Collections – RBSC at ND

The Beautiful Game in the Stacks: Reading World Cup History

by Greg Bond, Sports Archivist and Curator, Joyce Sports Research Collection

As fans around the world watch the 23rd World Cup this summer hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, RBSC recently browsed the stacks for World Cup history. We are pleased to highlight these sources from the collection documenting the first two World Cup tournaments in 1930 and 1934.

The inaugural World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, and the host nation ended up winning the championship. After the tournament, the Uruguayan Football Association published an illustrated history of the event, Primer Campeonato Mundial de Football = La Coupe du monde : Montevideo, julio de 1930 (The First World Football Championships – The World Cup: Montevideo, July 1930). This oversized book commemorates and documents the tournament in more than 120 pages and hundreds of photographs.

Printed in both Spanish and French, the book contains plentiful information about the teams, players, and games. This page devoted to the runner-up Argentinian team is typical of the coverage of the participating countries (page 26). The book also includes images and descriptions of every tournament match, like this two-page spread about the United States’ 3-0 opening round victory over Belgium (pages 42-43).

The book gave extensive coverage to the semifinals and the finals, intricately documenting each goal in the championship game. Here we see a description of Uruguay’s third goal by Santos Iriarte in the 68th minute that gave Uruguay the lead for good en route to its 4-2 victory (page 96).

Four years later, Italy, under dictator Benito Mussolini, hosted the second World Cup, and, again the home team came away victorious. In advance of the tournament, the Italian National Tourism Board published this 26-page English-language pamphlet, See Italy and the World’s Football Championship, to entice visitors to come to Italy despite the continuing Great Depression.

The competition took place in eight different locations, which, as the pamphlet pointed out, “are most attractive, as only Italian cities can be” (page 6). The finals were held in Rome, which the Tourism Board declared, “embraces every attraction in Italy and is unsurpassed by any other city in the world” (page 20).

Mussolini Stadium of Turin (left) and San Siro Stadium of Milan (right).

The booklet featured photographs, descriptions, and simple maps of each of the host cities and stadiums, including the Mussolini Stadium of Turin and the San Siro Stadium of Milan. The championship game, which would see Italy defeat Czechoslovakia 2-1, was held in the Stadium of the National Fascist Party at Rome.

Rome and the Stadium of the National Fascist Party.

Title page of *Lo Sport in Regime Fascista* featuring Mussolini.

The following year, the Italian Olympic Committee in collaboration with the popular magazine Lo Sport Fascista jointly published Lo sport in regime fascista : 28 ottobre 1922-I 28 ottobre 1935-XIII (Sport in the Fascist Regime: 28 October 1922 I – 28 October 1935 XIII). This book recounted and celebrated Italian athletic achievements across a myriad of sports, including Italy’s recent World Cup title. The book’s frontispiece, which included a large image of Mussolini, demonstrated the close relationship between Italian sports and the ruling Fascist regime.

Calcio—or soccer—was featured in the fifth chapter, and the book revelled in Italy’s 1934 World Cup success. “Only in Fascist Italy could one seriously think about organizing the Second World Cup tournament” the book contended. “Only Italy could have taken on such a massive amount of work and responsibility. And it was a magnificent, beautiful, unforgettable event. Our beautiful sports fields, modern and superbly equipped; endless streams of foreigners who enjoyed our intelligent and truly affectionate hospitality; the battles between great champions, fought in an ideal atmosphere of serenity, discipline, and understanding” (page 40).

Original Italian: “Solo nell’Italia Fascista si poteva seriamente pensare all’organizzazione del II Torneo per la disputa della Coppa del Mondo…. Solo l’Italia poteva accettare un simile cumulo di lavoro e di responsabilità. E fu una cosa grandiosa, bellissima, indimenticabile. I nostri bei campi sportivi, moderni e mirabilmente attrezzati; interminable carovane di stranieri che godettero la nostra intelligente e veramente affettuosa ospitalità; battaglie di grandi campioni combattute in un clima ideale di serenità, di disciplina, di comprensione.”

