Research Guides: Latin American Studies: Primary Sources

Latin American Primary Sources

Archive Grid
Includes nearly a million collection descriptions provided by thousands of libraries, museums, and archives from around the world.
Archivo Biblioteca Ricardo J. Alfaro
Contains materials from the personal archive of Dr. Alfaro, which focuses on the History of Panama during its first 70 years as an independent Republic.
Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil
By selecting Acervo > Busca and setting up a free account, one can search for citations and full-text documentation, including transcripts of manuscripts, documents, and interviews. Excellent for building bibliographies and accessing full-text material.

Latin American Open Archives Portal This link opens in a new window
The goal of this project is to improve access to social sciences grey literature produced in Latin America by research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and peripheral agencies. It encompasses working documents, pre-prints, research papers, statistical documents, and other difficult-to-access materials that are not controlled by commercial publishers. Using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), the portal will make these valuable research resources accessible in digital repositories.
Abbreviation: latamopen
Vendor: LAOAP project
Subjects: Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Type: Datasets / Statistics, Indexes / Catalogs, Open Access

LANIC's Archival Portal
Aims to provide a comprehensive archival portal for Latin American collections.

Mexican Legal Research Guide
Compilation of articles by members of the American Association of Law Libraries’ Latin American Law Interest Group which covers all aspects of Mexican legal research.
Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States

The Hispanic world, 1492-1898 : a guide to photoreproduced manuscripts from Spain in the collections of the United States, Guam, and Puerto Rico by Guadalupe Jimenez Codinach
Call Number: LC1.6/4: H62/2
Publication Date: 1994
Guide to materials on Latin America in the National Archives of the United States by George S. Ulibarri and John P. Harrison.
Call Number: GS 4.6/2:L34a/974
Publication Date: 1974
Published by the United States National Archives and Records Service. Guide to materials on Latin America in the National Archives of the United States.
Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States by Robert B. Matchette (Compiled by); Anne B. Eales (Compiled by)
Call Number: CD3026 1995
Publication Date: 1995
3 Volumes
Latin American Newspapers in United States Libraries by Steven M. Charno
Call Number: Z6947.L36
Publication Date: 1969
Link to online version. Print version also available FSU STROZIER LIBRARY Reference -- Z6947.L36

WNA Latin American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
WNA Latin American Newspapers is part of the World Newspaper Archive (Readex, a division of NewsBank) and in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries includes dates and eras, languages, places of publication, and newspaper titles of Latin American Newspapers. The collection contains more than 1.2 million pages of content.
Abbreviation: latinnews
Vendor: NewsBank
Coverage: 1822–1922
Subjects: History, Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires

Latin American Women Writers This link opens in a new window
What we call "Latin American culture" is a composite of the rich and diverse output of 20 sovereign countries. This collection comprises 100,000 pages of literary works, along with memoirs and essays, in their original language, by Latin American women from the colonial period in the 17th century to the present. It brings together all the voices of Latin American women and presents a tool for understanding the diversity and development of Latin America through a feminine perspective.
Abbreviation: laww
Vendor: ProQuest
Subjects: Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Literature
Type: E-Book Collections

Latin American Government Documents Archive (LAGDA)
LAGDA preserves and facilitates access to ministerial and presidential documents from 18 Latin American and Caribbean Countries

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline provides a searchable format and full-image access to a large and growing collection of legal journals from the time of their inception to a few years before present.
Tutorials:
Training Videos
Training Guides
User Guide (pdf)

