Library Guides: Ethnic Studies
 Hispanic/Latin American

Developed by Connie Fly, Librarian

This guide will help you in your journey of discovery for information on your topic.  In addition to the Reference Books, Internet Sites and Periodicals listed below, the COS Library has a large number of books that you can check out.  An HSI/Listo grant purchased  books for the library on your topic which you can check out. This list is an example of some of the books recently purchased by Listo and added to the library collection that you can check out. Please look for additional books by using our online catalog.

Places to Start | Art, Film Music & Museums |  Authors & Literature | Biography | Demographics & Statistics | Health | History and Politics | Magazines & Newspapers |  Military | Sports |

Places to Start

Reference Books

  • American Immigrant Cultures; Builders of a Nation (2 volumes) - Call # R 305.8 A512

  • Encyclopedia of American Social History - Call # R 301.0973 En56

  • The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America (3 volumes) R #323.1 En56

  • Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology - Call #  R 306.03 En56

  • Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2 volumes) Call # R 305.8 G151

  • Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups - Call # R 973.04 H339

  • Multiculturalism in the United States:  a Comparative Guide to Acculturation and Ethnicity - Call # R 305.8 M961

  • Reference Library of Hispanic America (3 volumes) - Call # R 973.0468 H673

The Internet

  • The Borderlands Encyclopedia - A digital educational resource of contemporary United States - Mexico Border Issues - Developed by the University of Texas, El Paso

  • CHCI Education Center -  This Website is designed  for Hispanic students looking to go to college, stay in college, land an internship, or prepare for the workforce.  Students and parents looking for financial assistance for higher education can perform their own personalized scholarship search or explore CHCI’s bank of scholarships especially earmarked for Latino students. 

  • Guide to Latino Studies Research Centers (Yale Univ.) - Provides links to Research Centers and Collections throughout the United States.

  • Internet Resources for Latin America

  • Latin American Network - From the University of Texas, Austin.  This is an extensive directory of links on Latin America.  It is organized by Country and Subject.

  • Latino Education Directory - This directory was developed with the idea of helping those individuals and organizations across the country to make contact with each other, share resources, and form networks of support for Latino students wherever they reside. The creation of this directory has been a collaborative project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools (AEL, Inc., Charleston, WV) and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education (Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City)

  • Latino Website Pathfinder - A list of Latino informational sites in broad categories including politics, literature, libraries & bookstores, music, dance, theater, etc.

  • Pew Hispanic Center - The Pew Hispanic Center's mission is to improve understanding of the diverse Hispanic population in the United States and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. The Center strives to inform debate on critical issues through dissemination of its research to policymakers, business leaders, academic institutions and the media

Art, Film, Music, Museums and Holidays

Reference Books

  • Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean Art - Call # R 709.803 En56

The Internet

  • Spanish California 19th Century Sheet Music - from "A virtual library of some 2,000 pieces of sheet music published in California between 1852 and 1900, together with related materials such as a San Francisco publisher's catalog of 1872, programs, songsheets, advertisements, and photographs." Full images of every page and some sound files are available. Discusses a few Mexican composers, with lists of their songs.

  • Day of the Dead - What do Mexicans celebrate on the Day of the Dead

  • The Day of the Dead - A bilingual site dedicated to the celebration of Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead  in Mexico

  • Farm Labor Issues -  UC Davis Rural Migration News - Covers such topics as farm worker housing, wages, unions, guest workers (braceros) programs and agribusiness

  • Latin America Cinema Home Page - From the University of Georgia Libraries - This page provides links to a variety of web sites on Latin American cinema. It includes the Caribbean in their definition of Latin America and cinema includes the formats of both film and video. Coverage also includes U.S. Latino cinema. 

  • The Mexican Museum - Located at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, The Mexican Museum offers a vital artistic contribution to the greater Bay Area. It offers a self-representational view of Mexican Art and culture through the millennia. The museum's permanent collection holds more than 9,000 objects in the following five areas: Pre-Hispanic Art, Colonial Art, Folk Art, Mexican Fine Art, and Mexican American/Chicano Fine Art. 

  • Unknown Mexico - From the Texas Humanities Resource Center.  This is the electronic version of a photo-and-text panel display based on an exhibition of original artifacts organized by the Houston Museum of Natural Science In the panel exhibit, the visual images are grouped by point of origin and the cultural-anthropological theme that they illustrate or suggest. 

Authors and Literature 

Reference Books

  • Chicano Authors  - Call # R 810.9 B887

  • Chicano Literature - Call # R 810.9 C533

  • Chicano Writers (First and Second Series ) -  Call # R 810.9 C532

  • Dictionary of Mexican Literature - Call # R 860.9 D554

  • Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature - Call # R 860.09 En56

