Collection highlights, news about acquisitions, events and exhibits, and behind-the-scenes looks at the work and services of Rare Books & Special Collections (RBSC) at Notre Dame.
We join the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.
From our Latin American and Latino Studies Archives: Celebration and Resistance
2025 has seen various local and community-based annual public celebrations of Latino heritage scaled-down, postponed, or cancelled altogether out of fears for the safety of participants and community members. Other public celebrations have gone on as planned, with some organizers even rearticulating their yearly “Grito de Independencia” (the September 15th commemoration of the “Cry of Independence” from Spanish colonial rule, specific to the Mexican context) as “Grito de Resistencia” (“Cry of Resistance”). Both paths, however, are guided by a spirit of solidarity, and informed by a history of perseverance, that predate—and are poised to persist beyond—any formal federal recognition of the diverse cultures, accomplishments, and contributions of Latinos in the United States.
Inspired by that same spirit and history, we present three examples, preserved in Notre Dame’s Rare Books and Special Collections, of historical moments when Latino communities organized celebrations of resistance—both public and private, and throughout the calendar year—in direct response to histories and realities of persecution, oppression, exclusion, and erasure.
1969: “La Fiesta de los Barrios”
“The Fiesta De Los Barrios is the Fiesta of all of our people. For the first time the heritage of our cultural past and the richness of our cultural present will be expressed through the creative talent and skill of our barrio artists, writers and performers. […] It is this pride in ourselves and confidence in our future that has made this magazine and indeed the entire Fiesta possible.”
The name “La Fiesta de los Barrios” carries multiple references: it was a community celebration, a literary journal, and an aspiration for the future. The actual “fiesta” took place in early May, 1969, at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the LA Walkouts: a watershed movement through which Mexican American students protested systemic racism, abuses, and neglect on their campuses, and demanded inclusive and unbiased curricula. (For an introduction to the Walkouts, we suggest you watch thisRetro Report hosted by PBS, or this excerpt from PBS’s Latino Americans.)
The journal by the same name, or Fiesta Magazine (MSH/LAT 0099-61), memorialized select verse, prose, and drawings created by community members and event participants, representing a diversity of voices and experiences. And finally, it was the hope, as articulated by photographer Pedro Arias in one of the journal’s opening essays, that all peoples of Mexican descent living in the United States could overcome generational and cultural divides to work together toward common goals: “Y entonces será un día de fiesta, será una FIESTA DE LOS BARRIOS, pero una Fiesta de Los Barrios permanente […]” (And then it will be a day of celebration, it will be a FIESTA DE LOS BARRIOS, but a permanent Fiesta de Los Barrios […]) (7).
1984: “A benefit for Casa El Salvador Farabundo Martí”
“Casa El Salvador Farabundo Martí is a solidarity committee of Salvadoran refugees living in the U.S. Our goals are to inform people about the situation in El Salvador and Central America, to promote friendship with our people, and to discourage U.S. intervention in our country.”
In December 1984, the Chicago-based, refugee-led organization called Casa El Salvador Farabundo Martí hosted a benefit dinner and invited allies and supporters to “share this season of peace with the people of El Salvador.” El Salvador itself, rather than celebrating a season of peace, was deep in a brutal civil war marked by widespread human rights abuses: far from a conflict confined to fighting between armed factions, the government’s military and paramilitary death squads—trained and funded by the United States government—broadly targeted civilian non-combatants. Meanwhile, only a minuscule portion of refugees fleeing El Salvador were granted asylum in the United States. This combination of domestic U.S. policies, enabled by controversial Cold War rhetoric, sparked passionate peace, solidarity, and anti-intervention movements across the country. A snapshot of those efforts, and the array of allies that were involved in them, are captured in this small poster (MSH/LAT 0120 U.S./Central America Cold War Ephemera Collection).
San Francisco’s first annual “Encuentro del Canto Popular” (“Gathering of Popular Song”) was organized by volunteers from the community newspaper El Tecolote in 1982. The event was inspired by the life and legacy of Víctor Jara, a Chilean educator, activist, and singer-songwriter who was one of the founding figures of Chile’s—and, ultimately, Latin America’s—nueva canción (new song). This folkloric genre was imbued with such deep social commitment that it became an international movement (the Smithsonian offers an introduction to la nueva canción in their Folkways series). Jara was kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, and executed by Chile’s military just after the U.S.-backed coup that ousted the democratically-elected president, Salvador Allende, and which began the 17-year military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Acción Latina, a community organization based in San Francisco’s Mission District that grew out of El Tecolote, took part in U.S.-based protests against Pinochet’s regime (as can be seen in this post from the Bancroft Library, which now preserves a substantial Acción Latina archive), as well as later solidarity movements. The poster featured here was created for the Encuentro’s 20th year, celebrated in 2001 under the stewardship of Acción Latina. Its lineup of musicians from Nicaragua for this “tribute to 20 years of culture and resistance” was a nod to the protest and dissent expressed in both Nicaragua and the United States following the CIA-led formation in 1981 of the Contras (an umbrella organization of anti-Sandinista combatants), a covert project that ultimately culminated in the Iran-Contra Scandal. The musician wearing the symbol of the United Farm Workers on her shirt speaks to solidarity within and between Latino communities.
