereby a family gained or was re-assigned hidalguía (lower nobility). A key exhibit to achieving this status was proving their “blood purity” which implied they were faithful Catholics, so finding religious representations within the document is common. In addition, families embedded their faith and links to monarchs in their coat of arms through symbols like crowned eagles, trees, and towers. The deliberate choice of heraldic and religious elements is as important as the materials used to produce them. Interested in better understanding illumination in Spain we are studying these unique documents from the historical, materials, and iconographic points of view. Herein, we present the earliest results of an ongoing survey, detailing two case studies: Davila and Nuñez D. Armesto cartas. This research uses a combination of: (a) instrumental techniques (X-ray fluorescence, reflectance, and infrared spectroscopies; peptide mass fingerprinting; and gas chromatography); and (b) historical research using both the manuscript’s contents as primary sources, and published research. The preliminary results are enabling us to shed light onto Spanish (legal) illuminated manuscript-making, and the symbolic role materials played, e.g., use of precious metals adorning monarchical elements, presence of ultramarine mixed with azurite on both coats of arms, and on Virgin Mary’s gown, etc. This survey intends to simultaneously learn more about illumination practices in Spain, inform conservation decisions, and hopefully better understand problems connected to historic ideologies that were legalized in beautiful albeit disturbing documents, e.g., persecution of non-Catholics at the time in Spain.
Herit Sci 11, 6 (2023).
Mercado-Oliveras, V., Alcántara-García, J.
Cartas Ejecutorias de Hidalguía (executory certificates of nobility): a survey in materials analysis, legal, and aesthetic contexts—two case studies
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Conservation treatment of the Caramelo Deportivo: ¡Pleibol!
Mercado Oliveras (2018)
Smithsonian NMAH - WUDPAC
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Cartas Ejecutorias de Hidalguía (executory certificates of nobility): a survey in materials analysis, legal, and aesthetic contexts—two case studies.
Mercado-Oliveras, V., Alcántara-García, J.
Herit Sci 11, 6 (2023).
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What Escapes the Eye: Exploring the Toxicity of a Red Velvet Spanish Carta Ejecutoria (1792)
Mercado-Oliveras, V.
Studies in Conservation (2025).
Aiding Puerto Rican Photographic Collections: Photographs Block Re-housing Project
As part of WUDPAC’s Photo Block, Verónica created a call for Puerto Rican cultural institutions with pressing photographic conservation needs to participate in a fully-funded assessment and re-housing opportunity. The selected collection, “Flaherty Taino Petroglyph Photographic Collection” from Para la Naturaleza, a Puerto Rican non-profit organization, is of special importance given that the indigenous petroglyphs featured in these 1950’s photographs, located alongside rivers throughout the island, have been heavily impacted by weather and anthropogenic factors and represent the last documentation for some of these petroglyphs. In a recent field survey, Para La Naturaleza was able to confirm that some figures are no longer identifiable. Thus, the photographs are an important record in their own right and a vital source of information for researchers and the public.
The project entailed removing the photographs and negatives from their original tracing paper sleeves, creating acid-free paper labels with respective accession numbers, and rehousing the collection, along with their original sleeves, in polyester sheets within 4 binders to facilitate its preservation against the environment while promoting its access and handling by researchers.
Photo Credit: Debra Hess Norris, 2021 | Dry-cleaning and rehousing at WUDPAC.
Emerging Conservation Professional Network (ECPN) | Puerto Rico Leading Liaison 2020-2022
In 2020 Verónica became Puerto Rico’s first Emerging Conservation Professional Network (ECPN) Regional Liaison and recruited two pre-program Puerto Rican colleagues to create a team. Her moving force was to bring together conservators and students in the Island, and in the diaspore, to harvest a space of exchange and dialogue among fellow Puerto Rican and Hispanic emerging professionals, an underrepresented sector within the network. Throughout her term, Verónica spearheaded the following activities:
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APOYOnline Poster Presentation: “Connect, Empower, Transform: a Virtual Conference for Students and Emerging Professionals in Cultural Heritage”
| November 13th, 2021 |
Poster presentation summarizing the outreach activities conducted during the 2020-2021 term including creating a virtual presence through a mailing list of around 170 subscribers; providing bilingual resources to the mailing list; Translating to Spanish AIC literature; organizing the Latinos in Conservation Zoom series; and providing prospective pre-program students from all cultural backgrounds with career guidance and support.
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Puerto Rico ECPN Zoom Series: Latinos in Conservation/Latinos en la Conservación
| April - June 2021 |
Organized the Latinos in Conservation Zoom series, an open-to-all bilingual conference that brought together speakers from all across the Américas to share with the audience their trajectory in the field, education, projects, and research. The audience included participants from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, Spain, and the United States. Their attendance attests to ECPN and the AIC's importance in expanding outreach activities outside of U.S.A. boundaries.
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Increasing Visibility Through Translation
| 2020 - 2023 |
The Puerto Rico ECPN team advocated for the translation to Spanish of AIC materials which are accessible here. Additionally, as a Graduate Fellow at WUDPAC, Veronica translated WUDPAC’s Classes of 2023, 24, and 25 Biographies to Spanish, thus aiming to promote equal access to resources for non-English speaking professionals from the Americas.
Unveiling Cuba’s Caramelo Deportivo through conservation | Smithsonian NMAH 2020
As a technician at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's conservation lab, Verónica’s time fortuitously coincided with the exhibit preparation of ¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas. Pleibol examines how generations of Latinas/os have impacted and transformed the game. Amongst the surveyed and treated objects, Caramelo Deportivo stands out. While at the bench, she translated the printed text on its covers from Spanish to English and researched its provenance to recreate the artifact's history. Verónica supported NMAH unveiling the Caramelo Deportivo's history through this process, including how the album paid homage to the African American and Cuban players who participated in the Professional Winter League Baseball Championship 1945-46.
Click on image to watch interview video!