LibGuides: Latinx History at Duke University: Archival Collections

Purgatorio (Mi Gente) poster, October 1992

Purgatorio (Mi Gente) poster, October 1992. Duke University Union Posters, Box 1.

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About Archival Collections

The links below will take you to the collection guide for each collection. A collection guide is an inventory of the folders of materials in a collection, assembled and written by an archivist.

Note that this may not be an exhaustive list of all the collections you might use in your research—it's simply a list of the collections that might be most relevant.

Searching the Duke Libraries catalog and the Rubenstein Library's collection guide database on keywords, names, organizations, etc. will help you discover additional relevant collections that aren't represented here.

Students and Student Groups

In addition to the records of the Latinx/e student groups listed here, you may also want to review the records of Duke's two main undergraduate student governments: the Associated Students of Duke University (1967-1993) and Duke Student Government (1993-present). ASDU and DSG would have worked with the groups below on chartering, SOFC funding, and discussion of campus issues. For Latinx/e groups and students at Duke's graduate and professional schools, the Graduate and Professional Student Council is the governing body.

Campus Groups Reference Collection, 1892-ongoing
See the folder titled "Latinx People at Duke, 1929-," which contains notes, copies, and research on Latinx/e students and other Duke community members gathered by the Duke University Archives staff from a variety of sources.
Central American Solidarity Committee records, 1980-1985
CASC was organized in opposition to U.S. policies and activities regarding Central America, especially military aid to Nicaragua, during the early 1980s.
Desarrolla records, 2014-2016
This student organization encourages partnerships between members of the Duke community and communities within Latin America. Its records include the group's constitution and bylaws, as well as group promotional materials from the marketing and networking teams.
Duke Latinx Business Organization records, 2019-2021
Duke Latinx Business Organization (LBO) is a student-run organization founded in 2019 to support Latinx students interested in pursuing careers in business. Duke LBO provides members with access to information, networking opportunities, professional development resources, and mentorships. This collection consists of meeting agendas and notes, resources for profession development, and materials related to programming, recruitment, and community engagement. Materials span 2019 to 2021.
Gente Aprendiendo para Nuevas Oportunidades (GANO) records, 2008-2020
GANO is a volunteer student organization that offers free ESL classes to Latinx/e adults in the Durham area, and organizes social and educational events for the Latinx/e community in Durham.
International Association records, 1961-1987
This student group's records won't be entirely about Latin American students, but you'll likely find information about some Latin American students scattered throughout.
Latin American Student Organization (LASO) records, 2020
The Latin American Student Organization, LASO, was created in 2016 by undergraduate students to create community among Latin American students at Duke University. The collection contains one sweatshirt with the group's logo.
La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda, Rho Chapter, Records, 1994-2014
This Latino fraternity's collection consists of correspondence, a brochure, and several flyers related to the Duke chapter's founding.
Mi Gente Records, 2013-2017
Mi Gente is the largest Latinx/e student group on campus. The group's goals are to serve the Latinx/e population at Duke and bring Latinx/e culture to the larger Duke population.
Spectrum records, 1993-2004
This multicultural umbrella group counted Mi Gente and the Students of the Caribbean Association among its members.
Student Organizations reference collection, 1913-ongoing
In particular, see folders on "Concilio Latino/Hispano/Americano," "Black and Latino MBA Organization," and "AWARE: The Black and Latino Political Awareness Coalition."
Students of the Caribbean Association records, 2013-2017
The Students of the Caribbean Association (SOCA) began in 1991 and was reorganized after a two-year break in 2003. The mission of the group is to provide a space for the Duke community to celebrate and learn about Caribbean culture. This collection contains photographs of the events hosted by the Students of the Caribbean Association.
University Archives Web Archive collection, 2010-ongoing
Along with links to archived versions of the websites of campus offices like the Center for Multicultural Affairs and Duke academic programs, this collection also includes links to archived versions of the websites for Mi Gente and the Students of the Caribbean Association.

Campus Offices Working with Latinx/e Students/Student Groups

Office of Intercultural Affairs Reference collection, 2000-ongoing
This collection includes information from what is now the Center for Multicultural Affairs. The proceedings of the Unity Through Diversity luncheons may be especially helpful: the Latinx/e student group has written a section in each set of proceedings.

The proceedings of the first and second Unity Through Diversity luncheons (2000 and 2001) are available on the Center for Multicultural Affairs' website here.

