Welcome to this Library Research Guide for FMS139W - Writing on Film and Media: Writing about Latinx Media! In this course you are exploring questions such as what is Latinx media? What does studying Latinx media tell you about representation, audiences, industry, community, and society? You are also expected to write a seminar paper about Latinx media, grounded in Latinx media studies scholarship. Your bibliography will include at least 10 sources, with a minimum of 6 scholarly sources as well as primary sources (films, television shows, audio recordings, digital media, interviews, newspapers, and archival sources). This guide will help you in the process of compiling a strong and well-researched bibliography. This page contains a lot of information so it is organized into links and themes. I'm always here to help if you have any questions!
| Bibliographies + Books: | Journal Articles & Databases: | Scholars to Consult + Web Resources: |
Published bibliographies are excellent starting points in the research process. UCI Libraries subscribes to a resource called 'Oxford Bibliographies Online' (OBO) which offers authoritative research guides across a variety of subject areas. These entries are annotated bibliographies that offer you comprehensive lists of the best scholarship across a variety of subjects. (They will list for you the core textbooks, journals and articles, books, and more to read on a sub-topic). Take a look at a few examples relevant to this course below:
Cinema + Media Studies:
African American Studies:
Latin American Studies:
A list of recommended Latinx Studies anthologies, readers, monographs, and edited volumes. Some of these are in print only, while others are available online and in print. You can also request single scans in UC Library Search for individual chapters of books when you sign into your account with your UCI net ID.
Latina/o Studies: They Key Concepts by 
Critical Dialogues in Latinx Studies: A Reader by 
Afro-Latin@s in Movement by 
Racial Formation in the United States by 
How Race Is Made in America: immigration, citizenship, and the historical power of racial scripts by 
Barrio Dreams : Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and the neoliberal city by 
The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation by 
The Chicano Studies Reader : an anthology of Aztlán, 1970-2000 by 
Making Hispanics : how activists, bureaucrats, and media constructed a new American by 
The Trouble with Unity : Latino politics and the creation of identity by 
Latinos, Inc. : the marketing and making of a people by 
Latino Spin : public image and the whitewashing of race by 
Brown trans figurations : rethinking race, gender, and sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx studies by 
Gay Latino Studies : a critical reader by 
The Latino Threat : constructing immigrants, citizens, and the nation by 
We Are Not Dreamers : undocumented scholars theorize undocumented life in the United States by UC Library Search is the easiest way to find and discover books. To make it a bit easier, when you enter keywords into UC Library Search, use the filters on the left-hand side and select "books" and "book chapters" as the format, and also pay attention to publication year.
Search for thousands of ebooks, with emphasis on humanities and social sciences.
Google Books contains millions of digitized books beyond UCI Library. You can use it as a "discovery tool" . For example, you can keyword search an artist's name to see where they appear in various chapters of books. Only public domain (out of copyright) books are available as full-text in this tool, so check the library for the full-text copy.
Finding Books in the Library Stacks
Sometimes, it is nice to browse the print collection available locally on campus. Because this course can be interdisciplinary in nature, you may be looking at multiple sections in the library (history, social sciences, humanities, communication, film studies, and more). Here are a few starting points to browse the library stacks:
| Class H: Social Sciences | Examples: |
| HT51-1595 | Communities. Classes. Race. |
| HM1206-1211 | Communication. Mass Media |
| Class E: History of the Americas | |
| E151-909 | United States |
| Class F: History of the Americas | |
| F1201-3799 | Latin America. |
| F1201-1392 | Mexico |
| F1421-1440 | Central America |
| F2202-3799 | South America |
| F2251-2299 | Colombia |
| F2501-2659 | Brazil |
| F3051-3285 | Chile |
| Class P: Language and Literature | |
| PN1993-1999 | Motion Pictures |
| PN1990-199.92 | Broadcasting (Radio, Television) |
| PN4699-5650 | Journalism. The periodical press, etc. |
Examples of Subject Headings for this Course:
Pop Culture
Latinx Pop Culture (book series)
Mexican Americans in popular culture
Media
Hispanic American Mass Media
Hispanic Americans in Mass Media
Hispanic Americans -- Press Coverage -- United States
Mexican Americans -- Press Coverage -- United States
Motion Pictures & Television
Hispanic Americans in the motion picture industry
Hispanic Americans on television
Mexican Americans in motion pictures
Border Politics
Children of immigrants -- Education -- California
Deportation -- California
Emigration and immigration law -- United States
Immigrant Families -- United States -- Social Conditions
Immigrant Families -- Law and legislation -- United States
Mexican Americans -- Political Activity
Noncitizens -- California -- Social Conditions
A list of recommended Latinx media scholars, filmmakers, and curators recommended by your professor. When you click these links, you'll see that it takes you to UC Library Search (it is an author subject search), showing you books and articles published by each individual.
Noriega, Chon A., 1961-
(Film producer, scholar, curator, film & art history)
Valdivia, Angharad N.
(Scholar: Latin American Studies, Cinema/Media, Gender Studies)
Casillas, Dolores Inés
(Spanish-language media; Chicana and Latina Popular Culture; Racial Politics of Language)
Aparicio, Frances R.
(Latino/a literary studies; Cultural Politics of U.S. Latino/a languages; Latino/a music and dance; cultural hybridity; Latinidad)
Rodriguez, Clara E., 1944-
(Images of Latinos in the US Media; Hispanics in the US; History and Culture of Latino communities in the US)
Cepeda, María Elena
(Latina/o/x media & popular culture - intersectional approaches to music; music video; social media; style politics)
Negrón-Muntaner, Frances
(19th- and 20th-century Caribbean and US Latino Literatures and Cultures; Popular Culture; Visual Studies)
Jimenez, Lillian
(Film director; founding Chair of the National Association of Independent Latino Producers)
López, Ana
(Melodrama and performance in the Golden Age Cinemas of Latin America, telenovelas, Cuban American media)
Beltrán, Mary C.
