Library of Congress: Hispanic Reading Room Adds 50 New Streaming Audio Recordings in the PALABRA Archive of 20th and 21st Century Luso-Hispanic Poets and Writers

From a Library of Congress Blog Post:

Following its annual National Hispanic Heritage Month tradition, the Hispanic Reading Room in the Latin American, Caribbean and European division (LAC&E) announces the digital release of 50 new streaming audio recordings in the PALABRA Archive — the Library’s treasure trove of recordings of 20th and 21st century Luso-Hispanic poets and writers reading from their works. With recorded authors from all over Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, and other regions with Hispanic and Portuguese heritage populations, the PALABRA Archive includes close to 850 recordings, a growing portion of which are available for online streaming.

The newly released recordings include contemporary and historic gems.  Among these are July 2022 recording of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in conversation with Argentine poets Laura Wittner and Daniela Auginsky during an event organized in Buenos Aires by the Queen’s College low-res program where Limón teaches; and a historic recording of Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo reading an essay on General Francisco Franco’s death on November 20th, 1975. Recorded in the Laboratory at the Library of Congress only thirteen days after the General’s death, this two-part recording includes an interview and the essay (forward to minute 08:35). The powerful obituary, titled “In Memoriam” was later published in 1978 in a book titled Libertad, libertad, libertad.

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PALABRA has been curated by the Library of Congress Hispanic Reading Room  and continues recording the voices 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, Julio Cortázar, and Isabel Allende.

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