Sources for the History of Twentieth-Century Mexico: Home

C.L. SONNICHSEN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT

 SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON TWENTIETH-CENTURY MEXICO

1.  Books and encyclopedias.  Search the UTEP Library catalog for specific topics.  We have about 32,000 items with "Mexico" appearing somewhere in the record; there are 415 subject headings beginning "Mexico—History." You can break the subject headings down to specific time periods; for instance, “Mexico—History—1910-1946” shows 388 items.  The Southwest and Border Studies Collection is especially rich in these resources.  The reference section has several Mexican and Latin American encyclopedias

 2.  Government Documents.  Although most of the documents are listed in the on-line catalog, it is worthwhile to search special documents indexes, such as the GPO cumulative subject indexes, the Serial Set Index, and State Department indexes.  Some interesting documents are available only on microfiche, such as the FBI's Daily Reports on Latin America.  The Serial Set is now available on-line in full text at ProQuest Congressional Publications (U.S. Serial Set and Serial Set Maps)

 3.  Microfilm.  We have a lot of microfilm from the National Archives, including materials on Mexican immigration, consular despatches, and State Department documents.  We also have presidential papers of Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson.   Other materials on microfilm include Mexican archives such as the Municipal Archives of Cd. Juarez (MF513), the Judicial Archives of Parral, Chihuahua (MF546), the Carrizal Municipal Records (MF505), and other smaller collections.  We also have some manuscript collections on microfilm or fiche including Memorias del General de División Marcelo Caraveo (MF 511), Archivo del General Genovevo de la O (MF 507), the René Mascareñas Collection (MF499), and the Day Book of the Cananea Copper Company (MF 462), among others.  Check our web page for more information.

 4.  Newspapers and periodicals.  Although the Current Periodicals only keeps hard copies of newspapers for three months, we do have some on microfilm, including Excelsior from Mexico City and the Periodico Official de Chihuahua.  Border newspapers including El Fronterizo, El Continental, El Pais, and La Patria are available, as well as Spanish language US papers La Prensa of San Antonio and some of La Opinion of Los Angeles.  We also have some hard copies of Mexican papers in Special Collections, including the foreign affairs sections of several Mexico City papers from the 1980s and an assortment of Mexican newspapers relating to the Colosio assassination.  Back files of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times are available on-line with searchable full text from Proquest, as is the El Paso Herald-Post through Access.newspaperarchive.com/. Other El Paso newspapers are available at the Portal to Texas History , Hispanic American Newspapers, Latin American Newspapers Series 1 and Latin American Newspapers Series 2 and Hemeroteca Digital de Chihuahua.

 5. Manuscript and photograph collections.  The UTEP Library has several collections from 20th century Mexico, some with guides at https://www.utep.edu/library/special-collections/collections/finding-aids.html.  Most relate to the border region or Chihuahua, and many deal with mining, business, ranching, or railroads.  Some collections from the U.S. may reflect aspects of events in Mexico, although they may not be Mexican materials, per se.  Examples are The Popular Dry Goods records, Zork Hardware records, Southern Pacific Company (Rio Grande Division) records, and the National Catholic Welfare Conference case files.  Lists and finding aids are available in Special Collections.

 6. Web resources.  The Latin American Network Information Center in Austin has lot of resources up on the web.  Examples include documents about Zapatistas: http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/Zapatistas/; a list of resources and databases on Latin America: http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/las-db/ ; and Mexican presidential messages: http://lanic.utexas.edu/larrp/pm/sample2/mexican/index.html/

Look for other leads at the NYU Library guide to primary sources.

Special Collections phone: 747-5697; hours: M-F 8 a.m.-5 p.m. With advance arrangements, research appointments may be available Wednesday evenings or Saturday mornings.

Claudia Rivers, Special Collections Librarian, phone 747-6725; e-mail crivers@utep.edu.

Abbie Weiser, Assistant Head of Special Collections, phone 747-6839; email ahweiser@utep.edu 

Special Collections web page address: https://www.utep.edu/library/special-collections/index.html