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Polyglot Perspectives: Archiving Loretto’s Multilingual Collections

Posted on January 30, 2024, by Reba Weatherford

Imagine I handed you a document and instructed you to file it in its proper place. What’s the first thing you might do? Hopefully, you would read through the document to determine its author, contents, and purpose. Knowing who wrote it, what it says, and why it was written would be the first steps to guide you in knowing where it should be filed. But what if the document that I gave you wasn’t in English? Or any language that you could speak or read? What might you do then? How would you go about determining its author, content, and purpose when you can’t comprehend the words that are written on the page? Although my job isn’t nearly as simple as just filing documents, this scenario is similar to challenges that I face regularly at work here in the Loretto Heritage Center. Except for a few years of French in high school and a couple units of German on the language learning app Duolingo, I do not speak a second (or third, or fourth) language. However, as I decide how to properly archive Loretto’s historic documents and other materials, I regularly deal with documents written in a multitude of languages.

So back to the document that I have handed you… if it is in a language that can easily be typed using a QWERTY keyboard (think English, Spanish, French, etc.), then you might first turn to Google’s translation feature. If it is in a language that can’t be typed, you can take a photograph of the document and upload it to Google (or a similar translation application), although this is not as accurate. Google’s tool is quick and easy to use, and it can detect the language that you are typing even if you don’t know what it is. However, there are a few problems that arise when using Google to translate your document. For one thing, Google does not translate with respect to regional variations in language usage. Consider the Spanish word chucho, which has different meanings depending on where you are in the world. In El Salvador, it is used to describe a little dog; in Chile, it means “jail.” Google translates it as “mutt.” This could definitely cause some issues in trying to sort out the meaning on a document.

Another problem with using Google is that its translations tend toward translating based on the current usage of the words. Often the documents we are translating are more than a hundred years old, and even in that short of a timeframe, usage of words can change. Other issues arise based on what is being typed into the translation application. When script is difficult to read, the best way to decipher it is to use the words and letters I know to guide me on others, but when the language is not English, it can make it harder for me to decipher what is being typed out. This means that I could potentially be inputting the wrong information into Google and therefore getting a bad output.

Now about that document I’ve handed you: perhaps by this point you are wondering what languages it could possibly be in. How many different languages do we actually see in the Loretto archives, and why might we run across them? While it is not comprehensive, the slideshow that follows provides some examples of documents or materials I could hand you in the Loretto archives, with indication of which collection they belong in.

English: The obvious language on this list and the most widely used in our collections. If I handed you a document in English, it could be from any part of our collections. Most of the school annals are written in English, as are committee minutes, formal correspondence, ledger entries, personal correspondence, and other forms of documentation. Shown here is a page from the typed annals of Santa Fe describing Loretto’s original journey to Santa Fe and an outbreak of cholera on the boat.
Spanish: Somewhat like English, if I handed you a document in Spanish, there are many places in our collections it could have come from. The early Sisters of Loretto in New Mexico learned Spanish and used it frequently in communications and even in some of the early annals. Spanish was also used by Sisters who worked in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. For some Sisters, both historically and living now, Spanish was their first language and the one used in their homes. The document pictured here also belongs in the Santa Fe collections, as it is another page from the annals! This one, written by Sr. Lucia Perea, documents the funeral for Mother Magdalen Hayden.
Latin: If I have handed you a document in Latin, it almost certainly came from the Roman Catholic Church. Dispensation orders were handed down in Latin, as were many other official orders. Relic authentications are also mostly in Latin. Here, we can see an indulgence grant for the Sisters sent from the Vatican to Our Lady of Light Chapel. Once again, this document belongs with the Santa Fe collections.
French: If I have handed you a document in French, it could have come from several places. It might be correspondence from French clergy (such as Bishop Lamy) or personal correspondence of Sisters. Parts of Mother Francisca Lamy’s journals are written in French (as well as English and Spanish). Pictured here is correspondence from a Mr. J. Daniel to Mother Francisca Lamy regarding drawings for an altar for the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe. This document also belongs with the Santa Fe materials.
Chinese: If I handed you a Chinese-language document, you can be sure that it is not from our Santa Fe collections! It most likely came from our China school materials. It may also have come from Sr. P.J. Manion’s personal papers, which document her trips to China to do research for her book Venture into the Unknown (which is now also printed in Chinese). The document below comes from a 1948 Educational Convention in Shanghai.
Urdu: If I handed you a document in Urdu, you would mostly likely be filing it with our Pakistan materials. While we don’t see a lot of materials in this language, it does come across our desks from time to time. Pictured below is a children’s illustrated Bible book that Sr. Nasreen Daniel used while a Franciscan Missionary of Christ the King. The book actually contains three languages: Urdu, Sindhi, and Parkari. This book is on display in the Loretto Heritage Center museum.
Asante (Twi): If I handed you a document in Asante, it most likely belongs with Sr. Pauline Albin’s personal papers. While in Ghana, Sr. Pauline learned to read and speak Asante, which is a dialect of the Twi language. Pictured here is a song that was found in an Asante Bible from Sr. Pauline’s papers.
German: If I handed you a German-language document, it likely came from a Sister’s personnel file. Several of Loretto’s early Sisters were born in Germany or had parents who were native Germans. We also have several German-language books in our rare book collection. Pictured here is an obituary from a Franklin County, MO, paper for Johann Julius, father of Sr. Cleophas Julius.
Italian: If I handed you a document in Italian, it might go in several different places. It could perhaps be personal correspondence of an Italian-speaking Sister, a relic authentication, one of our spirituality books, or it could be the document below (once again, from the Santa Fe collections!). Here we have an eyewitness account from Rev. Donata Gaspari recounting the 1867 journey along the Santa Fe Trail with Fr. Lamy, his nephews, two Sisters of Charity, and Loretto Sisters Kostka Gauthreaux, Isabella Trealler, and Alphonsa Thompson.
Vietnamese: If the document I handed you was in Vietnamese, it probably belongs in the personal papers of Sr. Susan Carol McDonald. Most of Sr. Susan Carol’s personal papers cover her work with Operation Baby Lift in Vietnam, which can be read about in detail in the Fall 2021 issue of Loretto Magazine. Most of the Vietnamese-language documents from this collection are adoption forms, which provide personal information of adoptees. For that reason, I have chosen not to show an example of these materials here.
Flemish: If the document I handed you was in Flemish, you can be assured that it is likely one of the documents that was written or owned by Father Charles Nerinckx. Flemish, a Dutch language, is the language of the Flemish people from Flanders, Father Nerinckx’s homeland. Pictured here is a prayer card which the Heritage Center staff believes to be in Flemish. Interestingly, Flemish is not one of the languages detected or translated by Google.
Aymara: The document I handed you may also be in Aymara. The Aymara language is spoken by the Aymara people, who are indigenous to the Bolivian Andes. It is one of the three official languages of both Bolivia and Peru, and it is also used to a lesser extent in northern Chile. If your document is in Aymara, it most likely belongs in the personal papers of Sr. Mary Peter Bruce, who could both speak and write in Aymara. Pictured here is the front cover and inside front cover of a catechism book translated into Aymara by Sr. Mary Peter Bruce and others. You’ll notice that the publication information is actually in Spanish.