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Latin American Newspapers, Series 1

1805-1922

Unique coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped this vital region
Summary
Learn what makes this product unique
  • Online access to more than 50 Latin American newspapers published between 1805 and 1922
  • Features newspapers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and other countries
  • Created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries and its contributing members as part of the World Newspaper Archive

This groundbreaking online collection provides more than 50 fully searchable Latin American newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring titles from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and elsewhere, Latin American Newspapers, 1805-1922 offers unprecedented coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped this vital region between 1805 and 1922.

Latin American culture and daily life over two centuries
Latin American Newspapers, 1805-1922features such key publications as La Nacion, La Prensa and Vanguardia (Buenos Aires), Jornal do Commercio (Rio de Janeiro), O Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo), Mercurio (Santiago), La Prensa (Havana), El Guatemalteco (Guatemala City), Daily Chronicle (Georgetown, Guyana), La Revista de Yucatan (Merida, Mexico), La Patria, Mexican Herald and El Monitor Republicano (Mexico City), El Dictamen (Veracruz Llave, Mexico), La Estrella de Panama and Star & Herald (Panama City), El Peruano and West Coast Leader (Lima), Port of Spain Gazette (Port of Spain), the Venezuelan Herald (Caracas) and more than a dozen others. Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, matrimony notices and obituaries, this unique collection chronicles the evolution of Latin American culture and daily life over two centuries. In addition, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints from diverse cultures—ideal for comparing and contrasting perspectives on issues and events. More than 250 additional titles from 20 countries, including Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Paraguay, are available in Latin American Newspapers, Series 2, 1822-1922.

An integral part of the World Newspaper Archive
Created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries—one of the world’s largest and most important newspaper repositories—Latin American Newspapers, 1805-1922, is the inaugural series in the World Newspaper Archive. Advancing research and offering opportunities for fresh insights across wide-ranging academic disciplines, the World Newspaper Archive includes historical newspapers published in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and other regions. Ideal for students, teachers and scholars around the globe, this uniquely comprehensive online resource can be cross-searched with America’s Historical Newspapers for unprecedented coverage of events that have shaped world history.

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“…invaluable records…”
“...nearly 250 newspapers from Mexico and nations of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.”
Reference Reviews (2013)
Areas of Study
This product supports the following subjects
Latin American Studies
World History
Title List
Reviews & Accolades

Latin American Newspapers, Series 2, 1822-1922, is an expansion of the original collection (CH, Oct’09, 47-0599), continuing Readex’s partnership with the Center for Research Libraries….Geographic coverage in Series 2 spans the whole region, from Mexico to the Southern Cone….The majority of the content is in Spanish with some significant material in Portuguese….The images and PDFs are high quality, especially considering the original source material….This database can be acquired as a stand-alone collection but is best seen as an expansion of the earlier series. Libraries that own or are considering purchasing Series 1 should give it strong consideration. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Libraries with the earlier series; lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.”
— L. Gardinier, University of Iowa in Choice (January 2015)

"Latin American Newspapers Series 1, 1805-1922 and Series 2, 1822-1922, contains the full text of nearly 250 newspapers from Mexico and nations of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America scanned from the holdings of libraries such as the University of Texas at Austin, the New York Public Library, and other CRL members. This collection will prove to be another significant contribution by Readex to historical studies of the Americas.

 "These publications are invaluable records of daily life in Latin America as well important documents tracing the nations’ struggle following independence from Spain along with their many debates and conflicts with the US and European powers throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth. The collection has newspapers in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and a number of English-language newspapers from Latin America as well. The titles include many publications that are among the first daily newspapers to appear in their respective countries and reflect the social and political currents of era. Some newspapers such as El Universal of Mexico City still hold a prominent place in Latin American journalism.

 "Advertisements, obituaries, and brief notices appear along with the full-length articles, providing a glimpse into the historical context of the times. Researchers can find first-hand reports and commentaries on key events such as rise and fall of the Mexican Empire, the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish-American War in Cuba (there, for example, are many articles in Spanish and English on Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders of interest to US historians), the Brazilian settlement of the Amazon, and many others. Few North American libraries have access to these rare titles, but now both CRL members and non-CRL member institutions can benefit from this unique collection."
— David D. Oberhelman, Professor, Humanities-Social Sciences Division, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University in Reference Reviews (2013, Volume 27, Number 1)

“Readex joined with the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries famed for the extent and quality of its newspaper collection, to produce World Newspaper Archive (1800–1922) of which Latin American Newspapers is the first segment to be released. Additional modules in World Newspaper Archive will include newspapers from Africa, Eastern Europe, and South Asia. The Readex projects have made judicious selections because they have been well counseled by the professional staff of CRL and their ongoing Advisory Committees comprised of leading research librarians and scholars in the field. The continuous nature of the advisory project is the key here. The two historical collections from Readex represent decades of collecting and a very deliberate plan to preserve, share, and expand holdings on Latino and Latin American Studies.

