Critical Additions: Key Works in Puerto Rican Studies and Latin American Labor Histories

Description:

This project will expand collections in Puerto Rican Studies and Latin American labor history for UW–Madison faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences by acquiring scholarly works in Spanish about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans; unpublished or archival primary source documents about Puerto Rican history and/or U.S. colonial presence in the Caribbean; and published resources on labor history in Latin America, especially those related to anarchism and print culture.

The burgeoning field of Puerto Rican Studies has produced many important literary and historiographical works published in Spanish that are not widely circulated outside the archipelago. While the Wisconsin Historical Society acquires materials on Puerto Rico as part of its collection on North American history, the collection is overwhelmingly in English and does not include the Spanish-language scholarship about Puerto Rico by Puerto Ricans or other Latin American researchers.

By acquiring scholarly materials in Spanish and archival sources about Puerto Rico, UW–Madison will position itself to be an important national referent in conversations about Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, and puertorriqueñidad (Puerto Ricanness).

The project also seeks to acquire Latin American and Caribbean imprints on labor history, anarchism and print culture. While the UW–Madison Libraries have significant collections in these areas, they are primarily scoped to the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, there has been a boom in the production and proliferation of books produced in Latin America and the Caribbean on these subjects. The acquisition of these books, often published by small publishing houses or collectives, would expose researchers and students to the intellectual production of scholars in Latin America and the Caribbean where research questions, ethos, and frameworks greatly differ from that of U.S. academia. This will also make UW–Madison a regional reference in the study of Latin American and Caribbean radicalisms.

Principal Investigator:

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, Assistant Professor of History

Co-Principal Investigator: 

Laura Martin, Latin America/Caribbean/Iberia Librarian