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Utilizing French Sources in Paris for Latin American Historical Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Vera Blinn Reber
Vera Blinn Reber*
Affiliation:
Shippensburg State College
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Latin American historical research in France is limited, although interest is increasing. The evidence of this is readily apparent. For instance, the proposed book, Guide des sources de l'histoire de l'Amérique Latine conservées en France is still in draft and more than ten years behind schedule. An examination of articles on Latin America in French journals indicates the limited use of sources available in France. The National Archives receives only a few requests for archival searches, its files indicating only three such requests on the topic South America (Amérique du Sud). These include inqueries for materials on commerce between France and Latin America in the first half of the nineteenth century, sources for steamship packet-boats to America in the nineteenth century, and Anglo-French diplomatic relations with Latin America, 1836–48. There were no search requests for Brazil or Argentina, but six for Mexico. Yet archival sources of information about Latin America in France are abundant and provide materials not available elsewhere. This is particularly true for material on the former French colonies and on Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , 1982 , pp. 171 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by the University of Texas Press

References

Notes

1. I am indebted to Marie-Antoinette Menier, Conservateur en chef aux Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-mer, for permission to examine a draft copy. This guide is particularly needed for the evaluation of Latin American holdings of the government department archives. These are almost unused at this time because they are too scattered to encourage scholars without better indication of usefulness. Hopefully the guide will also help in locating private business papers. Hilda Sabato, affiliated with CISEA (Hipolito Yrigoyen 1156, 1407 Buenos Aires, Argentina), was able, with a great deal of diligence, to locate commercial papers connected to the wool industry, which prove very useful for Argentine history.

2. Also see Frédéric Mauro, “Comment développer les recherches françaises sur l'histoire de l'Amérique Latine?,” Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine (Paris) 14 (Oct./Dec. 1967): 424–35.

3. Three groups with interest in Latin America are the Groupe de Recherches sur l'Amérique Latine, Université de Toulouse-Le Miril; Groupe de Recherches et d'Études Économiques et Sociales sur l'Amérique Latine-Domaine Universitaire (GRESAL), Grenoble; and Institut des Hautes Études de l'Amérique Latine, Paris. They produced in December of 1978 Amérique Latine: Bulletin analytique de documentation, which included annotated bibliographies of from seven to thirty-six references on nine different subjects from indigenous medicine to industrialization. If this project is continued, it should further encourage Latin American research in France. Peter Geismar, “Latin American Studies in France,” LARR 3, no. 4 (Fall, 1968): 45–51 also discusses French interest in Latin America. Also see Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Latin American Studies in Europe (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Center for Latin American Studies, Monograph Document Series 1, 1979), pp. 46–60.

4. “Catalogue des Thèses soutenues en France sur l'Amérique Latine de 1954 a 1969,” in Cahiers des Amériques Latines 4 (1969):145–94 and “Catalogues des Thèses et Mémoires sur l'Amérique Latine soutenues en France de 1970 a 1974,” in Cahiers des Amériques Latines 9–10 (1974): 283–366.

5. Pittsburgh: Council for European Studies, 1973.

6. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1932, 1943.

7. Mario Falção Espalter, “La historia uruguaya en los archivos del Francia,” Revista nacional: Academia Nacional de Letras (Montevideo) 2: 21, (Sept. 1939), pp. 403–10. The Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, Comisión de Historia has published a series of volumes on materials in European archives for various Latin American areas including Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Ecuador. While primarily emphasizing material in Spanish archives and generally better for the colonial era, French libraries and archives are at times discussed.

8. The standard work discussing the French Foreign Ministry Archives in English is Vincent Confer, “France: Archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères (AMAE),” in Daniel H. Thomas and Lynn M. Case, The New Guide to the Diplomatic Archives of Western Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975), pp. 69–91; and for Latin American materials in the French Foreign Ministry see Didier Ozanam, Les sources de l'histoire de l'Amérique Latine, Vol. 1 Les affaires étrangères (Paris: Institut des Hautes Études de l'Amérique Latine, 1963). Also see Edgard A. Rodríguez Leal, Relaciones entre Francia y Venezuela, 1830–1918 (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Humanidades y Educación, 1977).

9. Also see Leland, Guide, Vol. 1, for a description of the manuscript collection.

10. Jean Robinson prepared for the Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange a small pamphlet, “A Brief Guide to Libraries and Archives in Paris,” which is worth obtaining from the commission when you request your letter of introduction since it discusses various libraries as well as gives bus and metro lines for reaching them. Also see John Ferguson, Libraries in France (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books and Clive Bingley, 1971).

11. One should not neglect the Guide des sources de l'histoire des États-Unis dans les archives françaises (Paris: France Expansion, 1976), which was published for the U.S. bicentennial and which will most definitely help in understanding the various categories that might have material related to your topic even though its emphasis is on North America.

12. Paris: Archives Nationales, 1979. Volume 1 is pre-1789 materials and volume 3 is the Marine and Outre-Mer Archives.