Commemorative Italian postage stamps printed for the World Cup, or the *Campionato del Mondo* (page 34).

The book celebrated the victorious Italian national team, writing that “great goals, in truth, still await our formidable army of footballers. They will be achieved in the name of Fascism and for the glory of a sport that has truly brought Italy unparalleled satisfaction. The path already traveled and the conquests achieved, give the march of Italian footballers the rhythm and air of the inevitable” (page 40).

Original Italian: “Grandi mète, in verità, ulteriormente attendono il formidabile esercito dei nostri calciatori. Saranno raggiunte, nel nome del fascismo e per la gloria di uno sport che veramente diede all’Italia impareggiabili soddisfazioni. Il cammino percorso, le conquiste fatte, danno alla marcia dei calciatori italiani il ritmo ed il significato dell’ineluttabile.”

The Italian National Team that won the 1934 World Cup (page 35).

World Cup soccer has always been influenced by contemporary politics, and, like the Italian Fascists, national leaders have often sought to co-opt sporting success and athletic achievements for their own partisan reasons.

But, for just as long, many fans, spectators, athletes, and other observers have believed that global sporting events like the World Cup could serve a larger purpose and help to bridge the differences and conflicts between people. In his speech at the welcoming banquet for the delegations at the inaugural 1930 World Cup, for example, Dr. Raoul Jude, President of the Uruguayan Football Association, expressed his hope that the tournament could be a unifying event:

“Welcome, you travelers who arrive from all points of the compass, bringing us the message of solidarity and cordiality from different peoples and races, united nevertheless, above all differences and all of life’s hardships, within the higher fellowship of a lofty purpose aimed at the betterment of all mankind.

We read the clear message you bring us; and though some parts are not written in a language familiar to us, we instantly grasp their meaning through the frank gestures and the serene, united gaze of those who bear them” (Primer Campeonato Mundial de Football, pages 33-34).

Original Spanish: Bien venidos vosotros, viajeros que llegáis de todos los puntos cardinales trayéndonos el mensaje solidario y cordial de pueblos y razas diferentes, hermanadas no obstante, por encima de todas las diferencias y de todas las miserias de la vida, en la comunidad superior de un alto designio en el sentido del mejoramiento de todos los hombres de la tierra.

Leemos el claro mensaje que nos traéis, y aunque algunos de ellos no están escritos en la lengua que nos es familiar, descubrimos en seguida su sentido en el gesto franco y en la mirada serena y unánime de sus portadores.”

Players from the Uruguayan National Team celebrate the 1930 World Cup title on the pitch after the game (*Primer Campeonato Mundial de Football*, page 98).

With the 2026 World Cup soon coming to a close, we hope all teams, players, and fans have experienced a taste of La alégria del triunfo—the joy of victory—like the jubilant 1930 Uruguayan team seen here.

Thanks to Ruben Celani, Postdoctoral Research Associate and Italian Studies Curatorial Fellow, and Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Latin American & Iberian Studies Librarian and Curator, for assistance with Italian and Spanish translations.

Declarations of Independence

by Rachel Bohlmann, American History Librarian and Curator

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, Rare Books and Special Collections offers a look at a series of copies of the Declaration of Independence held in our collections. The process of creating the Declaration of Independence has been written about widely and even celebrated on Broadway (1776 [1969; revivals in 1997 and 2022]). But what happened after Congressional delegates agreed on the text and consented to sign the document? How did Congress disseminate the Declaration?

During the late eighteenth century, news was broadcast through broadsides (posters) and newspapers, as well as orally. The first copies of the Declaration of Independence were designed and printed by John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer and newspaper publisher. He typeset a large broadside version of the document on the night of July 4th and had printed at least several hundred copies by late morning on July 5th. Today, only 25 copies of Dunlap’s broadside exist.

It took time for the Declaration of Independence to reach all of the newly united states. RBSC holds a facsimile copy of one such later printing: the July 26, 1776 issue of the Virginia Gazette, which published the Declaration in full. The Virginia Gazette was published in Virginia’s capital, Williamsburg, and the paper published official news and business of the colony, and the state, of Virginia.

