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Mexico - Mining, 1989-1996

 File — Box: 31, Folder: 5

Scope and Content

From the Collection: The collection consists of IRC publications, administrative documents, funding proposals, correspondence, news clippings and other secondary source research material, photographs, slide shows, and video and audio recordings. It features correspondence with civil society groups, government agencies (including many Freedom of Information Act requests and responses), and experts and activists who collaborated with the IRC. The collection is a useful repository of material on US foreign policy--especially on so-called democratization efforts--US trade and industrial policies, Mexico, Central America and the social and environmental issues of the US-Mexico border region.

The collection is divided into five series: Administrative, Issues, Publications, Slides, and Audio and Video Recordings.

The Administrative series contains material representing the inner workings of the IRC. It includes board of directors documents, by-laws and mission statements, budgets and financial statements, correspondence (with noteworthy individuals such as Medea Benjamin, IRC-board member Noam Chomsky, and Margaret Randall), staff and intern files, clippings of IRC articles, funding proposals, promotional material, event paraphernalia, travel summaries, as well as material reflecting the communication and administration involved in the creation of IRC publication. While final published drafts can be found in the publications series, the material in the administrative series listed under publication titles encompasses much of the background work that went into creating the IRC's various newsletters, reports and books.

The Issues series contains reference material that the IRC kept on issues and organizations important to their research and publications. Major subjects include US-Mexico border issues, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Border Environment Cooperation Commission and the North American Development Bank, the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the National Endowment for Democracy (especially in regards to its work in Nicaragua and Haiti), US labor and unions (particularly their activity abroad), right wing groups and individuals, mining in New Mexico (including material and reports on Phelps Dodge), food policy, deindustrialization, and US government agencies. The issues series also contains reference material on a number of Latin American countries; within each country the material is subdivided into specific categories (e.g. Mexico – Industry). The Issues series contains correspondence, news clippings, photographs, and outside publications that informed IRC's research agenda. A number of the folders contain IRC notes on the respective subjects. This series will be useful to people researching the states and societies of Latin America and US intervention (public and private) in those countries. [Warning: This series contains graphic violent images from the El Salvador Human Rights Commission.]

The Publications series contains the newsletters, articles, book chapters, and reports that the IRC published and distributed. It includes serial newsletters such as the Americas Program, Border Briefings, Border Information and Outreach Service (BIOS), Borderlines, the IRC Bulletin Democracy Backgrounder, Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), Group Watch, The NED Backgrounder, and Right Web. The Publications series also includes single issue reports, guides for activists and immigrants, as well as scripts to some IRC slide shows. Also contained in this series are earlier publications from New Mexico People and Energy. The Publications series represents the length and breadth of the IRC's oeuvre. However, books published by the IRC are housed individually in the CSWR and University Libraries, and are not part of this manuscript collection.

The Slides series contains slide shows that IRC produced and distributed. Mostly on Central America and the Caribbean (and US intervention there), the slide shows were activist tools meant to allow people to raise awareness among their friends, neighbors and colleagues. Each slide show was to be shown in combination with an IRC-produced audio recording (see below), creating an audio-visual educational experience. Also, in the slides series are miscellaneous photographs from IRC staff member's travels around Central America, the Caribbean and New Mexico. Of interest to researchers are images of propaganda signs from Nicaragua and Grenada.

The Audio and Video Recordings series contains IRC recordings. It includes the audio component of IRC slide shows (see above). This series contains radio spots from the IRC's Global Good Neighbor Initiative. Also in this series are recordings of IRC-sponsored lectures by IRC-board member Noam Chomsky.

Dates

  • 1989-1996

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English, Spanish

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 54 boxes (54 cu. ft.)

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451