LibGuides: Latin American &amp; Iberian Studies Subject Guide: Overview: Finding Primary Sources

Tips to find UCSB archival collections!

UC Library Search for Archival Collections
You can search for archival collections using UC Library Search!! Select the option UCSB Special Research Collections at the top of the screen. Then, in the search box, type your keywords, e.g., Chicano, Chicana, or "Mexican American," to see what collections we have access to
Doing Research at the Archive
Archives are different from libraries since you need to request an appointment to access their physical collections. Visit the UCSB Library's Special Research Collection to learn what you need to do to get started!
Create a Special Collections Research Account!
Special collections are different from libraries. To materials in special collections do not circulate outside the archive. Instead, they need to be viewed on site. For that you need to make an appoint to see the material. At SRC, you need to create a research account. Follow this link to learn more about how to create your very own research account and set up an appointment to visit SRC!

Primary Sources

Primary Sources are documentary evidence of events as remembered by the people that experienced. There are a wide variety of sources that can be label "primary" such as:

Artwork (painting, sculptures, pottery, posters)
Diary, memories, and autobiographies
Interviews in a newspaper or magazine
Letters
Performance (like a play or a ballet or a flash mob)
Poem and other types of literature (novels, short stories, fables, etc.)
Treaty and other legal documents that document decisions such as bills of sales, wills, etc.

Sometimes, a secondary source (a source that analyzes primary sources to understand why a phenomenon happened such as scholarly articles published in academic journals, research books, biographies, textbooks, etc.) can be treated as a primary source depending on the context of your research. For example, if you are doing a research study about how biology teaching has changed through time, then biology textbooks are considered a primary source.

Primary sources can be found both in libraries and archives. Many have been digitized and accessible online while others are only accessible by visiting an archive or getting a print book at the library or through Interlibrary Loan. Explore the tabs on this page to see where and how you can find and access these sources!

Caption: "2nd Annual Pilipino Lechon celebration" (1978) Collection: Kearny Street Workshop Archives, at UC Santa Barbara, Library, Department of Special Research Collections. Source: Calisphere

The UCSB Library, as well as the rest of the UC campuses, hold rich collections of archival materials from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Iberia. Some collections are accessible physically at UCSB Archives and Special Collections while others can be accessed online through the Online Archive of California (where you can search for finding aids) and Calisphere, the portal to digital collections from California's libraries, archives, and museums.

Tip: Some books are considered primary sources. To find them, check out the Finding Articles, Books and More tab for instructions!

Definitions:

Finding Aids: Its a guide for an archival collection. It includes an explanation of the historical background of the collection; information about the content (dates of coverage, subjects, creators, individuals or events represented, etc.), how it has been organized and an inventory of the content and where it is located (boxes and folders). You use it to find materials that you want to see and/or request from an archive
Surrogate(s) or facsimiles: Copy of item from a collection that are made available either as a print or electronic format. For example, Calisphere offers access to electronic surrogates of papers, photographs and/or movies from many archival collections housed across the state of California.

Not all archival collection is available online, so it is important to check the finding aids first to determine if the archive have what you want to access.

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!
Bruce Bastin/Interstate Music Collection
Folklorist Bruce Bastin started Interstate Music in the 1970s to reissue important folk, jazz, country, blues, and ethnic recordings on LP. Consists of about 10,000 78rpm ethnic and folk recordings from Latin America and Europe, as well as recordings in such popular traditions as Argentine tango and Brazilian samba.
Edouard Pecourt Collection: Cuba
Rich collection documenting many areas of 20th-century music history, including Astor Piazzolla and the Argentine tango, Latin American music, and the early French sound recording industry. This collection has a section dedicated to Cuba. Visit the site to listen to this music!
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Many of the cylinder recordings have been cataloged and digitized and can be found in the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive.
UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive
This searchable database features all types of recordings made from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including recordings from throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.

Newspapers are a type of primary source. Many archives have newspaper collections, and some of them have even been digitized and may available online. Depending on the context, the time that the news was published, and the type of account (chronicles, editorials, etc.) a newspaper account can be considered both a primary and/or a secondary source. Check with your professor before using these resources.

As any primary source used for historical research, be aware of the strengths (first witness accounts) and weakness (bias, forgetfulness, sensationalism) of this type of source.