International House records, 1961-2020
Although this collection won't exclusively cover Duke community members from Latin America, material about Duke's Latin American community, along with information about international students, faculty, and staff in general, will be scattered throughout. The International House's newsletters can be a great source for information about Latinx/e students, student groups, and events. The collection also contains directories from 1959-1996 of all of Duke's international faculty, staff, and students.
Office of Minority Affairs records, 1969-1993
Although initially formed to be responsive to the needs of Black students, this office broadened its focus to all students of color in the 1970s. The office eventually became today's Center for Multicultural Affairs.
President's Committee to Address Discrimination in the Classroom records, 1982-1989
The President's Committee to Address Discrimination in the Classroom (PCADC) was created in April 1988 to address allegations of discrimination at Duke and offer recommendations on how to reduce or eliminate this discrimination. Anonymous survey responses from Latinx/e students are included.
Office of Student Activities and Facilities Records, 1936-ongoing
OSAF was an office within Student Affairs that helped student groups with chartering, receiving and spending their funding, and other organizational matters. Folders tend to contain copies of constitutions and charter applications, group rosters, and sometimes financial documentation. Here, look particularly at the folders on the Spanish-American Latin Student Association (SALSA), Spectrum, Latino Life Connection, and Sigma Delta Pi (the Spanish language honorary fraternity).
Office of the University Registrar records, 1853-2000
All sorts of information about students and classes, including policies, statistics and more statistics, and even some very, very early student grades. (As a rule, the University Archives does not archive student transcripts--so people 100 years from now will not be conducting research using your transcripts!)
Vice President for Student Affairs records, 1923-[ongoing]
This is a good collection to know about, but it's tough to pinpoint right now what we might look at here. There are folders about Project Bolivia and Project of the Americas, and we should also look for folders about foreign/international students and visitors, the Office of Minority Affairs, and muticulturalism. This might be a good example of a collection where it's best to simply browse through the folder titles and see what might be relevant.

Latinx and Latin American Studies

In addition to browsing/searching through the Chronicle for relevant articles (see the "Duke Publications" page in this research guide), a good way to understand the evolution of these fields--particularly how they are taught--is to browse or search through Duke's annual course bulletins. Note that the bulletins will list faculty (and sometimes graduate students) in these programs/fields, which can provide you with more names to research!

Center for International Studies records, 1961-1984
This collection doesn't yet have a collection guide online (which means we haven't spent much time organizing it). Amy will check to see if we have a preliminary inventory for the collection so that we can work with it. However, a good first step to understanding this center is to search on its name in the Chronicle!
Committee on International Studies records, 1962-1978
Department of Romance Studies records, 1903-1967
Departments and Academic Divisions Reference collection, 1904-ongoing
In particular, see the "School of Spanish Studies" folder for information about this summer program.
International Studies Center records, 1952-1957
From 1952-1957, Duke was a host institution for the IIE's International Studies Center. This was a summer orientation program for foreign students sponsored by the US State Department.
John Tate Lanning papers, 1926-1976
John Tate Lanning (1902-1976) was a historian, colonial Latin America scholar, and Duke University Professor of History. He was the managing editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review from 1939 to 1945, and was instrumental in developing Perkins Library's book collection on Latin America.
Latino/a Studies in the Global South Records, 2001-2016
This program's records are less than 25 years old, so the program needs to grant permission for us to access (most of) them. However, some materials in the collection--things like brochures, flyers, newspaper articles, etc.--were publicly distributed and thus aren't covered by the restriction. You'll find these materials digitized in the class Box folder.
News Service Subject Files, 1930-ongoing
The folders in this collection contain newspaper clippings collected by and press releases issued by Duke's News Service or Office of Communications on a variety of topics relevant to campus activities. Box 55 contains four folders on Spanish language and Spanish Studies programs at Duke through the late 1960s. Boxes 110 and 116 have folders on Latin American Studies.

Beyond the University Archives: Relevant Latinx/e Collections at Nearby Archives and Libraries

Cornelio Campos papers, 2003-2015
Durham County Library's North Carolina Collection holds this collection of materials from Durham artist Cornelio Campos. Campos has shown exhibits and spoken at Duke, and he also created the mural featured in La Casa, a gathering space for the Latinx/e community located in the Center for Multicultural Affairs.

Latinx History at Duke University