LibGuides: Latin American &amp; Caribbean Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Sources - Latin America

The University of Illinois Library subscribes to many primary source databases pertinent to Latin American and the Caribbean. For additional information, see the reference and research resources from the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Collection at the International and Area Studies Library.

AmericasBarometer by the Latin American Public Opinion Project This link opens in a new window
The AmericasBarometer is the only survey of democratic public opinion and behavior that covers the Americas. It is an effort by LAPOP to measure democratic values and behaviors in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
- Colección Revolución, 1910-1921 (Mexico)
- Emiliano Zapata, 1901-1919 (Mexico)
- Federal Surveillance of the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rico)
- Feminism in Cuba: Nineteenth through Twentieth Century Archival Documents (Cuba)
- Foreign Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean States, 1930-1944

Biblioteca Digital de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, Cuba
Digital Library of Cuba's José Martí National Library.
Cazeta de Puerto Rico (1837-1902)
Official Puerto Rican newspaper for most of the nineteenth century. Access is provided through the Library of Congress.

Confidential Print: Latin America This link opens in a new window
The Confidential Print series, issued by the Foreign and Colonial Offices since around 1820, is one of the most important series produced by the British Government. The documents of Confidential Print: Latin America cover 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. Covering revolutions, territorial changes and political movements, foreign financial interests, industrial and infrastructural development (including the building of the Panama Canal), wars, slavery, immigration from Europe and relations with indigenous peoples, among other topics, the files in this title form a vital resource for any scholar of Latin American history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Digital Library of the Caribbean
Cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean; provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
Hathi Trust Digital Library
HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.

Emerging Markets Information Service (EMIS) This link opens in a new window
Multilingual collection of news and information sources about the emerging markets of selected countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Includes full-text primary news sources, financial data, statistics, and legal information.

Latin American and Caribbean Digital Primary Sources (SALALM)
The Latin American and Caribbean Digital Primary Sources portal lists open access digital portals to primary sources for the use of historical research. Each item is annotated and the list is organized into six main categories: “Historical Texts by Country“, “Historical Texts/General“, “Statistics“, “Visual Material by Country“, “Visual Material General“, and “Miscellaneous.” The site is hosted and maintained by SALALM, the association of Latin American Librarians. Currently, inclusion in the list is reserved for portals in created and maintained by SALALM member institutions. Portals are added frequently, so you are encouraged to visit periodically.
Latin American Literature Pre-1920
Digitized books about Latin American Literature published before 1920s.
Latin American Open Archives Portal (LAOAP)
The Latin American Open Archives Portal is a project of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project - LARRP, in collaboration with the Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC, to improve access to social sciences grey literature produced in Latin America. The portal provides access to working documents, pre-prints, research papers, statistical documents, and other difficult-to-access materials from the "deep Web." Typically, this content is published by research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and peripheral agencies that are not controlled by commercial publishers.

Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture: The Oliveira Lima Library This link opens in a new window
Pamphlets from the personal library of Brazilian diplomat Manoel de Oliveira Lima (1867-1928). Most of the pamphlets relate specifically to Brazil. They are on Brazilian subjects, or their authors are Brazilian, whether the pamphlets were published in Brazil or elsewhere. Major subects are history, politics, literature. Other topics include social and economic conditions, travel, agriculture, immigration, indigenous peoples, religion, women’s rights, biography, diplomacy, law, education, the press, medicine, public health, railroads, ports, foreign and international relations, geography, geology, art, academic societies, Pan-Americanism, positivism, the First World War, the Portuguese and Spanish empires, and Spanish American history and culture.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana – A Dictionary of Books Relating to America From its Discovery to the Present Time, Sabin Americana, 1500–1926 is an online collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana, 1500–1926 is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.
Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new window
This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries, with 16 key areas of focus: slavery in the early Americas; African coast; the Middle Passage; slavery and agriculture; urban and domestic slavery; slave testimony; spiritualism and religion in slave communities; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freed slaves, freedmen and free black settlements; education; slavery and the Islamic world; varieties of slave experience; slavery today and the legacy of slavery. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery Archive This link opens in a new window
Slavery and Anti-Slavery includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.

Slavery & Anti-Slavery Pamphlets from the Libraries of Salmon P. Chase & John P. Hale (1830-1867)
The 166 slavery and anti-slavery pamphlets included in ProQuest Civil War Era expand on individual perspectives of government officials, clergy, social reformists, and others. The pamphlets collections are from the libraries of Salmon P. Chase and John P. Hale.

Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, 16th-20th Centuries This link opens in a new window
World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean provides full text, searchable access to a digital collection of primary (and secondary) source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean. The scope ranges from the colonial period to the present and includes monographs, manuscripts, pamphlets, letters, expedition records, journals, periodicals, reports, maps, diaries, descriptions of voyages, and newspaper accounts.
The Life and Times of Jorge Luis Borges This link opens in a new window
This database contains articles from SUR, one of the most important and influential literary magazines published in Latin America in the twentieth century.

