Research Guides: HIST 4600: US-Mexico Border/La Frontera: Primary Sources

TIP! Find Legislation by Country

A good way to start looking for the legislation of each country: write the words “gaceta official de….” (Panama, Venezuela, Cuba, etc)

Newspapers

Arizona Digital Newspaper Program
Digital images from over 50 Arizona historical newspapers
California Digital Newspaper Collection
A Freely Accessible Repository of Digitized California Newspapers from 1846 to the Present
Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers 1789-1963
Newspaper digitization project from the Library of Congress

Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window
Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during 19th and 20th centuries. Many of these newspapers were published bilingually in Spanish and English.
Hispanic Life in America, Series 3 (2010-Present) This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive digital archive of primary source documents depicting the experience and impact of Hispanic Americans as recorded by the news media, highlighting centuries of Hispanic history, culture, and daily life.

Historic Mexican and Mexican-Amerian Press
Publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s
ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers
Find digital newspaper collections for each country

Latin American Newspapers (Series I), 1805-1922 This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to more than 30 Latin American newspapers published 1805-1922.
Latin American Newspapers (Series II), 1822-1922 This link opens in a new window
Series II of Latin American Newspapers expands the number of titles available from this region, including from some countries and cities not represented in Series I.
Latin American Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Latin American Newsstream includes titles from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Key newspaper titles include: El Universal (Mexico City);O Globo (Brazil);La Nación (Argentina);and El Mercurio (Chile). Newspapers are in Spanish and Portuguese.
New York Times (1980 - Present) This link opens in a new window
Major resource for national and international news and current events, provided by Nexis Uni. In the guided search, choose "A Publication", then your search term(s), then choose "New York Times" in the "Find Publication" box.
New York Times Historical Archives (1851-2020) This link opens in a new window
Major global newspaper including news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, as well as photos and advertisements.

Texas Digital Newspaper Program
Digitized Texas newspapers from 1829-present

How-To Video: Searching Historical Newspapers

Searching for Primary Sources
This learning module will help you understand how to develop a list of keywords and identify and search within appropriate databases to find primary sources.

Digital Archival Collections

Bracero History Archive
Oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964

Foreign Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean States, 1930 - 1944 This link opens in a new window
Organized by country, this collection contains primary source documents relevant to the study of Latin American and Caribbean international relations.
Foreign Relations Between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean States 1930-1944 This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary source documents relevant to the study of U.S. relations with Latin America and the Caribbean during the 1930's.

Foreign Relations of the United States
Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication.

Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Source for statistical facts of American history.

National Security Archive Declassified
documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Portal to Texas History
Contains full-text searchable images of Texas newspapers, photos, maps, and other historical materials

LC Subject Headings

You can find edited primary source collections in book format. Below are some examples. Add terms such as narratives, sources, documents, correspondence.

Latin American Independence: An Anthology of Sources
ISBN: 9780872208636
Maps and illustrations are included, as are a chronology of the Wars for Independence, suggestions for further reading, and a thorough index.

Government Documents

Congress.gov (formerly Thomas)
Public laws and bills, Congressional Record, Reports, Roll Call. Free or open source.
govinfo (formerly FDsys)
Provides public access to Government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies and preserved as technology changes.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Legal history and government documents. Contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and entire databases of treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, international trade, foreign relations, and more.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Provides access to Congressional information, including bills, laws, regulations, reports, documents, prints, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register, and the Congressional Record. Also includes information about members of Congress such as biographical data, voting records, campaign financial data and committees. Also includes legislative histories, bills and laws as well as regulations.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1817-1962.

Local Libraries/Archives

You may be able to visit a local library that has a strong collection of print or digital materials relating to Latin American History. Interlibrary Loan may be able to borrow microform of newspapers or other documents that you can view on-site using our microform readers (2nd floor).

Duke Libraries Latin American and Caribbean Collections
The Duke Libraries have more than 400,000 journals, volumes, newspapers, photographs and other resources on Latin America and the Caribbean.
UNC Chapel Hill Libraries: Latin American and Iberian Collections
Strengths include the belles-lettres of Spain and Latin America, and Latin American history particularly for Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Cuba. In recent years the Library has expanded its collections on Mexico in all disciplines, particularly in migration and indigenous studies, with an emphasis on the Yucatan Peninsula.
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In addition to acquiring materials in Spanish and Portuguese, collections include volumes in several of the Maya languages, Guaraní, Basque, Galician, Catalán and Haitian Creole, among others.

HIST 4600: US-Mexico Border/La Frontera

Edited Collections

HathiTrust

Searching Archival Collections