LibGuides: Primary Sources for Latin American History: Home

About this Guide

This guide provides links to important, substantial, and freely available collections of primary sources dealing with Latin American history. Each source has been chosen, evaluated, and/or annotated by members of RUSA's History Section.

General Collections

Biblioteca Digital del Patroimonio Iberoamericano
Portal to digital collections of many Latin American national libraries
Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera
Includes pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, brochures, posters, stickers, and postcards from the turn of the 20th century to the present
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The Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera is a steadily growing repository containing a previously unavailable subset of Princeton’s Latin American Ephemera Collection as well as newly acquired materials being digitized and added on an ongoing basis.
Foreign Relations of the United States (1861-1918)
Access to cumulative indexes for 1861-1899 and 1900-1918
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From University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
Foreign Relations of the United States (1914-1980)
1914-1980. Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication.
Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection
Harvard's Widener Library is the repository of many scarce and unique Latin American pamphlets published during the 19th and the early 20th centuries.
Latin American Travelogues
Annotated bibliography and links to digital collections of travelogues from the 16th-19th centuries
World Digital Library
Significant primary materials from all countries and cultures

Colonial Resources (pre-1867)

Biblioteca Digital Hispánica
Digital collections from the National Library of Spain includes 100s of early books on Latin America as well as other material; in Spanish
Colonial Latin America
History sourcebook from Fordham University
Slaves Societies Digital Archive
The Slave Societies Digital Archive (formerly Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies), preserves endangered ecclesiastical and secular documents related to Africans and African-descended peoples in slave societies.
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Directed by Jane Landers and hosted at Vanderbilt University, this Digital Archive currently holds 500,000 unique images, dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries, and documents the history of between 6 and 8 million individuals. They are the most extensive serial records for the history of Africans in the Atlantic World and also include valuable information on the indigenous, European, and Asian populations who lived alongside them.
UNM Spanish Colonial Research Center
Selection of colonial documents and maps from Spanish and Mexican archives that document Spanish Colonial history in North America
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Documented by the Spanish Colonial Research Center at UNM
Voyages: the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Contains over 35,000 records from 1514-1866.

Post-Colonial Resources (post-1867)

Cultural Magazines of Latin America (1880-1930)
Digitized cultural magazines from Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru and Puerto Rico dating back to the period between 1880 and 1930
FOIA Documents Collection
U.S. Department of State declassified (FOIA) documents for Argentina, Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala
History of the Left in Latin America
Two digitized magazines: La Cultura En México (1987-1988) and Los Libros (Argentina 1969-1976)
Human Rights in Latin America (CIA) (1964-1995)
This information deals with human rights in Latin America, with some documents dating from 1964 to 1995.
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Most of the documents concern El Salvador and Guatemala, but the collection also contains records on Brazil, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, and Peru.
Latin American Political Campaign Ephemera Collection (1990-2009)
Pamphlets, posters, and other campaign literature issued primarily by political parties in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
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Digital collection of UC San Diego Library
Latin American Posters Collection
The posters included in this collection were created by a wide variety of social activists, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, political parties, and other types of organizations across Latin America, in order to publicize their views, positions, agendas, policies, events, and services.
National Security Archive Declassified
Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

Regional Resources

Abuelas de plaza de mayo
Acción Socialista
Digitized issues of a socialist newspaper published in Argentina from 1905 to 1910.
Argentina Declassification Project
Declassified U.S. Government Files about Argentina
Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina
Official journal of Argentina includes laws, regulations and other governmental information. Some materials dating back to the 1920s
CELS: centro de estudias legales y sociales
Under the subtitle "documentacion" there are hundreds of testimonies
DerechosHumanos.net
Herramientas para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos.
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This is a detailed report of 1970s dictatorship in Argentina. The commission of truth gathered hundreds of testimonies of people or their families who had been tortured, disappeared, or murdered in the 1970s. The report was published in 1983.
Derechos Humanos: Argentina
LIST of NGOs working about human rights in Argentina. You may like to explore one by one, some of them have maps, testimonies.
Marshall T. Meyer Papers
This digital collection documents the human rights activism of the Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer in 1970s and 1980s Argentina.
Protesta Humana
Digitized version of the Argentinian anarcho-syndicalist paper from 1897 to 1902

