Research Guides: Latin American and Caribbean Studies: Archives and Historical Documents

Digital Archives

Latin American & Caribbean Digital Primary Sources
Selection of digitized primary source collections collaboratively prepared by a group of Latin American Studies Librarians.
Biblioteca Americana
Excellent collection of documents, biographies, bibliographies and country portals. Part of the larger Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
Guía preliminar de fuentes documentales etnográficas para el estudio de los pueblos indígenas de Iberoamérica
"La "Guía" que presentamos comprende documentación de los siglos XVI - XIX (incluyendo la descripción de algunos fondos de especial interés del primer cuarto del siglo XX) y el campo de búsqueda comprende un amplio ámbito de más de 270 archivos y colecciones de diversa naturaleza (públicos, privados, civiles y eclesiásticos)."
Fuentes y documentos para la Historia de México
"El portal Fuentes y documentos para la Historia de México reúne una serie de materiales que, por su importancia, su singularidad o su difícil acceso, pueden interesar a aquellos usuarios que deseen conocer con mayor profundidad la realidad histórica mexicana."
Zapatistas!: Documents of the New Mexican Revolution
"!Zapatistas! contains the full, English language text of every communique published (along with several that were not published, as well as many interviews, letters, and essays) from the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) from December 31, 1994 through June 12, 1994. "
Mapas Project
The Mapas Project has as its focus the digitization and study of colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts. The term "mapa" was used loosely in New Spain to refer to pictorials that may or may not have had a cartographic dimension, but often showed the territories or landscapes of indigenous communities.
The Sourcebook on Colonial Latin America
Includes: Bibliography of selected Jesuitica, William Bangert, A Bibliography of the History of the Society of Jesus (1976), and a list of digitized primary sources.
Popol Wuj
Facsimile edition of the oldest surviving written version of a collection of Mayan stories (tzijs).
Memoria Chilena
Offers documents and original content on key themes of cultural identity that form part of the collections of the National Library of Chile and other institutions of the National Cultural Heritage Service.
Documentos Digitalizados del Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional de Guatemala
"The discovery of the National Police Historical Archive in 2005 opened an extensive and timely resource for the study of Guatemalan history and human rights in the region, spanning a broad array of topics from Guatemala's armed conflict between 1960 and 1996 to the sexually transmitted disease experiments performed at the behest of the United States government in the 1940s. ... This site currently includes over 10 million scanned images of documents from the National Police Historical Archive."
ICAA Documents of Latin American and Latino Art
Documents of 20th and 21st⁠-⁠century art in Latin America, the Caribbean, and among US Latino communities.
Early Caribbean Digital Archive
" The Early Caribbean Digital Archive (ECDA) is a highly interactive digital scholars lab for the collaborative research and study of pre-C20 Caribbean literature. "
Alfredo Montalvo Bolivian Digital Pamphlets Collection
19th and 20th century pamphlets from the collections at the Cornell University Library.
Digital Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera (Princeton)
"... the bulk of the materials currently found in the Digital Archive were originally created around the turn of the 20th century and after, with some originating as recently as within the last year. The formats or genre most commonly included are pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, brochures, posters, stickers, and postcards. These items were originally created by a wide array of social activists, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, political parties, public policy think tanks, and other types of organizations in order to publicize their views, positions, agendas, policies, events, and activities. The vast majority are rare, hard-to-find primary sources unavailable elsewhere."

Finding Archival Collections

Guides to Other Collections (Check QuickSearch or WorldCat to locate a copy)

Archivo General de Indias. Catálogo de las consultas del Consejo de Indias. Sevilla: Diputación Provincial, 1983-.
Archivo General de Indias. Independencia de América : fuentes para su estudio; catalogo de documentos conservados en el Archivo General de Indias de Sevilla, 1. serie. Madrid : [Estab. tip. de la Sociedad de publicaciones históricas], 1912.
Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico. Argena II <computer file>: documentos coloniales. Mexico, D.F.: Secretaria de Gobernacion, Archivo General de la Nacion; Colima, Col.: Cenedic, Universidad de Colima ; <Mexico City> : Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, 1995.
Bartley, Russell H. Latin America in basic historical collections: a working guide. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press [1972].
Benson Latin American Collection. Archives and manuscripts on microfilm in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American collection : a checklist. Austin, Texas : University of Texas at Austin, General Libraries, 1980.
Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. A guide to the manuscript collections in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University.
Faulhaber, Charles. Medieval manuscripts in the library of the Hispanic Society of America : religious, legal, scientific, historical, and literary manuscripts. New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1983.
Grieb, Kenneth J., ed. Research Guide to Central America and the Caribbean. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
Guía del fondo Rul y Azcárate / coordinadores, Eduardo Flores Clair, Cuauhtémoc Velasco Avila ; colaboradres, Félix González Muñoz ... [et al.]. México, D.F. : Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, Dirección de Estudios Históricos : Archivo General de la Nación, Dirección del Archivo Histórico Central, 1987.
Guide to Latin American pamphlets from the Yale University Library : selections from 1600-1900. New York : Clearwater Pub. Co., 1985.
A Guide to manuscript sources for the history of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles. London: Oxford University Press [for] the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, 1973.
Guide to materials on Latin America in the National Archives of the United States. Washington, DC:U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974.
Hanke, Lewis. Guía de las fuentes en el Archivo General de Indias para el estudio de la administración virreinal española en México y en el Perú: 1535-1700. Koln; Wien: Bohlau, 1977.
Hilton, Sylvia L. Fuentes manuscritas para la historia de Iberoamérica : guía de instrumentos de investigación. Madrid : Fundación MAPFRE América, Instituto Histórico Tavera, 1995, and Supplement, 1997.