Scope and Content Note
The Alianza Hispano Americana Records date from 1894 to 1994 and are organized into four series: Membership Files, Correspondence, Administration, and Printed Materials. Series I: Membership Files includes member files from Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. It ranges from 1894-1993 and is divided into subseries by state. Within each state, the files are organized by year and month, and within these dates, alphabetically. These files include insurance records, legal records, and occasionally birth certificates and death records. Series II contains correspondence, the majority of which is lodge correspondence. Series III includes administrative materials like agendas, manuals, rules, regulations and laws; reports; minutes; materials from meetings and committees; and financial and legal papers. Materials from this series date as early as 1894 with the bulk dating from the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s. The final series, Printed Materials, contains mostly copies of newsletters like the Alianza newsletters (1930-1969), newspaper articles, booklets, publications, magazines, and two photographs.
Dates
- Creation: 1894-1994
Creator
- Alianza Hispano-Americana (Organization)
Language of Materials
Material primarily in Spanish; some English included.
Access Restrictions
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
Historical Note
Alianza Hispano-Americana (AHA), founded in Tucson in 1894, was a Mexican American fraternal insurance society organized along Masonic lines into lodges, or logías. The Alianza members promoted civic virtues and acculturation; provided social activities; sickness and death benefits and burial insurance for its members. By 1930, the AHA had spread throughout the southwest and gradually extended to at least nine states in Mexico, expanding its mission to include concerns of civil rights and quality of education for Mexican Americans. In the 1950s, the Alianza won civil liberties cases involving Mexican American children and families who experienced segregated schools, public and community facilities in Tolleson, Winslow, and Miami, Arizona.
Full extent
134 Box(es)
Full extent
63.76 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Alianza Hispano Americana was founded in Tucson, Arizona in 1894 as a mutual aid benefit society for Mexicans in the Arizona territory. The collection features insurance documents that serve as legal evidence of financial transactions among members and within lodges. The materials include membership files containing legal and insurance records, lodge correspondence, administrative files like meeting minutes and financial papers, and printed materials. The materials are mostly written in Spanish. The Alianza was known to advocate for Mexican-American education and civil rights. Una versión en Español de este documento está disponible en el sitio http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/alianza_spa.xml
Arrangement
This collection consists of one hundred and twenty-nine boxes divided into four series:
- Series I: Membership Files
- Series II: Correspondence
- Series III: Administration
- Series IV: Printed Materials
Provenance
The Alianza Hispano American Records are a compilation of five accessions: 1994-01408, 1995-01458, 1995-01549, 1997-01817, and 2004-03663.
Processing Note
Concerning Series I, researchers should note that each membership record also has a corresponding number listed on the file; however, the significance of the number isn't consistent. The majority of the numbers are certificate numbers, but occasionally the number assigned with the name is the claims number rather than the certificate number.
Arrangement and description of this collection was made possible by the generous support of the Council on Library and Information Resources and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Title
- Alianza Hispano Americana Record, 1894-1994
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding guide encoded in English.
Repository details
Part of the Chicano/a Research Collection Repository
Contact
Arizona State UniversityP.O. Box 871006
Tempe AZ 85287-1006 United States
(480) 965-4932
archives@asu.edu