| Sumario: | In the early twentieth century, an actor and phonograph and bicycle mechanic named Julio Ayala worked to recreate historic episodes from the War of Independence and the French Intervention on wax cylinders. Together with a group of actors, popular musicians and friends, the humble entrepreneur recorded phonographic representations in which they imitated the voices of Hidalgo, Princess Inés de Salm-Salm and President Benito Juárez. The success of the phonograms led different U.S. companies, such as National Phonograph, Columbia Record and the Victor Talking Machine Company to commercially distribute them in Mexico and the United States. This article aims to reconstruct this forgotten piece of the history of popular political culture. Besides reconstructing Ayala’s life as a mechanic and inventor and his relationships with recording companies, I’m interested in capturing the narrative strategies used in his acoustic stagings.
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