Alarcón, president of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, noted that by making a revolution, the Cuban people have been able to expand access to culture and education, putting them in a stronger position to defend their social gains.

Joining Alarcón on the platform were Abel Prieto, Cuba’s minister of culture, and renowned Cuban writer Cintio Vitier. Cuba is this year’s country of honor at the annual book fair.

The Guadalajara International Book Fair is one of the largest and most prestigious cultural gatherings in Latin America. As in past years, it has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors. This year some 1,300 publishing houses from more than 30 countries are participating in the nine-day event, bringing more than 80,000 titles. Major publishers and distributors are here, as are many librarians--including from the United States and Canada. The local and national media has given prominent coverage every day to the numerous book presentations, seminars, forums, panel discussions, musical performances, and other events held at the fair.  
 
Cuba: ‘culture, education top priorities’
Alarcón pointed out that Washington maintains its four-decade-long embargo on the island "because of our willingness to chart and follow our own road." Despite the embargo and the ongoing economic crisis that Cuba faces, Alarcón said, "culture and education have been made top priorities."

He explained that Cuba’s own international book fair was extended this year--for the first time--from Havana to provinces across the country, including remote locations. This effort, he said, is part of a campaign to expand access to education at many different levels.

Cuba has a delegation of 600 present this year in Guadalajara, including many of its best-known writers, musicians, dancers, and other cultural figures.

Among those whose presence Alarcón recognized in the audience were Alicia Alonso, former prima ballerina and current director of Cuba’s National Ballet, and singer-writer Silvio Rodríguez. Cuba’s National Ballet, National Symphony Orchestra, and other cultural ensembles performed during the book fair.

One of the highlights of the opening day of the book fair was the presentation of the Juan Rulfo literary award, which this year was given to Cintio Vitier. Named after one of Mexico’s best-known writers, it is the most prestigious literary award in Latin America.

Cuba also has a large pavilion at the fair where publishers and artists are exhibiting their works. The pavilion was officially dedicated by well-known poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar, president of Casa de las Américas, a Cuban cultural institution and publishing house. Also at the event were Minister of Culture Prieto and Iroel Sánchez, president of the Cuban Book Institute.

One of the works on exhibit that Prieto highlighted was an installation by Waldo Saavedra of 43 large canvases, hanging from the ceiling of the pavilion, depicting Cubans who through their work "each wrote a part of Cuba’s history," he said. It depicted both revolutionary political leaders such as Ernesto Che Guevara, and writers and artists such as Nicolás Guillén, José Lezama Lima, Alejo Carpentier, and Alicia Alonso.

Prieto reported that 8,000 copies of José Martí’s La edad de oro (The Golden Age), a children’s classic, will be donated to children in Mexico at the close of the book fair.  
 
‘I want to read revolutionaries’
One of the publishers at the fair is Pathfinder, whose booth is staffed by a team of volunteers from several cities across the United States and Canada. It has been packed every day with visitors interested in the books on revolutionary politics that Pathfinder publishes.

"I’d like to broaden my horizons," said Isaac Galloga, who for the third year in a row stopped by the Pathfinder booth here.

As part of the wide array of titles on exhibit, this year Pathfinder has brought several new ones, published in both Spanish and English editions: Malcolm X Talks to Young People, The History of American Trotskyism by James P. Cannon, Their Trotsky and Ours by Jack Barnes, and From the Escambray to the Congo by Cuban revolutionary Víctor Dreke. A new Spanish-language edition of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics by Jack Barnes is also prominently displayed. With nearly $1,000 worth of books sold in the first two days, the pace of sales has been faster than in previous years.

"I want to read what the great revolutionaries--Malcolm X, Che, Fidel Castro--had to say," Galloga said when he purchased a copy of the latest title by Malcolm to add to his library.

The book fair overlapped with the 13th congress of the Continental Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Students (OCLAE), which drew nearly 1,200 youth from across Latin America to this city. On December 1, a few hundred of these youth visited the book fair. For a couple of hours, the crowd at the Pathfinder booth was so large that it was nearly impossible to get into the stand. A number of youth from Haiti, Mexico, Canada, and the United States walked away with big stacks of Pathfinder titles.

The top-selling titles have been The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning by Barnes, Che Guevara Talks to Young People, Malcolm X Talks to Young People, and issue no. 1 of the Spanish-language Marxist magazine Nueva Internacional, featuring "The Opening Guns of World War III: Washington’s Assault on Iraq."

Rollande Girard also contributed to this article.  
 
 
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