Historical Newspapers Databases:

Latin American Newspapers, Series I This link opens in a new window
Latin American Newspapers is a collection of full-text historical newspapers from all over Latin America. Users may search the entire database, or selected newspapers. Searches may be limited by date, language or place of publication.
Date Coverage: 1805-1922
Materials Indexed: Newspaper Articles, Primary Sources
Latin American Newspapers, Series II This link opens in a new window
Latin American Newspapers is a full-text historical collection of newspapers from throughout Latin American.You may search the entire collection or selected newspapers. Searches may be limited by date, language and place of publication.
Date Coverage: 1822-1922
Materials Indexed: Newspaper Articles, Primary Sources

If you are looking for newspapers reports about Latin American and Iberian countries in the US main presses, check our newspapers databases!

ProQuest News and Newspapers Databases This link opens in a new window
Historical and current newspaper databases and news sources from the database vendor ProQuest. The newspapers databases are full text and include the Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, a collection of Civil War newspapers. Other mostly full text news databases include GenderWatch and Ethnic NewsWatch. GenderWatch covers small and alternative press publications covering gender issues. Ethnic NewsWatch covers news publications from ethnic and minority presses. You can search select ones simultaneously, all simultaneously, each individually.
Date Coverage: varies
Materials Indexed: Newsletter Articles

The 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. Below is a selection of several of the series available on the site that focuses on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. Visit their site to see the whole list.

Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series webpage
The 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.

Sample of Latin American and Caribbean Series:

Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1937, The British Commonwealth, Europe, Near East and Africa, Volume II--The Spanish Civil War
Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration (1933–1945)
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, American Republics; Cuba 1961–1962; Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath, Volumes X/XI/XII, Microfiche Supplement
This volume, which was published in 1998 in microfiche only, is currently in the process of being digitized, but the digitization is incomplete. The original microfiche has been scanned in image form (3,113 images in all, including front matter and 746 documents), but the text has not yet been extracted from these images. Thus, the text of this volume is not searchable or accessible to screen readers.
Volume X: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Cuba, January 1961–September 1962 (Kennedy Administration)
This volume is unique among Foreign Relations volumes published to date in its presentation of a detailed record of a major U.S. foreign policy with a central involvement of the intelligence community and centered upon covert military-political action. The editor decided early in the preparation of this volume in the late 1980s that the context, development, execution, and policy aftermath of the Bay of Pigs operation during the Kennedy administration warranted a detailed documentary record.
Volume XXXII: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Dominican Republic; Cuba; Haiti; Guyana (Johnson Administration)
Johnson Administration: Foreign Relations, 1964-1968 Dominican Republic; Cuba; Haiti; Guyana

This is a selection of archival online resources available through UCSB Library. For more online resources available on the Web, check out the tab labelled, Finding Spanish & Portuguese Primary Resources!

Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera This link opens in a new window
The bulk of the ephemera currently found in the Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera was originally created around the turn of the 20th century and after, with some originating as recently as within the last year. The formats or genre most commonly included are pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, brochures, posters, stickers, and postcards.
Date Coverage: 20th century to present
Materials Indexed: Artworks; Ephemera; Government Documents; Images; Pamphlets; Primary Sources

Digital Library of the Caribbean Collections
In this site you can browse a wide variety of digital materials about/from the Caribbean such as maps, newspapers, videos, images, etc...
Digital Library of the Central Library of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru
The Central Library of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru, has an amazing digital collection of personal papers, manuscripts, publications, reports, and topical collections, such as Colección Documental sobre la violencia política en el Perú.

Latin American Women Writers This link opens in a new window
In Literature, it is the text written by writers, (prose, poetry, drama, etc.) what is considered a "primary source." This database focuses on the literary output of Latin American women writers. It also includes essays by Latin American feminists and about the feminist movement in the region.
Date Coverage: 18th Century - present
Materials Indexed: Books; Monologues; Plays; Poetry
World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean This link opens in a new window
This multilingual and multidisciplinary resource includes primary sources from/about Latin America and the Caribbean. It also includes primary sources from what used to be the U.S. territories (Louisiana, the Southwest and parts of the West), who previously were part of Mexico or Spain.
Date Coverage: varies
Materials Indexed: Primary Sources (historical newspapers, monographs and maps)
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
The Digital National Security Archive contains the most comprehensive set of declassified government documents (primary sources) available to scholars. Includes documents, photographs, and other materials that document U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Americas and other regions in the World. The collection includes materials from post World War II to the 21st century. Content is in English. Some collections available in this database are:
- Argentina, 1975-1980: The Making of U.S. Human Rights Policy
- Chile and the United States: U.S. Policy toward Democracy, Dictatorship, and Human Rights, 1970-1990
- and much more. Check the "About" page for a list of all collections. Tip: When searching this database, you can limit the search to a specific collection or several. Under "DNSA collection", check off the ones that you want to search!
Materials Indexed: Government Documents