Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies Resources
(See also Africana Studies, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, History, Political Science, Romance Languages, Sociology, Women’s Studies)
Databases & Indexes
- RedALyC – La Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal (RedALyC) allows you to search for the full-text of articles from approximately 300 journals published in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula. A multi-disciplinary database, it is strongest in the Humanities and Social Sciences, with fewer journals in the Sciences. Interface is in Spanish. (Universidad Autónoma de Estado de México)
- Scielo – Scientific Electronic Online Library is a project to provide the free full-text of articles published in journals from Latin America. Website interface is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Strongest in the sciences, but quite a number of titles are available in the Social Sciences and Humanities. (Biblioteca Virtual em Saude, Brazil)
- CLACSO’s Virtual Library – Ciencias Sociales de América Latina y el Caribe (CLACSO) allows you to search for the full-text of articles, dissertations, books in the Social Sciences. Includes some links to multimedia. Based in Argentina, but with contributing organizations from around Latin America. Website interface is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. (CLACSO, Argentina)
- Dialnet – provides bibliographic information and some full-text for articles published in journals from Spain and Latin America. Website interface is in Spanish and English. ( Universidad de la Rioja, Spain)
- CarIndex – is an index of journals, conference proceedings, theses, and working papers published in the Caribbean. Contains two separate databases for Sciences (CARSCI) and the Social Sciences and Humanities (CARSAH). The focus is on materials from the English-speaking Caribbean. Older interface and older citations, but still one of the only indexes dedicated to the Caribbean. Interface is in English. ( University of West Indies, Trinidad)
- LAPTOC – or the Latin American Periodicals Table of Contents, provides the table of contents for more than 800 journals from Latin America and the Caribbean. Focus is on Humanities and Social Sciences journals. Can search the database by keyword or browse journal titles by country of publication. ( University of Texas, Austin)
- Eldis Gateway to Development Information – an online database with citations and some full-text of international development information. Can search by keyword or browse by topic or country. Includes sections on Gender, Health, Trade Policy, Climate Change, Debt etc. Website interface is in English. ( Institute of Development Studies, UK)
- LatIndex – provides contact information about journals published in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. Multidisciplinary in scope. Search by journal title or browse by discipline or country of publication. Provides some links to the full-text of journals. (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
Gateways to Other Resources
- Biblioteca Americana – A part of the virtual library of the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, which focuses on the literature of Spain and Latin America. Users can access biographies, images, video, audio, and some full text of major Latin American authors, by searching or browsing by author, title, subject, or country. In Spanish. (Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, Spain)
- Hispanic and Portuguese Collections: An Illustrated Guide – provides an overview of the Library of Congress’ excellent collections on Latin America and the Iberian world. Includes a number of links to maps, images, and other digitized materials held in the Library of Congress’ collections. (Library of Congress)
- Portals to the World: Links to Electronic Resources from Around the World – lists websites and databases by country. (Library of Congress)
- The War of 1898: The Spanish-American War – this website brings together materials about the Spanish-American War including maps, images, texts, chronologies, and biographies from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Spain, and the United States. See the related website for the Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures. (Library of Congress)
- Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives –looks at the history of Puerto Rico through digitized documents including political pamphlets, maps, texts and images. The materials cover the period of 1831-1929. (Library of Congress)
- Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier – a digital library of materials looking at the histories of Spain and the United States from the 15 th-19 th centuries. Contains numerous digitized images, maps, and texts. Focus on “Early Exploration and Settlement,” but additional topics will be covered in the future. In Spanish and English. (National Library of Spain, Biblioteca Colombina y Capitular, Seville, and Library of Congress)
- Bahamian Studies Online - “a web resource that provides information on scholarly writings in the human sciences about the Bahamas. BSO hosts a database of scholars who have studied the Bahamas and books, articles, chapters and conference papers written about the country.” Includes some links to full-text. (Bahamian Studies Online)
- Political Database of the Americas – provides information on political systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. Provides links to political leaders, political parties, constitutions, elections, among other topics. Website interface is available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. ( Georgetown University)
- Encuesta Nacional de Opinión Pública – public opinion data collected in Chile from 2006 in PDF format. The poll seeks to understand Chileans’ opinion (at the national and regional level) of topics such as justice, family, public life, and politics. In Spanish. (Universidad Diego Portales, Chile)
Film & Other Media
