Zoila Lapique Becali

Musicographer. National Prize in Social Sciences 2002.

Among the virtues of Zoila Lapique Becali there is one of extreme importance for her professional work. "Divine memory," someone would affirm if they had the opportunity to converse at length with this intellectual, diverse in her investigative work, lover of opera and zarzuelas, of music in all its universe; passionate about the nineteenth-century Cuba, on which she prefers to dwell in her memories.

In interviews she has expressed: «I would like to be presented as a researcher of Cuban culture. Don Fernando Ortiz said that Cuba was an ajiaco; I believe I am part of that ajiaco musically and, although I have a mosaic of blood, that does not diminish my feeling essentially Cuban».

In 1969 she graduated with a degree in History from the University of La Habana. She has devoted her entire life to musical and historical research.

She studied library science at the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País de La Habana in courses sponsored by the Library of Congress in Washington; United States.

In 1959 she began working at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, from which in 1960 she was appointed subdirector of the Music Department.

Regarding her musical interests Zoila Lapique expresses: The passion for music was born with me. Since I can remember, I recall listening to and speaking about it in the family environment.

In my house dad had a record player where Italian operas, Viennese and French operettas, Spanish zarzuelas, and bands of Iberian regiments that performed, like a symphonic orchestra, different musical works were heard, recorded on large records. Thus the names of Enrico Caruso, Titta Rufo, Fedor Chaliapin, Titto Schippa […] became familiar to me.»

On the other hand, Lapique confesses that her favorite opera is Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi, and she recounts having listened to the "Concerto in D, op. 61," for violin and orchestra, by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Jascha Heifetz, accompanied by the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana, under the direction of Erich Kleiber.

Among other places that have witnessed her work as a researcher, from 1959 she worked at the Biblioteca Nacional. The music department of that institution, when it was directed by maestro Argeliers León, would be the first stage for her to immerse herself in dusty, yellowed, and in many cases, deteriorated documents, from which she has always known how to extract value.

Subsequently and until the time of her retirement, Lapique Becali worked in the Sala Cubana of the Biblioteca Nacional, where she obtained the rank of Senior Researcher as a specialist in Cuban Culture, especially of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Along with this work, she has taught numerous regular courses as a visiting professor of the Faculty of Art at the University of La Habana.

Doctor Fernando Martínez Heredia, director of the Instituto de Estudios Culturales Juan Marinello, characterized Lapique as one of the most important living Cuban intellectuals in a broad range of research and, furthermore, emphasized her altruism, as she has been a source of support for several generations of Cuban historians.

Contributions and Publications
In 1961 her essay on «A Musical Newspaper: "El Filarmónico Mensual"» was distinguished and published.

From then on she initiated a relentless and diligent investigation into nineteenth-century Cuban music, of which she is one of the most profound experts of the sonic art of this period.

Her search through nineteenth-century periodicals has allowed her not only to circulate a large quantity of data, corrections of birth and death dates of countless Cuban and foreign musicians, but also to give us the environment and atmosphere of the epoch in which the events took place.

Currently in press is an introductory study by Dr. Lapique on the seminal work "Los ingenios de la Isla de Cuba", by Cantero and Laplante (1857) which will be published in facsimile edition by the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí and the historical-social research "Los mensajes gráficos en las etiquetas de cigarrillos desde el Siglo XIX", by Editorial Boloña.

The great passion with which she has devoted herself to research on nineteenth-century Cuban music has led her to become one of the most profound experts of the sonic art of this period, a fundamental stage for understanding much of the roots of the musical processes that occurred with the arrival of the following century.

She is an indispensable figure in the current panorama of our social sciences and a model to imitate for anyone interested in the academic approach to our music.

Awards and Recognition
In 1974 she won the prize in the Pablo Hernández Balaguer competition in musicology for her essay Cuban Colonial Music in Periodical Publications (1812-1902)
In 2002 she was awarded the National Prize in Social Sciences.
National Prize in Cultural Research 2010, awarded to her by the Instituto de Estudios Culturales Juan Marinello