The same Virginia Gazette issue also reported on where the Declaration of Independence had been read publicly. Between early July and mid-August 1776 the document was printed and proclaimed across the United States, which was news in itself. The first public reading occurred on Monday, July 8th, in Philadelphia and other cities in Pennsylvania, and in New Jersey, using Dunlap’s broadside copy. In most places, the reading took on trappings of a ceremony. The local sheriff would read the Declaration on the steps of the courthouse, the gathered crowd would cheer, bells would ring, and soldiers would fire a salute. Coats of arms and other symbols of the British crown were also removed from buildings and burned.

By the middle of August 1776 the Declaration of Independence had reached London, where its text was changed by newspaper publishers worried about the document’s seditious content. Publishers excerpted, censored, and suppressed the text. These changes were reprinted in turn by printers and publishers beyond London to Europe, where the Declaration appeared in local newspapers by the end of August.

Rare Books and Special Collections holds a London printing of the Declaration of Independence. The Gentleman’s Magazine, a widely-read, general interest periodical, published the Declaration in its August issue. The magazine’s editor followed the pattern of some London newspapers, censoring words that criticised the monarch. As a result, “King,” “tyranny,” “Prince” and “tyrant” have been suppressed in this copy.

Some British editors altered the text of the Declaration to soften its criticism of George III. This might explain the marginal annotation in Hesburgh Library’s copy of the Gentleman’s Magazine. The handwritten note moderates Jefferson’s language to make the monarch appear less negligent. In referring to laws for which colonists petitioned the king, the annotator changed “he [the king] has utterly neglected to attend to them” to “he has utterly neglected to assent to them.” Did the editor believe that George III preferred to have denied rather than ignored his subjects?

Copies of the Declaration of Independence also circulated within the United States. As the United States expanded during the first decades of the nineteenth century, citizens needed to be informed about their government and the state of the nation; publishers and booksellers supplied. Hesburgh Libraries holds a number of these early nineteenth-century copies, including this 1811 copy published by Robert Harper, a printer in south central Pennsylvania. He published the nation’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—along with the constitutions of all 17 states. Among the purchasers was a bookseller in Pittsburgh that ordered 500 copies—a huge supply that the seller believed they could sell to newcomers to the frontier city.

Rare Books and Special Collections also holds a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was reprinted by the National Archives in 1952, along with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Published together as The Charters of Freedom and at the height of the Cold War, it celebrates the inauguration of the documents’ shared, permanent exhibition at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In this publication, the National Archives reproduced the Declaration of Independence in its most formal and famous form: the engrossed copy of the Declaration that was completed and signed on August 2, 1776. An engrossed copy is text written on parchment in a large hand.

All of these copies are different—in format and sometimes in content. Yet in aggregate they represent Americans’ adherence—for two and a half centuries–to the idea that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

Happy Fourth of July!

Bibliography

Sneff, Emily. When the Declaration of Independence Was News. New York: Oxford University Press, 2026.

The National Archives, Charters of Freedom; the Declaration of Independence.

National Caribbean American Heritage Month 2026

by Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Latin American & Iberian Studies Librarian and Curator

Students are typically surprised to learn that there is a long history of Spanish-language publishing in the United States. This history even includes cities, like New York and Philadelphia, that were never part of the vast geographies of the Spanish Empire or the Mexican Republic (which now constitute more than one third of the territory of the U.S.’s 48 contiguous states). Rather than being simply presented with this information, they are often prompted to make this “discovery” on their own through their examination of printed books: an opportunity, during a class visit or an appointment in the Reading Room, to thoughtfully explore not just the intellectual content but also the individual histories of books, as objects.

Special Collections has recently acquired, through both purchase and donation, a number of publications that serve this exercise well; texts that, like the Caribbean Sea, cross geopolitical boundaries, complicate national narratives, and question literary canons, all while connecting cultures, histories, and geographies in the process. One of those publications is highlighted here.

