This is the first part of the Proceedings of the meeting 'School and Workshop on the Geometry and Topology of Singularities', held in Cuernavaca, Mexico, from January 8th to 26th of 2007, in celebration of the 60th Birthday of Le Dung Trang.This volume contains fourteen cutting-edge research articles on algebraic and analytic aspects of singularities of spaces and maps. By reading this volume, and the accompanying volume on geometric and topological aspects of singularities, the reader should gain an appreciation for the depth, breadth, and beauty of the subject, and also find a rich source of questions and problems for future study.