LibGuides: U.S. Latina/o History: Welcome

How to Use this Guide

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is one of the premier libraries in the world focused on Latin America and Latina/o Studies. This guide promotes Latina/o or Hispanic historical groundings in the United States prior to the twentieth century and therefore seeks to challenge the notion that the Latina/o presence in this nation as a recent phenomenon. The following points researchers to some of the best resources for general and archival research on Latina/o history. While these resources are not exhaustive or always canonical, they should provide different directions for scholarly inquiry. Check the tabs on the left for relevant sources that can serve as starting points for any topic you are researching.

For a broader look at History, feel free to peruse the LibGuide made by the UT Libraries' subject liaison, Shiela Winchester, which can be found here.

Need more assistance? Contact me by phone or email for research help or to set up a consultation.

Core Sources for U.S. Latina/o History Research

Chicano Database This link opens in a new window
1967 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated quarterly. Contains records for all types of material on Mexican-American topics and Chicanos. Since 1992, the Chicano Database covers material on the broader Latino experience, including Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants.
Hispanic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
1808 - 1980. Unlimited users.
Provides access to a large compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. Includes many newspapers published bilingually in Spanish and English. Features hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including many long scattered and forgotten titles published in the 19th century.
Based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project", a national research effort directed by Professor Nicolás Kanellos.
Latino Literature This link opens in a new window
19th century - present. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Brings together more than 100,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and drama written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latin authors working in the United States. Includes nearly 800 items (poems, novels, and plays) that have never been published before. Users will also find numerous Chicano folk tales and audio files of selected poems and plays. Currently has over 106,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and drama.
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Colonial times - 1960. Unlimited users.
Provides access to a digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature and culture. Includes historical articles, newspapers, religious pamphlets, broadsides, historical books, letters, short stories, poems, advertisements, and more. The content is in Spanish (80%) and English (20%), and is searchable in both languages. Materials are drawn from the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project.

Oxford Bibliographies for Latino Studies
Concisely addresses some of the more pressing issues in Latin@ Studies with special attention paid to Latin@ history.

Google Book Search This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated daily. Searches complete text of books from selected library collections and publishers. Search works just like a regular Google search -- when book content contains a match for selected search terms, Google provides links to it in the search results. Depending on a few factors, Google displays everything from a few short excerpts to the entire book.
Each book includes an "About this book" page with basic bibliographic data like title, author, publication date, length and subject. For some books, additional information like key terms and phrases, references to the book from scholarly publications or other books, chapter titles and a list of related books.

TARO (Texas Archival Resources Online) This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Provides descriptions of the rich archival, manuscript, and museum collections in repositories across the state which are available to the public. Consists of the collection descriptions or "finding aids" that archives, libraries, and museums create to assist users in locating information in their collections. Consider these an extended table of contents which describe unique materials only available at the individual repositories. In most cases, the collections themselves are NOT available online. A list of participating TARO repositories is available.

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