  • Interviews with Latin American Writers - Call # R 869 G289

  • Latin American Writers - Call # R 860.9 L357

  • Masterpieces of Latino Literature - Call # R 860.9 M423

  • Spanish American Authors; The Twentieth Century - Call # R 860.9 F634

  • Spanish American Writing Since 1941 - Call # R 860.998 M167

The Internet

Biography

Reference Books

  • Biography Index - Located on the Second Floor in the Periodicals Room

  • Current Biography - Call # R 920 C976

  • Dictionary of Hispanic Biography - Call # R 920.046 D554

  • Notable Hispanic American Women - Call # R 920.72 N899

  • Notable Latino Americans:  a Biographical Dictionary - Call # R 920 M511

The Internet

Demographics & Statistics  

  • Facts on Hispanic/Latino Population - From the U.S. Census Bureau
  • Hispanic Fact Pack 2004 - (.pdf format) "Valuable, hard-to-find data about demographic trends, marketer spending, Hispanic media and leading Hispanic agencies." Includes data about top advertisers and brands, leading radio formats and television markets, and demographics. Opens directly into a PDF file. From Advertising Age.
  • Hispanic Populations of the U.S.  - From the U.S. Census
  • We the People:  Hispanics in the United States -  "This report provides a portrait of the Hispanic-origin population in the United States and discusses some of the Hispanic or Latino groups within this population at the national level. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents several demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000." Opens directly into a PDF document. From the U.S. Census Bureau.

Health

History and Politics

Reference Books

  • Encyclopedia of Ancient Meso America - Call # R 972 B492

  • Dictionary of the Twentieth Century Culture:  Hispanic Culture of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean - Call # R 972 H673

  • Encyclopedia of Latin-American History - Call # R 980 M382

  • Encyclopedia of Mexico:  History, Society & Culture (2 volumes) - Call # 972.003 En56

  • Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States:  Sociology - Call # R 973 H236

  • The Hispanic Presence in North America from 1492 to Today - Call # R 973 F363

  • Latin American History and Culture - Call # R 980.003 En56

  • The Latino Encyclopedia (6 volumes) - Call # R 973.0468 L357

  • Reference Library of Hispanic America (3 volumes) - Call # R 973.0468 H673

The Internet 

  • Farm Labor Issues -  UC Davis Rural Migration News - Covers such topics as farm worker housing, wages, unions, guest workers (braceros) programs and agribusiness
  • History of Mexican Americans in California - Explores Mexican American History starting in 1519 through the Mexican War, Post Conquest, 1900 to 1940, WWII, Chicano Movement and the Future.

  • San Diego Mexican and Chicano History - This website is an attempt to summarize some of the most important people, events, and ideas that native peoples, Spaniards Mexicans, and Chicanos have contributed to San Diego regional history. It draws from, and is a companion to a larger work in progress, written collaboratively and yet to be published.

  • Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute - The Congressional Hispanic Caucus was organized in 1976 by five Hispanic Congressmen: to monitor legislative and other government activity that affects Hispanics. The Caucus was originally formed to serve as a legislative organization through which legislative action, as well as executive and judicial actions, could be monitored to ensure that the needs of Hispanics were being met. The founders' goal was to work in conjunction with other groups, both inside and outside Congress, to strengthen the Federal commitment to Hispanic citizens and heighten the Hispanic community's awareness of the operation and function of the American political system.

  • Latino Legislative Caucus - California - This website seeks to provide an informative look at the Latino Caucus and illuminate some of the issues affecting Latinos in California. More often than not, issues that affect Latinos are issues that affect all Californians. It  provides information about the purpose of the Latino Caucus, up-to-date information about the Caucus' history, previous legislative priorities, policy papers relating to the Latino community, and links to other important sites.

  • MANA - A National pan-Latina Association which seeks to empower Latinas through leadership development, community service, and advocacy.

  • Mexican American Political Association - The Mexican American Political Association, founded in Fresno, California in 1960, has been, and is, dedicated to the constitutional and democratic principle of political freedom and representation for the Mexican and Hispanic people of the United States of America.

  • Social Movements and Cultures - Chicano/a Latino/a Movimientos

Military

  • Hispanic American Medal of Honor Recipients - Thirty-nine Hispanic-Americans are among the more than 3,400 Medal of Honor recipients to be awarded this decoration from the President, in the name of Congress, since its creation in 1861. This Web site provides  narratives that describe the heroic efforts of the 39 Hispanic-American Medal of Honor recipients, as they appear in the Congressional compilation.

Religion

Reference Books

  • Contemporary American Religion (2 volumes)  - Call # R 200 C761

  • The Encyclopedia of Religion (16 volumes)  - Call # R 200.321 En56

Sports

Reference Books

  • The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League - Call # R 796.3320922 T717
  • The Official NBA Encyclopedia - Call # R 796.323 O32
  • Total Baseball:  the Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball - Call # R796.357 T717

The Internet 

A Directory of Links to Latino Sports 

Magazines and Newspapers

Titles in the COS Library (Located in the Library Periodical Room on the Second Floor)

  • Aztlan 

  • Hispanic 

  • Hispanic American Historical Review 

Online Periodicals and Media Sites

  • Periodical Databases that the COS Library subscribes to over the Internet.

  • New California Media - Multi-Ethnic Media News.  New California Media (NCM) – an association of over 400 print, broadcast and online ethnic media organizations – was founded in 1996 by the non profit Pacific News Service. NCM's goal is to raise the visibility of ethnic media as a major information source for California's 17 million ethnic residents.

  • Zona Latina:  The Latin American Media Site - Zona Latina is the site for media and marketing in Latin America. They have an extensive collection of web resources: 850+ newspaper links, 1250+ magazine links, 800+ radio links, 700+ television links and much more, updated daily.

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This page was created November 27, 2001, This page was last updated: November 13, 2006
For questions and comments, please mail to: connief@cos.edu