Photo by Doug Garland ’10
FIU’s Diaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection comprises more than 100,000 items, among them books, sheet music and thousands of records.
The Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation has awarded FIU Libraries a grant to digitize some of the oldest and rarest recordings. The project will make available on the internet the best examples of popular music from various countries between 1900 and 1929. Among the highlighted musical styles: danzón, bolero, rumba and foxtrot.
Librarian Veronica Gonzalez, who specializes in working with the collection, says that digitizing will make the music accessible to those who wish to study, for example, song lyrics as a primary source of information.
“They can do research through music, not just research about music,” she explains. “Research about history, about social issues of the time, politics. Many disciplines can be researched through the recordings.”
The oldest, made in New York in August of 1900, features Cuban soprano Rosalia “Chalia” Herrera singing the Italian “Il Bacio.” The song can be heard in the accompanying video. Other recording in the collection can be heard at the links below.
“El automóvil” by Enrique Peña
“El testamento” by Adolfo Colombo and Claudio Garcia
“Mama Teresa” by Adolfo Colombo and Claudio Garcia
“Zapateo y punto cubano” by Pablo Valenzuela
[…] Listen to musical recordings of a bygone era […]
[…] FIU: Listen to musical recordings of a bygone era […]
Thank you FIU News for helping us spread the word about this unique music treasure. We were fortunate to receive this donation from Mr. Cristóbal Diaz Ayala in 2001. Additionally, it has been a privilege to be awarded with the 2016 Preservation Grant from the Latin GRAMMY Foundation. Now, we will be able to extend our possibilities to share this collection with a large national and international community.
I really enjoyed the video. I am very excited to know that now the collection will get digitized. Many of these items are rare and having the opportunity to be exposed to it is amazing. Ill definitely let others know about this. Thank you Alexandra Pecharich for this information. Thank you Veronica Gonzalez for your extraordinary dedication with such wonderful and unique collection.
This is a big step forward and a Worlds Ahead Project for the Diaz Ayala Collection at the Florida International University Green Library for our students and also for our community I think it is a great idea to digitize the oldest shelac recordings because they are a unique resource that will help and become more accessible to those who wish to study and do research not only about the music for example research about history; social issues of the time etc.
This is such an exciting time to be a student at FIU. With so many oppurtunities to learn about the Cuban music and culture, it makes me feel connected to a part of history. I love that FIU has the Diaz-Ayala Collection because it allows the University to grow and connect to the community around us.
I think its very nice and cool that projects like this are taking place here at FIU.