Digitized books in the Benson’s Rare Book Collection encompassing a wide variety of topics relating to Spanish and Latin America, including literature, histories, travel accounts, and secondary sources.
Benson Rare Book Collection (Primary Sources)
Mexican American Schools and Migrant Labor Camp Photographs (Primary Sources)
Photographs documenting conditions in Texas schools for Mexican-American children as part of “A Study of the Educational Opportunities Provided Spanish-Name Children in Ten Texas School Systems” (1948), schools in New Mexico, and migrant labor camps in Texas.
You Are What You (Do Not) Eat: Decolonial Resistance in U.S. Latinx Zines (Exhibition)
This exhibition aims to underscore resistance to colonial legacies by examining Latinx zines that interrogate food and its impact in shaping cultural identity.
Mapping Mexican History: Territories in Dispute, Identities in Question (Exhibition)
The exhibition focuses on three distinct moments when maps played an integral role in the transformation of Mexico and its political geography. In the sixteenth century, early colonial pictographic maps drawn by indigenous artists reflect the growth of Spanish colonial administration. In the eighteenth century, new maps of Mexico’s principal cities serve as both representations and instruments of the viceregal government’s efforts to re-order and regulate Mexican social life and public spaces. In the nineteenth century, maps are central to the military struggle for independence and the defense of contested national borders.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the U.S.-Mexico Border (Assignment)
This assignment helps students think critically about the geographical and political definition of the U.S.-Mexico boundary and its effect on people living in the borderlands through the analysis of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo text and contemporary historical maps.
Indigenous Borderlands (Unit)
Through an experiential learning format, this 6-week plan is divided in three segments, each corresponding to the steps of the development of a digital project: theory, design and building of digital product, and public outreach. It has been designed to incorporate digital praxis into your courses, and move from theory to praxis.
Juárez-Lincoln University: Community, Space, and Education (Unit)
Students will learn about Mexican Americans’ struggle to keep and create space and place in their community. Students will learn about Juárez-Lincoln University/Cultural Center and its role in local Mexican American history. Students will create a plan for their own community educational/art space including pedagogical strategies, programming, branding, and facilities.
Activism in America: The Economy Furniture Strike (Unit)
Students will learn about US social movements through the Economy Furniture strike in Austin, Texas. Students will critically engage with movement materials and create their own social justice campaigns and related campaign materials which may include but are not limited to posters, buttons, pamphlets, and protest signs.
Dr. George I. Sanchez: History of Mexican Americans and their Struggle for Educational Equality (Unit)
Students will learn about the work and life of educational scholar and activist, Dr. George I. Sanchez. Topics for critical exploration include Sanchez’s educational research, legal assistance, Mexican American organizations, Bilingual Education, Pan-Americanism, and Chicano Civil Rights. Students will make either a hand written/drawn zine or a digital zine based on the students’ preference and availability of materials and technology.
Dr. Américo Paredes: Chicano Studies, Ethnographic Analysis, and Poetic Activism (Unit)
Students will learn about Chicano Studies pioneer Américo Paredes through his literature and activism. Students will learn about ethnography as a research method and form of analysis. Students will come away with a historical perspective of the value of oral transmission of heritage such as the corrido, oral histories, and poetry. Students will compose a poem or song and combine it with images to create a digital video or interview a family member or community elder to document local history.