Thursday December 4, 2025 | 9:00AM – 10:45AM

The Doris Z. Stone Latin American Library and Research Center Seminar Room (Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, 4th Floor)

Panelists:

• Hortensia Calvo (Tulane University), “Introduction: Moving Media out of the Archive”
• Juan Pablo Gómez (Tulane University), “La gran catástrofe del 7 de junio de 1934 from the Alfredo A. Massi Collection”
• Teresa Clifton (Tulane University), “Teaching with Radionovelas”

• Christine Hernández (Tulane University, chair and moderator), “Bringing back the Soaps: Digitizing radionovelas from the Louis Boeri and Minín Bujones Boeri Collection of Cuban American Radionovelas”

Session Abstract:

 Librarians from The Doris Z. Stone Latin American Library and Research Center introduce two manuscript collections that offer diverse perspectives on the conference theme, “Moving Media.” Juan Pablo Gómez presents on the Alfredo A. Massi Collection, a unique set of original early 20th-century motion pictures produced by this Italian-Salvadoran filmmaker. A short screening of a segment of the film, “La gran catástrofe del 7 de junio de 1934,” highlights how Massi’s work during the 1930s in El Salvador addresses contemporary topics, including environmental disasters. Christine Hernández focuses on the radio soap opera dramas or radionovelas produced and distributed by America’s Production Inc. (API) from the Louis Boeri and Minín Bujones Boeri Collection of Cuban American Radionovelas. She will play selections from several programs that illustrate the successful transplantation of the pre-Revolution, Cuban radio industry to the United States. Miami, Florida became home to API which grew to supply a global market for Spanish-speaking programming through a combination of entrepreneurial genius, concentrated talent, and strong ideological motivation. Teresa Clifton continues on the topic of the Louis Boeri and Minín Bujones Boeri Collection of Cuban American Radionovelas to explore the applications of this unique, digitized resource in teaching and learning across disciplines. This presentation proposes and demonstrates projects using the radionovelas as both a primary source and a pedagogical tool for media studies, language acquisition, linguistics, literature, and history.