Research Guides: HIST 3340: Mexican Americans Since 1848: Primary Sources, Researching Law, & Other Tools

Primary vs. Secondary Sources: A Guide to Understanding

Useful Tools

Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new window Provides online access to both the 16th and 15th editions of the Chicago Manual of Style, plus Style Q&A, a quick-guide of Chicago citation examples, and a variety of helpful citing tools.

SHSU Writing Center Handouts
Many handouts on structuring your essays, editing your writing, and citing your sources.

EndNote Web This link opens in a new window
Web-based tool for keeping track of all your sources (export them from many databases). Create formatted citations and bibliographies in just a few clicks.
Introduction / instructions for SHSU users.
Create an account off-campus with PC.
EndNote Web is a Web-based bibliography and database manager that allows users to create their own personal database by importing references from text files or online databases. They can use these references in writing their papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds. EndNote Web is a free version of EndNote.

3 Tip in 3 Minutes: History Research Video Series
These short video tutorials, created by the SHSU History Librarian, will teach you tricks to become more efficient and effective in your History research.
Careers, Grad Studies, and Opportunities in History
Are you planning graduate work or a career in History? Take a look at this guide for information on grad schools, awards, job listings, and MORE!

Books that include Primary Source Info

History Commons (All available Collections) This link opens in a new window Vast array of historical newspapers, magazines, and full-text books, including Frank Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, African American newspapers, Godey's Lady's Book, women's suffrage and feminist publications, extensive Civil War documents, county histories from across the U.S., and much more.
Formerly known as Accessible Archives
America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1998 This link opens in a new window American and U.S. local newspapers from all 50 states, ranging from 1690 to 1998.
Dallas Morning News Historical Archive 1885-1984 This link opens in a new window Documents major events in Texas, the U.S. and the world, 1885-1984. Full papers: articles, photos, graphics, maps, political cartoons, editorials, ads, recipes, etc.
Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window Hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including both Spanish-language papers and papers published bilingually in Spanish and English. Largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection Series I This link opens in a new window U.S. Hispanic history, literature, and culture, all 50 states, circa 1610-2006. Periodical articles, books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more in full text.
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection Series II: Leaders, Writers, and Thinkers This link opens in a new window Provided by the Department of Foreign Languages. Focuses on the evolution of Hispanic civil rights, religious thought, and the growing presence of women writers from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Contains hundreds of rare books, over 3,000 newspaper issues (including rare anarchist newspapers), and over 250,000 pages of personal and organizational manuscripts. Content is mostly Spanish, some English.

Bexar Archives Online - Hispanic Texas, 1717-1836. (Univ. of Texas)
Bracero History Archive - Oral histories and artifacts (George Mason Univ., Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Brown Univ., and Univ. of Texas El Paso)
A Continent Divided: The U.S.-Mexico War - Primary sources. (Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, and the Library at the Univ. of Texas at Arlington)
The Documented Border - Untold and silenced stories and events. (Univ. of Arizona)
Documents from the U.S.-Mexican War - Speeches, treaties, and battle reports. (Descendants of Mexican War Veterans)
Historic Mexican & Mexican American Press Collection - Publications from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. (Univ. of Arizona)
John J. Herrera Papers - Private and public papers of John J. Herrera, 1940s-1970s. (Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library)
La Herencia del Pueblo: Mexican Heritage Project Photographs - Over 4,000 images of Tucson's Mexican American community from the Gadsden Purchase until World War II. (Arizona Historical Society Library and Archives)
Latina(o) Cultural Heritage Archives - (California State Univ., Northridge)
Mapping the Movimiento - GIS tour highlighting key sites in San Antonio that contributed to the Mexican American Civil Rights movement. (UTSA Libraries, Institute of Texan Cultures)
The Mexican American Family and Photo Collection - (Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library)
New Mexico Digital Collections - (Univ. of New Mexico Libraries)
Onda Latina: The Mexican American Experience - 226 digital audio programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns from the radio series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos," the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982. (Univ. of Texas at Austin)
Robert E. Lee Mexican War Maps - 30 original military maps owned by Robert E. Lee. 28 items were used by Lee in Mexico, 1846-1848, when he was serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army Engineers Corps. (Virginia Military Institute)
The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings - Archive of approximately 30,000 recordings issued on 78 rpm phonograph recordings during the first half of the 20th century. (Univ. of California Los Angeles)
Voices of Civil Rights - Collection of primary accounts of the Civil Rights Movement, including the Chicano and Women’s Movements as well as African American. (AARP and Library of Congress)
The Zachary Taylor Encampment in Corpus Christi, TX, 1845-1846 - Images, letters, newspaper accounts, and more, of the Mexican War in the Corpus Christi, Texas, area. (Corpus Christi Public Library)

Video: Searching for Primary Source Collections with Google Advanced Search

Law Research

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Westlaw provides access to cases from the courts of all 50 states and the federal courts, statutes from all 50 states and federal statutes. Contains full text of American Law Reports and numerous law reviews. This is the best place to start legal research.

Legal Source This link opens in a new window
Includes scholarly law journals, scholarly articles, symposia, jurisdictional surveys, court decisions, legislation, books, book reviews, and more. Covers topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, medical law, labor & human resource law, ethics, the environment, and more. International scope covers U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

If the party names in your case are very common, your searches may return material on other cases as well.

It is helpful if you know a year, or at least a general time period, when your case was decided. Then you can look at the dates on the cases you find and you will know which one to choose!

Latinos and American Law: Landmark Supreme Court Cases by Carlos R. Soltero
Call Number: KF4757.5 .L38 A52 2006, 4th floor
Publication Date: 2006
To achieve justice and equal protection under the law, Latinos have turned to the U.S. court system to assert and defend their rights. Some of these cases have reached the United States Supreme Court, whose rulings over more than a century have both expanded and restricted the legal rights of Latinos, creating a complex terrain of power relations between the U.S. government and the country's now-largest ethnic minority.