Research Guides: History, Latin America: Primary Source Databases

Large Primary Source Databases

Online Archive of California
The Online Archive of California (OAC) provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.

Calisphere Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over two million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more. The collections in Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Digitized collections from libraries, archives, and museums including art, books, manuscripts, etc.
UCLA Digital Library
The UCLA Digital Library Program works collaboratively within the UCLA Library, across campus, and with a broad range of partners to preserve and provide enhanced access to local and global cultural heritage materials in support of the University’s teaching, learning, research and service mission.

Specific Digital Collections

Bracero Program Images
The USCIS History Library holds several photographs of the Mexican Agricultural Labor Program, commonly called the “Bracero Program,” dating from 1951-1964. The photographs provide an interesting firsthand glimpse at how INS inspected and admitted Braceros on the Mexican border.
The Caribbean - Recordings
Central America - Recordings
Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910
Corazón de Dixie recounts the untold histories of Mexicanos’ migrations to New Orleans, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina as far back as 1910.
Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera
Digital Library of the Caribbean
Discursos e intervenciones del Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz
This database includes Fidel Castro speech transcripts and remarks. Texts are mainly in Spanish but some have been translated into English, German, Portuguese, Italian, etc.
Feminism in Cuba: Nineteenth through Twentieth Century Archival Documents (Archives Unbound)
This collection, compiled from Cuban sources, spans the period from Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime. The collection sheds light on Cuban feminism, women in politics, literature by Cuban women and the legal status of Cuban women.
Laborers, Aliens, and Refugees, 1940-1965
Explore how World War II affected immigration.
Mexican American Family and Photo Collection
Mexican Labor and World War II: The Bracero Program
Collection of era photographs, documents, and oral history interviews related to the Bracero Program.
PALABRA - Indigenous Voices
South America - Recordings
Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings
Over 125,000 songs celebrating North America’s Spanish-language musical heritage.
U.S. and Castro's Cuba, 1950-1970: The Paterson Collection (Archives Unbound)
The declassified records that comprise this collection provide a detailed account of the diplomatic, economic, military, and cultural relationship between the United States and Cuba in the era of Fidel Castro (1926–2016).
UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive
Venezuela: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1960-1963 (Archives Unbound)
Documents in this collection illustrate Cold War contexts, the role of the United States in Venezuela's foreign affairs, and the centrality of oil in the Venezuelan economy.