Research Guides: Latin American &amp; Caribbean Studies: Reference Resources

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Highlighted Resource

Modern Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria
ISBN: 9780199754915
Publication Date: 2012
Provides an overview of Latin American literature from the late eighteenth century to the present. This resource covers a wide range of topics, highlighting how Latin American literature became conscious of its continental scope and international reach in moments of political crisis, such as independence from Spain, the Spanish–American War, and the Mexican and Cuban revolutions.

Dictionaries

Pocket Oxford Spanish Dictionary: English-Spanish
Available as an ebook.
The Routledge Portuguese Bilingual Dictionary: Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese
Available in print only.
Pocket Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary: French-English

Using Reference Resources

Reference sources are a great starting point for starting research on a new topic because they provide general information on a topic. They often include the following types of information to help you get started:

Get an overview of a new or complex topic
Find out the names of key players in a given area
Locate terms that you can use in your research
Help narrow (or expand) your topic
Locate a bibliography of sources to help you start your research

Reference sources include encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and other sources like them. Some reference sources for Latin American-related topics are listed below.

General Reference Sources

A selection of digital and print reference resources, including encyclopedias, handbooks, and other types of overview information.

Native Land Digital
Native Land is an app to help map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages.
Oxford Bibliographies: Latin American Studies
Acts as a guide to the current scholarship on a this topic, and includes commentary and annotations. Available as ebook.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Latin American History, 2022
A continuously updated encyclopedia of scholarly work on Latin America's peoples and experiences from pre-Columbian to contemporary times. Available as ebook.
Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, 2013
Presents the current scholarly understanding of the subject. During the past generation, historians have broadened that understanding by adopting both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-continental perspective, examining the interplay of Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the flows of goods, people, plants, animals, capital, and ideas. Available as an ebook and in print.
Ethnic Groups of the Americas: An Encyclopedia, 2013
Entries cover national groups, ethnicities, indigenous native peoples, and small immigrant populations of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Entries include historical and cultural background, population estimates, language, and religion. Also included is a history of the group through the turn of the 19th century, with background on societal organization and culture and expanded information on language and religious beliefs, and information on the group in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Endangered Languages Project
This project serves as an online resource for samples and research on endangered languages as well as a forum for advice and best practices for those working to strengthen linguistic diversity.
Indigenous Mexico
A resource for information on Mexico's Indigenous People.
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Latin American Culture, 2004
Essays explore the unity and diversity of the region's cultural expressions, analyze history and politics from the nineteenth century to the present day, and consider the heritage of pre-Columbian and Colonial Latin America. Available as ebook and in print.
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures, 2000
This three-volume encyclopedia covers more than 40 regions and a time-span of 1920 to the date of publication. "Culture" is broadly defined to include food, sport, religion, television, transport, alongside architecture, dance, film, literature, music and sculpture. Available in print only.
Library of Congress Latin American Studies Research Guides
Library of Congress maintains a number of research guides covering each country in Latin America. Each guide offers links to databases, digital collections, and print titles. Additional guides address topics such coffee, law, and composers.

Europa World This link opens in a new window
Europa World Plus database provides profiles for countries, territories, and regions. Profiles include political and economic information as well as statistics and information on religion, media and press. For regional information, select South America, Central America and the Caribbean on the left menu. You can also narrow by country.

Social Sciences

Handbook of Social Movements Across Latin America (2015)
Addresses the politics of mass mobilization in the early twenty-first century and examines the rise of left leaning governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru and Bolivia. Available as ebook.
Oxford Handbook of Latin American Political Economy (2012)
This book adopts a political-economy perspective to understand Latin American economies. Available as ebook and in print.
Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics (2011)
Through a development economic lens, this series looks at longer-term issues in the region, macroeconomic topics, and the region's economies in global context. Available as ebook and in print.
Political Database of the Americas (PDBA)
A project of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Georgetown University in collaboration with institutions like the Secretariat for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States and FLACSO-Chile, and also with the support of other organizations and entities in the region. It provides centralized and systematized information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region.
Political Handbook of the World
Provides current political information and political controversies at the country level. Browse by country or by political and electoral systems. Annual publication allows you to read how political controversies were portrayed in recent history.
Routledge Handbook of Latin American Development (2018)
This handbook seeks to engage with comprehensive, contemporary, and critical theoretical debates on Latin American development. The volume draws on contributions from across the humanities and social sciences and explicitly highlights the disruptions to the field being brought by a range of anti-capitalist, decolonial, feminist, and ontological intellectual contributions. Available as an ebook.
Routledge Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America (2019)
Offers analysis of the central theoretical and applied areas of enquiry in socio-legal studies in the region. Available as ebook.

Humanities

Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003
Includes entries on all aspects of literature including authors, critics, major works, magazines, genres, schools and movements in these regions from the beginning of the twentieth century to 2004. Available as ebook.
Modern Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction, 2012
Provides an overview of Latin American literature from the late eighteenth century to the present. This resource covers a wide range of topics, highlighting how Latin American literature became conscious of its continental scope and international reach in moments of political crisis, such as independence from Spain, the Spanish–American War, and the Mexican and Cuban revolutions. Available as an ebook.
Colonial Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction, 2011
Provides an account of the literary culture of the Spanish-speaking Americas from the time of Columbus to Latin American Independence. This resource explores the origins of Latin American literature in Spanish and tells the story of how Spanish literary language developed and flourished in the New World. The works of Spanish, creole, and Amerindian authors highlighted here have been chosen for the merits of their writings and their participation in the larger literary and cultural debates of their times. Available as an ebook.
Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, 2020
Provides an overview of the main religions of Latin America and the Caribbean, both its centralized transnational expressions and its local variants and schisms. Available as ebook.
Encyclopedia of Latin American Theater, 2003
Excellent resource for biographical information of Latinx playwrights. Available in print.
Historical Dictionary of Latin American Literature and Theater, 2011
Succinct biographical and production information for playwrights from all of Latin America. Available in print.