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05/16/2003 Entry: "Lectoring"

Cool job of the day: cigar factory lector:

Later, upon inquiring, I came to know that the man up on the platform, was responsible for the clear, strong voice. He was called "El Lector" - the Reader. His job was to read to the cigarmakers while they were rolling cigars. The workers paid fifteen to twenty-five cents per week each to the reader. In the morning, the reader used to read the daily paper and some working class weeklies or monthlies that were published or received from abroad. In the afternoon he would read from a novel by Zola, Balzac, Hugo, or from a book by Kropotkin, Malatesta or Karl Marx, Famous speeches like Castelar's or Spanish classical novels like Cervantes' Don Quixote were also read aloud by 'El Lector.'"

This student film about radio knocking off the lectors sounds interesting. The year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama, "Anna in the Tropics" also deals with lectoring.