To both honor and celebrate the works of Latinx* people, UC Irvine Libraries continue to grow our collections on Hispanic heritage and related topics. This guide gathers a partial list of available online resources, archival materials, and media (both fiction and nonfiction) as well as recent book additions to the Libraries. Although some online materials are only accessible to faculty, staff, and students with a valid UCInetID, many of the resources are open to the public, and all are available throughout the year as part of UC Irvine Libraries’ ongoing effort to foster learning and increase access to a wide variety of scholarship.

For research help with Chicano/Latino studies and related topics, contact Research Librarian for Criminology and Political Science Elizabeth V. Hernandez or visit guides.lib.uci.edu for a complete list of Libraries’ Research Guides.

Online Resources

• Chicano/Latino Studies Research Guide
• Latin American and Caribbean Studies Research Guide
• Celebrating One and All: Hispanic Heritage Research Guide
• Hispanic Heritage Month films on Kanopy (requires UC Irvine login)
• Latinx studies film collection on Docuseek (requires UC Irvine login)

Special Collections and Archives

The Libraries have acquired the Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection, an archive of publications focused on US Hispanic history, literature, and culture from colonial times until 1960. The latest installment of materials focuses on Hispanic American civil rights, religion, and women’s rights from the 18th through the 20th century. The collection is written, indexed, and searchable in both Spanish and English.

Special Collections and Archives houses the records of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) in a collection that contains organizational documents, scrapbooks, photographs, posters of events, and subject files on other topics of interest. You can further expand your knowledge of UC Irvine’s Latinx history by browsing finding aids in the Online Archive of California, which holds items spanning from the 1960s to 2021.

Recent Book Acquisitions

• Animal Symbolism in Hispanic Literature: From the 16th Century to the Present Day, 2026, edited by Lauren Beck, Ailén Cruz, and Samantha Penina Ruckenstein, explores how representations of real and imaginary animals across Hispanic literature serve as projections of human identities, knowledge, values, and vices.
• Chicana/o-Latina/o Youth and the Mating of Identity: Intra-Ethnic Divisions, Youth Cultural Worlds, and the Anthropology of Getting Schooled, 2026, by Daniel Diaz Reyes, uses an intra-ethnic framework to understand how students negotiate a variety of racial, class, ethnic, academic, and social identities at school.
• Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke between Mexico and the States, 2026, by Claudette Zepeda, uses food and the author’s first-hand perspective of the Mexican American border to shine a light on the imaginary line stretching from California through Texas.
• El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory, 2026, by Jazmine Ulloa, charts the history of El Paso through five families, from the Mexican Revolution to life under today’s shifting immigration laws, capturing a place often misunderstood by the rest of the world.
• Family Legal Vulnerability: How Immigration Policy Shapes the Lives of Latino College Students, 2026, by Laura E. Enriquez et al., exposes how Latinx students attending the University of California have their educational experiences and social mobility shaped by immigration status — both their own and their family members’.
• Latinx Comics Studies: Critical and Creative Crossings, 2025, edited by Fernanda Díaz-Basteris et al., examines how comics by, for, and about Latinx people portray their diverse lived experiences.
• Medievalism, Popular Culture and Politics in Metal Music: The Case of Hispanic Epic Themes, 2026, focuses on Spain and Portugal’s transitions after authoritarian rule and how patriotic sentiment and related themes are woven into metal music.
• Sunny Days, Taco Nights, 2025, by Enrique Olvera and Alonso Ruvalcaba, presents an in-depth exploration from an acclaimed Mexican chef of the taco’s history and its many different styles, ingredients, and accompaniments.
• Women’s Agency and the Gothic in Spain and the Americas, 2026, by Megan DeVirgilis, examines how women writers have reimagined Gothic themes of abuse, alienation, and death, with particular attention paid to feminist perspectives and shifting degrees of agency.

Diversity of UC Irvine Libraries’ Collections

UC Irvine Libraries collect materials in all formats to support the university’s research, teaching, and public service mission.

We believe it is crucial that our collections reflect the diversity of our students, faculty, staff, and larger Orange County community. Thus, we are making an effort to collect materials that consider the needs and perspectives of historically underrepresented, marginalized, and oppressed groups. For more information, please refer to our Diversity Statement and Plan.

* The acceptability of language and how people with disabilities self-identify continuously evolves over time. Although current usage may differ, this article retains the original names of each resource to provide historical context.