Para quienes trabajamos en Libros Raros y Colecciones Especiales (RBSC, por sus siglas en inglés), siempre es emocionante redescubrir los libros, manuscritos, materiales efímeros y otros objetos de nuestras colecciones, así como recuperar las importantes historias que cuentan. Sin embargo, a menudo es aún más emocionante ver a nuestros usuarios hacer lo mismo. Desde estudiantes curiosos de todas las edades hasta investigadores y académicos de cerca y de lejos, ellos son la razón por la que preservamos y cuidamos estos materiales. La creación de conocimiento es un esfuerzo colaborativo, y las Bibliotecas Hesburgh se esfuerzan por estar en el centro de ese proceso.
Un hermoso ejemplo de los frutos de nuestra misión tuvo lugar este pasado mes de julio, cuando RBSC tuvo el gran honor de recibir al Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli, un destacado especialista en las literaturas e historias intelectuales del período colonial de Bolivia y Perú. Nacido y criado en Buenos Aires, Argentina, el Dr. Eichmann asistió al Colegio San Miguel (Buenos Aires), obtuvo su licenciatura en Letras en la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) y luego su doctorado en Filología Hispánica en la Universidad de Navarra (España). Es un autor prolífico, con numerosas publicaciones que incluyen libros (tanto monografías como ediciones académicas), artículos en revistas científicas y capítulos de libros, y ha editado más de veinte libros y volúmenes de revistas. Actualmente, el Dr. Eichmann es Profesor Titular de Literatura en la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; Presidente de la Sociedad Boliviana de Estudios Clásicos; y Director de la revista Classica boliviana.
El Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli en la Sala de Lectura, comparando un facsímil del texto impreso de la crónica de Mendoza con la versión manuscrita resguardada en RBSC.
Durante sus días en RBSC, el Dr. Eichmann compartió con entusiasmo explicaciones sobre lo que estaba viendo, leyendo y aprendiendo. Planea continuar trabajando con materiales de nuestras colecciones—en particular, con manuscritos de la Colección de Historia Peruana José Durand—y espera inspirar a sus estudiantes en Bolivia a hacer lo mismo. Generosamente aceptó conceder esta breve entrevista en español (traducida al inglés con la ayuda de Chat GTP).
PPQ: Entiendo que Ud. llegó a Notre Dame para realizar una estancia de investigación en el de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. ¿Nos puede contar un poquito sobre ese programa y sus actividades ahí?
AEO: Vine al Nicola Center porque es un lugar privilegiado para conocer el estado actual de lo mejor que se ha investigado en torno a la ética y a las tradiciones intelectuales del universo cristiano. Formé parte de un grupo de personas venidas de Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador y México, unas 30 en total, entre estudiantes de máster y de doctorado y profesores de distintas universidades. Vinimos liderados por el Dr. Joaquín García Huidobro, de la Universidad de Los Andes (Chile).
Estuvimos dos semanas completas, trabajando de 8.00 a.m. hasta las 20.00. Nos propusimos turnarnos para que, cada día, uno de nosotros ofreciera una breve charla […] Después de la charla había opción de hacer preguntas o comentarios. […] El otro compromiso (fuera de avanzar cada quien en su propio trabajo de investigación) consistía en leer, cada día, el trabajo de otro […], para contribuir con nuestras observaciones y sugerencias. Esto le permitió a cada uno ampliar y, a menudo, precisar, el enfoque, la perspectiva, etc., de su propio trabajo. Se aprende muchísimo de esa manera, y se avanza mejor. Es una dinámica muy enriquecedora.
Yo llegué con la intención de avanzar en el estudio del neo estoicismo en autores de los siglos XVI y XVII, del virreinato del Perú (sobre todo, de lo que hoy es Bolivia). El neo estoicismo es una corriente de pensamiento que, al menos en España y en Hispanoamérica, estuvo muy ligada a la lectura de las epístolas morales de Séneca y las obras de Tácito. Sin duda avancé en lo que me había propuesto, pero los hallazgos en Rare Books me “obligaron” a ocuparme de ellos. Ya volveré al neo estoicismo. Esto no podía esperar.
PPQ: ¿Cuáles son algunos de los materiales más interesantes que examinó en Rare Books and Special Collections? ¿Cómo se relacionan con sus investigaciones previas y/o actuales?
AEO: Estuve interesado en textos producidos en el virreinato del Perú durante los siglos XVII y XVIII. Como siempre ocurre con una colección que no conoces, llegas con algunas expectativas, pero lo más importante es estar abierto a la sorpresa. Y esto es lo que puedo decir, sin duda alguna, que encontré.
Hay, por ejemplo, unas piezas teatrales breves del siglo XVIII, compuestas en Lima, que sirven para “abrir” un espectáculo teatral. En una de ellas se indican los nombres de los actores y actrices que la pusieron en escena. Entre otros nombres, aparece el de “Michaela Villegas”, que fue una conocida actriz de Lima, a quien llamaban “la Perricholi”. Esta y otras piezas de teatro me llamaron la atención. En 2002 tuve la fortuna de encontrar, en Potosí, junto con mi colega Ignacio Arellano, de la Universidad de Navarra, 25 piezas teatrales manuscritas. Hicimos la edición de todas ellas en 2005. Todo lo relacionado con la actividad teatral del periodo es algo que interesa, por este motivo, entre otros. […]
PPQ: ¿Cuál fue el descubrimiento que más le impactó? ¿Piensa seguir investigándolo?
