All Countries (Start Here) - History - Latin American

See the Newspapers, Articles, & Books Tabs Too!

Don't forget that newspapers, articles, and books can at times be primary sources too (see tutorial for explanation). Use those tabs as well.

Books can be primary sources either directly (example, memoirs) or by reprinting primary sources (collections of letters, documents, etc.).

Secondary Sources may list primary sources in the bibliography. If published, you may be able to borrow the item.

Not Sure Where to Start?

The best resources will depend on your topic. Scan the list for your region to see if we have something specialized that matches your country and time period, but also check the All Countries section. These resources should be helpful for any topic (everyone should try these):

World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean plus academic journals and news feeds covering the region; reference articles and commentary; maps and statistics; audio and video.

LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center)
Comprehensive gateway for finding Latin American resources on the web. See all categories as well as the E-Text section (books, documents, papers in Spanish & English), Latin American Open Archives Portal, and Latin American Government Documents Archive.
HathiTrust Digital Library
Search the digital collections (including scanned books) from major research university libraries. View full-text available only for items no longer in copyright. Also check Internet Archive and/or Digital Public Library of America (Similar coverage. Allows downloading of full documents no longer in copyright).

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Many primary sources exist or have been reprinted in book form. Use this union catalog of over 40 million books, documents, reports, and media from libraries worldwide to identify books to request via InterLibrary Loan. If we don't own the book and you want to borrow it from another library, click on the ILL icon from the record. Adapt the search strategies for searching MIDCAT (handout).

Primary Sources - All Latin American Countries

Check here and the country-specific sections.

World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean plus academic journals and news feeds covering the region; reference articles and commentary; maps and statistics; audio and video.

Examples of Primary Sources in MIDCAT - Latin America section
These are just some examples of what can be found searching midcat.

Foreign Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean States This link opens in a new window
Full-text digital access to these historic documents. This collection covers foreign relations interactions between Central America, South America, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. It includes cables, memoranda, correspondence, reports and analyzes, and treaties.
Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) This link opens in a new window
A database containing over 500,000 pages of declassified documents gathered through FOIA requests. It contains a range of policy documents detailing U.S.foreign and military policy since 1945. Latin American countries include Cuba, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and more.

CRL Topic Guide: Latin American Studies
Center for Research Libraries (CRL) Latin American resources available for us to borrow via Interlibrary Loan. Includes major microfilm collections of primary source material. Search the CRL catalog to find additional resources.
Latin American Travelogues
Digital collection from Brown University's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Choose BROWSE to see resources by country.
Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection
Latin American pamphlets published during the 19th and the early 20th centuries from Harvard's Widener Library.
New Iberian World: A Documentary History of the Discovery and Settlement of Latin America to the early 17th Century
Print: Davis Family Library Oversize F1411 .N4 1984 (5 volumes)
Cronicas de America (in Spanish)
Madrid: Historia, dates vary. This is a series of reprinted primary sources which are scattered throughout the library collection. To find locations, Search by the series title in MIDCAT, and then choose individual titles of interest.
Americas Archive
Select digitized documents from Rice University's Americas Collection. Covers the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America from the beginning of colonization to the present. 'Contains original letters and government publications such as constitutions, decrees, presidential and congressional messages, broadsides and pamphlets...'
Early Americas Digital Archive
'A collection of electronic texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.' Click on Archive, then Advanced Search to search by other criteria such as geographic location, time period, genre, or full-text search. The Gateway page links to texts both within the archive and on other internet sites.
Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art
Countries featured in the first phase of this multiyear project include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Latino USA.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Colonial Latin America
Links to primary sources and excerpts.
Princeton University Latin American Microfilm Collection
This collection features 'works written by, or for, those at the margins of economic, political, and social power'...'balanced by the inclusion of available government and other 'official' agencies publications, (including constitutions), and by studies from research institutes.' Library holds selections from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the West Indies. Mainly mid-20th Century through 1980's. Microfilm 757-784. See Guide to the Collection in the Microfilm area. Search by the series title in MIDCAT to see which reels we have.

Slavery

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
A research database from Adam Matthew with original material from 30 libraries and archives including the British Library, Duke University, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

Slave Voyages
Resources to analyze the Slave trade. Includes The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database; The Intra-American Slave Trade Database; The African Names Database.
Freedom Narratives
"Testimonies of West Africans from the Era of Slavery"
Liberated Africans
Detailed court records for over 100,000 individuals. "Retraces the lives of over 250,000 people emancipated under global campaigns to abolish slavery, as well as thousands of officials, captains, crews, and guardians..."

Additional Resources

World Digital Library
Digital library of multilingual, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. Developed by UNESCO and the U.S. Library of Congress with materials from institutions around the world.