This paper presents a public history experience in which I participated as "academic historian", resulting in the retrieval, visibilisation and appropriation of the figure of an unknown teacher through her life-story. This experience will try to endorse the privileged role of life-stories (Bandini 2023,p.32) which highlight unheard schoolteachers voices (Herman, Braster & Pozo-Andrés, 2022,p.54) as strategy for public history activities to engage with general audiences. The experience under consideration was part of a public history initiative: the organisation of an exhibition entitled "Madrid, educational city 1898/1938. Memory of the public school" (Pozo-Andrés,2022,pp.114-122). The exhibition resulted of collaboration between an academic historian, an “educational interest group” and other stakeholders (Pozo-Andrés & Braster,2022,pp.97-100). As part of this exhibition, five audiovisual products were featured recounting the life-stories of five teachers with unique career pathways. Each of these stories aimed to represent the prototypical fates of teachers after the Civil War (Pozo-Andrés,2022,p.118). I contributed to the production one audiovisual based on the story of Estrella Cortichs, a teacher who would illustrate the destiny of republican teachers who were forced to exile outside the country after the war, and who never taught in Spain again. My collaboration in this project started from previous historical-biographical research related to my PhD investigation. First, Cortichs' professional biography was reconstructed by following her trace in governmental and non-governmental archives, historical newspapers and publications, collecting documentary and photographic material in the process. During this search, we contacted one of the educational centres where Cortichs had taught during her forced exile in Mexico. This allowed us to communicate with people involved in recovering the memory of the Spanish exile, who facilitated interviews with former students of Cortichs. Finally, it was also possible to retrieve the voice of Cortichs herself, after locating an interview recorded between 1979 and 1981, and included in an oral history project on Spanish refugees in Mexico. After the collection of these materials, the audiovisual was developed in collaboration with the organizers of the exhibition and the audiovisual designers. The agreed script tried to depict the story of Cortichs with historical accuracy, without overlooking the emotional gist intended with these life-stories (Pozo-Andrés,2022,p.118). To this end, we decided to present a dramatised autobiographical monologue, faithful to Cortichs' original account, manner of speaking and expressions. The story was supported by visual material retrieved during the research period and ended with the emotive memory of her former pupils, who provided a moving portrait of the teacher. Once the exhibition was over, the impact of her life-story could be evaluated with the exhibition's visitors' book (Pozo-Andrés,2022,p.126,130), and the placement of a commemorative plaque on the front of the school she directed in Madrid. Recently, the repercussion continued through initiatives conducted by educational and local associations, such as the Jane Jacobs Walks commemorating the 90^th anniversary of the inauguration of some Madrid’s historical schools, in which Cortichs has been roleplayed in an interactive dramatization in her school. All this has contributed to retrieving the educational figure of Cortichs as "republican teacher". Funded by: [PID2020-113677GB-I00/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033]&[FJC2021-046940-I/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/NextGenerationEU/PRTR].

Thinking together with Lila Caimari (2020. p. 222), we affirm that at present we live in a so-called “archive moment” which is broadly characterized by: (a) a process of becoming aware of the need for care and preservation of archives (b) a reflection on our connection with the archive as researchers. (c), various disciplinary, intellectual, and even artistic practices to think about the archive as a theoretical tool, category, in addition to an object. (CAIMARI, 2020, p. 223-224). From the perspective of Public History, we propose to think of the school archives of educational institutions in the municipality of Pontal do Paraná (PR) not as “something given”, but in their genesis, structure and mainly in their public dimension, looking at their construction, preservation and use beyond a merely administrative conception. “Archives” are defined as a set of records whose function is to preserve and transmit memory in “spaces for storing documents linked to human activity or institutions” (BUSTAMANTE VISMARA, 2019, p. 31). Schools have archives, they keep papers, they store objects, some even have a large collection, but they are usually neglected: “by decision otherwise, all schools have «papers», but sometimes they have not taken into account their document preservation policies. historical documentation” (BUSTAMANTE VISMARA, 2019). More like accumulation deposits or with a primarily bureaucratic and administrative purpose, archives are far from allowing a public construction full of interpellations and knowledge together with communities. Because, in Catela's words, this last possibility is in direct relation with the construction of an archive that “will depend on the degree of public opening of the receiving or accumulating institution, according to the interests of a community, restricted to expanded to a general public”. (CATELA, 2002, p. 384-385). Based on this conception, we initially carried out a survey on the situation of school archives in the Municipality with the aim of deepening a collective and participatory construction of historical knowledge. By rescuing and valuing sub-archived memories from school archives, Public History feeds socially alive issues in the present time with the proposal of surveying narratives of school memories in the Municipality with a “shared attention” of objects linked to the school world that allow expand the relationship with time, space, knowledge and intersubjective and emotional relationships with school. Finally, the work consisted of rescuing and organizing a collection of school documents stored both within educational institutions and in family archives and thus preserving the school's historical heritage, cooperating to raise awareness and guide leaders and the community in safeguarding documentary memory and objects that evoke school history.