MSH/LAT 0001, Caja 1, Carpeta 33 (se guarda por separado). Manuscrito, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, “La Vida de Santa Rosa de Lima […]”, siglo XVIII.
AEO: Lo que más me sorprendió fueron dos volúmenes manuscritos que fueron escritos por autores del siglo XVII en el virreinato del Perú. Uno de ellos lleva por título “Vida de Santa Rosa”, y se trata de “Vida de Santa Rosa de Santa María, natural de Lima y patrona del Perú. Poema heroico”. Efectivamente, es poesía épica, en octavas reales (como era normal), y es una pieza apasionante que se extiende a lo largo de 11.300 versos. El autor, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, fue corregidor de la Villa Imperial de Potosí, y estando allá organizó las fiestas de canonización de santa Rosa, en 1672. Se conocen dos ediciones del siglo XVIII de este poema, la de Madrid (1711) y la de México (1729). En la Fundación Lázaro Galdiano está el manuscrito que sirvió para la edición de 1712. En México no hacía falta hacer un manuscrito, porque bastaba con seguir al pie de la letra la edición madrileña, con la misma distribución de texto por cada página. Y es lo que hicieron, como era lógico. Pero aquí, en Rare Books, encontramos otro manuscrito, con una distribución textual distinta, que no dio lugar a ninguna edición que conozcamos. Es sorprendente, auténtica, una rareza, y estoy decidido a trabajarla.
MSH/LAT 0001, Caja 1, Carpeta 16 (se guarda por separado). Manuscrito, Diego de Mendoza, “Chronica de la Provincia de San Antonio de los Charcas […]”, siglo XVII.
El otro hallazgo es un manuscrito de más de 800 páginas. Es la “Chrónica de la Provincia de San Antonio de los Charcas del Orden de nuestro Seráfico Padre San Francisco …”, escrito por fray Diego de Mendoza. Se cree que el autor nació en el Cusco, y sabemos que escribió la crónica en el convento de esa ciudad. Es una obra imponente, con muchas referencias eruditas, que consta de tres libros. Está escrita principalmente para la edificación: después de exponer, en el libro primero, la historia general de la orden en América y particularmente en la provincia de Charcas (que coincide aproximadamente con lo que hoy es Bolivia), los libros II y III los dedica a exponer la “vida y virtudes” de una gran cantidad de personas, varones y mujeres, españoles, criollos e indios, que pertenecieron a la orden religiosa (tal vez sea más exacto decir “órdenes”, en plural) de los franciscanos.
Lo que me llama poderosamente la atención es que el texto impreso, que se publicó en Madrid en 1665 y que es (al menos hasta donde llegan mis noticias) el único testimonio conocido, se aparta en muchísimos casos de la versión manuscrita, que es la que tenemos aquí. Tengo bastantes motivos para pensar que esta versión es de puño y letra de Diego de Mendoza. Lleva su firma en una de las páginas preliminares, y se pueden reconocer los trazos de su firma en la forma de las letras, a lo largo del texto.
Epílogo
Como estudiante de posgrado en la UCLA, estudié los muchos mundos del Virreinato del Perú y quedé absolutamente fascinada con la Virgen de Copacabana. (Aún lo estoy.) Así fue como conocí por primera vez el trabajo del Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli. Además de los diversos estudios que ha publicado sobre esta Virgen, también produjo, junto con su colega Hans van den Berg, O.S.A., una excelente edición de la Historia del célebre santuario de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana, escrita por el fraile agustino Alonso Ramos Gavilán y publicada en Lima en 1621. Aunque RBSC no conserva un ejemplar de la crónica de Ramos Gavilán, le pude mostrar al Dr. Eichmann nuestros ejemplares de dos obras relacionadas: Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana. Poema sacro, de Fernando de Valverde (Lima, 1641) y De diva virgine Copacauana in Peruano Novi Mundi regno celeberrima…, de Ippolito Marracci (Roma, 1656). Fue una alegría conocer finalmente en persona al Dr. Eichmann, y quiero agradecerle por su entusiasmo y generosidad. —PPQ
Meet a Visiting Researcher in Special Collections: Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli
For those of us who work in Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), it is always a thrill to rediscover the books, manuscripts, ephemera, and other objects in our collections, and to recover the important stories they tell. Often, however, it is even more exciting to watch our patrons do the same. From inquisitive students of all ages, to researchers and scholars from near and far, they are the reason we preserve and steward these materials. Knowledge creation is a collaborative endeavor, and the Hesburgh Libraries strive to be at the center of it.
