A&M-SA Research Guides: Chican@ Studies Research Guide: Primary Sources

Digital Primary Source Collections

Below are links to various digital collections that contain a variety of primary sources such as images, literature, oral histories,government documents, newspapers and other historical documents. This is just a sample of collections that are available to researchers.

Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection Series 1 and Series 2 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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This collection covers U.S. Latino and Hispanic history, literature, political commentary, civil rights, religious thought, culture, and women writers. Formats include pamphlets and broadsides, newspapers, monographs, etc. Most content is in Spanish.
Hispanic Life in America (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
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This primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of Hispanic American history, culture, and daily life – as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of Hispanic descent. HLA covers many topical categories such as arts and entertainment, civil rights and activism, immigration and citizenship, sports and athletes, labor, religion, science and technology, and society and culture from the early 18th century to the early 21st – from the early Spanish settlements to the modern era.

This resource incorporates 3 resources:

Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective
Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective is a group of historians, educators, researchers, archivists and technologists dedicated to preserving imperiled Chicanx and Latinx histories of the long Civil Rights Era. Started by Professor Maria Cotera and filmmaker Linda Garcia Merchant in 2009, CPMR has traveled to over one dozen states, interviewed more than 70 people, and collected hundreds of hours of oral histories and scanned archives for preservation and access. The online digital repository currently contains approximately 4900 available digital records and over 439 interview clips.
Tejano Voices from UT Arlington
Tejano Voices features the stories, voices, and photographs of the following Tejanos and Tejanas. The date of the interview follows each name. Additional interviews are not yet available online but can be viewed in UT Arlington Library Special Collections.
Chicana/o Studies Oral History Project (UC Berkeley)
This project seeks to commemorate that historical development and document the formation of Chicana/o Studies through in-depth interviews with the first generations of scholars who shaped it. Based on the selections of an advisory council composed of scholars from around the country, the project will feature oral histories with the prominent and pioneering scholars who helped build the discipline over the last five decades.
Bracero History Archive
The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America.A joint project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Brown University and the Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Congressional Publications (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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This database contains documents, reports, and other detailed information from both the House and the Senate dating back to 1789. Includes Congressional Record and US Serial Set Collections 1 and 2A-E, 1789-2011.

National Archives
Explore our nation's history through documents, photos and records on the National Archives site.
CSU Northridge Latina(o) Cultural Heritage Archives
A database featuring photographs and documents assembled from twelve collections of the Urban Archives of the Oviatt Library Special Collections and Archives. Funded as part of the Hispanics-Serving Institutions Grant of the State of California, these materials capture the history of Latino and Chicana/o people and culture in Southern California. These collections feature the arts, labor and immigration as important parts of the historical fabric of this community.
Musica de la Frontera
Over 100,000 songs celebrating North America’s Spanish-language musical heritage
Chicano/a Movement in Washington State
From the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.
Library of Congress
Search or browse through dozens of digital collections from the Library of Congress. The collections contain maps & photographs, letters, cartoons, diaries & newspapers, personal accounts of events, sound recordings & historic films. Most of the collections contain content that is dated prior to World War II.
Portal to Texas History
A gateway to rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas.
Civil Rights Digital Library
The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.
Onda Latina: The Mexican American Experience
The contents of this collection include interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns. These programs were recorded from 1976-1982. The tapes have been digitally preserved and organized into a searchable database.
Farmworker Movement Documentation Project
Primary source materials including photographs, oral histories, videos, essays and historical documents from the United Farm Worker Delano Grape Strikers and the UFW Volunteers who worked with Cesar Chavez to build his farmworker movement. Presented and preserved by The Library, University of California San Diego.
Tomás Rivera Archive
Tomás Rivera was born on December 22, 1935 in Crystal City, Texas. Rising from humble beginnings as the son of Mexican migrant farm workers, Rivera went to Southwest Texas State University, where he received his B.S. in English Education in 1958. He returned to Southwest Texas State to get a Master's in Education in 1964, and in 1969, received a Ph.D. in Romance Literatures from the University of Oklahoma. Rivera taught at the university level for many years at various institutions before becoming Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside in 1979, the first minority chancellor in the University of California system. He served as chancellor until his untimely death on March 16, 1984.