Bolivia. Diario de lucha (Che Guevara)
Bolivia Digital Pamphlets Collection
Alfredo Montalvo Bolivian Digital Pamphlets Collection
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From Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Portal Juridico Lexivox Libre
Includes Bolivian laws and decrees since 1825 to the present

Biblioteca Digital da Fundação Biblioteca Nacional
Digital collection of the National Library of Brazil includes books, manuscripts, newspapers and more
Brasil: Nunca Mais Digital
Brazilian documents from 1961 to 1970 including those dealing with civil rights violations
Brazilian Government Document Digitization Project
The Latin American Materials Project (LAMP) at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has digitized executive branch serial documents issued by Brazil’s national government between 1821 and 1993, and by its provincial governments from the earliest available for each province to the end of the first Republic in 1930
Código Brasiliense
Collection of Brazilian laws and other official documents from 1808-1822
Diario de Pernambuco 1825-1924
Brazilian newspaper
Documentos Revelados
Documents pertaining to the military dictatorship in Brazil 1964-1985
Opening the Archives: Documenting U.S.-Brazil Relations, 1960s-80s
Joint effort by Brown University and the Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Paraná, Brazil to digitize and index 100,000 U.S. State Department documents on Brazil from 1963-73 and make them available to the public on a open-access website.

Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library
Digitized versions of Caribbean newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials on newsprint currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
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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.
Caribbean Sea Migration Collection (Cuban, Dominican and Haitian migration 1965-1996)
Materials from (or related to) the migration by sea of Cubans, Dominicans, and Haitians, including the refugee camp for Cuban and Haitian rafters that existed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, largely dating from 1991-1996.
Digital Library of the Caribbean
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean

Central American Broadsides
Dating from the 1820s to 1922, the broadsides are primarily Guatemalan, with a smaller number from Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
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Broadsides from the Kenneth Spencer Research Library's William J. Griffith Collection of Guatemala and Central America, University of Kansas

Archivo Nacional de Chile: Colleciones digitalles
Digital collections from the National Archives of Chile
Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973
collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976
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National Security Archive
Chilean Protest Murals (1983-1990)
Many hundreds of protest murals were created in Chile during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990
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Harvard Library
National Security Archive Chile Documentation Project
16,000 secret U.S. records on the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and Washington’s role in the violent overthrow of the Allende government and the advent of the military regime to power

J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana
Collection of digitized broadsides, 1825-1972; pamphlets (including novenas), 1785-1969; and programas, 1819-1914 from Colombia
El Tiempo (1911-2007)
Colombian newspaper; part of Google News Archive

Boeri Collection of Cuban-American Radionovelas, 1963-1970
Entertainment programming designed for both U.S. Latino and Latin American audiences. Content included radionovelas/dramas, comedies, advice programs, biblical dramas, mysteries, spy stories, and variety shows.
Castro Speech Database (1959-1996)
Speeches, interviews, etc., by Fidel Castro from 1959 to 1996. All texts are in English.
Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC)
Digital manuscripts, photographs, letters, maps and other resources held in the University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection
Cuban Revolution Research Guide to Digital Collections
Curated by Yale University Library
National Security Archive Cuba Documentation Project

Colección Conflicto Armado del Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (1979-2001)
Political propaganda produced during the Salvadoran armed conflict, by clandestine groups and non-governmental organizations, as well as the military.
El Salvador Declassification Project
Over 7800 US State Department documents dealing with human rights abuses in El Salvador between 1979 and 1991
Hemeroteca del Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (1976-1992)
Clandestine publications from the period of the Salvadoran armed conflict, collected by the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen.
UWCHR El Salvador Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Documents
This collection contains documents regarding human rights during El Salvador’s civil war, which were results of FOIA requests based on research conducted by the UWCHR’s “Unfinished Sentences” project.
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This collection contains documents that were released by United States government federal agencies to the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) as a result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted by UWCHR staff and student researchers, and from a FOIA lawsuit that the University of Washington brought against the Central Intelligence Agency in October 2015.