A beautiful example of the fruits of our mission occurred this past July when RBSC had the great honor of welcoming Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli, a leading specialist in the literatures and intellectual histories of colonial Bolivia and Perú. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Eichmann attended Colegio San Miguel (Buenos Aires), earned his Bachelor of Arts from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina), and then his doctorate in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad de Navarra (Spain). He is a prolific author, having published numerous books (both monographs and scholarly editions), journal articles, and book chapters, and has edited more than twenty books and journal volumes. Currently, Dr. Eichmann is Professor of Literature at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; President of the Sociedad Boliviana de Estudios Clásicos; and Director of the journal Classica boliviana.
Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli in the Reading Room, comparing a facsimile of Mendoza’s printed chronicle with RBSC’s manuscript version.
During his days in RBSC, Dr. Eichmann enthusiastically shared explanations of what he was seeing, reading, and learning. He plans to continue working with materials in our collections—in particular, manuscripts from the José Durand Peruvian History Collection—and hopes to inspire his students in Bolivia to do the same. He generously agreed to this brief interview in Spanish (translated into English with the help of Chat GTP).
PPQ: I understand that you came to Notre Dame for a research stay at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Could you tell us a little about that program and your activities there?
AEO: I came to the de Nicola Center because it is a privileged place to learn about the current state of the best research being done on ethics and the intellectual traditions of the Christian world. I was part of a group of about 30 people from Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Mexico, including master’s and doctoral students as well as professors from various universities. We came under the leadership of Dr. Joaquín García Huidobro from the Universidad de los Andes (Chile).
We spent two full weeks working from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. We took turns so that each day one of us gave a brief talk […] After the talk, there was time for questions or comments. […] The other main task (aside from progressing in our own research) was to read someone else’s work each day […], offering our feedback and suggestions. This allowed each of us to broaden or, quite often, sharpen the focus or perspective of our own work. You learn a great deal this way, and it helps you make real progress. It’s a very enriching dynamic.
I came with the intention of advancing my study of neo-Stoicism in [the works of] 16th- and 17th-century authors from the Viceroyalty of Peru (especially what is now Bolivia). Neo-Stoicism is a school of thought that, at least in Spain and Spanish America, was closely linked to the reading of Seneca’s moral epistles and the works of Tacitus. I definitely made progress in what I had set out to do, but the discoveries in the Rare Books collection “forced” me to focus on them. I’ll return to neo-Stoicism later. These materials couldn’t wait.
PPQ: What were some of the most interesting materials you examined in Rare Books and Special Collections? How do they relate to your past and/or current research?
AEO: I was interested in texts produced in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 17th and 18th centuries. As always happens with a collection you’re unfamiliar with, you arrive with certain expectations, but the most important thing is to be open to surprise. And that, without a doubt, is what I found.
For example, there are some short theatrical pieces from the 18th century, composed in Lima, which served to “open” a theatrical performance. In one of them, the names of the actors and actresses who performed it are listed. Among those names is “Michaela Villegas,” a well-known actress from Lima, nicknamed “La Perricholi.” These and other theatrical pieces caught my attention. In 2002, I was fortunate to find, in Potosí, together with my colleague Ignacio Arellano from the University of Navarra, 25 handwritten theatrical pieces. We published an edition of all of them in 2005. For this and other reasons, anything related to theatrical activity from that period is of particular interest to me. […]
PPQ: What was the most striking discovery you made? Do you plan to continue researching it?
MSH/LAT 0001, Box 1, Folder 33 (housed separately). Manuscript, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, “La Vida de Santa Rosa de Lima […],” 18th century.
AEO: What surprised me the most were two handwritten volumes written by authors from the 17th century in the Viceroyalty of Peru. One is titled “Life of Saint Rose,” and it is actually called Life of Saint Rose of Saint Mary, native of Lima and patroness of Peru. Heroic Poem. It’s indeed an epic poem, written in ottava rima (as was standard), and it’s a fascinating piece that runs to 11,300 verses. The author, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, was the magistrate (corregidor) of the Imperial City of Potosí, and while there he organized the festivities for the canonization of Saint Rose in 1672. Two 18th-century editions of the poem are known: one from Madrid (1711) and one from Mexico (1729). The manuscript used for the 1712 edition is housed at the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. In Mexico, a separate manuscript wasn’t needed since they simply followed the Madrid edition exactly, with the same text layout per page. That’s what they logically did. But here, in Rare Books, we found another manuscript with a different textual layout, which, as far as we know, was never published. It’s surprising, authentic—a real rarity—and I’m determined to work on it.
MSH/LAT 0001, Box 1, Folder 16 (housed separately). Manuscript, Diego de Mendoza, “Chronica de la Provincia de San Antonio de los Charcas […],” 17th century.
The other find is a manuscript of over 800 pages. It’s the Chronicle of the Province of Saint Anthony of Charcas of the Order of Our Seraphic Father Saint Francis…, written by Fray Diego de Mendoza. The author is believed to have been born in Cusco, and we know he wrote the chronicle in a convent in that city. It’s an imposing work, full of scholarly references, consisting of three books. It was written primarily for edification: after presenting in the first book the general history of the Franciscan order in the Americas, and particularly in the province of Charcas (roughly what is now Bolivia), books II and III are devoted to presenting the “life and virtues” of a great many people—men and women, Spaniards, Creoles, and Indigenous people—who belonged to the Franciscan order (perhaps more accurately, “orders” in the plural).
