Art and History of Colonial Latin America

Includes images, essays, and links to excellent print and online resources.

Find images and links to other online sources. Use extensive bibliographies that can be sorted by country, theme, or material to find lists of important books and journal articles on your topics.

Images from California State University.

A digital collection of maps, codex images, documents, and photographs from Pre-Columbian Latin America to about 1900.

The Mapas Project has as its focus the digitization and study of colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts. The term "mapa" was used loosely in New Spain to refer to pictorials that may or may not have had a cartographic dimension, but often showed the territories or landscapes of indigenous communities.

The Huexotzinco Codex is part of the testimony in a legal case against representatives of the colonial government in Mexico by the Nahua people of Huexotzinco. Scholars consider the codex to be the first pictorial representation of the Madonna and Child in the New World. In this webinar, cartography expert John Hessler examines the creation of the codex and its iconography.

In this webinar, cartography expert John Hessler provides an introduction to the production and uses of codices in the early Americas and examines the Mapa Quetzalecatzin, produced between 1570 and 1595 to represent the family tree of a prominent Nahua family.

The Oztoticpac Lands Map is a Nahua pictorial document with Nahuatl writing drawn for a court case in the city of Texcoco around 1540. The document, written on amatl paper, involves the land ownership of the ruler Chichimecatecotl, who was executed by Spanish officials in 1539. In this webinar, cartography expert John Hessler discusses the adjustments and accommodation taking place in the early colonial period, as well as the skillful use indigenous peoples made of Spanish laws and courts to maintain their rights and win concessions for themselves.

Digitized images and documents from the history of Latin America from the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin.

A wealth of information on Mesoamerica. Includes access to the Bibliografia Mesoamericana, as well as resources on the history, culture, timelines, codices and more.

An extensive bibliography of the anthropology of Mesoamerica, including Mexico and parts of Central America, it includes areas such as archaeology, ethnography, ethnohistory, art history, linguistics, and physical anthropology. Available from the FAMSI website.

Includes digitized articles, images and other resources.

Browse this list which can be arranged by author or title, for online articles pertaining to Ancient Mesoamerica. Most articles are available in full text.