*Lecciones orales sobre la Historia de Cuba, pronunciadas en el Ateneo Democrático Cubano de Nueva York, por Pedro Santacilia*. Nueva-Orleans: Imprenta de Luis Eduardo del Cristo, 1859.

Cuba sits at the crossroads of the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea; and the story of this book, like the story of the island, is shaped by those waters, and by the peoples and polities that those waters have touched. The title of the book provides its first lesson in the Americas’ interconnected geographies of empire and independence, slavery and freedom, exile and return: Lectures on the History of Cuba, Pronounced in the Cuban Democratic Society of New York, by Pedro Santacilia. At the time of its publication in 1859, Santacilia (1834, Santiago de Cuba – 1910, Mexico City) had twice lived in Spain in forced exile, once as a child, due to his father’s political activities, and once as an adult, due to his own; escaped Spain via Gibraltar and moved to New York, where these lectures were given, and where he wrote and published alongside other Cuban exiles; moved to New Orleans, which was another refuge for Latin American exiles, and where this book was published; and, finally, settled in Mexico.

Copyright page, from the District of New Orleans.

Santacilia was always a fierce proponent of Cuban independence, but his ideas about how independence should look, including how it should be achieved, evolved over time. He presented and published his Lectures during a period in which many Cubans, himself included, viewed U.S. military intervention, and even U.S. annexation of Cuba, as the most expeditious route to liberation from the Spanish empire. In fact, he dedicated this book to Domingo de Goucuría, and published it through the press of Luis Eduardo del Cristo, both of whom were prominent filibusteros: they supported and fought alongside Venezuelan-born Narciso López and Tennessee-born William Walker in their attempts to invade, colonize, and establish slave states in parts of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

However, it was also in New Orleans where Santacilia met Mexican President Benito Juárez, a staunch abolitionist who himself spent two stints in the city as an exile, first during the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna, and then during the War of Reform. Santacilia ended up following Juárez back to México, married one of his daughters, witnessed the Mexican Republic’s resistance to the Second French Empire, fostered Mexican support for Cuban independence, and ultimately rejected U.S. interventionism in favor of a fully sovereign Cuban state.

Bookstore stamp for “Librería Martí” in Habana, Cuba.

RBSC’s copy of Santacilia’s Lectures followed a trajectory befitting its history. Published in New Orleans, it eventually made its way to Cuba, the subject of its pages. While we don’t know how or when it arrived on the island, a stamp, and accompanying handwritten note, tell us that it was sold by the famous Habana bookshop, Librería Martí — which itself was named after the great Cuban politician, author, and anti-imperialist, José Martí, who Santacilia befriended in Mexico. The purchase had to have taken place at some point between the mid-1920s, when the shop opened, and 1960, when it closed in the wake of the Revolution. RBSC’s copy, however, was not acquired from any agent in Cuba, but rather from a second-hand bookseller in Mexico City, where Santacilia built his life and legacy, and where he died and was buried.

Scholar Rodolfo J. Cortina once asked, “Cuban literature, Cuban exile literature, Cuban-American literature: where does one end and the other begin?”¹ In answering this question, he posited that Santacilia’s Lectures, like other 19th-century texts — poems, plays, newspapers, novels, etc. — published in the United States, by Cuban authors living and writing in the U.S., should absolutely be included in the Cuban-American literary canon, just as they should be included in the island’s own history of letters. The context and content of the Lectures, and the movement of RBSC’s particular copy through Caribbean and North American geographies, certainly supports this view.

Learn more about National Caribbean American Heritage Month and its history, as well as the many contributions of Notre Dame’s Caribbean American community members.

Footnotes

1 See the Introduction to Cortina’s chapter, “Cuban Literature of the United States: 1824–1959,” in the openly accessible, digital volume, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, edited by Ramón Gutiérrez and Genaro Padilla, first published by Arte Público Press in 1993. https://artepublicopress.manifoldapp.org/projects/recovery-vol-1

Studying the History of the Gay Games for Pride Month

by Greg Bond, Sports Archivist and Curator, Joyce Sports Research Collection

In observance of LGBTQ Pride Month and in conjunction with the upcoming Gay Games XII in Valencia, Spain, Rare Books and Special Collections is pleased to highlight the current ongoing exhibition Cultivating Community: Stories from Special Collections. Cultivating Community features the section, “The Gay ~~Olympic~~ Games: Community Through Sport,” which recounts the dedicated community activism that led to the founding of the Gay Games in San Francisco in 1982.

