Classical music composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Chopin, Dvořák, Edvard Grieg, Isaac Albèniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla, all integrated elements of folk music of their respective countries in their compositional style. This led to the birth of a new artistic movement: musical nationalism. Traditional music became more and more important as it became a source of inspiration for composers.
Latin America did not remain alien to this movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. Composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Manuel Ponce, Alberto Ginastera, and Astor Piazzolla used motifs, ideas and musical forms taken from the folklore of their countries and regions in their compositions.
Venezuela was, in this sense, the scenery of a very rich “nationalist” musical movement. One of the foremost representatives of this movement was the composer Antonio Lauro, whose work was mainly dedicated to the classical guitar.
Alirio Diaz played an important role as a virtuoso in the history of modern classical guitar. Diaz was a pupil, assistant and musical heir to the legendary guitarist Andres Segovia and he had a widespread influence on generations of concert guitarists. As an interpret, collector, arranger and teacher, he gave the nationalist musical movement of Latin America (Villa-Lobos, Ponce, Barrios, and others), and even more so the Venezuelan music by means of the compositions of Antonio Lauro, a foremost position in the universal guitar repertoire.

“Rastros indelebles” (Indelible Traces) is an audio-visual documentary within the world of classical guitar. This film tells the history of the fruitful artistic relationship between the Venezuelan composer Antonio Lauro and the also Venezuelan guitarist Alirio Diaz, two world-famous personalities who left indelible footprints in the history of classical guitar music.

The documentary tells the story of the lives of these two masters, of their collaboration and of their magnificent contribution to the repertoire of classical guitar music. It documents at the same time the vast richness and diversity of the Venezuelan culture. The film shows the interesting and inspiring biography of Alirio Diaz, a man born into a family of farmers and into poverty, who became one of the greatest legends and most influential figures in the history of classical guitar.