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Category: Hispanic and Latino History

Two black and white images of arched stone cloisters.

Intern Spotlight: The Post-Conquest Life of Hernando Cortés in the Spanish Foreign Copying Program Records at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Julie Miller

The Hospital de Jesús series in the Manuscript Division’s Spanish Foreign Copying Program Records hides a wealth of sources in plain sight due to its misleading title. Instead of medical documentation, the series consists of twenty-nine volumes on the Marquisate of the Valley of Oaxaca, the title and estates granted to the conquistador Hernando Cortés in 1529, after the fall of Tenochtitlán.

Desert landscape with road at left, gray storm clouds above with blue sky. showing between them. In foreground two men in red shirts with donkeys and carts.

New “By the People” Crowdsourcing Transcription Campaign: A Journey Across Mexico in 1849: The Journals and Sketchbooks of Benajah Jay Antrim

Posted by: Julie Miller

Benajah Jay Antrim’s journals and sketchbooks document an American artist’s journey across Mexico in 1849. As of January 29, 2025, you can volunteer to transcribe them as part of the “By the People” crowdsourcing project from the Library of Congress.

Detail from a visual outline for “So Imagined Mercado” (“Blue Antiquity”), by Oscar Hijuelos, undated.

Hispanic Heritage: Oscar Hijuelos Papers Newly Available in the Manuscript Division

Posted by: Andrea J. Briggs

This is a guest blog by Barbara Bair, historian of Literature, Culture, and the Arts in the Manuscript Division. In 1990, author Oscar Hijuelos (1951-2013) became the first Hispanic American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989). He later received the Hispanic Heritage Award …

Monochrome panorama of Chicago skyline

Made at the Library: Making Mexican Chicago with Mike Amezcua

Posted by: Ryan Reft

Join historian Georgetown University history professor and author, Mike Amezcua at noon (EDT) on Monday, June 26, as he discusses his new book, Making Mexican Chicago. The book explores the role Mexican Chicagoans, notably moderates and conservatives within the community, played in housing, politics, community development and urban culture while also highlighting their contributions to the larger conservative movement.