HISTORY AND MEMORY AMONG MELODIES: Alfonso Esparza Oteo Fonds Catalog (1894-1950)

The Alfonso Esparza Oteo Fund, which is kept in the Jesús F. Contreras Vault, is made up of the personal papers and musical production of the musician and composer from Aguascalientes, and was donated by his youngest son, maestro Enrique Esparza Oteo Torres. In 2017, the donation agreement was signed with the university authorities; this first delivery included digitized photographs, vinyl records, digitized music and printed documents. In September 2019, through an agreement with maestro Enrique Esparza Oteo Torres, the National Sound Library and the UAA, other documents from the musician and composer's personal collection, including prints, photographs and music, were digitized at the facilities of the National Sound Library in Mexico City, and were sent electronically to the UAA as a donation in digital format. Subsequently, in the interest of complementing the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Fund with more information, in November 2019, maestro Esparza Oteo Torres sent by digital means to the General and Historical Archive of the UAA the photographs of the places where he found that a plaque had been placed with his father's name, as well as the squares or streets with his name, and he also sent photographs of the vinyl records of Alfonso Esparza Oteo's musical production that they keep at home, which were also added, digitally, to the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Fund.

The catalogue of the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Collection, whose production has involved a detailed work of description of each document and goes beyond the organization, listing and classification of the collection, has been possible with the collaboration and the continuous and disciplined work of the team of researchers and historians of the Jesús F. Contreras Vault who, in addition to continuously training in courses and diplomas on personal archives and archives, began working on the preparation of this catalogue since October 2020. The master in History Jorge Alejandro Cardona Félix dedicated himself to the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Collection from October 2020 to April 2022; Ana Victoria Velázquez Díaz, in charge of Archivos Incorporados, especially carried out the section on the interpretations of Alfonso Esparza Oteo's music during 2022; Carlos Antonio Carmona Meza, a graduate in History, has reviewed, contextualized and written the document cards for the catalogue since January 2022, and Brenda Cortés Delgado, a graduate in Hispanic Literature, created the Archival Classification Table and carried out the general review of the catalogue, in addition to the support of Professor Griselda Rentería Chávez, head of the Historical Archive Section of the UAA.

The catalogue of the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Collection is organized into a section with four texts about the musician and composer, six chapters with descriptive cards of the documents in which some photographs are included, and three annexes (the first with a list of documents located in Family Search, the second is a chronological index and the third a geographical index). It is worth mentioning the circumstances surrounding the reception of the writings about the musician that are included in the first section and the beginning of the work on the catalogue. In 2019, the UAA authorities, the UAA General and Historical Archive, the UAA General Directorate of Dissemination and Linkage, the Center for Arts and Culture, the UAA Music Department, the UAA Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Sound Library and maestro Enrique Esparza Oteo Torres planned a grand event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the song Un viejo amor, by Alfonso Esparza Oteo, which was released in 1920, and the dates for the event were scheduled for the end of March 2020.

In order to begin compiling the catalogue and to obtain more information about the musician and composer for the event, we requested submissions from four people: his son, maestro Enrique Esparza Oteo Torres, who sent a text with his family memories entitled “My father Alfonso Esparza Oteo”; the general director of the National Sound Library, Pável Granados Chaparro, who sent his text entitled “Glimpses of Alfonso Esparza Oteo”; maestro Carlos Reyes Sahagún, professor and researcher at the Department of History at the UAA, chronicler of the city of Aguascalientes and a profound connoisseur of culture and music, who sent the text entitled, “My taste is… Alfonso Esparza Oteo and his time”, and maestro Armando Manzanero, who at that time served as president of the Board of Directors of the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico (SACM). We sent a letter to all of them with the request, which we also did with maestro Manzanero, asking him for a text about Alfonso Esparza Oteo to include in the Alfonso Esparza Oteo catalogue. In response, maestro Manzanero sent, via email, a letter addressed to Alfonso Esparza Oteo, dated January 8, 2020, an invaluable document both for the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Fund and for the history of music in Mexico itself, given that, unfortunately, the renowned Yucatecan musician and composer passed away in December 2020.

After the section with the four texts mentioned, the catalogue presents the Alfonso Esparza Oteo Fund Guide, which shows a brief biography of the musician and composer from Aguascalientes and a short archival history. This is followed by the Archival Classification Table, with the types of documents and how they were organized in the Jesús F. Contreras Vault. The six chapters follow with the files of the documents organized from the perspective of his musical production, the interpretations of his music, the documentation about his career, his personal correspondence and photographs from different moments of his life.

The present catalogue of the composer's collection, which is kept at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, remains as a consultation tool that shows the great importance of personal archives once they are organized, classified and catalogued. Its content will enrich the history of musical culture in Mexico and the world during the 20th century, the biography of Alfonso Esparza Oteo himself, the history of daily life through letters, newspaper clippings and photographs, and the history of a country that has been shaped by the efforts and struggles of men and women, such as Alfonso Esparza Oteo, whose talent left an invaluable musical legacy for his time, as well as for present and future generations.