“The Readex interface is the same for Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808–1980, and Latin American Newspapers. It is sufficiently distinct and data-rich that it requires a few minutes of study before using it....The five tabs include dates and eras; article type; languages; places of publication; and newspaper titles. Each of these tabs allows further narrowing and sorting. The tabs are also valuable as browsing devices. Clicking on the titles tab and selecting an individual title calls up clearly marked calendars showing the dates of coverage and facilitating browsing of actual issues. Similarly, a search brings up individual results that display a snippet of the actual article image. Images are easy to enlarge or reduce; navigation around the article is intuitive and articles can be easily saved in PDF and/or sent by e-mail.”
— Holly Ackerman, Librarian for Latin America and Iberia, Perkins Library, Duke University in The Charleston Advisor (January 2010)

"Latin American Newspapers, an ongoing joint project from the Center for Research Libraries and Readex, a division of NewsBank, is a database that aims to digitize 35 Latin American newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries. ...The database has a broad scope, currently ranging from Mexico to the Southern Cone, and including major newspapers such as El Mercurio (Chile) and La Razón (Argentina). It has the bonus of including English-language titles--the Mexican Herald, the West Coast Leader (Peru), and the Daily Chronicle (Guyana)--as well as Spanish and Portuguese titles. ...Cross-searchable with America's Historical Newspapers and containing English sources, it will be particularly useful for undergraduates seeking primary sources for this time period. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates."
—A. Hicks, University  of Colorado, Boulder in Choice (October  2009)

“In the detailed account of the outbreak of plague in Santos, or the larger story of the changing epidemiological environment and its consequences in Brazil, there are new digital history tools at our disposal, including Latin American Newspapers, 1805-1922. In the last decade historians have witnessed a revolution in digitizing and OCR technology. This has allowed millions of pages of old newspapers to be digitized, converted to machine readable text, placed within database programs and made accessible on the Internet. As a result, the proverbial needle in the haystack can be now found by typing ‘needle’ into a search bar.”
— Ian Olivo Read, author of The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822-1889 (Stanford University Press, 2012)

"Latin American Newspapers, 1805-1922 and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 are two databases of great importance for Latin American studies. Together they provide more than 30 newspapers and 400,000 government documents that provide Latin American researchers with access to critical historical information without requiring travel to the United States or neighboring countries. These high-quality Readex collections offer new opportunities to explore, understand and reveal our own history; both are of huge value to historical researchers in many different fields of the humanities and social sciences." — Prof. Kátia Couto, Department of History, Universidade Federal do Amazonas-UFAM

Notable Titles

Created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries - one of the world's largest and most important newspaper repositories - Latin American Newspapers provides more than 35 fully searchable Latin American newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries. With titles from Argentina to Mexico, Chile to the Caribbean, this eye-opening collection covers the people, issues and events that shaped Latin America and the world between 1805 and 1922. Titles include:

La Nación (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 1906-1922 
Generally considered one of the most prestigious newspapers in Latin America, La Nación was founded on January 4, 1870 by former Argentinean president Bartolomé Mitre. It succeeded the government organ La Nación Argentina, which was published during Mitre's presidency between 1862 and 1869. Under the slogan "La Nación será una tribuna de doctrina," the new publication espoused an independent, conservative perspective on current affairs. (Language: Spanish)

La Prensa (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 1869-1922 
La Prensa was first printed on October 18, 1869 by Dr. Jose Clemente Paz, an Argentine diplomat, politician and journalist. The first issue professed "truth, honor, freedom, progress, civilization" as its goals, and emphasized accurate news reporting over propaganda. By the turn of the century, La Prensa was considered one of the most significant newspapers in the world, with a circulation of over 95,000 copies. (Language: Spanish)

Standard (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 1861-1881
The Buenos Aires Standard was founded on May 1, 1861 by Dublin-born brothers Edward and Michael George Mulhall. It was aimed at the English-speaking community, which at the time was comprised largely of Irish, English and Scottish emigrants. Covering Argentine affairs, events of interest to the English public and foreign news, the Standard was one of the primary daily newspapers of the English-language community. (Language: English)

O Estado de São Paulo (Sao Paulo, Brazil) 1875-1922
Beginning as A Provincia de São Paulo on January 4, 1875, O Estado de São Paulo was renamed in December 1889, following the transition of Brazil from an empire to a republic. The paper's founders - among them future president Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales - were committed to republican ideals. They spoke out against the monarchy and were proponents for the abolition of slavery in Brazil. O Estado was known for its serious approach, clear opinions and high-quality reporting. It enjoyed a wide readership, boasting a daily circulation of nearly 18,000 copies by 1897. (Language: Portuguese)

Jornal do Commercio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 1845-1912
When the Jornal do Commercio began publication on October 1, 1827, founder Pierre Plancher strove to emulate the French Journal du Commerce. The first issues were purposefully non-political and dealt only with matters of commerce. However, political strain in the years following Brazilian independence from Portugal, along with demands from the paper's readership, soon prompted an expansion into political news and opinion. The paper evolved into one of the great political and cultural publications of its time, featuring news and literature from the best-known Brazilian authors. (Language: Portuguese)