Abbreviation: hein
Vendor: HeinOnline
Subjects: Business Legal Studies, History, International Affairs, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Law, Middle Eastern Studies, Russian & Eastern European Studies
Type: E-Journal Collections, Government Publications, Historical / Primary Sources
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
A significant resource for researchers in almost every discipline, this collection makes it possible for researchers to easily and quickly access and review selected previously classified government documents online.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online provides users with:
- actual documents that were used to develop and implement domestic and foreign policies
- provides the “real” story behind events and crises
- encourages critical reevaluation of previously published memoirs and other subjective writings
U.S. Declassified Documents Online enables users to examine documents originating from sources including:
- Atomic Energy Commission
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Department of Defense
- Department of Justice
- Department of State
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- National Security Council
- Presedential Libraries
- White House
- Other executive agencies
Materials available for review include:
- Cabinet meeting minutes
- CIA intelligence studies and reports
- Correspondence
- Diary entries
- FBI surveillance and intelligence correspondence and memoranda
- Full texts of letters, instructions, and cables sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel
- Joint Chiefs papers
- National Security Council policy statements
- Presidential conferences
- State Department political analyses
- Technical studies
- Trade treaties, studies and analyses
- U.S. briefing materials for meetings with foreign heads of state and government officials
- White House Confidential File materials
- And much more
Abbreviation: declassdoc
Vendor: Gale
Coverage: 1941–1997
Subjects: African-American Studies, Economics, History, International Affairs, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Law, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, Public Administration and Policy, Public Safety and Security
Type: Government Publications, Historical / Primary Sources, Images, Standards
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive collection available of significant primary documents central to US foreign and military policy. The Digital National Security Archive contains the most comprehensive set of declassified government documents available. The resource now includes 42 collections consisting of over 103,000 indexed documents, with more than 719,000 total pages.
Abbreviation: digital-nsa
Vendor: ProQuest
Coverage: 1945–Current
Subjects: History, International Affairs, Political Science
Type: Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Government Publications, Historical / Primary Sources, Indexes / Catalogs

Materials @ FSU

Library of congress Call Number Ranges for Browsing:

CC Archeology
E-F History of the Americas
G Geography
GF Human Ecology/Anthropogeography
GN Anthropology
GR Folklore
JL Political Institutions and Administration – Latin America
N Fine Arts (NA, NB, NC, ND, NE, NK, NX)
PC French, Spanish, and Portuguese Languages
PE English Language
PQ French, Spanish, and Portuguese Literature

Colección de las leyes fundamentales que han regido en la República Mexicana y de los planes que han tenido el mismo carácter 1821-1857 by José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Call Number: KGF431857a
México, D.F. : Miguel Ángel Porrúa, 2009 Originally published: México : Ignacio Cumplido, 1857.
Códice de Temascaltepec : gobierno indio y conflictos territoriales en el siglo XVI by Gerardo González Reyes
Call Number: KGF2210.C74A52 2010
Publication Date: 2010
A major paleographic and iconographic analysis on an early colonial document (1566) from a criminal trial between two neighborhood ethnic groups in what is now the State of México.
Foreign relations of the United States: diplomatic papers series; The Lansing papers, 1914-1920of the United States. The Lansing papers, 1914-1920. by Department of State
Call Number: S1.1/c:
1-2
Historia universal de las cosas de Nueva España : codice laurenziano mediceo palatino, 218, 219, 220 by Bernardino de Sahagún
Call Number: F1219.S1316 1900z
Memoria de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público by Mexico Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público
Call Number: HJ15.A2
Publication Date: 1920-1923, 1928-1934, 1953-1958

The Doctrina breve : in fac-simile by Juan de Zumárraga
Call Number: BX1750.Z8 1544a
Publication Date: 1544
published in the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, June, 1544, by Right Rev. Juan Zumárraga, first bishop of Mexico. To which are added The earliest books in the New world, by Rev. Zephyrin Englehardt [!] and A technical appreciation of the first American printers, by Stephen H. Horgan, edited by Thomas F. Meehan.

