Between 1924 and 1938 the newspaper Mundo al Dia from Bogota published the largest collection of printed sheet music (both in terms of quantity and distribution) ever achieved by a Colombian newspaper. The Mundo al Dia C o llection had a strong impact on the idea of the construction of a national cultural identity through music. Since its inception, the collection was linked to a controversy around national music that occupied center stage in the cultural debate during the 20's and 30's. Many articles regarding this topic were published in Mundo al Dia . The object of this article is to point out the antecedents of the controversy, its development, its incidence on Mundo al Dia ' s Collection, and its transformation during the 30's, when the newspaper went out of print.