El Mercurio (Santiago, Chile) 1914-1922
El Mercurio - often considered Chile's newspaper of record - was founded on June 1, 1900 by Agustin Edwards MacClure, a Chilean businessman and congressman. While conservative in tone, the paper focused on independent and objective news reporting rather than ideology. Its modern equipment, top writers and alliances with foreign press services all contributed to its status as the principal newspaper of the country. (Language: Spanish)

El Guatemalteco (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 1873-1922
Created by Miguel García Granados, El Guatemalteco began on February 18, 1873 as the official newspaper of the government, superseding the earlier Boletin Oficial. It was published independently of Diario de Centro América until 1931, when it merged with Diario by decree of General Jorge Ubico. (Language: Spanish)

Daily Chronicle (Georgetown, Guyana) 1881-1897 
The Daily Chronicle was a colonial publication known as the Demerara Daily Chronicle until 1884. Renamed simply the Daily Chronicle on January 1, 1885, it was the country's largest circulating daily. The paper was independently owned but largely pro-government. (Language: English)

Diario de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico) 1805-1817
Diario de Mexico was the first Mexican newspaper - indeed, the first daily periodical of Nueva España. It began publication on October 1, 1805 under the direction of Carlos María Bustamante, a notable member of the revolutionary cause. Consisting of four pages of administrative, religious and civil information, the paper also included articles on social questions, essays on manners and notes on science, literature and the arts. Its circulation 400 to 800 subscribers included the elite of Mexico. (Language: Spanish)

El Imparcial (Mexico City, Mexico) 1896-1914 
Founded in 1896 by Rafael Reyes Spíndola, El Imparcial was the official organ of the government of Porfirio Diaz, whose subsidies afforded the publication access to modern printing equipment. Its industrial efficiencies allowed El Imparcial to be sold for one centavo, making it affordable to working-class readers and enabling it to reach a circulation of 100,000 by 1910. The paper carried foreign press dispatches as well as maintained its own news service in Mexico. Drawing sharp criticism from its competitors for its "yellow journalism" and one-sided support of the Porfirian regime, the paper ceased publication in 1914 when it was seized by the revolutionary government. (Language: Spanish)

El Siglo Diez y Nueve (XIX) (Mexico City, Mexico) 1841-1896
El Siglo XIX was founded on October 8, 1841 by Ignacio Cumplido and was overseen by Mariano Otero and Juan Bautista Morales. Though suspended twice, the newspaper continued until 1896. From 1848 to 1856, it was led by one of the most qualified journalists in Mexico, Francisco Zarco. During this period, the paper was characterized by its moderate liberalism, especially seen in its positions on annexation of Texas by the U.S. in 1845. It was also one of the first and principal opposition newspapers of its era. (Language: Spanish)

Star & Herald (Panama City, Panama) 1849-1914
The Star & Herald began as two separate papers: The Panama Star, founded by three American gold rushers in 1849, and the Panama Herald, begun in 1851 as a competitor to the Star. Recognizing that like-minded papers could have a larger impact together, the papers merged, and the Star & Herald began publication on May 2, 1854. Along with its Spanish version, La Estrella de Panama, the paper often found itself at odds with the governing powers, and endured several temporary closures. (Language: English)

El Comercio (Lima, Peru) 1839-1911
Founded on May 7, 1839, El Comercio is the longest running daily paper in Lima. Its founder, the respected journalist Manuel Amunátegui, ran the paper until 1875. The director who succeeded him, Luis Carranze, entered into a partnership with Antonio Miró Quesada in 1876, and the paper grew in circulation and prestige. It passed into sole ownership of the Miró Quesada family in 1898. Dedicated to "order, liberty, knowledge," it has long been one of Peru's most influential papers. (Language: Spanish)

El Peruano (Lima, Peru) 1827-1922
El Peruano was founded by Simón Bolívar on October 22, 1825 - the dawn of Peruvian independence. The oldest currently published newspaper in South America, this title was highly censored at its beginning and suspended several times. After some years, it was evolved into the country's paper of record, a role it still plays to this day. (Language: Spanish)

Port of Spain Gazette (Port of Spain, Trinidad) 1869-1906 
The Port of Spain Gazette was first published on September 21, 1825 in both English and French. Although it covered current events, the paper devoted a significant portion of its pages to slavery: runaway slaves, rewards for capture, slave auctions and related transactions. In July 1838, the Port of Spain Gazette published a declaration by the governor that all slaves would be free as of the following day, August 1, 1838. (Language: English)

Venezuelan Herald (Caracas, Venezuela) 1898-1904 
In 1896, the Venezuelan Herald was started in response to interest in the Venezuelan market by North American retailers and manufacturers. Published by Albert F. Jaurett, a French-born U.S citizen, the paper called itself "A Journal devoted to Finance, Banking, Railroads, Mining, Commerce, and Agriculture in Venezuela." (Languages: Spanish and English)

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