From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the Library celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with special events reflective of Hispanic Culture, including film screnings, lectures and a poetry reading by Cuban Roberto Valero.
The following articles highlight the Library's collections, specifically the Cuban materials, and initiatives by the Hispanic Division to make its collections more accessible to researchers.
From its history in the pre-Columbian era to the present, Cuba has been the subject of intense scholarly interest. The island nation's political and cultural history has been exceptionally well documented through the centuries from the Arawaks to Columbus to Castro.
In the Library of Congress researchers will find a remarkable Cuban collection. According to Lisandro Perez, a well known Cuban-American scholar at Florida International University, "The Cuban holdings of the Library of Congress are by far the largest and most complete, especially rich in books and periodicals in the humanities and social sciences." Dr. Perez, who is often interviewed by The New York Times and other newspapers about current affairs in Cuba, speaks from personal experience. A frequent visitor to the Library, he has been reviewing materials as a contributing editor for LC's Handbook of Latin American Studies since 1975.
History. Early chronicles describing Cuba came to the Library with the Thomas Jefferson collection in 1815; among them, Historia general de las islas y tierra firme de mar oceano by Antonio Herrera y Tordesillas and Del imperio soberano sobre las Indias (1552) and Istoria della destruzzione dell' Indie Occidentale, both by Bartolome de las Casas.
The Library also has among its treasures: Guia de forasteros (1828), an important document of an early Cuban attempt at independence in Nadie se asuste (1821) by Jose de Nunez del Castillo, and an 1810 proclamation by the governor of Cuba. Also in the collections one finds Jacobo de la Pezuela y Lobo's important work Cronica de las Antillas (1871), his four-volume Historia de la isla de Cuba (1868-1878) and two fascimile editions of Silvestre de Balboa Troya y Quesada's Espejo de la paciencia, originally published in 1608.
Especially important works are Jose Antonio Saco's Collection de papeles cientificos, historicos ... sobre la isla de Cuba (1858- 59), Felipe Poey y Aloy's Geograf¡a f¡sica y pol¡tica de la isla de Cuba (1857), Jose August¡n Caballero's Escritos varios and Pedro Agustin Morell de Santa Cruz's Historia de la isla y catedral de Cuba (1929).
Seminal works of liberal politician, philosopher and Catholic priest Felix Varela (XXXX-XXXX) are also well represented. Varela went into exile in the United States, where he founded the first Spanish Catholic newspaper.
The Ten Years' War (1868-78) and the 1895-1898 independence movements are amply covered in the collections, featuring many firsthand accounts by participants such as Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Manuel de la Cruz, Maximo Gomez, Juan V. Escalera and Jose Marti. Other books deal with U.S.-Spanish claims settlements and the accounts of Spanish and Cuban participants. The U.S. side is thoroughly documented in the Library's collections. LC also has Rene Reyna Cossio's Estudios historico-militares sobre la guerra de independencia de Cuba (1954) and publications on this subject by the Cuban National Archives.
Cuba, the jewel in the Spanish Empire's crown during the 19th century, became a major Caribbean and Latin American intellectual powerhouse in the 20th century, producing world-renowned figures such as the medical doctor Carlos Finlay, anthropologists Fernando Ortiz and Lydia Cabrera and Fidel Castro. Above all, perhaps, are Cuba's innovations in music. The nation's intellectual production during this century is evidenced by the Library's substantial holdings.
Manuscripts. Among Hispanic countries, Cuba is one of the best represented in the Library's manuscript collections. The collection of humanist Domingo Delmonte y Aponte, ranging from 1597 through 1871, has among its treasures a 1517 letter to Cardinal Cisneros, a 1539 report from Hernando de Soto to the Cabildo of Cuba, a 1683 description of the city of Havana by Gov. Francisco Davila Orejon Gaston and a set of documents describing the colony's fierce resistance to a British attack on Santiago in 1782.
Another noteworthy collection is Papeles de Cuba, which consists of more than 500 boxes of documents copied at the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, ranging from the 16th through 19th centuries. The collection contains a wealth of information on Cuba and the surrounding Spanish possessions such as Louisiana, Florida, Yucatan and the Caribbean Islands.
Cuba was strategically important for Spain throughout the colonial period. An important holding is the Jose Ignacio Rodriguez collection, covering 1853 through 1907. It includes the papers of the Cuban Junta of New York, the archive of the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais from Havana, many letters of major intellectuals of 19th century Cuba such as Jose Antonio Saco, Miguel del Aldama and Jose Antonio Echeverria, and many documents on inter-American legal affairs.
Other Special Collections. The Prints and Photographs Division houses many photos of the Spanish-American-Cuban War, views of early 20th century Cuba, political cartoons of the sugar industry, drawings of historical buildings, photographs of the 1962 ballistic missile bases and a series depicting Castro's Cuba. There are also stereoscopic photographs from the early 1900s, lithographs, posters and an extensive collection of pictures of buildings.
Cuban styles of music have been one of the major influences in contemporary music. According to Wayne Shirley, a specialist in the Music Division, the Library "has most of the major books on Cuban music, as well as most published Cuban scores. ... Probably few, if any, American libraries have significantly larger collections in this field." He adds that the Music Division also houses holograph scores by noted composers Julio Orbon and Aurelio de la Vega. The book collections range from Cuban musical periodicals to general works on Cuban musical life to specialized books on classical and popular Cuban music.
The recorded collections contain samples of folk, popular and classical music. In the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folklore are several unpublished phonodiscs of Afro-Cuban social dances and a series of records, Musica de los cultos africanos, compiled by Lydia Cabrera. Musicologist Odilio Orfe, visiting from Havana in 1979, found a 1904 cylinder recording of Afro- Cuban songs. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division has another unusual set of research materials -- recordings of world leaders, including many by Fidel Castro.
In terms of geography, Cuba is "probably the best-mapped Hispanic country of the hemisphere" according to former staffer and Handbook of Latin American Studies contributing editor James D. Hill, who said that the "collection of subject maps is strongest in transportation, telecommunications, mining, agriculture and industry -- two of the latter groups dealing largely with sugar."
Ronald Grim, head of the Geography and Map Reading Room, added that "there are maps of Cuban sugar warehouses made by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Co., numerous plans of towns and populated places dating from the mid-19th century to the present, as well as older topographic map series." Especially noteworthy are numerous nautical charts of Cuban waters and coastal areas produced since the middle of the last century by the world's maritime powers.
The items mentioned here are only a tiny fraction of a vast treasure trove of books and nonbook materials found in the Library's collections. Nonbook materials can be accessed in specialized reading rooms usign catalogs and finding aids. A good place to start is the Hispanic Reading Room, where scholars receive orientation and reference assistance on using the various collections.
