A Caribbean Seafaring People from Eastern Venezuela: The Guaiqueri Archive

This project aims to identify, evaluate and inventory the documentary collections and audio-visual materials of the Museo Marino of Margarita. The Museo Marino, located in Boca de Rio, is the foremost cultural institution on the Isle de Margarita. The collection held at the Museo Marino includes Dr Fernando Cervigón’s careful documentation of traditional Margariteño lifestyles from the 1950s and 60s and Dr Jose Maria Cruxent’s excavations across Margarita, Coche and Cubagua during the same period. Both are fundamental sources for understanding the Indigenous Guaiquerí history of the last 70 years and are invaluable to Margariteño culture. This planning grant, the first of its kind in the Venezuelan Caribbean, aims to inventory and safeguard the materials held at the museum and prepare them for future digitalization.