It is with great pride that we premiere our blog Olga Iglesias Project on the history of Puerto Rican music of the twentieth century. Written by guest scholars, the blog helps paint a picture of our country’s past in music; specifically in the realm of classical music. But you may be asking ‘why’ - why start a blog? To help answer that question, let me provide some of my own history.

When Olga Iglesias,my paternal grandmother, passed away in 2013, we soon discovered that she left behind thousands of heritage items from her illustrious career. You see, my grandmother was just my grandmother, not Olga Iglesias. She rarely talked to us about her career, let alone the heritage items she kept from her days as a singer. When I set to work on making an inventory of the discovered collection, I quickly realized its size and scope. At the time I immediately recognized the difficulty and urgency of the task at hand, but also, unbeknownst to me, I had no idea how the collection was about to change my life.

For the next eight years, I set to work digitizing and studying every item: correspondence, newspapers, photographs, contracts, recordings, videos, magazines and much more. A collection spanning most of the 20th century, from the late 1930s to the early 2000s. I touched every page, read every word. Magnifying glass in hand, I analyzed every image. I researched all the venues, listened to the repertoire presented in their programs. I had reel-to-reel and VHS tapes converted to the most current technology. I was hungry for historical context, so I also studied the political history of Puerto Rico, Spain and the United States. In addition, I researched the other figures featured in the collection, from Pablo Casals and Alexander Schneider to Elsa Rivera Salgado and José Raúl Ramírez; from Rudolf Serkin and William Warfield to Ricardo Alegría and Ernesto Ramos Antonini among many others. Many figures from the annals of 20th century music history and Puerto Rican history were part of my grandmother’s life, and I was in shock. Again, my grandmother was just my grandmother, not Olga Iglesias. Then, after this discovery of a museum in my home, I knew we had something special.

Going through the collection item by item was, to put it mildly, a project! A project that I enjoyed and savored. A project that quickly became a hobby that made me feel like a real world investigator, like a detective, piecing together things from the fine art world of yesteryear. I made chronologies of important dates; I created lists of collaborators, repertoire and venues. I purchased physical storage solutions such as special folders and mylar sleeves to properly store and preserve the 3,000-piece collection. On the technology side, I looked for the right digital solutions and digital storage. I became versed in metadata, tags and databases. And I scanned a lot. In essence, a real project if ever there was one; the Olga Iglesias Project.

As Olga’s grandson and also as an avid fan of arts, culture and history, it is my desire to share my project with the world. It is from that spirit that this blog is born: to share the joy and appreciation we feel for our common history as Puerto Ricans with the rest of the world. We hope you enjoy!