Digital Collections

Internet Gateways for Digital Collections

The Latin American Network Information Center Archives (LANIC): Compiles regional resources as well as US holdings of Latin American and Caribbean collections. Search by country is available.

LA Referencia: La Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas, o simplemente LA Referencia, es una red latinoamericana de repositorios de acceso abierto. Por medio de sus servicios, apoya las estrategias nacionales de Acceso Abierto en América Latina mediante una plataforma con estándares de interoperabilidad, compartiendo y dando visibilidad a la producción científica generada en las instituciones de educación superior y de investigación científica. A partir de los nodos nacionales, se integran artículos científicos, tesis doctorales y de maestría, provenientes de más de un centenar de universidades e instituciones de investigación de los ocho países que hoy conforman LA Referencia. Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, México y Perú son miembros activos de la red y Costa Rica se integró el 2016. Esta experiencia se basa en acuerdos técnicos y organizativos entre organismos públicos de ciencia y tecnología (Ministerios y Oncyts) de los países miembros, conjuntamente con RedCLARA.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Map Database including over 63,000 maps and images online. The collection includes rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific and the World.

Digital Library of the Caribbean
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online UIUC
Full content of nearly 150,000 works published between 1701 and 1800.

Estudios Históricos en Centroamérica:

Website of the Association for Promoting Historical Research in Central America ("Asociación para el Fomento de los Estudios Históricos en Centroamérica"). Provides access to newsletters including original articles. Contains information about additional research resources, and new publications.

La América española colonial

This sizeable and informative website is devoted to the history of colonial Spanish America from the 16th to the 18th century. Published by academics from the Instituto Histórico at Chile's Pontificia Universidad Católica, this site is an excellent resource for students beginning work on this field.--Intute

Relics and selves : iconographies of the national in Argentina, Brazil and Chile, 1880-1890

Relics and Selves is a virtual museum offering a comprehensive interactive exhibition, mostly in photographs, of the national iconographies of Argentina, Chile and Brazil in the final decades of the nineteenth century. The Gallery contains more than 3,000 images. This is an excellent primary resource for those interested in 19th century South America.--Intute

US Institute of Peace: Truth Commissions Digital Collections

Specific Countries

Argentina

Historiapolitica.com

The Historiapolitica.com website aims to function as an online resource centre for the study of Argentina political history. Aimed at anyone interested in the field, including researchers, lecturers and students, the site offers a range of research materials, information and links to related online resources. --Intute

Historia del país : el primer portal de historia Argentina

Historia del Paísa is a good, comprehensive introduction to Argentine history and offers a wealth of information related to all areas of Argentina's past. This site will be of much use to students of Latin American/Argentine history and literature. --Intute

Archivo Histórico RTA

Audiovisual open access archive relating to Channel 7, Radio Nacional, and other institutions ranging from the 1920s to the late twentieth century.

Brazil

Biblioteca virtual de estudos culturais

The Biblioteca Virtual de Estudos Culturais, or the Virtual Library of Cultural Studies, is an initiative of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to bring together online resources for cultural studies. It is essentially annotated gateway to both Brazilian and international cultural studies which is impressive in scope--Intute

Brazilink

Brazilink is an vast gateway to online resources in the field of Brazilian studies and is an essential site for all students and researchers wishing to keep up-to-date with Brazilian news, and seeking original materials on all issues affecting the country (both inside and from abroad). --Intute

Chile

Memoria Chilena - Biblioteca Nacional de Chile

This website offers free access to digital special collections in Chile's National Library.

Chile : breve imaginería política 1970-1973

This website offers a large, impressive online gallery of mural and poster art that began in Chile in the years leading up to Salvador Allende winning the presidential election in 1970, and that proliferated throughout the Unidad Popular's rule until 1973. This site offers a means of examining the works in detail and learning more about their impact, the figures involved, and the history of Chile in this turbulent period of political and social upheaval. --Intute

Cuba

Castro speech database

The Castro speech database contains full-text English translations of a selection of speeches, interviews and press conferences by Fidel Castro.

Mexico

Mexico : from empire to revolution

Mexico : From Empire to Revolution is a Web resource based upon the collections of the Getty Research Institute and is a digital exhibition of photography chronicling the history of Mexico during the key period of 1857 to 1923. --Intute

Spain, US & American Frontier

More Internet

Estudios Históricos en Centroamérica

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala:
El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno

H-Caribbean

H-Latin America

Images of Latin Am cities

Latin American Open Archives Portal
The Latin American Open Archives Portal is a project of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project - LARRP, in collaboration with the Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC, to improve access to social sciences grey literature produced in Latin America. The portal provides access to working documents, pre-prints, research papers, statistical documents, and other difficult-to-access materials from the "deep Web." Typically, this content is published by research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and peripheral agencies that are not controlled by commercial publishers.

Resources on Aztec & Mayan Law

LA&C Sexuality Studies Bibliography