- Sealing our Border – Why it Won’t Work – a four part series of video clips and multimedia presentations about life at the US-Mexico border. ( Arizona Daily Star)
- Audiovideoteca de escritores de Buenos Aires – audiovisual library of clips from taped interviews with noted Argentine authors. Site is accessible in English and Spanish, however most of the videos are in Spanish. (Government of the City of Buenos Aires)
- Latin American Video Archives – a database of films on Latin American and Latino topics. The database is no longer adding titles as of 2005, but the website remains searchable (by title, country, director, subject etc.) (Latin American Video Archives)
- African Diaspora in the Americas - a series of modules for undergraduate professors to teach and explore the role of Afro-Latins through film. Includes lists of relevant films, related bibliographies and webliographies. (Latin American Video Archives)
- BBC Documentary Archive – here you can download and stream audio and video files related to BBC stories dealing with Latin America, the Caribbean, and the African Diaspora. In English. (BBC)
- Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures – this war between the United States and Spain over Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines represents some of the earliest uses of film in a US war. Some of the collection is digitized and available through Quicktime. (Library of Congress)
- Musica de la frontera: Archive of Mexican-American Music - a collection of digitized music from Mexico, the US, and the borderlands. Includes some of the earliest recordings of corridos, canciones, boleros, rancheras, sones, norteños, and conjunto music. Users can listen to 50-second clips online. (University of California, Los Angeles)
Maps & Images
- Politics and economics in Brazil – interactive digital map of Brazil’s politics and economics from 2002-2006. Produced for the 2006 Presidential Elections. (Financial Times)
- Perry-Castaneda Library Maps Collection – contains digital images of the CIA’s many country and area maps for the Americas. Includes political, topographic and shaded relief maps. ( University of Texas, Austin)
- The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record – searchable database of images concerning the life of enslaved Africans both in Africa and the Americas. Recently added a number of images from the British Caribbean – Jamaica in particular. (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and University of Virginia)
- Caribbean Views – contains over 1000 images dealing with the British presence in the Caribbean. Includes maps and texts. Focus on 18 th and 19 th centuries. (British Library)
- Archive of Early American Images – a database of digitized images of the Americas from 1492-1825. Includes numerous early maps, engravings, woodcuts, and paintings. You must select a viewer to access the database. You may need to allow pop-ups in your browser. (John Carter Brown Library)
- Maps of the Pimería: Early Cartography of the Southwest – a digitized collection of maps of the Pimería area of colonial Mexico, which covers what is now southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. Maps are from the 16 th to 19 th centuries. ( University of Arizona)
- Mexico: From Empire to Revolution – a digitized exhibition from the Getty concerning the depiction of Mexico and Mexican history through photography during the period of 1857-1923. (Getty Research Institute)
- California Cultures – digitized images of the many ethnic groups that make up California’s rich history. Strongest on Mexican-Americans in California, although ostensibly covers all Latinos in California. Also includes some innovative lesson plans. ( University of California)
Special Collections & Archival Materials
- Institute for Development Anthropology Collection – at Binghamton University. This now-defunct non-profit gave its library of materials on development anthropology to the libraries. This collection includes both the Institute’s reports as well as quite a number of books, journals, newsletters and other materials related to development issues in Latin America, and to a lesser extent in the Caribbean. To locate materials in this collection using the library catalog infoLINK, simply search for “Institute for Development Anthropology” and any other keyword of interest. ( Binghamton University Libraries)
- Latino Collections in New York State - brings together links to digital collections, finding aids, information about existing documentation projects and other resources for the study of Latinos through primary sources. Great source for learning about existing special collections about Latinos that can be found in institutions across New York. ( New York State Archives)
- Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) – this still evolving initiative brings together strong collections from the US and the Caribbean dealing with the Caribbean. It provides funds and assistance to Caribbean libraries and archives to digitize portions of their collections. There is not much material available online currently, with the exception of materials from CARIFESTA, but this project will eventually grow to include significant collections of materials. In English, French, and Spanish. ( Florida International University)
- Centro de Estudios Puertorriqeños Archives – contains perhaps the strongest collections of materials on the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. As well as their collections of the personal papers of numerous notable community members, the archives also the records of the Offices of the Government of Puerto Rico in the United States and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Great websites dedicated to specific topics like Identification and Documentation Program, FBI Files on Puerto Ricans, and Writers and Migration. ( Hunter College)
- Princeton University Library’s Manuscripts Division – includes a strong Latin American collection, including such recent additions as the Sergio Ramírez papers, Rosario Ferré collection, and Antonio Benítez Rojo correspondence. A description of their Latin American collections can be downloaded as a PDF.
