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Latin American Studies: Primary-Source-Rich Collections Beyond UCSD

An introductory guide to doing research in Latin American studies in the UCSD Library

Openly Accessible Digital Libraries with digitized primary source content

[Argentina] Archivo Historico RTA (Radio y Televisión Argentina) 

Organizes, preserves, and digitizes audiovisual and sound material recorded and distributed on Argentina’s Channel 7 and National Radio.  

[Argentina] Duke University's Marshall Meyer Papers 

Correspondence, project files, subject files, and publications documenting the human rights activism of the Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer in 1970s and 1980s Argentina.

[Argentina/Brazil/Chile] Relics and Selves: Iconographies of the National in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1880-1890 

"Historians, literary critics, anthropologists and art critics from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the US and Europe have collaborated in this unique text-image show of the national iconographies of three Latin American countries in the final decades of the nineteenth century - a moment of accelerating modernization and the emergence of new, centralized and disciplinary, state formations."

[Argentina] US Government Records on Argentina's Dirty War 

Released by the US (National Archives and Records Administration) to Argentina on April 12, 2019

[Atlantic World] Trans Atlantic Slave Database 

An Emory University Digital Library Research Initiative funded by the NEH which constitutes the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars drawing upon data in libraries and archives around the Atlantic world. Includes maps and data on the slave trade and slaves transported across the Atlantic Ocean.

[Andes] Biblioteca Digital Andina (Andean Digital Library) 

Provides digital access to representative works of the cultural tradition of Andean countries. Books are categorized by topic, including: Classical Works, Aboriginal Languages, Biodiversity, and Andean Culture.

[Brazil] Arquivo Nacional do Brasil 

Acesso ao: Base do dados, Instrumentos do pesquisa, Biblioteca online, Sitios electronicos de pesquisa, e mais

[Brazil] Brasiliana 

A consortial educational project to provide online access to an interdisciplinary digital library of Brazilian Resources.

[Brazil] Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea (CPDOC) do Brasil 

To search the Center's Archive, use the following URL: http://www.fgv.br/cpdoc/acervo (this is also embedded in the link below: Consulta ao acervo do FGV CPDOC)

[Brazil] FGV CPDOC Consulta ao acervo 

Search box for Archives of the FGV CPDOC

[Brazil] Memorias Reveladas: Centro de Referencia das Lutas Politicas no Brasil (1964-1985) 

Digital archive of photographs and other primary documents chronicling the social and political history of Brazil from 1964 to 1985. This is one representation of the Brazilian National Archives' efforts to digitize their content.

[Caribbean] Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) 

A cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean which provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.

[Central America] Enlace Academico de Centroamerica 

Portal to published and non-published Central American research resources, institutes, and organizations/Portal a recursos publicados y no publicados, institutos, y organizaciónes de investigación centroamericanos

[Central America] Centro de Documentación del Centro de Investigaciones Historicas de America Central(CEDOCIHAC) 

Digital Repositories for the University of Costa Rica's Center of Historical Research of Central America

[Central America/Nicaragua] Biblioteca Enrique Bolaños 

[Chile] Chile Patrimonios

Digital platform bringing together information on Chile’s cultural heritage sites and resources – including content provided by museums, archives, monuments, communities of peoples of indigenous and African descent.

[Colombia] Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango y su red de bibliotecas 

Rich website with online exhibits and virtual libraries, including a digitized books, newspapers, periodicals, academic theses, maps, videos, photographs, audio materials, and historical documents.

[Colombia] J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana 

Collection of primary sources on 19th-century Colombian history and culture. The result of a half-century of collecting on three continents, the collection is one of the largest and most wide-ranging in the United States. Materials are grouped into three separate types: broadsides, 1825-1972; pamphlets (including novenas), 1785-1969; and programas, 1819-1914.

[Cuba] University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection 

The Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami collects, preserves, and provides access to primary and secondary sources of enduring historical, research, and artifactual value which relate to Cuba and the Cuban diaspora from colonial times to the present. Such materials include books, periodicals, archival and manuscript materials, and digital resources.

[Global] Columbia University's Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research: Human Rights Web Archive 

[Global] Haithi Trust 

The HathiTrust (pronounced 'hah-tee') is a partnership of libraries and research institutions that have come together to build and share a digital repository of print works. Begun in 2008, the goal of the partnership is to both preserve and provide access to print works. The HathiTrust has pursued this goal chiefly by digitizing materials like books and journals from library collections and making them available in the HathiTrust Digital Library.

