For anyone interested in learning about the history of Mexico, the William H. Hannon Library recently subscribed to a database that should pique your interest: Mexico in History: Colonialism to Revolution.
Mexico in History is a document archive that provides extensive coverage of Mexican history from the Spanish colonization era through the Mexican War of Independence and the Mexican Revolution. Key features to this collection include materials in Spanish, spanning early studies of indigenous languages, records of the Mexican Inquisition, and extensive administrative and land records. In addition to video interviews and translation case studies, this collection also includes significant manuscript documentation of the Mexican Revolution.
Mexico in History draws from the Latin Americana Collection at The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. To describe the scope of the Latin Americana Collection, the database’s landing page features an 8-minute transcribed (2024) video interview with José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez, curator of the Latin Americana Collection.
When asked “Why is the Latin Americana Collection so important to researchers?” Barragán-Álvarez explains that “the collection is really important to the research of Mexico and Central America because it contains some of the earliest manuscripts from the Americas and some of the earliest printed books from the Americas, up until the very modern period … which includes some of those earliest Mexican incunabula, the first printed books, to materials related to California and the movement of peoples.”
However, this database is not limited to the past. Barragán-Álvarez makes sure to emphasize that the Latin Americana collection also has “materials that deal with more current pressing issues, up to the present, where we’re collecting books done by artists who are right now documenting the life of being people in Mexico. So it really spans that entire period from around the 1500s to the present.”
In addition to a video interview with the Latin Americana Collection’s curator, the Mexico in History database landing page also includes links to explore the collections “Nature and Scope;” a collection of “Essays and Video Interviews” by leading scholars; a “Chronology” providing an overview of key events relevant to materials in Mexico in History; brief “Biographies” to learn about a variety of figures in Mexico in History; and “Collection Highlights” to easily browse key collections.
What makes Mexico in History unique for LMU students, faculty, and staff is that it enhances the library’s collections by providing archival, primary sources from a wide time frame in Mexican History (1500-1929). Its focus on original documents, including manuscripts, linguistic studies, and church records adds depth to the study of Mexican history. Researchers in disciplines including history, law, politics, diplomacy, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and Latin American studies may find this resource especially useful.
You can find Mexico in History, as well our 300+ other databases, through OneSearch. If you need assistance, please go to our Get Help page.
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