In partnership with PLAS

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.  

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Escena de Avanzada Chilena

Last week, the Library was fortunate to receive a visit from PLAS Visiting Scholar Agustín Díez Fischer and students participating in his seminar Art Archives in Latin America to view and discuss more than twenty items related to Chile’s Escena de Avanzada, most of which are part of the Rare Books section of the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology

The ample selection of exhibition catalogs, brochures and books by and about experimental artists such as Carlos Altamirano, Eugenio Dittborn, Paz Errázuriz, Alfredo Jaar, Ronald Kay, Carlos Leppe, and Nelly Richard, among others, allowed students to look closely at and discuss how, after the Military Coup of 1973, Chilean artists reconceptualized traditional artistic practices, languages, techniques and genres.

Inside page of Dittborn, Eugenio. V.I.S.U.A.L. Santiago: V.I.S.U.A.L. and Galería Época, 1976
https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/99125446528106421
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Juana Inés

Special Collections recently acquired three rare villancicos authored by Juana Inés de la Cruz. A self-taught poet, philosopher, and dramatist, she is considered one of the preeminent figures of Mexican and Spanish American colonial literature as well as a precursor of feminism in the Americas. The three items, published in Mexico in the last quarter of the 17th century, are among the earliest publications authored by de la Cruz.

Juana Inés de la Cruz. Villancicos, que se cantaron en la Santa Iglesia Cathedral de Mexico, à los maytines del gloriosissimo príncipe de la Iglesia,: el Señor San Pedro. Que fundó, y dotó el Doct. Y M.D. Simon Estevan Beltran, de Alzate, y Esquibel (que Dios aya) maestre-escuela, que fue, desta S. Iglesia Cathedral, y cathedratico jubilado de Sagrada Escriptura, en esta Real Universidad de Mexico. En Mexico: Por la Viuda de Bernardo Calderon, Año de 1677.
https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/99123064593506421
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