“Hacer hablar a los antepasados”

Udo Oberem, Catherine Julien y el trabajo con fuentes. Una entrevista con Kerstin Nowack

Abstract

This contribution presents an interview with Kerstin Nowack that reconstructs, from intellectual and emotional memory, the dual legacy of Udo Oberem and Catherine Julien in shaping Andean studies in Bonn. Drawing on her formative experiences in the 1980s, Nowack describes Oberem’s role in consolidating a rigorous ethnohistory, centered on direct engagement with primary sources—chronicles, judicial and notarial documents—and on an ethic of reading that rejects mediated quotations and uncritical translations. The conversation traces the genesis of the “Bonner Amerikanistische Studien” (BAS) series, the place of Andean studies within German Altamerikanistik, and the institutional tensions that marked Oberem’s succession. In parallel, the interview examines Catherine Julien’s career, her collaboration on archaeological and ethnohistorical projects in Bolivia, her extensive work in archives such as the one in Seville, and the importance of publishing in Spanish to engage in dialogue with Latin American colleagues. The interview concludes with a personal reflection on the current state and possible futures of Andean studies in Bonn.