(U.S. television/film history, mixed race + media culture, U.S. Latina/o representation in media production)
Castañeda, Mari
(Latinx/ethnic media studies, global communications, community based learning and civic engagement)
Parédez, Deborah, 1970-
(Latino/a art and culture, especially poetry)
Baez, Jillian M
(Latinx media and popular culture, transnational feminisms, issues around citizenship)
The Latino Studies Journal explores Latino/a culture at the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric levels. This journal illuminates the struggles of Latinas and Latinos for equality, representation, and social justice.
Special Issue in Critical Latinx Indigeneities (2017): This particular issue emergedout of a need to examine how Indigenous migrants from Latin America are transforming notions of Latinidad and indigeneity in the US. The articles gathered in this issue collectively consider how the growing presence of an Indigenous diaspora from Latin America is shifting and raising questions about transnational meanings of race, place, and indigeneity.
Here are a few journals you may want to consider, depending on your topic. You can also discover other reputable academic journals across these subject areas through a tool called BrowZine: Hispanic-American Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; and Media Studies.
Please also visit the Film and Media Studies Journal page, which lists many other critical film and media studies academic journals and magazines, broadly defined.
These databases are excellent resources for getting started. Try running a few keyword searches in more than one to see what articles and results show up! Some are specific to a field of study while others cover all disciplines.
Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI)
Provides complete bibliographic citations to the contents of scholarly journals published around the world on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Hispanics/Latinos in the US since the late 1960s. Includes everything from political, economic, and social issues to the arts and humanities. See the list of journals here.
This databases Indexes a wide variety of materials (journal articles, books, book chapters) on the Mexican-American, Chicano, and the broader Latino experience. Scholarship is dated from 1960s-present. Use the "Get it at UC" link for full-text if not in database, or try ILL.
Film & Media Studies Databases (ProQuest)
This link will cross-search multiple databases in one search: the American Film Institute Film Catalog, the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, Performing Arts Periodicals, Film Index International, and FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.
This database covers communication (and media) studies. . Use this database to research mass media topics.
This database is multidisciplinary so it covers many subject areas. It includes access to thousands of peer-reviewed journals as well as abstracts for magazines, monographs, reports, and conference proceedings.
Media History Digital Library (Historical Research)
A free online archive/database featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. JSTOR helps people discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching platform, and preserves this content for future generations
Here a few links to news databases that are based in the U.S. Pay attention to dates (listed in the coverage information) as some are historical and some are current. Also, get a free subscription to NYTimes.com and Washington Post!
U.S. Major Dailies
Includes The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Coverage: 1980s - today.
La Opinion
Spanish language daily newspaper published in Los Angeles. Coverage: 2000 - current.
California Newspapers (Historical)
Coverage: 1850-1922
AltPressWatch
Alternative and independent press newspapers, magazines, and journals. Coverage: mostly 2000 - current.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in America.
UCI Libraries provides access to a few Latin American news databases that are historical (as early as the 1800s). Here are a couple of them:
Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library (Historical)
Coverage: 1884-2016
Newspapers in Spanish, English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese.
Latin American Newspapers (Historical)
Includes 35 newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th century in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela
Film & Media Studies Databases (ProQuest)
This link will cross-search multiple databases in one search: the American Film Institute Film Catalog, the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, Performing Arts Periodicals, Film Index International, and FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.
Daily Variety Archives contain almost every issue Variety has ever published — that's every page, including articles and ads, front pages and back covers. Each page is a watermarked PDF file. Variety began as a weekly publication December 16, 1905. Currently, the archives begin March 18, 1906. The archive is currently missing: March 29, 1932-June 14, 1932. The archive contain every issue of Daily Variety, which began publication September 6, 1933. An excellent source when trying to find older film reviews!
Media History Digital Library (Historical Research)
A free online archive/database featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
Los Angeles Times, 1985-present
Search for articles in recent editions of the LA Times.
New York Times, 1980-present
Search for articles in recent editions of the New York Times.
Ethnic Newswatch
Articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in America.
These databases and digital projects seek to amplify the voices and experiences of marginalized peoples and communities. Depending on your topic, one of these may be very helpful for primary source material!
Alternative Press Index and Archive
An index to alternative, radical, and left periodicals, newspapers, and magazines. Coverage varies: mostly 2000s - current
American Prison Newspapers
Ongoing digitization project of prison newspapers.
GenderWatch
Alternative press and other hard-to-find articles about gender and sexuality. Coverage varies: mostly 1990s - current
Independent Voices
Ongoing digitization project. Will include 1,000 alternative magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers. Coverage: 1960s-1980s
Database Searching with Boolean Operators:
| AND | narrows the search because it requires that all keywords be in the results | media AND women AND body image |
| OR | broadens the search by looking for either of the words | latinx OR latinos OR hispanics OR chicanos OR latinas |
| NOT | narrows a search by eliminating a certain aspect of a topic | media NOT radio |
| * | Using an asterisk is a form of truncation. Truncating means that you are able to search different forms of the same word at the same time. |
America* = America, Americans, American politic* = politics, political, politic |
For more search strategies, visit this page.
If you are a visual or audiovisual learner, these are very easy, short videos on navigating the library database Academic Search Complete, using Google Scholar, and also some great tips on understanding how to use strategies like truncation and boolean operators for better, more relevant results when you research:
