About
A Fight for Democracy: The First Years of the Mexican Revolution is composed of selections from the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Special Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin, and contributions from the Municipal Archive of Saltillo.
Thanks to a U.S Department of Education Title VI grant, the LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship office, in collaboration with the University of Texas-El Paso, was able to lead a day-long training on various digital humanities tools May, 29, 2025, and produce a traveling version of this digital exhibition, which will be on display at UTEP's library starting June 2, 2025.
This exhibition was organized by Dr. Albert A. Palacios, LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship Coordinator and School of Information adjunct faculty, and Ana A. Rico, UT Libraries Resident Librarian, with "Saltillo in the Revolution" contributed by Iván Vartan Muñoz Cotera, the Head of Outreach at the Saltillo Municipal Archive.
The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is one of the premier libraries in the world for Latin America and Latina/o Studies, proudly marking its centennial in 2021. In partnership with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies (LLILAS), the Benson is a global destination for research and study, with over a million volumes as well as a wealth of original manuscripts, photographs and various media related to Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean and Latina/Latino presence in the United States. The year 2021 marks the centennial of the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection!
The Municipal Archive of Saltillo was inaugurated on December 19, 1984, as a result of the documentary organization work undertaken in the early 1980s. In 1987, it moved to its current location, a building of architectural significance that reinforces its connection to history. It has housed documents since 1578 and fulfills its mission of preserving and disseminating the city's documentary heritage. In addition to the Historical Archives, it also houses a Photo Library, Newspaper Library, Map Library, Library, and a Concentration Archive. This information center promotes transparency and guarantees the preservation of both administrative documentation and the historical memory of Saltillo, through responsible archival practices oriented toward public service.
The C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department is part of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Library. The book collections include the Chicano Collection, the Judaica Collection, the S. L. A. Marshall Military History Collection, the McCord Poetry Collection, the Southwest and Border Studies Collection, and collections of art and rare books. In addition to printed sources, the department has over 750 archival collections. These collections help document the history of far West Texas, southern New Mexico, and Chihuahua. Special Collections regularly curates exhibits in the Library, manages the Library’s art collection, and serves as the public access point for UTEP’s oral history collection. The department is named after longtime UTEP English professor and historian C.L. Sonnichsen (1901 – 1991). To learn more about the collections, visit https://www.utep.edu/library/special-collections/index.html.