The following is a guest post by Catalina Gómez, Reference Librarian and Curator of the PALABRA Archive in the Latin American, Caribbean and European Division.
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which was celebrated from September 15 to October 15, the Latin American, Caribbean, and European Division (LACE) has released a new batch of unpublished recordings from the PALABRA Archive for online streaming.
The PALABRA Archive is a collection of audio recordings of 20th and 21st century poets and writers from Luso-Hispanic and U.S. Latino communities reading from their works. The collection now has now close to 900 recordings and continues to grow with new recordings by contemporary authors. Adding in the audios from this release, close to 650 recordings from this repository will be available digitally.
The newly released batch includes sessions both from the early years of the archive (1950s and 60s) to those recorded more recently. It highlights authors from sixteen countries with a special focus on Spain, including recordings that were done during a recording trip to Madrid and Barcelona in 2018. These include recordings with the late Almudena Grandes, one of Spain’s towering figures and the author of Las edades de Lulú (1989) (The Ages of Lulu); the novelist and journalist Rosa Montero; award-winning poet Luis García Montero, and the prominent Catalan authors Jaume Cabré and Carme Riera.
Other writers represented in this batch include a 1960 recording of the Puerto Rican poet, novelist, and essayist, José A. Balseiro, Guatemalan writer Mario Alberto Carrera, and the Peruvian American journalist and author, Marie Arana. In her recording, Arana reads from her most recent publication, Latinoland: A Portrait of Americas Largest and Least Understood Minority (2024), and from her other works of fiction and non-fiction.
the 2024 National Book Festival. Photo: Elaina Finkelstein
From the Luso-Brazilian world, new releases include recording session with Brazilian authors Ana Maria Machado, Marco Lucchesi, and Vanessa Barbara; with the Portuguese writer Catarina Gomes, and the Portuguese American writer Julieta Almeida Rodrigues.
Click here to see the complete list of newly available recordings. We hope you enjoy our new digital treasures!
PALABRA has been curated by the Library of Congress Hispanic Reading Room since its founding in 1943 and continues to add the voices of contemporary literary figures. Throughout its history, writers such as Nobel Laureates Gabriel García Márquez, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Miguel Ángel Asturias, and Juan Ramón Jiménez have been recorded for the collection, as well as other noteworthy figures like Jorge Luis Borges, and Julio Cortázar.
Comments
What an incredible addition to the PALABRA Archive. It is exciting to see rare recordings especially those from the Madrid and Barcelona sessions made available for online streaming. Hearing voices like Almudena Grandes, Rosa Montero and Jaume Cabré is an invaluable gift for readers researchers and educators alike. Thank you to the curators for continuing to preserve and share these literary treasures.