Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Natalia Aróstegui Bolognini collection
Date(s)
- 1913-1956 (Creation)
Extent
1 Box
Name of creator
Biographical history
Natalia Aróstegui Bolognini was born in Camagüey, Cuba. She was known for her cultivation of the fine arts in Cuba and New York. She worked with the "Pro Arte Musical" Society of Havana, starting in the early 1930s, first as librarian for the Society and then as dean of music and singing courses, being a performer herself. On June 30th, 1931, she facilitated the opening of the Society’s School of Ballet. It was the first ballet school to be founded in Cuba and likely the first in Latin America. The opening of the school was a first step towards the development of classical ballet in Cuba, which has since played a central role in society and is a highlight of Cuba’s cultural position in the world. Later she would go on to sponsor musicians and artists in New York, including Alicia Alonso, Rita Montaner, the composer Ernesto Lecuona, and more. Natalia was married to the famous violinist and concertmaster Remo E. Bolognini from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Aróstegui was named vice consul of Cuba in New York and served for almost thirty years before 1959. In 1938, she was distinguished by Las Asociaciones Femeninas (The Women’s Association of Cuba) as one of the first women to hold a foreign service consular position.
Aróstegui hailed from an Aristocratic Camagüen family that originally immigrated to Cuba from Spain in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Natalia’s work was influenced by her father, Gonzalo Aróstegui y del Castillo, a famous Cuban surgeon who also served as Secretary of Education in the 1920s. He was appointed Secretary of Public Instruction and Fine Arts in 1919, subsequently taking charge of founding the Institutes of Camagüey and Matanzas. Aróstegui’s niece, Natalia Bolívar, was deeply influenced by her aunt’s (her mother’s sister’s) cultural values and education and went on to become a well-known artist, writer and researcher of Afro-Cuban culture and religion in Cuba under Lydia Cabrera. In her interviews she mentions the influence that her family, including aunt Natalia and the time spent with her in New York before 1959, impacted her life and work.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The Natalia Aróstegui Bolognini Collection contains poems, articles, extracts and off-prints, and music scores by important early/mid 20th century Cuban composers. Music scores include autographed manuscript music scores by Gonzalo Roig, an important Cuban musician of the mid-twentieth century; autographed music scores by Ernesto Lecuona, one of the most important and internationally known Cuban musicians of the 20th century; and sheet music by Jorge Anckermann, Eusebio Delfín, Gisela Hernández González, José Marin Varona, Jorge Mauri, and Ernestina Lecuona, Ernesto Lecuona's sister.
This collection also contains manuscript poems by Dulce María Loynaz del Castillo, a renowned Cuban poet and the 1992 recipient of the Cervantes Award of Literature; and documentation about Dr. Gonzalo E. Aróstegui y del Castillo, Aróstegui's father.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This collection is open for research.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Requests to publish or display materials from this collection require written permission from the rights owner. Please, contact chc@miami.edu for more information.
Preferred citation: Natalia Aróstegui Bolognini Collection, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida
Languages of the material
- Spanish
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Gift of Natalia Aróstegui Bolognini, 1983
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Esperanza B. de Varona, November 1993. Updated by María R. Estorino, August 2003. Retrospectively converted from HTML to EAD XML September, 2008 by Lyn MacCorkle, Kyle Rimkus and Marcelo Lopes based on a crosswalk by María Estorino. Revisions to the collection-level record made by Beata Bergen, June 2009. Container list added from legacy PDF container list, February 2014. Updated by Rebeca Gonzalez, May 2021. Subject and genre access points assigned by Amanda Moreno, May 2021.
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical (Havana, Cuba) (Subject)
- Aróstegui Bolognini, Natalia (Subject)