Its purpose was to rescue historically valuable resources –both bibliographical and documentary– to avoid their destruction because of the lack of preservation and prevent them from being sold to libraries and archives abroad.

The first acquisition of the center was a private collection of 10,000 books from the 19th century, which included resources from the Diocese of Guadalajara and correspondence amongst several characters involved in the Independence of Mexico.

[5] The first board of trustees was composed of intellectuals such as Jesús Reyes Heroles, Ignacio Bernal, Silvio Zavala, Antonio Martínez Baez, and Alfonso Noriega.

[5] In 1976, the center received its first interns from the National Autonomous University of Mexico: Josefina Moguel and María de Lourdes Martinez (nowadays, two prominent researchers).

[5] After Dolores del Río's death, her photo archive was given to the center by Lewis Riley.