Primary Sources: Central, Latin, South America & The Caribbean: Indigenous Peoples

"In 1519 Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba, landed in Mexico and made his way to the Aztec capital. Miguel Leon­Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist, gathered accounts by the Aztecs, some of which were written shortly after the conquest."

"This is one of a small number of extant Mexican codices (screenfold manuscript books) dating to pre-Hispanic times. It is made of deer skin and is comprised of 47 leaves. The Codex contains two narratives: one side of the document relates the history of important centres in the Mixtec region, while the other, starting at the opposite end, records the genealogy, marriages and political and military feats of the Mixtec ruler, Lord Eight Deer Jaguar-Claw. This ruler is depicted at top centre, next to his calendric name (8 circles and a deer's head). "

"The digital collection, Mesoamerican Painted Manuscripts at the Latin American Library, presents images of the Library’s holdings of original and rare copies of Mexican manuscripts painted in the native pictorial tradition. They are painted on a variety of materials such as animal hide, maguey, amate or fig bark paper, linen, and European paper; their content dates to the early contact period (A.D. 1500 to 1700). The texts collected here represent a variety of themes: Aztec history and migrations, land claims and grants, property holdings, census data, fiscal and tribute accounts, and royal Mixtec genealogies."

... includes interactive indigenous documents from Central Mexico and Oaxaca, archives of alphabetic documents from the 1520s to the 1960s, an An interactive Atlas of Mesoamerica, introductory Tutorials on indigenous writing and culture, and Video and audio commentaries by Scholars on Mesoamerica’s past and present.

"The Pre-Columbian Collection includes objects created during three thousand years of history in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Intermediate Area of Latin America. " Selected items can be viewed online.