- Arizona-Sonora Documents Online – is a digital collection of documents from the 19 th and early 20 th century dealing with Sonora, Mexico. Collection deals with ranching, mining, anti-Chinese movements, border crime, and government, among other topics. ( University of Arizona, Arizona Historical Society, Arizona State Library)
- A National Security Archive – is a collection of digitized declassified documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests. Fascinating archive provides substantial insight to the US government’s role in Latin America. Includes documents dealing with the “Dirty War” period of Latin America, Che Guevara, the Bay of Pigs, Pinochet, Iran Contra, the 1954 coup in Guatemala. ( George Washington University)
- Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection – a digitized collection of more than 5000 pamphlets from the 19 th and early 20 th century. Collection is strongest for Chile, Cuba, Bolivia, and Mexico. ( Harvard University)
- Digital Collection of Mexican and Argentine Presidential Messages – a digitized collection of speeches made by Argentine and Mexican presidents. Mexican presidents are represented from the mid-20 th century. Argentine presidents are covered from the 20 th century, with limited coverage of the 19 th century. Website in English, texts in Spanish. (LANIC, University of Texas, Austin)
- Castro Speech Database – copies of Fidel Castro’s speeches and interviews in English from 1959-1996. Also provides links to collections of his speeches in Spanish and other languages. Website and texts in English. (LANIC, University of Texas, Austin)
- Cuban Heritage Collection – one of the premier collections of materials about Cuba. Includes digitized collections of photographs, letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia. Covers both Cubans and Cuban-Americans. ( University of Miami)
- How Did Women Needleworkers Influence New Deal Labor Policies in Puerto Rico? – is a collection of documents about the Mayaguez Needleworkers Strike of 1933. Provides insight to women, labor, US-Puerto Rican relations, the Depression and the New Deal, among other topics. ( Alexander Street Press)
- Colonial Bank Correspondence, 1837-1885 – contains the correspondence between bank managers at the Colonial Bank, a forerunner to Barclays Bank, in colonial Trinidad. Provides insight to economic and social conditions in Trinidad and other British Caribbean islands during this period, with a particular focus on the role of sugar in the Caribbean. ( University of West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago)
- Sir William Young Diaries – digitized selections (with transcriptions) from the personal papers of Sir William Young, the governor of Tobago from 1807-1815. Includes watercolors and maps he did of the island. (University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago)
- Brazilian Government Document Digitization Project – includes several collections of digitized materials issued by the Brazilian government from 1821-1993. Includes reports from the presidents, ministries, and provincial governments. (Center for Research Libraries)
- Virtual Mesoamerican Archive – a searchable database of images, articles, websites, scholars, repositories, and teaching materials dealing with Mesoamerica. ( University of Oregon)
- Archivos Virtuales: Papers of Latino and Latin American Artists – collection of the papers of more than 65 artists of Latin American descent. Includes finding aids, transcripts of oral histories, and digitized images from selected collections. ( Smithsonian Museum)
Digitized Texts
- Moreau de St-Méry, Louis-Élie. “Description topographique et politique de la partie espagnole de l'isle Saint-Domingue.” Vol. 1 (1796) – in two volumes (Vol. 2). You can download this seminal work on Haiti, written just prior to the Haitian Revolution. {Upon reaching the webpage, you may need to hit the browser’s “Refresh” button. Then select “Télécharger” to download.} (Gallica)
- Guevara, Ernesto. “Bolivia. Diario de lucha.” – a website that has transcribed “Che” Guevara’s diaries dating to his campaign in Bolivia. Also includes diaries and brief biographies of his fellow guerrillas. In Spanish. (Centro de Estudios Che Guevara, Cuba)
- “Miscellanea II of Studies Dedicated to Fernando Ortiz (1880-1969).” New York: 1998. – includes a bibliography and chronology of Ortiz’s works. Of particular interest to scholars of Afro-Cubans culture. In English, Spanish and French. ( Schomberg Center, NYPL and InterAmericas)
- Legislación Mexicana – complete collection of the legislature in Mexico from 1687-1902. Digitized version of the first 11 volumes of the printed classic compiled by Basilio José Arrillaga. (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
- ¡Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution. New York: Autonomedia, 1994. – English translation of the full-text of every communiqué published by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) from December 31, 1994 to June 12, 1994. (LANIC, University of Texas, Austin)
- Protesta Humana – a turn of the century anarchist newspaper from Argentina from 1897-1902. (UCLA)
Brazilian Studies Resources
Gateways to Other Resources
- Brazilink – portal to website and documents about all aspects of life in Brazil. Links are chosen by editors for their quality and appropriateness. Chiefly in English. (Brazilink)
- The United States and Brazil: Expanding Frontiers, Comparing Cultures – a digital project looking at the history of Brazil and US-Brazil relations from 18 th century to the present through digitized maps, images, and texts. Current focus is on “Historical Foundations” but website will expand coverage in the future. In English and Portuguese. (Library of Congress and the National Library of Brazil)
- Mission for Folklore Research – website dedicated to Mário de Andrade’s trip in 1938 to record the folk music of Brazil. Includes description of the project, biographies, online audio files, and some digitized texts. Website in English and Portuguese. (Secretary of Culture, São Paulo)
Martha Kelehan - Area Studies Librarian for Africana, Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies
mkelehan@binghamton.edu 607-777-6355 (LN-2305)