What grabs my attention is that the printed text, published in Madrid in 1665, and (at least to my knowledge) the only known version, differs in many instances from the handwritten version we have here. I have several reasons to believe that this version is in Diego de Mendoza’s own handwriting. His signature appears on one of the preliminary pages, and you can recognize the traces of his signature style throughout the text.
Epilogue
As a graduate student at UCLA, I studied the many worlds of the Viceroyalty of Peru and was absolutely enthralled by the Virgin of Copacana. (I still am.) This is how I was first introduced to the work of Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli. In addition to the various studies he has published on this Virgin, he also produced, with his colleague Hans van den Berg O.S.A., an excellent edition of the History of the Celebrated Sanctuary of Our Lady of Copacabana, written by the Augustian friar Alonso Ramos Gavilán, and published in Lima in 1621. While RBSC does not steward a copy of Ramos Gavilán’s chronicle, I was able to show Dr. Eichmann our examples of two related works: Fernando de Valverde’s Sanctuary of Our Lady of Copacabana. Sacred poem (Lima, 1641) and On the Divine Virgin of Copacabana, most celebrated in the Peruvian kingdom of the New World…, by Ippolito Marracci (Rome, 1656). It was a joy to finally meet Dr. Eichmann in person, and I want to thank him for his enthusiasm and generosity. —PPQ
Rare Books and Special Collections welcomes students, faculty, staff, researchers, and visitors back to campus for Spring ’25! Here are a variety of things to watch for in Special Collections during the coming semester.
Special Collections Welcomed Two New Curators in the Fall 2024 Semester
In addition to stewarding the Hesburgh Libraries’ Irish Studies collections in both general and specialized collections, Knight works with other University faculty members to foster the use of these materials broadly across campus within the larger field of Irish Studies teaching and instruction.
The new Irish Studies Librarian and Curator brings deep expertise in the field of Irish Studies, teaching, and librarianship, including in special collections. He previously served as an Associate Librarian at the University of South Florida and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Celtic Languages and Literatures from Harvard University in addition to an M.A. in Library Science from the University of South Florida.
Phillips Quintanilla is responsible for stewarding the Libraries’ Latin American and Iberian Studies collections in both general and specialized collections. She works within the Libraries and across campus to foster the use of the collections broadly within the fields of Latin American Studies and Iberian Studies teaching and instruction. She also supports Latino Studies students and faculty in collaboration with Rachel Bohlmann, American History Librarian and Curator of North Americana.
Phillips Quintanilla brings deep expertise in the field of Latin American and Iberian Studies and teaching, as well as experience in the cultural heritage sector — particularly in areas of provenance and the stewardship of special collections. Before joining the Hesburgh Libraries faculty, she worked as a Research Specialist in the Pre-Hispanic Art Provenance Initiative at the Getty Research Institute. The new librarian and curator holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures with a specialization in transatlantic early modern literatures and cultures, as well as an M.A. in Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a Master of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California, and a B.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy from Occidental College.
Fall 2024 Exhibition — Notre Dame Football Kills Prejudice: Citizenship and Faith in 1924
Continuing through the end of January.
“Notre Dame football is a new crusade: it kills prejudice and stimulates faith.”
— Rev. John F. O’Hara, C.S.C., Prefect of Religion, Religious Bulletin, November 17, 1924
In the fall of 1924, the University of Notre Dame found great success on the football field and confronted a dangerous and divisive political moment. The undefeated Fighting Irish football team, cemented forever in national memory by Grantland Rice’s legendary “Four Horsemen” column, beat the best opponents from all regions of the country and won the Rose Bowl to claim a consensus national championship. Off the field, Notre Dame battled a reactionary nativist political environment that, in its most extreme manifestation, birthed the second version of the Ku Klux Klan. Sympathizers of this “100% Americanism” movement celebrated white, male, Protestant citizenship and attacked other groups—including Catholics and immigrants—who challenged this restrictive understanding of American identity.
In the national spotlight, Notre Dame leaders unabashedly embraced their Catholic identity. They consciously leveraged the unprecedented visibility and acclaim of the football team to promote—within the very real political constraints of the era—a more inclusive and welcoming standard of citizenship. Attracting a broad and diverse fan base, the 1924 national champion Fighting Irish discredited nativist politics and helped stake the claim of Notre Dame—and Catholics and immigrants—to full citizenship and undisputed Americanness.
Curated by Gregory Bond (Curator of the Joyce Sports Research Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections) and Elizabeth Hogan (Senior Archivist for Photographs and Graphic Materials, University Archives).
Spring 2025 Exhibition — Tragedies of War: Images of World War II in Print Visual Culture
Opening mid-February.
Based predominantly on recently acquired Rare Books and Special Collections European holdings, the exhibition commemorates the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) and explores a diverse assortment of themes including Nazi racial ideology, the Holocaust, Children in War, Resistance, Liberation, and Memories of War. By examining these topics through images created for personal use by ordinary people and for state-sponsored propaganda purposes, the exhibit presents a visual narrative of the war’s profound impact on individuals and societies, offering deeper insight into how war was experienced and remembered.
