Princeton University Library has been most fortunate to receive every year support from the Program in Latin American Studies to acquire items of special research, cultural and historic value. Recent acquisitions partially or completely funded by PLAS have ranged from 17th century rare books, to 19th and 20th century manuscripts and archives, to works by contemporary graphic artists from the region.
Showcased below are just a few of the many special items that are now available to the Princeton community and to visiting researchers thanks to the enduring partnership with PLAS.
Jorge Amado Letters, circa 1965-1985.
The collection consists of letters and postcards from Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado to the Portuguese journalist, essayist, translator, literary critic and teacher, Alvaro Salema. A complete collection description and finding aid are available here.
Selected page from Photograph album of the Magin Cigar Company Tobacco Plantation in Cuba, circa 1900.
Catalog Record.
The album contains ninety-two original photographs depicting everyday life in the plantation. Over half of the photographs show people, including Cuban workers of African descent in the fields and next to their houses.
Ribeiro de Avellar Family Plantation Records, 1798-1858.
This collection was purchased in honor of of Barbara H. Stein, Princeton University’s first bibliographer for Latin America, Spain and Portugal, and of Stanley J. Stein, the Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor in Spanish Civilization and Culture until his retirement. It includes the business records of the Ribeiro de Avellar family pertaining to the Pau Grande plantation and its manor house in the rural parish of Paty do Alferes, Brazil. A complete collection description and a finding aid are available here.
Pitta, Sebastião da Rocha. Historia da America portugueza, desde o anno de mil e quinhentos do seu descobrimento, até o de mil e setecentos e vinte e quatro… Lisboa Occidental: Na officina de Joseph Antonio da Sylva, impressor da Academia Real, 1730.
Catalog record.
First edition of the first general history of Brazil to be published.
Feijoo de Sosa, Miguel. Relación descriptiva de la ciudad y provincia de Trujillo del Perú, con noticias exactas de su estado político… Escriba por el doctor Miguel Feyjoo. Madrid, Impr. del Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, 1763.
Shown above is one of three folded maps included in the book. It’s titled “Carta Topográfica de la Provincia de Truxillo del Perú, con Pueblos, Puertos, Haciendas, confines y origen de sus ríos y en que se describe la mayor parte de la Provincia de Guamachuco”. Catalog record.
Bachman, John. Birds’ eye view of Havana. New York: John Bachman,1851. Lithographed view, 55 x 80 cm. on sheet 71 x 109 cm. Catalog record.
Pájaro de calor: ocho poetas infrarrealistas. Mexico ; Lora del Rio : Ediciones Asuncin Sanchis, 1976. Pájaro de calor was the first published anthology of the Infrarrealistas or “Infras”, a countercultural poetic movement founded in Mexico City in the mid-1970s immortalized in Roberto Bolaño’s novel Los detectives salvajes. Catalog record.
Maples Arce, Manuel. Urbe: super poema bolchevique en 5 cantos. Cover and 6 woodcuts by Jean Charlot. México, D.F. : Andres Botas e hijo, 1924. Graphic Arts Collection.
Catalog record.
Urbe is a book of poems which attempts a synthesis of the avant-garde, the city, and the workers’ revolution. The idea that prompted Manuel Maples Arce’s composition of the poems in Urbe was to “provide an aesthetic intention to the Revolution.”*
Selected image from accordion book by Pérez, Eliana. Coca. New York, 2023. Copy 4 of 10. Graphic Arts Collection. Catalog record.
Coca continues the artist’s evocative exploration at the bloody intersection of poverty, violence, and a global market economy, this time focusing on cocaine production and trade within Colombia’s borders.**
See all of the book in this video.
Thank you PLAS!
* Description taken from ICAA www site.
** Description taken from Booklyn www site.