[Global] LLMC Digital "preserves global legal and government content at risk due to time and other elements by migrating print and microform into contemporary media."

[Global] Princeton University Library: Digital Library 

Allows researchers to search for manuscript materials, ephemera collections, and technical reports. See also the more specialized Research Guide dedicated to Princeton University Library's extensive collection of Latin American Ephemera. .

[Global] Princeton University Library: Finding Aids Search Page 

Allows researchers to search for manuscript materials, ephemera collections, and technical reports. Some of this material has been microfilmed and is available through INTERLIBRARY LOAN and some has been digitized and can be accessed ONLINE through Princeton University Library's Digital Library.

[Global] Vanderbilt Television Archive 

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive began recording broadcasts from US national TV networks in 1968. It has expanded beyond these networks and covers international themes, footage continues to come primarily from US sources. Nonetheless, it covers international themes.

[Global] World Digital Library 

A web site featuring unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world that includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, and prints and photographs.

[Iberia and Latin America] Ibero-American Electronic Text Series 

Project developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison devoted to Latin American and Iberian works in the Humanities. Digitizes Latin American and Iberian texts from the Middle Ages to the present.

Archive-It (The Internet Archive’s Way-Back Machine)

Captures and preserves websites.   Consequently, provides access to a BROAD range of primary source material.

[Latin America, the Caribbean, and LatinX Resources] LACLI

Free repository of online primary sources administered by SALALM's Latin America North East Libraries Network.  

[Latin America] Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano 

BDPI is a project of the Asociación de Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica (ABINIA). It provides access, from a single search point, to selected digital resources held by participating national libraries. Includes documents, books, maps, images, periodicals, and sound recordings.

[Latin America] Cultural Magazines of Latin America 

Access provided by the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin

[Latin America] Princeton University Library: Latin American Ephemera (Guide) 

This Research Guide helps researchers navigate the extensive collections of Latin American ephemera that the Princeton University Library has developed since the late 1960s (approximately 350). It lists the material by country and subject area and provides lists by country and subject area and points to corresponding call numbers for each collection and links to relevant finding aids and catalog records. Some of this material has been microfilmed and is available through INTERLIBRARY LOAN and some has been digitized and can be accessed ONLINE through Princeton University Library's Digital Library.

[Latin America] SALALM Digital Primary Resources Online Index 

Online Index to Digital Libraries and Collections on Latin America and the Caribbean provided by a range of academic institutions

[Latin America] University of Texas Austin's Nettie Lee Digital Collections 

Digital Collections on themes throughout Latin America. Includes the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN).

[Latin America] The Luso-Hispanic New World in Early Prints and Photographs, New York Public Library 

"Hundreds of photographs and prints, in albums and rare published volumes, present the territories and countries associated with Portugal and Spain in the New World, from Mexico to Argentina, and parts of the Caribbean."

[Latin America] Tulane University's Latin American Library's Digital Collections 

Includes digital collections of over 1,700 images, individual digital items, and digitized materials from our Special Collections holdings.

[Latin America] University of New Mexico Digital Collections 

[Latin America and Latino US] Documents of 20th Century Latin American & Latino Art 

A project of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this digital archive "provides access to primary sources and critical documents tracing the development of twentieth-century art in Latin America and among Latino populations in the United States."

[Mesoamerican/Pre-Columbian Studies] Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI) 

Website provides definitions and maps of key terms and locations and specialized database, including Bibliografia Mesoamericana, the Maya Vase Database, and A Precolumbian Portfolio (with photographs of pre-Columbian Objects)

[Mexico] Biblioteca Digital Mexicana 

Colaboración del Archivo General de la Nación, La Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), el Centro de Estudios de Historia de México CEHM- Carso, y el Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes para crear una biblioteca digital multi-institucional mexicana que aportará documentos históricos y culturales relevantes de sus fondos, e invitarán a las numerosas bibliotecas y archivos mexicanos.

[Mexico] Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964 

Online Exhibit of the National Museum of American History which examines the Bracero Program, which began as
as a temporary solution to the wartime loss of US workers by bringing Mexicans in to perform agricultural labor on short-term labor contracts.

[Mexico] Colegio de Mexico Recursos Digitales 

Digital Collections and Exhibits on various themes.

[Mexico] Indigenous Mexico 

Described by its creator as "A One-Stop Resource for Information on Mexico's Indigenous People," including articles grouped by [Mexican] States; Essays on Ethnic Identity in various periods in Mexican History; and demographic statistics.

