Cenidim celebrates half a century with the opening of its digital platform

As part of the celebrations of its 50th Anniversary, the National Center for Research, Documentation and Musical Information (Cenidim) Carlos Chávez makes the leap to the digital world and makes public available some of its most important documentary funds and collections through the information platform Musical (PIM), which has been online for a few days on the Pim.inba.gob.mx site, free and free access.

To have an idea of ​​the size of the collection in possession of that instance under the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal) it is enough to know that it together weighs 49 tons, according to Víctor Barrera, its director, for whom this It might seem an abstract figureso it is mentioned when mentioning that only photographs add up to more than 100 kilos.

This tells us that we have one of the largest collection and documentary funds in the country; It is an universe of incredible wealth and importancepoints the musicologist, who emphasizes that This commitment to the digital universe It is part of Cenidim’s commitment to try to reach as many people as possible.

For us, cultural rights are not a speech; We are convinced that it is important that this wealth does not stay in vaults or that it is a reserved file. It is the heritage of Mexico and it is very important that it arrives at societyclaims.

According to the researcher, throughout these 50 years many specialists have worked with the funds of that documentary and research center founded in 1974, some for more than two or three decades, without the product or results of these works They have left that space, above all, because they lacked the technological and technological resources currently.

Before there were no technologies now; These investigations were able to stay in a drawer, a list, a compact disk or disc, but now the situation is differenthe affirms, and highlights the high degree of reliability offered by the PIM.

It is, also the pedagogue and teacher, The fruit of decades of committed and thorough work of many experts who have consecrated their lives to these funds. Thus, this digital platform is also a way to pay tribute to academics who have worked in this center.

According to Víctor Barrera, the preparation and development of this project have thrown relevant surprises and discoveries, which Surely, they will continue to occurso it equals it with the Historic Center of Mexico, where The subsoil is just scratched and important vestiges appear.

Add: There are many things to discover and do. That is the importance of the project; This is only a first step, because we understand that technological advances are incredible. Our bet is not only how to modernize, but how to take advantage of this technology based on the social impact it may have, that we can reach the whole society, that anyone can access these materials and realize that the musical wealth of Our country is huge.

Among the findings, the musicologist Aurea Maya Alcántara, academic coordinator of the PIM, highlights that of a famous zarzuela by Manuel M. Ponce, Snow White, that was considered lost, but from which some fragments appeared in the Baqueiro Fóster archive.

According to the art historian, this initiative It is a way of introducing the Cenidim into the digital humanities. He points out that the platform provides documentary references around music from several eras and genres, as a result of a year of intense work in which 10 Cenidim academics participated.

In this first stage, he explains in an interview, this repository is made up of 11 collections or communities on different topics, but all, about Mexican music, with a total of 13,268 records available.

Five of those collections, precise, refer to collections that protect the center and that are available for consultation, upon request; These are the historical archives of the Cenidim, the Gerónimo Baqueiro Foster, the Sánchez Garza collection, the musical Agustín Baranda and the José Raúl Hellmer Pinkham record fund.

He says that the PIM also includes the catalog of the Historical Archive of the National Conservatory of Music, whose collection is protected in its facilities. Likewise, the results of several investigations, such as Catalog of songs in Mexican cinema: the 30s; Mexican phonography of the childhood song, and three collections on musical press, from The impartial, the illustrated universal y Magazine of magazines.