Pensando junto com Lila Caimari (2020. p. 222) afirmamos que no presente vivemos um denominado “momento arquivos” que de forma ampla caracteriza-se por: (a) um processo de tomada de consciência em relação à necessidade de cuidado e preservação de arquivos (b) uma reflexão sobre nosso vínculo com o arquivo enquanto pesquisadores. (c), diversas práticas disciplinares, intelectuais, e incluso artísticas para pensar o arquivo como ferramenta teórica, categoria, além de objeto. (CAIMARI, 2020, p. 223-224). Na perspectiva da História Pública propomos pensar os arquivos escolares das instituições de ensino do município de Pontal do Paraná (PR) não como “algo dado”, mas na sua gênese, estrutura e principalmente na sua dimensão pública, olhando a sua construção, preservação e uso para além de uma concepção meramente administrativa. Os “arquivos” são definidos como um conjunto de registros que tem como função a preservação e transmissão da memória em “espacios de resguardo de documentos ligados a una actividad humana o institución” (BUSTAMANTE VISMARA, 2019, p. 31). As escolas possuem arquivos, guardam papéis, guardam objetos, algumas até possuem um grande acervo, mas, usualmente, descuidado: “por decirlo de otra manera, todas las escuelas tienen «papeles», pero pocas han llevado adelante políticas de preservación documental de la documentación histórica” (BUSTAMANTE VISMARA, 2019). Mais como depósitos de acumulação ou com uma finalidade prioritariamente burocrática e administrativa, os arquivos ficam distantes de permitir uma construção pública carregada de interpelações e conhecimentos junto com as comunidades. Porque, no dizer de Catela, esta última possibilidade está em relação direta com a construção de arquivo que “dependerán del grado de apertura pública de la institución receptora ou acumuladora, según los intereses de una comunidad, restringida a expandida hacia un público general”. (CATELA, 2002, p. 384-385). A partir desta concepção, inicialmente realizamos um levantamento sobre a situação dos arquivos escolares no Município com o intuito de aprofundar uma construção coletiva e participativa do conhecimento histórico. Ao resgatar e valorizar as memórias sub-arquivizadas dos arquivos escolares, a História Pública alimenta questões socialmente vivas no tempo presente tendo como proposta o levantamento de narrativas das memorias escolares no Município com uma “atenção compartilhada” de objetos vinculados com o mundo escolar que permitam ampliar a relação com o tempo, com o espaço, com o conhecimento e as relações intersubjetivas e emocionais com a escola. Por fim, o trabalho consistiu em resgatar e organizar um acervo de documentos escolares guardados tanto dentro das instituições de ensino quanto nos arquivos familiares e assim preservar o patrimônio histórico escolar cooperando para sensibilizar e orientar os dirigentes e a comunidade na guarda da memória documental e de objetos que evocam a história escolar.

This paper is about an exhibition organized in 2019 in a history museum in a European metropole, and its impact on the public opinion (Del Pozo and Braster, 2022; Del Pozo, 2022). We tell the story of how a dissertation on the history of public schools in Madrid (1900-1931), written in 1999, eventually culminated in an exhibition on the memory of public schools in Madrid (1898-1938) because of a national Law of Historical Memory, passed by a Socialist government in 2007, and changes in local politics when Madrid got a new mayor in 2015. It is a story of how an academic interest of a single historian of education became intertwined with the interests of political groups, education pressure groups, various stake holders, and multiple audiences. It is also the story of how historical facts are interpreted in different ways, how a main narrative and counter narratives about Spanish educational history are constructed, how various audiences have developed diverse political opinions about public education in a nation-state, and to what extent an educational exhibition had an impact on that opinion formation and its political diversity. In the first part of the paper, we will describe the exposition narrative and the aspects in which the author of the exposition concept wanted it to differ form the “official” historical discourse dominant in Spain about this period. The most important source of information for this paper will be the so-called Visitors Books (Pozzi, 2012; Noy, 2017; Gazi, 2022). This is a document neglected by historians of education but extensively used in museum studies about audiences. It is considered one of the best sources for understanding participatory experiences that involved the public. In the exhibition about the Madrid public schools, the voices of the public were heard via these books, which were available in the closing space. From the more than 55.000 people that observed the exposition, 4.609 left some record of their visit in these books, that functioned “as a kind of virtual public space” and “a space for a disembodied public exchange and formation of opinion” (Reid, 2005, 680). All these data will be analyzed using social science research methods to describe the diversity of political opinions, and their relationship with external political events that took place in Spain in 2019. The increasing polarization of and tension within the civil society is very present in the Visitors Books, that can be used not only for measuring the societal impact of the exposition, but also for analyzing the political conflicts of the present. We will finish with the paradoxical conclusion that the exhibition has apparently been a success, but that it has been used for other objectives than its original historical ones. The exposition had the unintended effect of becoming a public space for expressing the political discussions about the Spanish past that remains traumatic today. The Visitors Books became a battlefield of the conflictive political positions. They showed that the discourse about the “two Spains” is more alive and violent than ever.