[Mexico] The Mexican-American War and the Media 1845-1848 

Resource created by Professor Emeritus Linda Arnold, links to transcriptions of newspaper articles, indexes, images, bibliographies, timelines, and official documents related to the 1846-1848 war between the United States and Mexico.

[Mexico] A Nation Emerges: Sixty-five Years of Photography in Mexico 

Getty Research Institute Online Research Guide providing digital views of photographs of Mexico from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, presented with an overview, chronology, photographers' biographies, glossary, bibliography, and list of related holdings.

[Mexico and Central America] Metabase: Bibliografía en Red 

Se permite accesar en un solo lugar a recursos bibliográficos de diversas bibliotecas y centros de documentación de Centroamérica y México.

[Paraguay] Biblioteca Virtual de Paraguay

[Peru] Archivo Digital de la Legislación del Perú 

Provea acceso a copias digitales, en PDF, de Leyes de Indias, constituciones Puervianas, y materiales legislativas contemporáneas.

[Spain] Portal de Archivos Españoles

This is a one-stop collection of digitized Spanish archival material.  To search for sources click on Portada.  To see a list of archives containing included material, click on archives.  Other options provide more information about the content.  Once you are in the portal, you can also click on “busqueda avanzada” for an advanced search which will help you put in useful keywords and limit to particular archives, date ranges, etc.

[Spain] Digital Periodical and Newspaper Library

[Spanish America] The British Library's Online Exhibit on Spanish American Independence 

[Uruguay] Biblioteca Digital del Bicentenario Uruguay 

Digital Library featuring objects and materials of national historic and cultural significance that was constructed through a collaboration of the National Archives, National Library, and Secretariat of Education and Culture in honor of the 250th birthday of Uruguyan independence hero José Artigas.

[Uruguay] Publicaciones Periódicas de Uruguay 

[Venezuela] Biblioteca Ayacucho 

Produced by the Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura de Venezuela, this digital library offers the full text writings of such notables as Simón Bolívar, Rubén Darío, and others. Requires Adobe Acrobat to read. Sort Link Group  

Latin American History and Culture: An Archival Record (Microfilm Project)

This is a Six-Series Project to microfilm imprints from major Latin American Collections in Latin America and Beyond.  Different Series (parts) of the collection are held at different libraries.

If not indicated below, the best way to identify how/where you can access different series of this project is by using WorldCat (OCLC)'s consortial global catalog.  From the UCSD Library Homepage, go to Research Tools > Databases A-Z > "W" for WorldCat > and search by the accession/OCLC Numbers indicated below by typing or pasting in the number and then selecting "Accession Number" from the drop-down menu on the right.

Latin American history and culture an archival record. Series I, The Yale University collection of Latin American manuscripts 

At UCSD, access is provided through the Database World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean
OCLC/WorldCat Accession Number: 785645835

more...

Latin American history and culture an archival record. Series II, Serials and printed materials from Harvard University 

133 Reels Stored Offsite at the Southern UC storage facility (SRLF) F1760 .L38 2000
Accession No: OCLC: 45811515

more...

Latin American history and culture an archival record. Series III, The Mexican pamphlet collection, 1605-1888, Sutro Library, California State Library. 

OCLC/WorldCat Accession Number: 56099356

more...

Latin American history and culture an archival record. Series 4, The Mexican rare monograph collection, 1548-1861 

OCLC/WorldCat Accession Number: 54108910

more...

Latin American history and culture. Series 5, Civil War, society and political transition in Guatemala 

Stored Offsite at the Southern UC storage facility (SRLF) XF 2776 reel 1-112 (See also XF 2776 guide at SRLF)

more...

Latin American history and culture Series 6, Spanish and Latin American imprints to 1800 : selections from the bibliographies of José Toribio Medina 

246 Reels held at UC Berkeley

Latin American history and culture. the Braga brothers collection. Series 7, Cuba and the American sugar trade, 1897-1920 

100 microfilm rolls held at UC Berkeley
OCLC/WorldCat Accession No: 639971648

more...

Additional Microfilm Latin American Primary Source Material

[Spanish America] Spanish historical writing about the New World, 1493-1700, from the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University [microform] 

Publication Date: Marlborough : Adam Matthew, 2006

See also the exhibition guide for this collection; record is linked here and can be accessed online through CRL.

[Brazil] Library of Congress's Brazil's Popular Groups Collection 

Includes brochures, pamphlets, posters, newsletters and reports produced by Brazilian civic grassroots and political organizations, government agencies and NGOs. Collected since 1966 by the Library of Congress's Rio de Janeiro Office, in an effort to document Brazilian social movements and provide primary resources to researchers.