“The Gay ~~Olympic~~ Games: Community Through Sport,” tells the early history of the Gay Games with material from the Gay Games Collection (MSSP 10070) a manuscript collection housed in RBSC. As the exhibit explains, organizers originally adopted the name “Gay Olympic Games.” But, weeks before the opening ceremonies, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) filed a lawsuit and received an injunction prohibiting use of the word “Olympic” in association with the event. Organizers hastily rebranded as the “Gay Games,” and the competitions continued as scheduled in the late summer of 1982 in San Francisco.

In addition to materials on display in the exhibit, the Gay Games Collection contains other items documenting this story and recording the dogged persistence of the LGBTQ community and allies in establishing and hosting the Gay Games. A recently acquired copy of the August 1982 Gay ~~Olympics~~ Newsletter, for example, visually demonstrates how organizers of the event responded to the USOC lawsuit. The newsletter editors explained in bold print: “We are not barred, however, from blocking out the world ‘OLYMPIC’ and continuing our efforts. THE GAMES WILL GO ON!!”

*Gay ~~Olympics~~ Newslette*r (MSSP10070-01-02)

The Games did, indeed, go on, and the Gay Games Collection in RBSC contains material documenting the first four Gay Games from 1982 through 1994. Gay Games II was also held in San Francisco, and, from the beginning, the Gay Games included and emphasized cultural and artistic activities that celebrated the accomplishments of LGBTQ people. A program for the Procession of the Arts, for example, detailed the “cultural events” associated with Gay Games II.

Front covers of the *Procession of the Arts* program (MSSP10070-02-03) and the *Official Program of Gay Games II* (MSSP10070-02-01) from 1986.

Throughout its existence, the Gay Games have been a welcoming, inclusive, and safe space for all athletes, spectators, fans, and allies. This flier from Gay Games III held in Vancouver in 1990 described the “Special Philosophy” of the event:

The Games are open to everyone who supports their philosophy of inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness. “Participation and doing one’s personal best are more important than winning,” said founder [Dr. Tom] Waddell. “Our friendly competitions have worked well to remove age, sex, and racial stereotypes.”

Since their founding, the Gay Games have been a popular participatory and spectator event for LGBTQ people and allies, and promoters of the games have created many different types of items to allow fans to demonstrate their support. For Gay Games I, the Gertrude Stein Philatelic Society produced a collectible cachet—or decorative commemorative envelope—celebrating “The First Gay Olympic Games.” Collectible pins have also proven popular. The colorful pins below advertised San Francisco’s “Gay Games II – Triumph in ‘86” and “Gay Games IV – Unity ‘94” held in New York City in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.

Gay Games II pin (MSSP10070-02-07) and Gay Games IV pin (MSSP10070-04-06)

The exhibit Cultivating Community will be on display and open to the public during regular RBSC hours through July 17th. Now a major quadrennial international sporting event, Gay Games XII will run in Valencia from June 27th through July 4th.

The Gay Games Collection is available and open to researchers, and RBSC welcomes donations of new material about the history of the Gay Games.

Previous Pride Month Posts:

2025: Reading the Gay Rodeo Ephemera Collection for Pride Month
2024: Reading Gay Sports Magazine in Honor of Pride Month

“America, ungrateful land!” A Black Veteran and Poet Rebukes American Racism

by Rachel Bohlmann, American History Librarian and Curator

To commemorate Memorial Day, RBSC honors the African American poet Charles Frederick White, who, over a century ago, wrote a sharply-worded poem that condemned racial discrimination against African American veterans.

