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Diaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection


The Diaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection-FIU,located in the City of Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County, Florida, is a Special Collection of Latin American Music donated to Florida International University Libraries [1] in 2001 by the Cuban discographer Cristobal Diaz Ayala.

The Diaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection (DAC) is the most extensive publicly available collection of Cuban music in the United States. It was donated to Florida International University Libraries in 2001 by the Cuban discographer and Lawyer Cristobal Diaz Ayala. The archive supports the Florida International University's mission of teaching, research, and service by providing means for the discovery and the pursuit of knowledge. It was started prior to 1960 in Cuba and then restarted in Puerto Rico in 1960. At present the collection comprises approximately 150,000 units.

This initiative was started prior to 1960 by Mr. Diaz-Ayala. The collection contains more than 150,000 items in total and is currently being expanded. It was recently appraised at over one million of dollars. The materials collected include a variety of formats such as books, LP’s, 78rpm, 45rpm, CDs, photos, videos, cassettes, sheet music, catalogs, RCA Victor cards, and posters, among others. The collection does not only include materials from Latin America musicians but also from artists from all around the world that have a connection to Latin roots.

Rare and valuable items recorded during the pre-revolutionary Cuba are part of the DAC. Under this category, it is possible to find cylinders, pianola rolls, 78 rpm, and rare books. Fragile 78 rpm records have been digitized in order to preserve them and keep them available for academic and research purposes. At the moment, it is possible to retrieve information about all the 78 rpm records as well as part of the Cuban and Puerto Rican LPs recordings through the collection metadata available at DAC website.


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