HIST 3643/4001: History of Mexico
Primary Sources Online
- 500 Anos de Mexico en DocumentosTranscriptions of documents pertaining to Mexican history from the Conquest to the Nineteenth Century. In Spanish (Try Google translator if you don't read Spanish!).
- Abraham Lincoln on the Mexican-American WarSpeech delivered in the House of Representatives, January 12, 1848.
- Bexar Archives [The University of Texas at Austin]The Bexar Archives are the official Spanish documents that preserve the political, military, economic, and social life of the Spanish province of Texas and the Mexican state of Coahulia y Texas. English translations are available for many documents.
- Borderlands [University of Arizona Special Collections]Collections of archival materials as well as printed texts on the Borderlands of the Southwest and Northwest of Mexico, from Baja California to Tamaulipas, Mexico, documenting the region's culture and history, from colonial period to present, including accounts of Native Americans and their ancestors, the impact of Spanish and Mexican settlement, and the influx of Americans and others into the region during the 19th century.
- 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.”
- Chronicling America [Library of Congress]Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
- Dupee Mexican History Collection BroadsidesThe Dupee Collection offers nearly 200 broadsides [posters, flyers, advertisements] published after the Mexican republic secured its independence in 1821. Chronicled within the broadsides are Mexican partisan politics, religious and anti-clerical debates, popular literature and drama, domestic revolutions and armed conflict with the United States. Most are Spanish-language sources written by Mexican citizens and published in Mexico.
- Early Texas NewspapersIncludes 61 newspaper titles, including the Telegraph and Texas Register.
- Foreign Relations of the United States [US Department of State]Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. Browse by administration, see a list of all pre-Truman volumes, or search within the volumes.
- Hathi Trust Digital LibraryA collaborative digital repository containing content from research university libraries, Google books, the Internet Archive, and digitized content from smaller local libraries. Formats include books, serials, journals, biographies, photographs, microform, newspapers, and more. Allows full-text searching of the complete collection, and initial results can be limited using the toolbar on the left.
- Hemeroteca Nacional Digital de MexicoDigitized historical Mexican newspapers and periodicals covering the years 1722 - 2006. Many are in Spanish.
- Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press [The University of Arizona]“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.”
- Inside the Cartel (LA Times)A collection of government documents and news articles on the Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
- Latin American Travelogues [Brown University]A digital collection of Latin American travel accounts written in the 16th-19th centuries.
- Mexico's Long War: Drugs, Crime and the Cartels [Council on Foreign Relations]Background information on the subject with links to other relevant documents.
- The Mexico Project [The National Security Archive]Includes previously classified government archives documenting human rights and impunity in Mexico and the United States.
- The National Security ArchiveAn independent non-governmental research institute and library based in Washington D.C., the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. This web site contains extensive documents on Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. [Select the “documents” link at the top of the page to access thousands of primary source documents organized into electronic briefing books.. Each document is accompanied by identifying information and a summary of its significance.
- Political Database of the Americas [Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University]Provides access to government documents and other related materials for all Latin American countries, including Mexico.
- Porfirio Diaz Interview*PDF of interview published in March 1908 in Pearson's Magazine.
- Portal to Texas HistoryA gateway to rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas.
*Includes a collection of Early Texas Newspapers - Presidential Messages (Mexico and Argentina)A collection of digital full-text presidential messages of Argentina and Mexico from the early 19th century to the present.
- The Pronunciamiento in Independent Mexico 1821 - 1876Free online database that includes full transcriptions of over 1500 Spanish pronunciamientos. Often defined as 'revolt', the pronunciamiento was a written protest/petition, generally drafted as a list of grievances or demands, signed by a group of individuals and/or corporate body (high-ranking officers, town council officials, villagers, members of a particular garrison, Indian pueblo, etc.) that could result in an armed rebellion if the government did not attend to them.
- Tlatelolco Massacre: Declassified U.S. Documents on Mexico and the Events of 1968 [The National Security Archive]Collection of 30 declassified US government documents on the 1968 massacre of student demonstrators.
- Zapatistas!: Documents of the New Mexican RevolutionContains 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.
Keywords to Use When Searching for Primary Sources
Primary sources are generally defined as first-hand accounts of events. A primary source is an original work, not derived from other sources. They may be first-person accounts, such as diaries, letters or interviews, or official government records or court records. Visual records, such as painting or photographs, as well as films, television programs and even advertisements are also primary sources.
Look for primary sources in ThomCat [or any library catalog] by using the following keywords in combination with other search terms relevant to your topic:
- sources
- diaries
- letters
- correspondence
- oral history
- personal narratives
- interview(s)
- speech(es)
Example: Zapatistas AND sources
Images
- A Nation Emerges: 65 Years of Photography in Mexico [Getty Institute]Includes the digital exhibition Mexico: From Empire to Revolution and a helpful chronology of the history of Mexico.
- Mexican Revolution Photograph Collection [UTEP University Library]A digital collection of photographs relating to the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920. Includes photographs of prominent figures of the period.
- Manuel Carrillo Photograph Collection [UTEP University Library]Photographs depicting people, animals, and scenes from Mexican towns and villages by the Mexican photographer Manuel Carrillo (1906-1989).