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Cigar Stories: El Lector - He Who Reads
Series: Lost & Found Sound
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Length: 00:22:34
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Piece Description
At the turn of the century until the 1930s in the cigar factories of Tampa and Ybor City, a well dressed man in a panama hat with a loud and beautiful voice sat atop a platform and read to the cigar workers as they rolled. These readers, known as Lectores de Tabaqueres, read Cervantes, Zola, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Jules Verne... It was the voices and words of these lectores - before radio and mechanization, who informed, organized, and incited the cigar workers, who labored by hand 'til the 1930s, when both the rollers and readers were replaced by mechanization. A lost tradition of story and smoke.





Arvid Hokanson
Posted on May 16, 2006 at 08:20 AM | Permalink
Review of Cigar Stories: El Lector - He Who Reads
Another fantastic piece from Jay Allison and the Kitchen Sisters. This piece is sound rich and full of information. Well done! Even you heard it when it aired six years ago, it is worth hearing again.
I knew little about the Lectors before hearing this piece. With the interviews and archive tape, the sound told the story - one of the best things about public radio. The story flows well and keeps the listener engaged. The focus is tight and has a strong narrative. The interviews also help the listener paint a picture of the cigar rollers and the Lectors - another wonderful thing about public radio.
This piece would work well on a local news magazine or as a holiday special. It could also work as a format-breaker for a holiday version of ATC.
An easy way to make an hour would be 5 minute NPR/BBC newscast, this piece and then a 29 minute special.