Radio and Revolution in Cuba and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Cuban radio in the 1950s was one of the most advanced in Latin America, but it remains understudied due to the immense technical difficulties in saving information from the fragile transcription disks. Taking as its point of departure the recent process of digitalization of Universidad del Aire recordings by UCLA and the Instituto de Historia, Havana, this panel explores the role of radio in forging revolutionary change in Cuba and beyond. Papers explore the challenges involved in collecting and transferring the recordings, as well as the way in which the grammar of radio in the early revolutionary period conveyed the past while seeking to recast it, how announcers sought to impart a new revolutionary tone to broadcasting, as well as how Dominican social reformer Juan Bosch used Puerto Rican radio to reach his followers in the Dominican Republic.

Sub Track

• Mass Media and Popular Culture

Session Organizer

• Robin Lauren H Derby, University of California/Los Angeles

Chair

• Robin Lauren H Derby, University of California/Los Angeles

Discussant

• Michael Bustamante, Florida International University

Individual Presentations

• Weighty matters: materiality and digitization of the "Universidad del Aire" recordings - Dawn Aveline, University of California, Los Angeles Library (UCLA Library)

• April 19, 1959, Cuba: A Day in the Radio Life  - Alejandra M Bronfman, University at Albany, SUNY

• Tonal Asymmetry: "Universidad del aire" Finds Its Footing - Tom P McEnaney, University of California, Berkeley

• Caribbean Radio in Revolutionary Times - Genesis Lara, University of California-Davis