The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music

An evening of scholarship and sound brings renewed attention to one of the most significant audio archives of Afro-Cuban religious music. Hosted at the University of Miami’s Otto G. Richter Library, this event highlights a collection that bridges cultural anthropology, musicology and archival research.

Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, taking place Thursday, May 15, features a keynote presentation by Dr. J. Lorand Matory of Duke University, with commentary by Dr. David Font-Navarrete of Lehman College. The program explores the mid-20th-century recordings compiled by Lydia Cabrera and Josefina Tarafa—known collectively as Música de los cultos africanos en Cuba—a 14-LP boxed set privately distributed in Cuba around 1956. The recordings capture more than 11 hours of ritual music performed by priest-artists in Matanzas and Havana, offering a rare and unfiltered glimpse into Afro-Cuban sacred traditions.

Now fully digitized and housed within the Cuban Heritage Collection at University of Miami Libraries, this landmark project is accessible in its entirety for the first time. The evening includes a reception beginning at 6:00 p.m. in the Roberto C. Goizueta Pavilion, followed by the keynote at 6:30 p.m. and a closing audience Q&A session.

Free and open to the public, the event is co-sponsored by the University’s Michele Bowman Underwood Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the Joseph Carter Memorial Fund.