Curated by Natasha Lyandres (Curator, Rare Books & Special Collections), Jean McManus (Catholic Studies Librarian, University Archives) and Julia Schneider (German Language and Literature and Italian Studies Librarian, Hesburgh Libraries).
Spring Spotlight: Building a Campus Boycott to Support Midwestern Farmworkers
Opening end of January.
In 1980, the University of Notre Dame became the first major university to boycott Campbell Soup products in support of Midwestern farmworkers represented by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (Toledo, OH). In a few short months, a small and dedicated cohort of students tapped into a growing movement and convinced the campus to act in solidarity.
Curated by Emiliano Aguilar (Assistant Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Latino Studies).
These and other exhibits within the Hesburgh Libraries are generously supported by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment.
All exhibits are free and open to the public during regular hours.
Special Collections’ Classes & Workshops
Throughout the semester, curators will teach sessions related to our holdings to undergraduate and graduate students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College. Curators may also be available to show special collections to visiting classes, from preschool through adults. If you would like to arrange a group visit and class with a curator, please contact Special Collections.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, January 16 at 5:00pm | The Spring 2025 Italian Research Seminar and Lectures will begin with a lecture by 4th-year Ph.D. student in Italian Rookshar Myram (University of Notre Dame) titled: “Forging Effigies in the Commedia: Deification as Artistry.”
We join the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.
“Todas las competencias deportivas, no solamente las internacionales o las interestatales, sino también las interpoblaciones, deben servir para estrechar los lazos de amistad y nunca para distanciar a los pobladores o fanáticos.”
“All sporting competitions, not only international or interstate ones, but also local ones, should serve to strengthen the bonds of friendship and never to distance the residents or fans.”
The September 3, 1953, issue (page 1) of the Mexico City-based magazine Beisbol: Semanario Especializado (Baseball: Weekly Special) published this article lamenting the increasingly bitter and antagonistic rivalries between baseball teams and spectators in Mexico. The editors encouraged their readers to find common ground through sports and urged fans to temper their intensity.
The magazine did acknowledge the centrality of fan participation during baseball games, but it urged moderation in cheering:
“Un encuentro de beisbol sin gritos ni alaridos, es como una cerveza sin espuma; ésta es indispensable para que la cerveza se apetezca… pero tampoco gustará usted de tomarse una cerveza que sea pura espuma.”
“A baseball game without shouts and screams is like a beer without foam; the foam is essential for the beer to be appetizing… but you would not like to drink a beer that is pure foam.”
The editors concluded dramatically: “… después de un encuentro beisbolero, cuando se haya disipado el olor de la pólvora, los contrincantes deben darse la mano y seguir siendo amigos.” (“…after a baseball game, when the smell of gunpowder has dissipated, the opponents must shake hands and continue being friends.”)
Baseball fans, including a man wearing a mask and holding a flag, watch the “Coastal Classic” between teams from Mazatlán and Culiacán, two cities in the state of Sinaloa, on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Source: Beisbol January 14, 1954, page 17.
Rare Books and Special Collections recently acquired nine issues of Beisbol: Semanario Especializado dating from 1953 and 1954. Beisbol, edited by Salvador Mondragón, a prominent Mexican baseball administrator and booster, was published from about 1946-1957. Mondragón was involved for many years with running the country’s professional leagues, as well as organizing Mexico’s amateur teams for international competitions.
Beisbol covered all aspects of the sport. Many issues focused on the professional Mexican Leagues in both the summer and winter seasons. But the magazine also covered other subjects of interest to Mexican baseball fans, including semi-pro and amateur baseball, Mexican and Latin American players who competed in other leagues, news from the American major leagues, foreign teams that visited Mexico, historical baseball stories, and many other topics.
A small sampling of articles from the profusely illustrated magazine gives a good sense of the range of subjects covered in Beisbol.
The November 12, 1953, issue (pages 8-9 and 18-19), for instance, provided in-depth coverage of the recent visit of Jackie Robinson’s Stars, a barnstorming club of American major leaguers, minor leaguers, and Negro Leaguers led by the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson and Cleveland Indians outfielder Luke Easter. The magazine featured a two-page spread of photos of the American players.
The magazine printed a two-page article “El Parque ‘Carta Clara’ Recibe Maquillaje” (“The Park ‘Carta Clara’ Receives a Makeover”) in its September 3, 1953 (pages 28-29), issue about renovations at Carta Clara Park in Mérida. The author of the article extensively interviewed the field manager/groundskeeper, Carlos “Licho” Ponce, about the changes and improvements being made to the stadium.
Beisbol also routinely featured a small “Sección de Softbol” (“Softball Section”). The coverage usually focused on men’s softball, but the April 8, 1954, issue included a lengthy story about a new amateur women’s softball league (that was sponsored, in part, by the Hipódromo de las Américas, a prominent Mexico City horse racing track). According to Beisbol, the organizers of the Asociación Femenil de Softbol (Women’s Softball Association):
“… han realizado una magnífica labor, llena de penalidades, para organizar este campeonato en la cual se han abierto los brazos a las jovencitas que tuviesen deseos de jugar a la pelota y no contasen con elemento para hacerlo…” (page 30).
