Documenting & Cataloging the Mexican PEERLESS Label
Peerless was Mexico's first, but so far totally undocumented, commercial record label. The firm began in the late 1920s and operated until 2003, when it was sold to Warner Entertainment. In 1996 the Arhoolie Foundation began cataloging and documenting the firm's output from 1939 (when they began with catalog release # 1500) after a fire had destroyed their facilities along with all documents and masters, through 1955 or the end of the 78 rpm format.

The work was done in Mexico City at the company's offices with the full cooperation especially of its director, Juergen Ulrich. The project was originated and directed by Prof. James Nicolopulos (Univ. of Texas at Austin), and assisted by John Clark, a specialist on mariachi music, Chris Strachwitz, various record collectors in Mexico City, and the staff and management of Peerless S.A. Details of most of the pre-1939 recordings were supplied by collectors in Mexico‚ primarily Armando Pouss.