Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies
CLACX was created in Fall 2021 to bring together the former Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) and Program in Latino and Latina Studies (LATS). Our project is to stimulate research and teaching that examine the borders and intersections between Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies, enriching all through comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. We are intent on building meaningful partnerships with the Latinx community in Nashville, as part of our broader goal of bridging scholarly and public-facing discussions; and as part of our efforts to highlight Latinx Studies in the South. CLACX is a designated a National Resource Center on Latin America by the US Department of Education. Alongside providing Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grants for the study of Brazilian Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and K’iche’ Mayan, NRC funding supports professional development workshops, summer institutes, and cultural arts events to engage K-16 educators and community stakeholders.
Welcome
Latin American Collection at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt’s collection of Latin American materials is one of the library’s principal strengths. Vanderbilt established the first Institute of Brazilian Studies in the United States in 1947; hence, Brazil, particularly Brazilian history, has been a focus of the collection. Andean and Mayan studies, particularly in archaeology and anthropology in Peru and Guatemala are other strengths.
The Colombian collection is Vanderbilt's most distinctive Latin American Collections offering scholars a rich array of highly varied primary resources:
- J. León Helguera Collection which includes 19th and early 20th-century manuscripts, broadsides, pamphlets and newspapers, among many other rare materials
- The Manuel Zapata Olivella Collection of manuscripts, papers, transcriptions and recordings–a treasure trove of ethnographies, literary manuscripts and other Afro-Colombiana belonging to the acclaimed novelist, anthropologist and physician.
- The Delia Zapata Olivella Collection which focuses on the performance arts, especially music and dance and Afro-Hispanic traditions.
Other special collections include early travel accounts of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Simon Collier tango collection and the ever expanding digital collection, Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies, including Brazil, Colombia, and Cuba.