“…have done a magnificent job, full of hardships, to organize this championship in which they have opened their arms to the young girls who had wanted to play ball and did not have the resources to do it…” (page 30).
The issue featured numerous photographs (pages 32-34) of opening day and action from the first games.
Each issue of Beisbol: Semanario Especializado featured remarkable full-color cover illustrations drawn by artist Guillermo Ley. Ley’s eye-catching images humorously commented on important current events in Mexican baseball.
The August 20, 1953, cover illustration, for example, depicted the in-season travels of Cuban pitcher Aristónico Correoso. Correoso had been released by two teams in La Liga Mexicana (Mexican League) during the 1953 season before signing with Tuneros de San Luis in La Liga Central (Central League) and leading his new team to the top of the standings.
The cover of September 24, 1953, editorialized about outfielder Humberto Barbón’s recent decision to leave the Campeche Pirates of la Liga Peninsular de Yucatan (the Yucatan Peninsular League) to play for a team in Havana, Cuba. The illustration shows “el tesoro de los piratas” (“the treasure of the pirates”) waving goodbye and departing Mexico in a boat rowed by the manager of the Havana team.
Ley’s intricate and attractive illustrations and caricatures commented on many different topics of the day and likely helped to draw readers’ attention to the magazine. On November 12, 1953, his cover illustrated the race between the six teams of the Veracruz Winter league vying for the championship, and on April 6, 1954, Ley’s cover showed underdog Venezuela bursting the Mexican team’s balloon by winning the baseball gold medal at the 1954 Central American and Caribbean Games.
Beisbol: Semanario Especializado is an important source documenting the post-World War Two history of baseball in Mexico and throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America. These scarce issues—Worldcat finds only one other institution with any holdings of Beisbol—are open and available to researchers in Rare Books and Special Collections.
The exhibition Making and Unmaking Emancipation in Cuba and the United States is now open and will run through the fall semester.
Tours of the exhibit may also be arranged for classes and other groups by contacting Rachel Bohlmann at (574) 631-1575 or Rachel.Bohlmann.2@nd.edu.
The December spotlight exhibits are Football and Community at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (August – December 2023) and TBD (December 2023 – November 2024).
Rare Books and Special Collections will be closed for Notre Dame’s Christmas and New Year’s Break (December 22, 2023, through January 1, 2024).
We otherwise remain open for our regular hours during Reading Days and Exams, and welcome those looking for a quiet place to study.
Thursday, November 9 at 5:00pm | Book Presentation: La vita dell’altro. Svevo, Joyce: Un’amicizia geniale by Enrico Terrinoni (Affiliate of the Center for Italian Studies). Terrinoni will be joined by Sara Boezio, Charles Leavitt, and Clíona Ní Ríordáin for a roundtable discussion of his book. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.
A tour of Hesburgh Libraries’ Fall 2023 exhibition, Making and Unmaking Emancipation in Cuba and the United States, precedes the panel discussion (4:30 – 5:00pm). A reception will follow the panel discussion, in the Hesburgh Libraries Scholar’s Lounge.
Free and open to the public; no tickets required.
The exhibition Making and Unmaking Emancipation in Cuba and the United States is now open and will run through the fall semester.
A curator-led tour, open to the public, will be held noon–1:00pm on the following upcoming Friday: November 17. Tours of the exhibit may also be arranged for classes and other groups by contacting Rachel Bohlmann at (574) 631-1575 or Rachel.Bohlmann.2@nd.edu.
The November spotlight exhibits are Football and Community at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (August – December 2023) and Path to Sainthood: Brother Columba O’Neill (October – November 2023).
RBSC will be closed during the University of Notre Dame’s Thanksgiving Break, November 23 – 24.
We join the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.
This year we share two issues of the comic book, El Gato Negro (The Black Cat), created by American artist Richard Dominguez. The popular series debuted in 1993 and narrates the adventures the Hispanic superhero, El Gato Negro, a vigilante crime fighter in Southwest Texas. Special Collections holds single copies of issues 3 and 4.
Packed with action and defined by dynamic imagery, this graphic title fits solidly within the comic book genre. It also takes on current events, issues in Mexican, Mexican American, and American history, and popular culture in a whole variety of ways.
Francisco Guerrero, the man behind the El Gato Negro mask, is a social worker in Southwest Texas whose friend, Mario, a border patrol officer, was murdered by drug traffickers. Guerrero takes on the El Gato Negro identity at night to fight against drug-related violence, even while being targeted by local law enforcement. His name combines the first name of Francisco Madero, a hero of the Mexican Revolution, with “guerrero,” or “warrior.” Across its 4 issues, the comic book series references Hispanic soldiers who fought in the Korean War, the Zapatista movement in Mexico, and lucha libre (Mexican professional wrestling). As such, this title speaks to parts of the Mexican American experience in late twentieth-century America in fun and fascinating ways.
