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Latin American Studies Online: Primary Source Rich Collections at UCSD

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See also the United Nations page on this guide

Primary Source Databases Specializing in Latin American Content

[Brazil] Brazilian Popular Groups [Part of World Scholar] 

Digitized collection of pamphlets, serials, posters, news clippings, newsletters and reports of grassroots organizations covering political and social movements during the time of Brazil's military rule (1964-1984), followed by the New Republic.

[Latin America] Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de América y Oceanía [electronic resource] 

"The documents published in this collection (often abbreviated DII), 42 volumes (1864-1884), were selected by a team of Spanish historians as representative of the glories of their country's history in the Americas. Drawn exclusively from the Patronato Real group of the AGI, the transcribed versions of the original manuscripts include correspondence between Spanish monarchs and many of the major figures of the early European contact with the Americas. This collection and a successor set, published between 1885 and 1932, were selected for the breadth of their coverage of the early Spanish period in the Caribbean, and North and South America and for the accuracy of the paleography."

[Latin America] Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 

The documents of Confidential Print: Latin America are full text records of the British Foreign Office covering the whole of South and Central America, plus the non-British islands of the Caribbean, from just after the final Spanish withdrawal from mainland America in the 1820s to the height of the Cold War in the 1960s.

[Latin America] Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 

This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, and covers such topics as slavery,

[Latin America] Latin American history and culture [electronic resource] : an archival record. Series 1, The Yale University collection of Latin American manuscripts, parts 1-7 [Part of World Scholar] 

"Digitized version of microfilm collection featuring colonial manuscripts, rare volumes and documents comprising the famed libraries of Domingo del Monte y Aponte and Genaro García, as well as that of Francisco Pérez de Velacso, the latter acquired through the efforts of Machu Picchu explorer Hiram Bingham. Although the collection is nominally grouped into three regions -- the Andes, Mexico and Spain -- it also includes significant documents covering Central America, Cuba and the Caribbean, Nueva Granada, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay."

[Latin America] Latin American Women Writers 

Latin American Women Writers is an extensive searchable collection of prose, poetry, and drama composed by women writing in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Also included are essays by Latin American feminists and about the feminist movement that address both the universal concerns of women in every age and the distinctive issues of their struggles in the region. The database features 103,624 pages of prose, poetry and drama.

[Latin America] World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean 

Provides access to research across the humanities and social sciences both for current Latin America and the Caribbean as well as a historical perspective. It includes primary source documents, audio, videos, maps,and statistical data. This collection includes Series I of "Latin American History and Culture," comprised of some 184 manuscript volumes and unbound documents from Yale University, relating to the Spanish colonization of Latin America, dating from the 16th to early 20th centuries. Materials include correspondence, government documents (including reports, commissions, decrees, and awards), church documents, poetry and other writings on civil, military, economic, religious, and social topics.

[El Salvador] FBI Files on the Killing of American Churchwomen in El Salvador 1980 [Part of World Scholar] 

State Department, FBI, and Salvadorean government memoranda, correspondence, specimen analysis, field reports, witness statements and other evidence dealing with the killing of three American churchwomen in 1980 by members of El Salvador's Guarda Civil.

[Mexico and Central America] Mexican and Central American Political and Social Ephemera [Part of World Scholar] 

Pamphlets, campaign literature, broadsides, flyers, newsletters and limited serials of political and social organizations and grassroots movements in Mexico and Central America between 1980 and 1991.

[Mexico] Colección Revolución, 1910-1921 

This collection reproduces documents from various archives, under the protection of the Archivo General de la Nacion, and is divided into the following series: (1) The Flores Brothers revolutionary activities MAGO (movement in Baja California) (2) Revolution and regime Madero (3) Emiliano Zapata (4) Revolution and the Constitutionalist Regime (5) Sovereign Revolutionary Convention

[Mexico] Emiliano Zapata, 1901-1919 

This collection comprises documentation related to the activities of Emiliano Zapata and the Materials on the Mexican Revolutionary Liberation Army of the South. Includes correspondence exchanged between the headquarters and the camps and regional commands and with municipal or federal authorities; requests for economic aid; guarantees to people for jobs and food; complaints of abuses; reports, promotions, and notifications to the troops and brigades; information on pay; and . The documentation also includes acts or proceedings on revolutionary and civil trials.

[Mexico] Cuartel General del Sur, 1910-1925 

Contains correspondence addressed to Emiliano Zapata; combat reports; relations with troop commanders and officers; promotion and appointment requests; allegations of abuses committed by military personnel; applications for food, uniforms and ammunition; letters and telegrams on the transfer of prisoners.

More General Primary Source Databases Including Significant Latin American Content

Afro-Americana imprints, 1535-1922 

Includes more than 12,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides spanning over 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. Critically important subjects covered include the West's discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought, including political protest and resistance to racism; descriptions of African American life throughout the Americas; and slavery and race in fiction and drama.

Avalon Project 

Global Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy from the Classical Era to the Present.

Black Drama 

Contains approximately 1,462 plays by 233 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, and production companies, as well as selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.

Black Short Fiction and Folklore from Africa and the African Diaspora 

Constitutes the most comprehensive collection yet created of stories from Africa and the African Diaspora, offering short stories and folktales, ranging thematically from oral traditions that date back many hundreds of years to contemporary tales of modern life. In addition to these works, the database includes complete runs of selected literary magazines 

Border and migration studies online Licensed by UCSD 

A collection that explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others. Featuring at completion 100,000 pages of text, 175 hours of video, and 1,000 images, the collection is organized around fundamental themes associated with border and migration issues.