Charles Frederick White (1876-1955) was a combat veteran of the Spanish-American War. He published his most famous poem, “Plea of the Negro Soldier,” in 1907 in the Springfield (MA) Republican; it appeared the next year in his only published collection of poems, Plea of the Negro Soldier and a Hundred Other Poems.

In “Plea of the Negro Soldier,” White expresses outrage at his and other African American veterans’ treatment after honorably serving their country. He places their reception into a larger historical context of white racism and violence, and seeks justice for Black veterans and all African Americans.

America, ungrateful land!
Whose treacherous soil my blood has dyed,
. . .
who has denied
Me right to live, to vote, to learn,
Whose laws protect me not from wrong,
Who will permit me not to earn
An honest living, who in song
Doth boast a land of freedom, but
Whose flag waves o’er a land of crime,

Born in Tennessee to parents who had been enslaved, White’s earliest interests focused on attaining an education and discovering African American history. After working a series of low-paid jobs, he enlisted in the army. His hopes for economic and social mobility were dashed, however, when he realized that white Americans held his service in no regard.

But I, alas! have given all
In answer to thy urgent call,
Exposed my life to sword and ball,
And now, as o’er me creeps the fall
Of life, I find no recompense
But base discharge, with no defense

Determined to achieve an education, White entered Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire where he could maintain himself by combining work and study. Although his tenure there was cut short by southern students who insisted on White’s expulsion, he found a more satisfactory academic experience at Williston Seminary in western Massachusetts, from which White graduated in 1909.

While at Williston White published Plea of the Negro Solider at his own expense, even typesetting the pages on the press of the local Easthampton (MA) Enterprise newspaper.

White eventually settled in Philadelphia, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and had a long career in real estate and politics.

Although White published no more serious poetry after Plea of the Negro Soldier, his work is an important expression of American ideals denied and a demand for justice.

Republic cannot long endure
When autocrat can feel secure
To heap injustice on the poor

Source:

Roger J. Bresnahan, “Charles Fred White: A Forgotten Black Poet,” Negro History Bulletin, Vol. 40, no. 1 (1977): 659-661.

Congratulations to the 2026 Graduates!

Best wishes to the 2026 graduates of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College, from all of us in Rare Books and Special Collections.

We would particularly like to congratulate the following students who worked for Special Collections during their time on campus:

Rocío Colón Cotto (ND ’26), Bachelor of Arts in Art History, Bachelor of Arts in Chinese

Ashley Estelle (ND ’26), Bachelor of Arts in History

José Hurtado (ND ’26), Bachelor of Architecture

Both images: MSE/EM 110-1B, Diploma, University of Padua, 1690

RBSC will be closed Monday, May 25, for Memorial Day.

Comic Books in Special Collections: Los Supermachos

By Emiliano Aguilar, PhD, Assistant Professor History, University of Notre Dame

The first Saturday every May is celebrated as Free Comic Book Day. Since 2002, this annual event by the North American comic book industry aims to attract new readers to independent comic bookstores and a variety of titles. Books dedicated to superheroes, adaptations of television shows, frightening tales, and more are made available for visitors to these shops. This year, we are highlighting one of the historically rich comics in Rare Books and Special Collections.

In June 1965, Eduardo del Río García (1934-2017), known by his pseudonym, Rius, released Los supermachos (published by Editorial Meridiano), which, at its height, reportedly sold 200,000 copies a week. The comic book served as a critical commentary on Mexico’s social problems from the perspectives of the fictional town, San Garabato de las Tunas, Cuc., and the eccentric inhabitants of the rural town. Over the issues, Rius introduced his readers to a wide array of characters, such as the central character, Juan Calzónzin. Often the guide for the reader, the indigenous Calzónzin possessed a rich understanding of Mexican and global affairs.

Some of the recurring characters in *Los Supermachos*, left to right: Arsenio (Don Perpetuo’s bodyguard or enforcer), Don Perpetuo Del Rosal (the local strongman), Chon Prieto (Calzonzin’s friend and the town drunkard), and Juan Calzónzin.

