PRX default Piece image
Cigar Stories: El Lector - He Who Reads
Series: Lost & Found Sound
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Length: 00:22:34
To hear the full audio, sign up for a free PRX account or log in.
More from The Kitchen Sisters
Norman Corwin: One World Flight
(00:13:07)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
We delve into the audio archives of radio writer and director Norman Corwin. In 1946, while Corwin was working for CBS, producing very popular radio dramas and documentaries, ...
Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later
(00:20:41)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
A profile of Tony Schwartz, an innovative and inspired sound gatherer, recording the sounds of America since 1945.
Portrait of an Artist as an Answering Machine
(00:02:02)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
In contemplating the telephone answering machine, what better place to turn than Los Angeles---a town known for its phones.
Liberace & the Trinidad Tripoli Steelband
(00:11:59)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Lost and Found Sound presents a story of calypso music, steel drums and flamboyant pianist Liberace.
WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts
(00:58:36)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
The story of the first all-girl radio station in the nation
Listening to the Northern Lights
(00:08:31)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Natural Radio -- the sound of earth's magnetic field.
Lost & Found Sound: Hour Two
(00:59:04)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Lost & Found Sound is an eclectic gathering of stories both historical and entertaining, woven together with lyrical sonic transitions, surprising audio artifacts and musings ...
Lost & Found Sound: Hour One
(00:59:04)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Lost & Found Sound is an eclectic gathering of stories both historical and entertaining, woven together with lyrical sonic transitions, surprising audio artifacts and musings ...
Nights of Edith Piaf
(00:28:17)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
She rose every day at dusk and sang, rehearsed, performed, ate and drank until dawn, then slept all day and began to create and unravel again as the sun went down. Nearly ...
The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 2)
(00:54:00)
From: The Kitchen Sisters
Groundbreaking writer, actress and comedian, Tina Fey comes to Public Radio to host The Hidden World of Girls, two new hour-long Specials inspired by the NPR series heard on ...
Related Pieces
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.
Of 6 purchasers of this piece...
- 5 also bought:
Scared (00:03:00) - 4 also bought:
The Cost of War (00:07:45) - 4 also bought:
Moth Radio Hour 201 (00:54:00) - 4 also bought:
Turkeys (00:06:39) - 4 also bought:
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.