On Monday, May 11, 2026, from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (Mountain Standard Time), you are invited to tune into a discussion of research findings from the Jay I. Kislak Collection at the University of Miami Libraries. Join the collections’ research fellow Claire Lavarreda as she presents her research on Indigenous labor, expertise, and intellectual authority in the production of Catholic texts in New Spain from 1570 to 1810. Her forthcoming dissertation uses a book history approach to show how Catholic works functioned as sites of blended epistemologies, shaped not only by European clerics but also by the Indigenous artists, scribes, translators, and printers who materially created, revised, and circulated them.
During her residency with the Kislak Collection, Lavarreda focused on a chapter of her dissertation that examines woodcuts and copperplate engravings in Marian texts to trace Indigenous artistic contributions and visual influences. She will highlight two items from the Kislak Collection that were especially valuable to her research: Francisco de Florencia’s “La Estrella De El Norte de Mexico” (1688) and “La Milagrosa Invención de un Tesoro Escondido” (1683).
Claire Lavarreda is a Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern University specializing in book history and Indigenous studies. She earned a B.A. in history and social sciences from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2021, and an M.A. in public history from Northeastern University in 2023.
Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A with the online audience. To register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kislak-fellows-in-review-presented-by-claire-lavarreda-tickets-1987683506876?aff=oddtdtcreator