This is the personal archive of Mr. Herrera Soler (Petere). José Herrera Petere was born in the city of Guadalajara on October 27, 1909. Since his youth, he showed a deep literary fondness which exercised throughout his life, being the author of numerous literary works. His political commitment to the ideals of the Second Republic since his affiliation to the Communist Party of Spain led him into exile in 1939.
He was awarded the National Literature Prize in 1938 with the work Acero de Madrid.
The Petere Archive is in the Library after the signing of the Deposit Agreement on May 23 of 2003. this fact that has represented an important increase of the Cultural Patrimony of the Province and the possibility that the life and the work of an essential celebrity in the History and the Spanish Literature of the XX century are studied and known with accuracy by the coming generations.
The Library of Researchers of the Province of Guadalajara which organized the I International Congress Herrera Petere, during October 30 and 31 of 2009.
The Archive has a computerized Catalogue with 2,918 registers and systematized in six sections:
1 Bibliographic documentation (30 registers)
In this section, the smallest in the archive, have been grouped together with official documents of a strictly personal or professional nature of the author (curriculum vitae, passports, letters of Mexican naturalization of him and his wife, residence permits in the Swiss canton of Geneva, questionnaires, forms, personal reports and other documents related to his work in the O.I.T.), some special memories related to his political career such as a note from the Second Republic or a piece of wire from the French concentration camp in Saint Cyprien where he was interned for a few months after the end of the Spanish Civil War.
2 Correspondencia (334 registros)
Our author's extensive epistolary with many of the most influential writers and characters of the Spanish exile, as well as with numerous European intellectuals, constitute the fundamental part of this Section, which has also included the crossed correspondence between General Emilio Herrera Linares, Petere's father, and Carmen Soler, Petere's wife, during the first months of exile. The letters between Carmen Soler and some scholars of Petere's work after his death have also been preserved.
3 Tributes (154 registers)
Of the total of the Section, one hundred and forty-five registers correspond to the tribute promise to Petere in Geneva on March 7, 1976. In them, they are collected, together with the dedications of more than a hundred Spanish writers and artists (both from exile and from within), many of them expressed through personal letters, poems, drawings or engravings, they include thousands of signatures of all the people who adhered to the event. Fewer are the documents referring to other tributes, such as that of his retirement in 1969, or those made after his death.
4 Private library (232 registers)
Although the legacy does not include the author's conventional Library, what we have called the Private Library arrived with its archive. It includes registers which refer fundamentally to originals (manuscripts or typed) sent to Petere by their authors so that he could know them or give his opinion about them. There are also some published copies dedicated expressly to Petere by its authors.
5 Works (1,750 registers)
This section constitutes the thick of the file. It has divided in four subsections.
- Drawings, 39 registers.
- Poetry, 1,299 registers.
- Prose, 247 registers.
- Theatre, 165 registers.
It includes all the manuscripts (original or copies, complete or fragmented), typed and published of each of the works of our author.
6 Studies about Petere and his work (300 registers)
Formed by an extensive collection of studies and press articles that other authors published in several specialized magazines and newspapers about the person, intellectual and cultural activity and the works of Petere.
This is Mr. Layna Serrano's personal file. Francisco Layna Serrano was born in Luzon (Guadalajara) in 1893, a doctor by profession dedicated his life to his great passion, research touching on various historical and artistic aspects of the province of Guadalajara. He was Provincial Chronicler and corresponding Academic of diverse academies as the one of the History and the one of Fine Arts. When he died in 1971, both his Library and his Archive were donated to the Provincial Council.
The Archive has a computerized Catalogue with 959 records and systematized in five sections:
1 Bibliographic documentation
En esta Sección se han agrupado los documentos de naturaleza estrictamente personal o profesional del autor. Por este mismo criterio se han incluido sus fotografías familiares, que no se incorporaron en su día al Archivo Fotográfico Layna del CEFIHGU en el que se conservan más de 2.500 imágenes fechadas entre 1917 y 1970 de casi un centenar y medio de pueblos de la provincia de Guadalajara y de diferentes localidades de Asturias, Avila, Badajoz, Burgos, Ciudad Real, Jaen, La Rioja, Madrid, Málaga, Segovia, Soria, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid y Zaragoza, que fueron objeto de las investigaciones y estudios del señor Layna.
This section is completed by all the references that Dr. Layna kept about the tributes dedicated to his uncle, Professor Manuel Serrano Sanz.
2 Correspondence
Constituted mainly by the ample epistolary of our author with characters of very diverse nature: provincial and national political positions, neighbours of numerous towns of Guadalajara, Spanish and foreign intellectuals, etc.
3 Tributes
Integrated by very varied documentation generated in the course of the different tributes paid to our character.
4 Working material
Composed mainly by the abundant notes and notes elaborated by Mr. Layna to prepare his historical-artistic investigations, it also includes drawings, plans, photographs, original historical documents related to his works.
5 Works
Paradoxically, Mr. Layna Serrano did not keep in his personal archive the originals of his great works, whose editions and republications can be consulted in the Guadalajara Bibliographic Fund of the Researchers' Library.On the contrary, he kept some of the originals of his minor works (speeches, conferences, reports, press articles, literary creations, etc.) and a very complete set of clippings with all his articles published in the provincial and national press that constitute the bulk of this Section.
6 Studies about Layna and his work.
As a complement to the previous Section, our author also kept another extensive collection of press clippings formed by all those reviews and studies that other authors were publishing in various newspapers and magazines about his works or his person.
Integrated by works of a technical nature used by several dependencies and services of the Provincial Council of Guadalajara throughout its history.
Made up of publications of a technical nature on photography and film, acquired by the Centre or donated by collaborators of the Centre.
Formed by publications of a non strictly provincial scope, made up fundamentally of monographs and periodical publications received by the Council or the Provincial Institution of Culture Marqués de Santillana as an exchange with the publications of both institutions.
It is formed mainly by the Libraria of Provincial historian Francisco Layna Serrano (donated to its author to the Council in 1971), the Library-Bookshop of ethnologist and folklorist from La Alcarria Sinforiano García Sanz (acquired by the Council in 1983) and the Library of the antiquarian bookseller Salvador Cortés Campoamor (it is also acquired by the Council in 2010). As well as other provincial-themed publications edited or published by other institutions or entities, acquired or donated to the library.
Together with the Bibliographic collections, the Researchers' Library has the following facilities personal archives of important 20th century intellectuals linked to the province of Guadalajara: the provincial historian, Francisco Layna Serranoof the writer José Herrera Soler ‘Petere’of the briocense musician, Jesús Villa Rojoand of the lecturer, Manuel Criado de Val, all of them were donated to the Provincial Council in 1971, 2003, 2011 and 2014 respectively.
On the occasion of the Centenary of Antonio Buero Vallejo (2016) the Section Buero Vallejo to expand the existing bibliographic collections of works and studies by and about Antonio Buero Vallejo.
This fund also includes the emptying of magazines or acts of congresses and meetings with a provincial theme, mainly Wad-Al-Hayara, Cuadernos de Etnología (Notebooks of Ethnology)and the Henares Historians' Meetings, to which the remaining provincial serial publications will be incorporated.