October is Museum and Galleries Month, a celebration of the spaces that keep our stories visible and our culture alive. We walk through exhibits, admire artworks, and take photos of beautifully preserved pieces. But beyond the frames and artifacts are people who make remembering possible, the ones who make sure that the stories behind every letter, photograph, or relic aren’t lost to time.
One of them is Carmina Pestaño, an archivist who didn’t always see herself in this line of work. “History was actually one of my least favorite subjects, right next to math,” she says with a laugh. “I wanted to be a special education teacher, but life had other plans.”
She enrolled in Library and Information Science, a course she hadn’t even heard of before, and later worked as a librarian. Then one day, she was asked to lead a museum tour for students—and something changed. “There was something about being in a museum that felt right,” she recalls. “Almost like coming home.”
1. Turning Fragments Into Stories
Carmina sees archiving as an act of storytelling. Every record, photo, or handwritten note has a life of its own, and her role is to bring that life back into focus. “Every photo, letter, or document has a story behind it,” she says. “You have to dig through clues to figure out who, what, and when.”
Her favorite part of the job is uncovering connections that others might miss. “We take care of people’s voices,” she says. “We make sure they continue to be heard.”
