Al cantío de un gallo radio program audio recordings

The collection consists of approximately 1000 audio recordings of the Al cantío de un gallo radio program, as well as a small number of recordings of other radio programs. Al cantío de un gallo broadcast news (political, economic, cultural, and social), commentaries, interviews, and some music, pertaining to Cuba and Cuban exiles. The primary contributors were Carlos Franqui and Alfredo Melero, but frequent guest contributors included: Rodolfo Silva, Felipe Rodriguez, and Amalia Montijo. Interviewees included independent reporters, exiles and emigrants, former prisoners, activists, Cubans living in Cuba, leaders of exile organizations, and writers. The program provided news and information the producers believed was suppressed by the Cuban government and provided a venue for independent news reporting. Common topics include Fidel Castro; Carlos Franqui; human rights violations; living conditions; the revolution of 1959 and earlier revolutions; Jose Martí; the exile experience; significant events, such as the sinking of the tugboat “13 de Marzo”; relations with other countries, especially Russia, United States and China; and writers and literature. Al cantío de un gallo ran through Cuba’s “special period” (1990-1996), a period of economic crisis brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union. As such, the economy is another major theme in the program throughout the 1990s. Economic topics include the United States embargo, foreign investment, tourism, and prostitution. Melero and Franqui also describe Cuba before 1959, with an emphasis on the loss of freedom, culture, and traditions. The recordings offer insight into the Cuban revolution, conditions in Cuba under Castro, resistance to Castro’s rule, and the Cuban exile experience. The recordings are on sixty- and ninety-minute audiocassettes with one program per side. Each radio program has approximately twenty minutes of content. The original cassette insert labels were retained and filed at the end of the collection.