As a medium, comics served as a democratic equalizer for the Mexican public, as no one was barred by geography, class, occupation, or education – even literacy – from reading and sharing them. Another recurring figure in Los Supermachos, the mayor and jefe politico of San Garabato, Don Perpetuo Del Rosal, served as an icon to criticize one-party rule in Mexico. The local strongman, Don Perpetuo, is associated with the ruling party, the RIP, a mockery of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which dominated Mexico’s political landscape for seventy-one years (1929-2000). Throughout the series, Don Perpetuo served as a foil for Los supermachos as he personally organizes the elections — always sure to declare the ruling RIP the repeated winner, commands his own police force, and builds a collaborative relationship with the local landowners, all while claiming unconditional support from the people.

Ultimately, Rius would leave Los supermachos due to government censorship. During his time authoring the books, the publishing team at Editorial Meridiano often revised Rius’s work to avoid fines and bureaucratic burdens, such as the denial of subsidized paper or restrictions on postal service for distribution. When Rius left, the book kept the title and much of the cast of characters, but without crediting him.

The volumes in Rare Books and Special Collections are mainly from after Rius’s departure. However, each comic offers an opportunity to understand the medium as a form of commentary and education for the Mexican people in the 1970s.

Published August 20, 1970, issue 242, is perhaps one of the more critical forms of political commentary. Los Supermachos: LA CIA follows Calzónzin, detailing the CIA’s history after he and his friends encounter a Gringo, who had just taken a ten-dollar bill that Calzónzin hoped to claim. Responding to their shock of seeing of seeing a Gringo in their community, he said, “No lo duden que ese billete que se llevo el Gringo sirva de pilón pa controlar a medio mundo. [Make no mistake: that bill the Gringo took is being used as a lever to control half the world.]

Mixing pop cultural icons, such as the Road Runner and Mickey Mouse ears, alongside real figures, the comic gives a grassroots history of the Central Intelligence Agency from a Mexican perspective. The comic uses the visual of two figures tossing a blue ball, which symbolizes the world, back and forth over a wall, as Calzónzin remarks that “Además, de fuentes oficiales norteamericanas se ha afirmado más de una vez la existencia en Moscu de un organism official de lucha sicológica contra la CIA. O lo que es lo mismo orta CIA, nomás que sovietica.” [In fact, U.S. official sources have stated more than once that there is an official agency in Moscow engaged in psychological warfare against the CIA. Or, in other words, another CIA – only Soviet.]

The creator uses each frame as a method to unravel how the CIA asserts its power and U.S. imperialism abroad. A military figure, bookended by the U.S. flag, details how the network of influence relies on three forms of action: political, psychological, and paramilitary. Merging the visual and textual allowed Los supermachos to present their point about the slow creeping Americanization of the world, even in Mexico. In the comic, the cultural changes wrought by U.S. business and pop culture epitomize the CIA’s war for influence. The deliberate use of actual photos, such as for Allen W. Dulles, the former Deputy Director of the CIA, or a Mexican father walking his children who are dressed as U.S. superheroes became ways for the comic to complement the visual and textual critique of U.S. influence.

Los supermachos, even after Rius’ departure, remained a relatively popular comic for Mexico’s public. The book offered an opportunity to educate various aspects of society, such as a later issue on the importance of vaccinations. The comic remained a biting cultural critique of Mexico, authoritarian rule, the Americanization of the world, and much more. Through engaging simple visuals and colloquial Spanish, the indigenous Calzónzin made the complex political, economic, and social issues digestible for a broad audience.

This vibrant and engaging comic run offers not only a window into Mexico, but an entertaining view into the countercultural influence on generations of political cartoonists, such as Lalo Alcaraz, an award-winning contemporary cartoonist known for his comical takes on Latino History and issues, who credits Rius as a major influence on his career as a cartoonist.

Upcoming Events: May 2026 and through the summer

Please join us for the following public events and exhibits being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:

[TODAY!] Tuesday, April 28 at 4:00pm | “The Ghost Behind Manuel Puig: Discovering the Mario Fenelli Archive” by Martín Villagarcía (Universidad Nacional de La Plata).

There are currently no public events scheduled in May, June, or July.