Civil War, Society and Political Transition in Guatemala : the Guatemala News and Information Bureau Archive (1963-2000)
Materials documenting all aspects related to the civil war in Guatemala, including human rights abuses and the social and political responses to state sponsored violence. Also documented were the negotiations and the implementation of the Peace Accords signed in the mid 1990s.
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The Guatemala News and Information Bureau (GNIB) was an activist and solidarity group based in San Francisco, California, created in 1978 to support and inform the public about Guatemalan movements for peace and justice, indigenous rights, and labor rights. From the Princeton University Digital Library.
Digital Archive of the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive
Digitized documents from the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN)
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The AHPN Digital Archive is a collaborative project of the University of Texas' Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, and Benson Latin American Collection, with the Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional de Guatemala.
National Security Archive Guatemala Project
Guatemala's secret archives
Archivo de Inforpress Centroamericana (1978- 982)
News clippings and documents compiled by Inforpress Centroamericana on the topic of Violence in Guatemala

Archivo de Lucas Alamán
Collection of more than 300 documents dealing with colonial Mexico from the 17th and 18th centuries and 19th century correspondence; in Spanish
Archivo General de la Nacion (AGN) Mexico
Digital archives of Archivo General de la Nacion.
El Informador - Hemeroteca Digital
Full-text archive of El Informador (1917-2006). Allows browsing by issue or advanced search
Hemeroteca Nacional Digital de Mexico
The Digital National Library of Mexico (HNDM) is a virtual repository of historical periodicals from Mexico.
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Includes printed newspapers and magazines in Mexico between 1722 and 2010. Digital access limited to those publications in the public domain.
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
Legislacion Mexicana
La colección completa contiene 16,890 disposiciones numeradas, ordenadas cronológicamente, cuya cobertura va de 1687 a 1902.
Mexican Political Pamphlets, 1808-1832
The research materials, compiled between 1965 and 1980, consist of a bibliographic database of more than 11,000 citations and over 1,150 photocopies of pamphlets
Mexico Project (National Security Archive)
Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution
This book 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, 1993 through June 12, 1994.

La Información Digital Collection (1920-1998)
The collection contains digital surrogates of La Información, an important local newspaper published in Bluefields, Nicaragua, starting in 1917
Sandino Rebellion: Nicaragua 1927-1934
Documents dealing with the nationalist rebellion led by Sandino against US military intervention

Biblioteca National del Peru
Digitized collections of the National library includes books, images, manuscripts and more

Biblioteca Digital Puertorriqueña
Digital collections of the University of Puerto Rico includes thousands of historic photographs, maps, posters, manuscript material and more
FBI Files on Puerto Ricans
Hundreds of pages of FBI documents dealing with Puerto Rico dating from the 1930s to the 1990s
Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents 1844-1900
Digitized primary sources accessible through the Internet Archive
Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives
Historically important writings by prominent Puerto Rican political activists and historians dating from approximately seventy years before the Spanish-American war (1831) until some thirty years after it (1929).
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Collaborative project undertaken by the Library of Congress Hispanic Division and the National Digital Library Program to recognize the centennial of the Spanish-American War (1898)

Newspapers

ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers
Find digital newspaper collections for each country
Historical Worldwide Newspapers Online: Latin America
Links to digitized historical newspapers online for Latin America. Compiled by BGSU University Libraries.

Primary Sources for Latin American History