From NPR and Tulane Today: Latin American Library digitizes collection of Cuban radionovelas for academic study

A recent news item from the Tulane Today and on NPR’s Weekend Edition shares the story behind the Latin American Library’s acquisition of 1960s-era Spanish-language radio soap operas and the library’s efforts to digitize the collection. In the article, library director Hortensia Calvo hopes that digitizing the soap operas will encourage academic study of the collection. Calvo notes that the stories and the manner in which they were promoted to radio stations throughout Latin America reveal a nascent middle class searching for a new way to live. Christine Hernández, who oversees special collections at the library, says the radionovela producers made the Cold War fun and profitable, featuring entertaining heroes, “chasing down some evil doer who’s going to destroy the world.”

Read the entire news article here. To learn more about the project Bringing Back the Soaps: The Louis J. Boeri and Minín Bujones Boeri Collection of Cuban American Radionovelas please visit the Tulane Digital Library.