Cambridge Companions to Literature 

Includes over two hundred volumes in the Cambridge Companions to Literature series with surveys of the research on various aspects of an individual writer's work and the full text of more than 350,000 works of poetry, drama and prose.

China, America, and the Pacific 

Explores the cultural and trading relationships that emerged between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Sourced from twelve North American libraries that include the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum and the Massachusetts Historical Society, China, America and the Pacific offers unique insights into the history of North American trade. Coverage includes the Old China Trade, the Pacific Northwest fur trade, the whaling industry and the development of Pacific trading centres such as Hawaii. Manuscripts, rare printed sources, visual images, objects and maps from international libraries and archives document

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers 

Search and read newspaper pages from several states 1900-1910 (including California); search a directory (including library holdings) for U.S. newspapers published from 1690-present.

Colonial America 

When complete, will consist of all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series of Colonial Office files held at The National Archives in London. Includes material on piracy and seaborne rivalry with the French and Spanish.

Congressional (Proquest) 

Indexes U.S. congressional materials from 1789-present. Includes access to U.S. legislative information, including bills and pending legislation, legislative history, hearings, testimony, reports, documents, Congressional Record, CRS Reports, public laws, etc.

 CQ Press Electronic Library Licensed by UCSD 

Find reporting, analysis on US Congressional issues in the news and coverage of the status of bills, votes and amendments, floor and committee actiity and backroom maneuvering. Includes: CQ Almanac, CQ Researcher Plus Archive, CQ Weekly, Political Handbook of the World, Politics in America, and Supreme Court Yearbook. All include information on Latin America particularly in the context of US-Latin American relations.

Daily Life Through History 

Cross-disciplinary resource providing background and context for daily life across the globe in all historical eras, from ancient times to the present. Includes primary documents, images, maps, weblinks, folktales, recipes, much more.

U.S. Declassified Documents Online Licensed by UCSD 

Full text of documents from various government agencies: the White House, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and others, declassified by the U.S. government, and obtained from Presidential Libraries.

Digital National Security Archive Licensed by UCSD 

Nearly 40,000 declassified government documents from 1945 to present, organized into collections, each focused on a single topic.

 Early English Books Online [EEBO] 

Although this is an electronic collection of full text and page images of books published in England from 1475-1700, some of the books included are non-English-language and many deal with subjects beyond England, including the conquest and colonization of the Americas.

Economist Intelligence Unit Portal 

Searchable online archive (1996- ) and feed of Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global country publications. Strong on current political, economic, and business affairs worldwide.

eHRAF Archaeology 

Archaeological and other texts that are indexed by tradition and subjects. Former title: eHRAF Collection of Archaeology. As of January 2009, includes texts on 55 different cultures.

 Electronic Enlightenment Licensed by UCSD 

Searchable and browsable database with access to correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the 17th-19th centuries, and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. Coverage includes letters and documents, manuscripts and early printed editions, scholarly annotations, and links to biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, and other online resources. With 79,254 letters and documents and 10,232 correspondents (as of Winter 2018–2019) EE is the most wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.

Empire Online 

Access to essays (secondary sources), chronologies (reference tools) and documents (primary sources) relating to empire studies, divided into 5 sections: Cultural Contacts 1492-1969; Empire Writing/the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion; and Race, class, imperialism and colonialism 1607-2007.

Ethnographic Video Online (Volumes I, II and III) Licensed by UCSD 

Database of anthropological documentary films, covering every region of the world, featuring the work of many influential documentary filmmakers of the 20th century. Includes transcripts, interviews, previously unreleased raw footage, field notes, study guides, etc. As of August 2015, has 1,844 videos (1,319 hours). Individual films are also cataloged in roger.ucsd.edu - search on title "Alexander Street Press. Ethnographic online videos"

Foreign Relations of the United States 

Official diplomatic record of U.S. relations with other countries. Contains important speeches, communiques, and other communications of State Department officials and diplomats. There is a delay (approximately 30-40 years) in the release of information as it becomes declassified.

Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters Licensed by UCSD 

These primary source documents collected here help understand existence and consequences on the various frontiers that arose from the movements of Europeans to Africa, Australasia and North America. Document types include correspondence, diaries, government papers, business records, land transactions, legal documents, speeches, books and pamphlets. The earliest documents are from the seventeenth century and the latest the mid-point of the twentieth century.

The Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1620-1926 

Includes not only published trial transcripts, but also popular printed accounts of sensational trials for murder, adultery and other scandalous crimes.

Making of the Modern World 

Online primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world. Full-text searching across 12 million pages of works published 1450-1914. Great starting place for primary source material from this period.

The National Security Archive 

Open Access National Security Archive website (which also provides the subscription-based Digital National Security Archive – listed above). The National Security archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. It provides the most comprehensive collection available of significant primary documents central to US foreign and military policy since 1945. Its supplementary database, the Digital National Security Archive, provides additional information.

Schomburg Black Studies Center 

Includes fulltext journals and indexing from the International Index of Black Periodicals, newspapers and essays from the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience.

World History in Video (Alexander Street Press) 

Interesting material can be found by keyword searching (for example, Mexico)

World Newsreels Online: 1929–1966 (Alexander Street Press) 

Interesting material can be found by keyword searching (Mexico, for example)