The Spring 2026 Exhibition | Cultivating Community: Stories from Special Collections

This exhibition highlights stories of survival, contemplation, competition, protest, and learning, from six distinct collections in Rare Books and Special Collections. Each section, presented by a different subject curator, focuses on an example of how people over time and in different places, construct community and cultivate hope.

A Community of Learners in Colonial America and the Early Republic
Rachel Bohlmann, Ph.D. (Curator, American History and American Studies)

The Gay ~~Olympic~~ Games: Community Through Sport
Gregory Bond, Ph.D. (Curator, Joyce Sports Research Collection)

Women Religious in Male Spaces
David T. Gura, Ph.D. (Curator, Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts)

Ireland’s Idealized Community
Matthew Knight, Ph.D. (Curator, Irish Studies)

A Community of Solidarity
Natasha Lyandres (Curator, Russian and East European Studies)

Transnational Communities of Resistance during El Salvador’s Civil War
Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Ph.D. (Curator, Latin American and Iberian Studies)

This and other exhibits within the Hesburgh Libraries are generously supported by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment.

The currently installed spotlight exhibits are Éire Óg / Young Ireland (March–April 2026) and First Impressions: An Introduction to Mesoamerican sellos / Primeras impresiones: Una introducción a los sellos mesoamericanos (January–April 2026).

All exhibits are free and open to the public during business hours.

RBSC will be closed Monday, May 25, for Memorial Day and Friday, July 3rd, for the Independence Day long weekend.

Special Collections’ Spring 2026 Exhibition — Cultivating Community: Stories from Special Collections

Our primary exhibition for Spring 2026, Cultivating Community: Stories from Special Collections, is currently open and will continue through June 15, 2026.

This exhibition highlights examples of survival, contemplation, competition, protest, and learning. Showcasing narratives spanning centuries and continents, each story demonstrates that the power of constructing community and cultivating hope transcends time and place.

The exhibition features six distinct collections housed in the Rare Books & Special Collections, and is curated by Hesburgh Libraries faculty members. Click below to learn more about each of the individual exhibits within the exhibition:

Women Religious in Male Spaces

Curated by David T. Gura, Ph.D. (Curator, Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts)

A Community of Learners in Colonial America and the Early Republic

Curated by Rachel Bohlmann, Ph.D. (Curator, American History and American Studies)

A Community of Solidarity

Curated by Natasha Lyandres (Curator, Russian and East European Studies)

The Gay Olympic Games: Community Through Sport

Curated by Gregory Bond, Ph.D. (Curator, Joyce Sports Research Collection)

Ireland’s Idealized Community

Curated by Matthew Knight, Ph.D. (Curator, Irish Studies)

Transnational Communities of Resistance during El Salvador’s Civil War

Curated by Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Ph.D. (Curator, Latin American and Iberian Studies)

Tours of the exhibit may be arranged for classes and other groups by contacting rarebook@nd.edu. All exhibits are free and open to the public during business hours. This and other exhibits within the library are generously supported by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment.

Easter Cards from the Cuala Press

In honor of Easter, we are sharing two images from the Cuala Press Ephemera Collection (EPH 5002). The Cuala Press was founded in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats, sister of the poet W. B. Yeats and the artist Jack B. Yeats, who illustrated many of the books and broadsides published by the press. The press was operated in Dublin by Elizabeth and her sister Lily Yeats, and later by George Yeats (William’s wife), through the mid-1940s. In addition to their brother, the Yeats sisters employed various Irish women to create illustrations, including Beatrice Glenavy (Elvery), Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, Pamela Colman Smith, Dorothy Blackham, and Mary Cottenham Yeats.

Happy Easter to you and yours from all of us in Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Notre Dame.

Left: *Easter*, text by Susan Langstaff Mitchell, undated (EPH 5002-120)
Right: *[On Easter Day]*, text by Temple Lane, undated (EPH 5002-122)

After being closed April 3 in observance of Good Friday, Rare Books and Special Collections will return to regular hours and is open on Monday, April 6, 2026.