Online Resources

Foreign Relations of the United States Series
The Office of the Historian offers ebook editions of a growing number of volumes from the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series.
Hispanic Americans in Congress
"This Web site, based on the book Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822–2012, contains biographical profiles of former Hispanic Members of Congress, links to information about current Hispanic Members, essays on the institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of Hispanic Members of Congress, and images of each individual Member, including rare photos."
Library of Congress Hispanic Reading Room
serves as the gateway to information on parts of the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage: Spain and Portugal, the indigenous cultures of Latin American and the Caribbean, as well as the peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Sitios de Memoria en América Latina
Includes a catalog of materials and displays and publications created by members of the 27 institution "Red Latinoamerica de Sitios de Coinciencia" network.
Slavery and the Making of America
Part of the Slavery in America website, created in support of the PBS Series "Slavery and the Making of America."
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Combining data from across the globe, this project is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and is hosted by the Emory University Digital Library Research Initiative. Provides an interactive website and database with access to digitized maps, images, and an African names database.
National Hispanic Heritage Month
Portal for exhibits and collections related to National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Huexotzinco Codex, 1531
Digitized version of an eight-sheet document on amatl, a pre-European paper made in Mesoamerica.
Library of Congress Hispanic Reading Room Exhibits and Digital Collections
Main portal for Library of Congress' exhibitions and Collections in the Hispanic Reading Room.
Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection
Exhibit of multi-format ethnographic materials (including texts and audio recordings) documenting religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.

David Rumsey Map Collection This link opens in a new window
A miscellany of maps including NOAA charts, satellite images, and rare 16th through 21st century maps. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps including pocket, wall, children's and manuscript maps. Requires downloading software to use some images. Provided by Cartography Associates, some rights reserved.
Abbreviation: rumsey
Vendor: Cartography Associates
Coverage: 1550–Current
Subjects: History, Urban and Regional Planning
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Maps

Early Maps From from the Benson Latin American Collection Depicting Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean
Exploring the Early Americas
Exhibition homepage for the Library of Congress' "Exploring the Early Americas" exhibition. Selections from the more than 3,000 rare maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress
Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library
From the Hargett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries
Library of Congress Map Collection
The Library of Congress has custody of the largest and most comprehensive cartographic collection in the world.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
Vanderbilt University's LAPOP carries out surveys of public opinion in the Americas. Every two years it carries out the AmericasBarometer survey (which FSU subscribes to), which currently covers all 26 Latin American countires in North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Each year also it publishes dozens of academic studies and policy-relevant papers on more focused topics.
Political Database of the Americas
A project of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University in collaboration with the Organization of American States. This database includes information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region.
University of California San Diego (UCSD)'s "Latin American Election Statistics: A Guide to Sources"
The Pan American Health Organization's Regional Core Health Data Initiative
The Pan American Health Organization is a regional division of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The UN's ECLAC/CEPAL's Statistical yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean/Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe (1997-present)
USAID's Development Statistics for Latin American and the Caribbean
The UN's ECLAC/CEPAL's Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean
UN ECLAC Social Development
UN ECLAC International Trade and Integration
CEPALSTAT Databases and Statistical Publications
E-versions of CEPAL's statistical publications
Inter-American Development Bank
Main research and data portal for Inter-American Development Bank.
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) was established to promote the common interests of the hemisphere, raise the visibility of regional affairs and increase the importance of the inter-American relationship, as well as encourage the formulation of rational and constructive U.S. policies towards Latin America.
Evelyne Huber & John D. Stephens Website
This site includes links to Huber and Stephens' publications as well as the data used for such scholarship. Huber and Stephens have done important work on political organization, economic development, and the welfare state in Latin America.
LANIC Statistics
Gateway to dozens of government bodies, agencies, and organizations that produce statistical data from or about Latin America.
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia (Mexico)
Provides access to contemporary and historical census data.
Latin American Mortality Database (LAMBdA)
Provided by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this resource compiles data from many sources from 1848 to the present.

UN Statistical yearbook by Statistical yearbook Department of Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Statistical Division
Call Number: UNST STAT Ser.S
Publication Date: 1990/91-
Microfiche: 1990/91 Mif IIS:yr. 3080-S16
Print: 1990/91-2010 UNST STAT Ser.S
2009 UNST STAT Ser.S Copy #2
Latin America and the Caribbean in the world economy. by United Nations, CEPAL
Call Number: UNE CN.12 WE
Publication Date: 1999-
Regionalization and integration into the world economy : the Latin American experience in trade, monetary and financial cooperation. by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
Call Number: UNTD ECDC 234
Publication Date: 1994