Documenting Traces of Latin American Feminist Movements: Digital Counterarchives as Sites of Memory and Resistance

ABSTRACT Introduction Traces of protests from Latin American feminist movements (such as signs, feminist graffiti, etc.) tend to disappear quickly, both because these protest expressions are ephemeral and because institutions erase these traces before they can be documented and preserved. This erasure is a policy decision because it removes women's demands from the public space. Methods In this paper, we explain two approaches for documenting traces of Latin American feminist movements of the 2020s to prevent this erasure and address their ephemerality: one through a local digital counterarchive for a mid‐sized Mexican city (titled Huellas Incómodas ) and another through a regional web counterarchive (titled Feminist Activisms in Latin America). Results Counterarchives are needed because they are sources to record, highlight, and legitimize women's knowledge and demands and because memory institutions lack policies on how to document and preserve feminist protests. Building digital counterarchives can resist this erasure of women's demands and unrest by documenting and preserving these protest traces, which we call Huellas Incómodas (uncomfortable footprints) because they expose the inaction of institutions to address gender‐based violence. Conclusion By constructing digital counterarchives, the erasure of women's demands and unrest can be resisted through the documentation and preservation of these protest traces. Termed Huellas Incómodas to underscore the inaction of institutions in addressing gender‐based violence, these counterarchives play a vital role in amplifying women's voices and demanding change.