Captain Francis O’Neill’s collection 1001 Gems: The Dance Music of Ireland (1907) is so important to the world of Irish traditional music that it’s sometimes called the Bible or simply, ‘The Book’. Starting as a pandemic project, the Irish composer and musicologist Seán Doherty analyzed all 1001 tunes in this influential collection. In this lecture and performance, Seán will discuss the music along with O’Neill’s biography and will play tunes linked to key moments in Chief O’Neill’s life.
Captain O’Neill donated his personal library to the University of Notre Dame, where it is held at the Hesburgh Library. Dr. Doherty’s research visit is supported by the Keough-Naughton Library Research Award in Irish Studies.
The exhibition Making and Unmaking Emancipation in Cuba and the United States is now open and will run through the fall semester.
Curator-led tours, open to the public, will be held noon–1:00pm on the following upcoming Fridays: October 13 and 27 [tour on 10/27 cancelled], and November 17.
Tours of the exhibit may also be arranged for classes and other groups by contacting Rachel Bohlmann at (574) 631-1575 or Rachel.Bohlmann.2@nd.edu.
The October spotlight exhibits are Football and Community at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (August – December 2023) and Path to Sainthood: Brother Columba O’Neill (October – November 2023).
RBSC will be open regular hours (9:30am – 4:30pm) during the University of Notre Dame’s Fall Break, October 16 – 20.
This exhibition explores the fraught, circuitous and unfinished course of emancipation over the nineteenth century in Cuba and the United States. People — enslaved individuals and outside observers, survivors and resistors, and activists and conspirators — made and unmade emancipation, a process that remains unfinished and unrealized.
Materials from Rare Books and Special Collections’ Latin American and U.S. collections are paired together to reflect on the history of enslavement and freedom beyond national borders. The show features books, manuscripts, maps, and prints, illustrating the array of formats held in RBSC and how they each shed light on historical experience.
Making and Unmaking Emancipation in Cuba and the United States is curated by Rachel Bohlmann, Curator of North Americana and American History Librarian and Erika Hosselkus, Curator of Latin American Studies and Iberian Studies, and Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources and Services.
Curator-led tours will be offered at noon on September 22, October 13 and 27 [tour on 10/27 cancelled], and November 17, 2023. They are free and no reservations are required. Exhibition tours may also be arranged for classes and other groups by contacting Rachel Bohlmann at (574) 631-1575 or rbohlman@nd.edu.
Please mark your calendars and join us on Thursday, November 30th at 4:30 pm in 102 Hesburgh Library for a panel program that delves more deeply into questions about enslavement and emancipation raised in the exhibition. The program also speaks to the challenges and opportunities in connecting broad audiences to new scholarly findings in the study of transatlantic slavery. A curators’ tour will precede the program; a reception will follow.
We join the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.
The United Farm Workers, an organization with deep ties to the Mexican American community, came into existence in 1965, under the leadership of labor leader Cesar Chavez. It merged two existing groups of farm workers, one primarily Mexican and one primarily Filipino. Under Cesar Chavez’s leadership, United Farm Workers became a highly influential, multi-racial labor movement. It orchestrated the most successful consumer boycott in American history, against California grape producers, between 1965 and 1970. By allying with national and local unions and building boycott houses in 10 major cities, the UFW effectively shut down the U.S. market for grapes in protest over treatment of farmworkers. In July of 1970, after a final, failed attempt to offload rotting grapes in Europe, twenty-six grape growers capitulated and signed collective bargaining agreements with the UFW, a major victory for the country’s farm workers.
This post highlights some of Rare Books and Special Collections’ ephemeral material related to the history of the United Farm Workers organization, a beacon of Chicano strength and power.
Andrew Zermeño, a graphic artist who created a number of political cartoons for United Farm Workers, produced this large bilingual poster in 1968. It connects the president-elect, Richard Nixon, to the abusive practices of California grape growers and warns that if “La Raza,” or the Mexican American population, doesn’t stop Nixon, he will stomp, or crush, them.
Portrayed in a grotesque fashion, Nixon waves his characteristic “V” for victory sign and greedily devours grapes. A grape grower is literally in Nixon’s pocket and farmworkers are crushed under his stomping feet. Small signs in Spanish and English refer to the boycott. A man representing La Raza lies inert in a pool of grape juice at the bottom of the poster.
In 1969, the Scholastic, the University of Notre Dame’s student magazine, recognized the grape boycott. Its editors published the striking emblem of the Delano strike on the cover of the November 7 issue. Inside, the first of two articles on the farmworkers’ actions, authored by Steve Novak, describes the formation of the UFW and the history of the grape boycott. Novak observes that, “the Delano strike has done much for the Mexican-American people of the United States,” making them more visible, uniting them, and bringing their struggles to light.
This final item is a modest poster promoting a United Farm Workers benefit held in Madison, Wisconsin, at Freedom House, a small venue. Likely also dating to the era of the grape boycott, the poster features the strike emblem and a group of three protestors, one with arm raised and one wearing a farm worker’s hat.
Together, these items reflect the national impact of the Delano grape strike. It spawned protest posters by Mexican American artists like Zermeño, merited a place on the cover of university student magazine in South Bend, Indiana, and prompted organization of a benefit in Madison, Wisconsin. The impact of this event was widespread and impressive, and it is an important part of the legacy of the U.S.’s Mexican American population.
