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Archive of Hispanic Literature Launches New Online Recordings

Posted by: Anne Holmes

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The following is a guest post by Catalina Gómez, reference librarian in the Hispanic Division. It originally appeared on the 4 Corners of the World: International Collections blog.

Among the various ways that the Library celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15) is by launching, during this special commemoration, new digital material on the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (AHLOT). For the past three years, we have provided online access to a growing number of recordings through the AHLOT portal. The 2018 launch of fifty new recordings adds to the existing digital archive of prose writers and poets from all over the Americas and Spain and Portugal reading from their works.

Listener enjoying the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape by the steps of the Library of Congress. Photo credit: Catalina Gomez.

The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape is an historic collection of close to 800 audio recordings of Luso-Hispanic writers. Since its inception in 1943, curators in the Hispanic Division have continued expanding on this project by recording, in the Library’s recording lab and abroad, some of the most important writers and poets of the 20th and 21st centuries. Our efforts to digitize this collection are ongoing, and with the 2018 launch, there are now 200 recordings available via online streaming.

This launch includes recordings from the 1950s onward, with many sessions recorded in the past five years. Reflecting the regions’ immense rich cultural and linguistic diversity, the list includes the literatures of nations such as Haiti, Cuba, Spain, Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Chile, Argentina, and more. It also includes, for the very first time, recordings of works in indigenous languages, such as the recording of Mexican scholar Ángel María Garibay (1892-1967) who reads Aztec poetry in Nahuatl and Spanish; Mexican writer Andrés Henestrosa (1906-2008) who reads works in Zapotec, a pre-Columbian language from Oaxaca, Mexico; and poet Andrés Alencastre (1909-1984) who reads verses in Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire. Another linguistic gem included in this release is a reading by Spanish writer Unai Elorriaga (1973- ) in Basque or “Euskara,” a Pre-Indo-European language spoken in northern Spain.

We hope you enjoy these literary treasures! Below is the complete list of newly available recordings:

  1. Argentine playwright Griselda Gambaro reading from her work
  2. Bolivian poet Yolanda Bedregal reading from her work
  3. Brazilian author and poet Adriana Lisboa reading from her work
  4. Brazilian author and poet Tatiana Salem-Levy reading from her work 
  5. Chilean author Manuel Eduardo Hübner reading from his work
  6. Chilean poet Angel Cruchaga Santa María reading from his verse
  7. Colombian author Héctor Abad Faciolince reading from his work
  8. Colombian author Pablo Montoya reading from his work 
  9. Colombian essayist and novelist Eduardo Caballero Calderón reading from his work
  10. Colombian poet Héctor Rojas Herazo reading from his work 
  11. Colombian poet Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda reading from his work
  12. Costa Rican poet Mía Gallegos reading from her work
  13. Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas reading from his prose 
  14. Dominican poet Enriquillo Rojas Abreu reading from his work 
  15. Dominican writer José Gabriel Alcántara Almánzar reading from his prose
  16. Ecuadorian writer Alfredo Pareja y Díez Canseco reading from his work 
  17. Ecuadorian writer Demetrio Aguilera Malta reading from his work
  18. Guatemalan-American author Francisco Goldman reading from his work
  19. Haitian poet René Bélance reading from his work 
  20. Honduran poet and writer Rafael Heliodoro Valle reading from his poetry
  21. Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza reading from her work
  22. Mexican poet and short story writer Juan José Arreola reads from his work
  23. Mexican poet and writer Andrés Henestrosa reading from his work
  24. Mexican poet Homero Aridjis reading from his poetry 
  25. Mexican writer and translator Angel María Garibay K. commenting and reading from ancient poetry in Náhuatl followed by his Spanish translations 
  26. Mexican writer María Luisa Mendoza reading from her work 
  27. Mexican-American poet Juan Felipe Herrera reading from his work 
  28. Nicaraguan poet, scholar, and folklorist Ernesto Mejía Sánchez reading from his poetry
  29. Panamanian poet Ana Isabel Illuca reading from her unpublished verse
  30. Panamanian poet Ricardo J. Bermúdez reading from his work 
  31. Panamanian writer Joaquín Baleño C. reading from his novel, Curundú
  32. Peruvian author Alonso Cueto reading from his work 
  33. Peruvian poet and writer Alberto Hidalgo reading from his verse
  34. Peruvian author Santiago Roncagliolo reading from his work
  35. Peruvian poet Andrés Alencastre reading from his work 
  36. Peruvian poet Xavier Abril reading from his work
  37. Peruvian-American author Daniel Alarcón reading from his work
  38. Puerto Rican author José Agustín Balseiro reading from his verse
  39. Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferré reading from her prose and poetry
  40. Puerto Rican author Esmeralda Santiago reading from her work
  41. Salvadorean poet Manlio Argueta reads from his works 
  42. Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina reading from his work
  43. Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón reading from his work 
  44. Spanish author Enrique Vila-Matas reading from his work 
  45. Spanish author Unai Elorriaga reading from his work 
  46. Spanish poet César Antonio Molina reading from his work
  47. Spanish poet Clementina Arderíu reading from her work 
  48. Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre reading from his work
  49. Spanish-Argentine author and poet Andrés Neuman reading from his work 
  50. West Indian playwright David Edgecombe reading from his work