LibGuides: Latin American and Latino/a Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Sources in-depth

Many primary or historical sources can be found in archival collections, however as first-hand accounts from specific events, primary sources can also be found in a variety of formats and places beyond the archives. For example, primary sources can be:

Letters
Diaries/Journals/Notebooks
Recordings (visual and audio)
Interviews
Speeches
Books and articles (published during the specific time period being examined)
Data as a direct result of an experiment, or observation
Ephemera (pamphlets, buttons, fliers)
Newspapers
Pictures
Television shows, paintings, plays, and other artistic media

If you have to make a research visit, contact the archives and speak with an archivist before you go!

To learn more about using an archive, take a look at the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Guide "Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research."

Primary and Secondary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

A direct source from a particular event; a first-hand account from someone who was involved in an event; a work that was created during the time period studied.
A diary, newspapers from the time an event took place, a personal letter or correspondence.

CHINESE CRUSH FOE IN CHIHKIANG ZONE. (1945, May 11). New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/107140388?accountid=13701

What is a Secondary Source?

Uses primary sources to make an argument or provide an analysis; not from the direct time of the event that it is describing.
Criticisms, commentaries, a document that reviews or interprets a previous event or findings.

The Long Road Home by Ben Shephard
Call Number: D808 .S44 2011
ISBN: 9781400040681
Publication Date: 2011-02-22

Can a Source be Primary and Secondary?

Simply put, yes. For example a documentary about World War II could be used as both a primary or secondary source. It could be used as a primary source if it has first-hand accounts or if you are studying the art of documentary. It could also be used as a secondary source because it uses primary source material to analyze an event.

White light, black rain : the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Steven Okazaki; Takafumi Kawasaki; Steve Condiotti; Masafumi Ichinose; HBO Documentary Films
Call Number: D767.25.H6 W45 DVD
ISBN: 9780783156552
Publication Date: 2007

Not sure if what you are looking at is primary or secondary?

Primary Resources at Sarah Lawrence College & Beyond

Sarah Lawrence College & Beyond
Historical Newspapers

Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera Princeton University's growing repository of digitized primary sources.
Latin American Political Campaign Ephemera Collection From UC San Diego Digital Collections.
Harvard Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection More than 5,000 rare 19th century Latin American pamphlets containing political and social commentary.
Library of Congress Luso-Hispanic Digital Collections
SALALM Latin American & Caribbean Digital Primary Sources An extensive list of open access digital archives organized by format and country. Formats included are: “Historical Texts by Country“, “Historical Texts General“, “Statistics“, “Recorded or Audiovisual Source“, “Visual Material by Country“, “Visual Material General“, and “Miscellaneous.”
Onda Latina: The Mexican American Experience Over two hundred digitized audio collections including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns from the radio series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.
Slave Societies Digital Archive (SSDA) Digital copies of ecclesiastical and secular documents related to Africans and Afro-descended peoples in the Americas.
John Carter Brown Library Spanish America Collection Full-text of one of the world's largest collection of books printed in Spanish America. Primarily in Spanish, the site includes links to sub-collections by country.
Memoria Chilena Chilean historical documents from the National Library of Chile.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection from UT Offers a list of links to historical maps on other Web sites. You can also see their "historical maps from our collection." Keep in mind that some links may not work.
Latin American Travelogues A digital collection of Latin American travelogues the 16th-19th centuries.

Art and Music Collections

Princeton Latin American Posters Collection Government, NGO, and activist posters from nearly every country in Latin America, but most prominently from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela.
NYPL Luso-Hispanic New World in Early Prints and Photographs Prints and photographs of the New World in the NYPL.
University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art The online collection of The University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art (UECLAA). Contains "images of each artwork, texts on every artist, unique artists' statements, and the UECLAApedia - a glossary devised to illuminate themes and terms arising from the study of Latin American Art."
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820 A gallery of color images, interpretive essays and a searchable bibliography on visual culture in Spanish America.
Chicano / Latino Visual Art Online - Calisphere Online searchable portal within Calisphere which contains thousands of digitized cultural and artistic images.
The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings Mexican and Mexican America recordings of over 100,000 historical Spanish-language songs.

American Music (formerly American Song) This link opens in a new window This Alexander Street database, provided by the library to SLC students, faculty, and staff, contains musical recordings significant to the study of American history. Search the database for specific artists, keywords, or musical genres of importance to Latino/a culture. Example searches: "corrido" or Lydia Mendoza.
Smithsonian Global Sound This link opens in a new window This Alexander Street database provided by the library for SLC students, faculty, and staff contains global recordings including Latin American and Caribbean musical genres, protest music, and music of indigenous peoples of central and South American, in addition to some oral histories and biographies. Search by keyword, genre, or musical artist or browse the various collections. Search examples: Suni Paz or "nueva nueva canción"

Historical Newspapers via Sarah Lawrence College Library

New York Times This link opens in a new window Comprehensive digital coverage back to 1980 is available for this internationally renowned U.S. newspaper through the ProQuest database. The complete text of recent articles is provided in the ASCII format. The New York Times Book Review and Sunday Magazine are provided in PDF format. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: 1980 to present.
New York Times, ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Full page and article images with searchable text from 1851-2013. Digital reproductions of every page of the New York Times are available to be searched and researchers can also scan through the front pages, advertisements, editorials, obituaries, and other features of the newspaper. Searches can also be constructed for specific date ranges. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: 1851 to 2013.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window Ethnic NewsWatch contains and searches as one both Ethnic NewsWatch, which is a current collection, and Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, which is an historical collection. Ethnic NewsWatch, the current file, covers 1990 to present and Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, covers 1959-1989. Includes newspapers, magazines, and journals of ethnic, minority, and native presses. Scope: United States and Canada. Dates: 1959 to present.
Early American Newspapers (1690-1876) This link opens in a new window Includes thousands of U.S. historical newspaper titles from all 50 states. Search through news content in individual publications as well as images and advertisements. Scope: United States. Dates: 1690 to 1876.

Additional Historical Newspaper Resources

Historical Worldwide Newspapers Online: Latin America Extensive list of open access newspaper sites compiled at Bowling Green State University.
Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library "The Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library (CNDL) is supported by the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), a cooperative digital library for newspapers resources from the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. CNDL provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials on newsprint currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. CNDL continues to add historical and current newspapers through ongoing digitization and born-digital curation, expanding the geographic, temporal, political and linguistic variety of the newspapers."
History of the Left in Latin America Cornell University digital repository including the full run of Los Libros and the newspaper supplement, La Cultura en México.
Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press This collection consists of Mexican and Mexican American publications based in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico. Publication dates range from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.
Chronicling America : Historic American Newspapers Search by newspaper title, state, date, or keyword to search across hundreds of historic American newspapers from 1836 - 1922. Users also have the option to highlight text, download pages as PDFs and more.
HathiTrust Search across various newspaper collections. Access may vary depending on the partnering institution. Use the advanced search to limit to a specific format.
Internet Archive Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, music, images, TV news, and more.
Alternative Press Center The Alternative Press Center (APC) is a non-profit collective dedicated to providing access to and increasing public awareness of the alternative press. They also publish the Alternative Press Index.

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Latin American and Latino/a Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Sources in-depth

Primary and Secondary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

A direct source from a particular event; a first-hand account from someone who was involved in an event; a work that was created during the time period studied.

A diary, newspapers from the time an event took place, a personal letter or correspondence.

What is a Secondary Source?

Uses primary sources to make an argument or provide an analysis; not from the direct time of the event that it is describing.

Primary Resources at Sarah Lawrence College & Beyond

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