Find background/context and refine your topic
Reference sources are great for background or context, to refine your thesis or topic, clarify context, identify good key words, to check facts, and more.
Use their bibliographies or source lists to identify other good sources for your topic.
Try starting by searching in this encyclopedia for a good article on your general topic: Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture.
General reference sources
Encyclopediahttps://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/2824853 Britannica Online. Now includes rich supplementary material (maps, data, news, articles, website links and more).
Gale Virtual Reference Library Online. Excellent collection of full text encyclopedias.
Sage Reference Online Excellent collection of full text encyclopedias.
Oxford Reference Online Outstanding collection of subject and literature encyclopedias, dictionaries, and companions. *
Literature Resource Center (LRC) Online. Criticism and theory, biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). *
Background on theories and theorists -- Reference sources
- Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural TheoryEntries on the concepts, theorists, and trends in post-1900 literary and cultural theory.
- International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral SciencesContains signed, scholarly entries on a wide range of subjects in psychology, sociology, anthropology, sexuality, media, education, age, adolescence, race, demography, and much more.
- Routledge Companion to Critical and Cultural TheoryPrint: Olin Reference
- Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyOnline only, peer-reviewed, open-access encyclopedia.
Bibliographies -- Latin American Studies
H-LAS Online Handbook of Latin American Studies
Oxford Bibliographies -- Latin American Studies
Selected subject sources: Latin American literature
Cambridge History of Latin American Women's Literature (online) Print edition: Olin Library PQ7081.5 .C34 2016
Cambridge History of Latin American Literature (online) Volume 1: Discovery to Modernism; Volume 2: The Twentieth Century; Volume 3: Brazilian Literature, Bibliiographies note: three separate links, one per volume
Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003.
Latin American Writers 3 v. Available in HathiTrust ETAS.