The Tomás Rivera archive contains more than 85,000 items, arranged in five categories: Biographical Works, Literary Manuscripts, Educational Material, Civic Leadership, and Illustrative Material. Only a few of the items are available online.
Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Oral Histories of the Multiracial Freedom Struggles in Texas
The Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, is a publicly accessible, free, and user-friendly multimedia digital humanities website that provides digital video clips from the interviews to researchers as well as teachers, journalists, and the general public. The project is funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant (see media coverage), the Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, the Summerlee Foundation of Dallas, TCU's AddRan College of Liberal Arts, the Mary Couts Burnett Library at TCU, and other institutional and private sources.

Independent Voices (JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
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Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

The South Texas Border, 1900-1920:Photographs from the Robert Runyon Collection
The Robert Runyon Photograph Collection of the South Texas Border Area, a collection of over 8,000 items, is a unique visual resource documenting the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the early 1900s...[Runyon's] photographs document the history and development of South Texas and the border, including the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. military presence at Fort Brown and along the border prior to and during World War I, and the growth and development of the Rio Grande Valley.

Historical Newspapers

Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
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A searchable collection of full-text Hispanic American newspapers published in the U.S.
Hispanic Life in America (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
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This primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of Hispanic American history, culture, and daily life – as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of Hispanic descent. HLA covers many topical categories such as arts and entertainment, civil rights and activism, immigration and citizenship, sports and athletes, labor, religion, science and technology, and society and culture from the early 18th century to the early 21st – from the early Spanish settlements to the modern era.

This resource incorporates 3 resources:
Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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A digital newspaper archive that includes cover-to-cover full-text and full-image articles starting from the 19th century. Includes news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, advertisements, etc.
Includes: Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Daily World, Austin American Statesman, The Baltimore Afro-American, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Call and Post, Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Louisville Defender, Michigan Chronicle, New York Amsterdam News, The New York Times, Norfolk Journal and Guide, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
San Antonio Express-News Historical Archive, 1867-2015 (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
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Access the San Antonio Express-News from 1867-2015. For 1990-present, see Access World News (NewsBank).
Chronicling America (Library of Congress) This link opens in a new window
This site allows users access to scanned newspaper pages from 1880-1910 for newspapers published in the United States. Users also have the ability to find information about published American newspapers from 1690 to the present.
New York Times All Access Digital Pass (The New York Times Company) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse The New York Times from 1851-present. Users must go through the library’s link to register for an account. Once registered, an account is valid for one year and may be used to access The New York Times website directly.
Creating an Account with the New York Times:

On the New York Times page, click on the Create Account link.
You must use your university email when registering. For example:
- John.Doe@jaguar.tamu.edu for students.
- jdoe@tamusa.edu for faculty and staff.
You will have access to the New York Times for one year.
Questions? Call the University Library at 210-784-1500.

Historic Mexican and Mexican-American Press
The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.

Local Archival Collections

Latino Collection at SAPL
The Latino Collection housed at San Antonio Public Library originated in 1996 with San Antonio’s Hispanic and Latino community in mind, though it had long been a hidden gem. As part of SAPL’s ongoing effort to achieve social equity through expanding educational and learning opportunities, it was decided that the collection would be relocated to a prominent first floor area of the Central Library.

This project provides a new home for the Latino Collection, but it also provides special spaces that allow the collection to be more meaningful and impactful through programming. The Latino Collection and Resource Center (LCRC) was opened in Fall of 2017.
Mexican Cookbook Collection (UTSA)
Over 1,600 titles in English and Spanish documenting the variety and history of Mexican cuisine from 1789 to the present.
A&M-San Antonio La Prensa Collection
Established in 1913, La Prensa De San Antonio is a historic, independently-owned bilingual newspaper and online publication. La Prensa is the first and oldest bilingual publication in the state of Texas. In 1989, Tino and Amelia Duran resurrected the paper, bringing a much needed positive voice for the Hispanic community. Collection does not contain all issues. See links on page for holding information.
Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies Oral History Collection (UTSA)
These oral histories were conducted in the Spring 2009 semester of the Mexican American Culture (BBL 3023) course taught by Dr. Marie Miranda. The course is a survey of Mexican American cultural distinctiveness in the areas of biculturalism, cultural production, and social organization. Topics may include family and kinship, folklore, health, language, music, and religion. This course examined Chicana/o popular culture focusing on rock ‘n’ roll. View the collection guide.