View the Cornell University Music Archive
Exhibit: American Sabor: Latinos in U. S. Popular Music, Atlanta History Center, GA

The Latin Music Archive contains material related to Latin-American music in the United States, with a special focus on New York City and the Bronx in particular. Many of the materials in the archive were exhibited as part of the Smithsonian Institute’s traveling exhibition “American Sabor: Latinos in U. S. Popular Music.”

Manuscript and correspondence in the archive include material from Izzy Sanabria and Tito Puente, such as holographic manuscript invoices from Izzy Sanabria to Alegre Records, billing them for iconic cover designs from the 1960s. Among other highlights are an autograph letter signed by Tito Puente to Latin music historian Joe Conzo, Sr., and a vintage typescript discography of the music of Tito Puente.

There also clippings, postcards, handbills, concert tickets, programs, press kits, film pressbooks, record catalogs from Fania, sheet music, and party invitations. A substantial run of Latin New York accounts for the majority of the magazine holdings. Other periodicals include issues of Salsa and Latin Beat.

There are 65 vintage photographic prints, mostly black & white, that date back as far as the 1940s. Over 40 of the vintage photographs come from the collection of Joe Cuba, and feature many performance and formal shots of Cuba’s band taken in such locales as New York, San Juan, and at upstate Catskills resorts. Other performers featured in the photography holdings include Tito Puente, and non-Latin musicians such as Count Basie and Harry Belafonte.