The Josefina Velázquez de León Digitization Project

ByUTSA Special Collections
Banner reading “The Josefina Velázquez de León Digitization Project,” with a vintage cookbook design showing crossed flags of Mexico and the United States and text noting a Mexican cookbook devoted to American homes.

We are proud to announce the Josefina Velázquez de León Digitization Project. The project is a partnership between The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections and Fundación Herdez, A.C. Biblioteca de la Gastronomía Mexicana in Mexico City. The goal of the collaborative effort is to increase access to Josefina’s culinary legacy by digitizing her cookbooks. The digitized cookbooks are being uploaded to UTSA’s digital collections website where they will be freely accessible.

Vintage booklet cover titled “Tele‑Cocina” from Ediciones J. Velázquez de León, featuring a black‑and‑white photograph of Josefina Velazquez de Leon inside a television‑shaped frame, with additional Spanish text about a weekly television cooking program.
Josefina Velázquez de León. Tele-cocina no. 6. 1950.

Josefina Velázquez de León was a Mexican chef, researcher, writer, culinary educator, radio host, and early pioneer in culinary television. She ran a cooking school in Mexico City and between the 1930s and 1960s published over 150 cookbooks.

We are excited about this collaboration and are proud to be able to share Josefina’s legacy with the world!

UTSA Special Collections, the rare books and archives division of the UTSA Libraries, is home to the Mexican Cookbook Collection. The cookbook collection comprises nearly 3,000 volumes ranging in date from 1789 to the present.
Founded in 1994 by Fundación Herdez, the Biblioteca de la Gastronomía Mexicana contains 7,500 volumes documenting the origins, influences, cultures, and evolution of culinary customs throughout the regions of Mexico.

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