How to Do Research on Mexico and its Borders with the U.S.
Mexico's history and culture are forever interconnected with the United States. This page focuses on providing access to our library and archival resources, and other online resources that will help you do research on this important country!
Image info: This map represents the Wars between Mexico and Texas and Mexico and the U.S. From the collection of Perry-Castañeda at the University of Texas-Austin.
- UC Library Search for Archival CollectionsYou can search for archival collections using UC Library Search!! Select the option UCSB Special Research Collections on the top of the screen. Then, on the search box, type your keywords, e.g. Caribbean, Cuba, Barbados... to see what type of collections about those countries are available
- Calisphere
Calisphere aggregates digital materials from all UC's, and libraries, archives, and museums across the state. A great resource to find images and other digital resources related to the Caribbean. You can search across all collections, search for specific collections, or search within any of the UC campuses sites. Try search by country or a topic such as the "Cuban Revolution". Tip: Use quotation marks to search for phrases! - Digitized Benson Collections at UT-AustinThis site offers a selection of collections digitized from The Benson's Latin American Collections, including many materials from Mexico and the borderlands.
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsYou can search the rich collection of digitized materials that document the life and history of the United States. You can search by topic such as "Mexican American War" or ethnic groups such as Mexican American or Chicano and see what type of materials are available.
If you want to find primary sources that show the United States government point of view about its relationship with Mexico, including managing the border, immigrants and wars and other related issues, you need to read the documents created by the Federal Government or States that share a border with Mexico. Below are a series of databases that you can use to find that type of primary source!
- Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series webpageThe Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Search within the volumes, or browse them by administration; see also a list of all pre-Truman volumes.
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowCovers legislative and regulatory information from the United States Government. Includes index records, abstracts, and some full text of congressional publications (1789 to present). The collection contains:full text of Congressional bills and resolutions (1789-present)full text Congressional hearings (1824-present)transcripts of unpublished hearings (1833-1980 House, -1990 Senate)full text Congressional documents from recent years (varies with type of document)full text of the Congressional Record and its predecessors (1789-1997), and the Congressional Record Daily Edition (1985-present)bill tracking information, information on Congressional committees and individual members activities, and a wide variety of links to other sources of information on the activities of Congress.
Because the United States and Mexico share a 2,000-mile-long border, a whole field of studies exists to understand the historical, cultural, economic, and political connection between these two neighboring countries. The borderlands between Mexico and the United States encompass all the states in both side of the border. Keep that in mind when looking for archives that have primary materials on your topic. Below are some suggestions for where to find primary sources!
Tip: If you are looking for archival records about a town in Texas that borders a town in Mexico, then check the University of Texas, Austin or similar universities in that state for primary sources.
- Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 & 2 This link opens in a new windowThis archive of publications focused exclusively on US Hispanic history, literature and culture from colonial times until 1960. Context is written, indexed and searchable in Spanish and English.
Series 1 focuses on the creative life of US Latinos and Hispanics.
Series 2 chronicles Latino-Hispanic civil rights leaders, religious thinkers and women writers in the United States from the late 19th to mid 20th century. - Revolution and Protest Online This link opens in a new windowYou can search for primary and secondary sources related to the Chicano movement and similar social movements (labor, students) in the United States
- Territorial Papers of the United StatesBefore becoming a state, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona were part of the many territories managed by the State Department and the Department of the Interior. You can use this database to find documents such as official correspondence with Washington, Native American negotiations and treaties, military records, judicial proceedings, population data, financial statistics, land records, newspaper clippings, etc.
- California Heritage Collection This link opens in a new windowThe California Heritage is an online archive of more than 36,000 images illustrating California's history and culture, from the collections of the Bancroft Library. Selected from nearly two hundred individual collections, this unique resource uses the latest online archiving techniques to highlight the rich themes of California's history.
- Bracero History ArchiveThe 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.
Online Resources:
- Posada Collection at NYPLThe New York Public Library’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs holds over 600 items and is one of the largest collections of José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) original prints outside Mexico. Check out this great online collection!
- Colecciones Mexicanas at UNAMCollection of documents, journals, photographs and bibliographies on the history of Mexico from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
- Género en MexicoEl sitio reúne y ofrece en acceso abierto fuentes para la historia de las mujeres en México. Se trata de una selección de materiales impresos (libros, periódicos y boletines) en versión digital (o enlaces a documentos electrónicos), publicados dentro o fuera de México, durante los siglos XIX y XX, de autoría individual o colectiva (instituciones públicas o privadas). Contiene información en torno a la actividad política, cultural, institucional o activista de las mujeres.
- Mexican Prensa ObreraThe first batch of Mexican penny press publications dating from the early 20th century digitized by the UT-Austin's Benson Library
- La Gazeta de MexicoThis open access databases allow researchers to find and study the wide variety advertisement about books and periodicals that appeared in the Gazeta de México, the first periodical publication during the New Spain period. The advertisement were mostly about books, pamphlets and magazines published between the XVIII to early XIX century. Note: The interface and the content is in Spanish.
UCSB Databases:
- Latin American Anarchist and Labour Periodicals Online This link opens in a new windowThis online collection documents the formative anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist episode (1890-1920) in the history of Latin American and Caribbean labor movements. This database has several newspapers from Mexico worth exploring! Under content, scroll down and/or go to the next page until you find "Mexico" and click the drop-down menu to see all the newspapers available from that period.
- Revolution and Protest Online This link opens in a new windowThis is a useful database if you are looking for information about the Mexican Revolution, the Cristero War and the Zapatistas Insurrection!
- Latin American Newspapers, Series I This link opens in a new windowLatin American Newspapers is a collection of full-text historical newspapers from all over Latin America. Users may search the entire database or select specific newspapers. Searches may be limited by date, language, or place of publication. You can search just Mexican newspapers by typing "Mexico" for Place of Publication or typing a specific city, e.g., Mexico City.
- Latin American Newspapers, Series II This link opens in a new windowLatin American Newspapers is a collection of full-text historical newspapers from all over Latin America. Users may search the entire database or select specific newspapers. Searches may be limited by date, language, or place of publication. You can search just Mexican newspapers by typing "Mexico" for Place of Publication or typing a specific city, e.g., Mexico City.
You can visit the tab “Finding Articles, Books and More” in this guide for an in-depth explanation of how to search the UC Library Search Box for articles, books, and films located here at the UCSB Library. The best part of this tool is that it gives you access to all the other UCs resources--which you can request to be sent here by logging into your library account! Also, the list of databases on that page is helpful to search for articles about Mexican history and culture and the borderlands!
Here are some resources that I think may help you in your research.
- Mexican Studies/Estudios MexicanosMexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos is a bilingual, international scholarly journal dedicated to providing a unique and essential forum for the dissemination of cutting-edge research relating to Mexico, broadly defined.
- Journal of Borderlands StudiesThis journal focuses on studying border issues, bordering dynamics, and borderlands in any part of the world. The emphasis on borders is global—this is a good place to search for articles that discuss issues related to the Mexico-U.S. border.
- Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new windowHAPI Online is an index database that offers access to more than 400 social science and humanities journals from/about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States. Mostly in Spanish, but it has English languages articles. To access the full-text content, click the Get it at UC link!
- Chicano Database This link opens in a new windowContains records for all types of materials in the areas of Mexican-American topics. Since 1992 the database has also indexed materials on other Latino cultures, e.g., Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants. Subject coverage includes art, language, sociology, public policy, economics, history, literature, politics, and law.