Research Guides @ Fordham: Latin American Studies: History & Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are original records created during the time under study. Because they were present during the experience, they offer an inside first-hand view of a particular event unfiltered by interpretation, criticism, or evaluation.

Some examples:

Letters
Newspapers
Interviews
Photographs
Manuscripts
Memoirs
Speeches
Diaries
News film footage
Autobiographies
Official records
Personal narratives
Creative works: poetry, drama, novels, music, art
Anecdotes
Correspondence
Pamphlets
Case studies

American Library Association Guide for Primary Source Materials

A guide to finding, evaluating, and using primary source materials created by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association (ALA).

Oral Histories

Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America : An Oral History by Dirk Kruijt
London : Zed Books, 2017. Electronic resource; authentication required.
The History of the New World : Girolamo Benzoni's Historia del Mondo Nuovo by Girolamo Benzoni
Call Number: (RH) E141 .B4213 2017
University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017.

Primary Source Collections

The PALABRA Archive
"Listen to audio recordings of prominent writers from Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, and other regions with Luso-Hispanic heritage populations reading from their works at the Library of Congress."
SALALM : Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials
This site includes links to numerous academic libraries' collections of primary source materials for Latin American studies.
ArchiveGrid
Primary source materials from more than 1,000 institutions. Includes personal and family histories, historical documents, and beyond.
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Provided by the Library of Congress, NUCMC is a searchable catalog of manuscript collections in WorldCat.
LANIC: Latin American Network Information Center
This directory includes links for Latin American historical resources, some broken down by country. No longer actively maintained, but a great jumping off point for research.
The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
Collection of nearly 1,300 images of slavery in the Americas. A project of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.
Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano / Digital Library of Ibero-American Heritage
Digital collections of maps, sound recordings, manuscripts, images, and more, all relating to Ibero-American history.
Princeton Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera
Collection comprised primarily of materials from the early 1900s to today.
dLOC: Digital Library of the Caribbean
More than 2.5 million pages of historical Caribbean materials.

Original Sources (formerly Omega Sources) This link opens in a new window
E-books database of primary sources in world and American history, politics, social sciences, philosophy, law, literature and science.
READING EPUB FILES
When opening an ePub file, make sure to choose “save file”
Remember the file name and where it is saved on your computer. You will need to know this when it is time to read the file in the EPUBReader extension.

Add the CHROME EPUBReader browser extension:
menu icon (3 dots) > more tools > extensions > get more extensions > search for EPUBReader > add to chrome > close welcome box.
The EPUBReader icon should be automatically added to your toolbar.

Add the Firefox browser extension:
menu icon (3 lines) > add-ons > get add-ons > see more add-ons > search for EPUBReader > add to firefox > close the welcome box
The EPUBReader icon should be automatically added to your toolbar.

TO READ AN EPUB FILE:
Click on the EPUBReader icon in your Chrome or Firefox toolbar to open it > click on the folder icon at the top of the page and select the previously saved ePub file.
NOTE: Your file will not be saved in the Reader; you will have to open the file each time you want to read it.
Vistas This link opens in a new window
Visual culture explored in Spanish America from 1520 to 1830. Contains a library of primary documents and a gallery of over 300 high-resolution annotated images and videos.

Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
Raw survey data from Vanderbilt University's AmericasBarometer survey.
Bracero History Archive
The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964.

History Databases

Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Abstracts for hundreds of journals covering the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding U.S. and Canada).

History

New Countries : Capitalism, Revolutions, and Nations in the Americas, 1750-1870 by John Tutino
Durham ; London : Duke University Press, 2016. Electronic resource; authentication required.
Born in Blood and Fire : A Concise History of Latin America by John Charles Chasteen
Call Number: (RH) F1410 .C4397 2016
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.
Women Warriors of the Afro-Latina Diaspora by Marta Moreno Vega
Call Number: (RH) PQ7081.5 .W68 2012
Houston, Tex. : Arte Público Press, 2012.
Forbidden Passages : Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America by Karoline P. Cook
Call Number: (RH) BP68.A1 C66 2016
Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Biography

Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography by Franklin W. Knight
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016. Electronic resource; authentication required.
Great Lives from History: Latinos by Carmen Tafolla; Martha Cotera
Call Number: (RH) Ref E184.S75 G74 2012
Ipswich, Mass. : Salem Press, 2012.

Latin American Studies: History & Primary Sources