The fair registered the expansion of both titles and quantities of books made accessible to working people by the government at subsidized prices.

Thousands lined up daily at the fair to get a copy of a three-volume edition of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. The Ministry of Culture began distributing 1.5 million copies of this classic free of charge when the fair opened. A similar distribution of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote was one of the features of last year's book fair.

Many visitors used one or more coupons worth about $5 each to buy books. CENAL distributed them through educational and other institutions to those with low incomes.

“This is helping people get access to literature, to fight ignorance,” said Maikel Rivas, a high school student visiting the fair for the third year, in a typical comment.

Kuai Mare, the government’s book distribution network, has 48 outlets nationwide selling at subsidized prices. It had several kiosks at the fair and its main stand attracted far more visitors than any booth.

At the fair Kuai Mare announced it is opening an additional 50 mobile bookstores. These will be stationed at hospitals, recreational centers, military barracks, and elsewhere across the country, said Kuai Mare president Augustín Velasco. One of these units was on display at Parque del Este (Eastern Park), where the fair was held.

Francisco Sesto, Venezuela’s minister of culture, said Kuai Mare will be renamed “Bookstores of the South,” reflecting its effort to expand distribution throughout Latin America.

In a related project, Abel Prieto, the minister of culture of Cuba, the honored country this year, announced the establishment of the ALBA Cultural Fund, an agreement between the governments of Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Under the accord, 10,000 copies of 12 titles will be distributed in each of the three countries. These include works by Cuban writers José Martí, Roberto Fernández Retamar, and Francisco Pividal, author of a book on Simón Bolívar, a South American leader of the struggle against Spanish colonialism. The Bolivian Diary by Ernesto Che Guevara, the Argentine-born leader of the Cuban Revolution, will also be one of the 12.

The atmosphere at the fair was conducive to book browsing, reading, and discussion. In addition to visiting the 121 booths, people could attend seminars, concerts, film screenings, and puppet shows, or simply relax at outdoor cafés.

Many book presentations and related events were held. A highlight was the 2005 National Book Award. One of the books that won this recognition was Mission Robinson, Yes I Could: The Extraordinary Simón Rodríguez National Literacy Plan. It documents the literacy campaign the Venezuelan government launched in 2003 with help from Cuba. The government announced last fall that the effort’s first phase—through which 1.5 million people learned basic reading, writing, and arithmetic—was completed and Venezuela was free of illiteracy.

Venezuelan poet Ramón Palomares was honored at this year’s fair, along with two historic figures: Che Guevara and Francisco de Miranda, a leader of the 19th century independence struggle in Venezuela against Spanish colonial rule. Special guests included renowned Brazilian poet Thiago de Mello, who read poems and spoke at a conference on “Amazonia: Country of Water,” and Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo, author of Pancho Villa: A Narrative Biography.

Some 25 Cuban authors participated in the fair, many of them giving book presentations. They included well-known writer and poet Miguel Barnet whose Biography of a Runaway Slave, first published 40 years ago, received special recognition at a panel that included Abel Prieto.

A number of events were held to discuss the record of the Cuban Revolution. They included a forum attended by more than 75 people on “Ernesto Che Guevara: Testimonies by Those Who Knew Him.” The panel included Harry Villegas, a brigadier general in Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces who worked and fought alongside Che for a decade, from Cuba to the Congo and Bolivia; Ulises Estrada, another well-known Cuban internationalist who worked with Che in Africa and the Americas; and Carlos Ferrer, a childhood friend of Guevara in Argentina who traveled with him in Latin America and authored From Ernesto to Che.

More than 200 people attended the largest event of the fair on its last day here. It included a showing of the movie Mission Against Terror and a panel discussion on the campaign to free the Cuban Five. These are Cuban revolutionaries serving draconian sentences in U.S. prisons after being framed-up and convicted by Washington on charges that included "conspiracy to commit espionage."

For the third straight year, U.S.-based Pathfinder Press had a booth, selling more than 800 books, pamphlets, and magazines, a substantial increase over last year’s sales.

Taken together the two most recent issues of the Marxist magazine Nueva Internacional were the top sellers with combined sales of 130 copies. These were also presented at a special panel discussion during the fair (see article in December 4 Militant). Issue nos. 6 and 7 feature the articles “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun” and “Our Politics Start with the World,” both by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. The best sellers also included Che Guevara Talks to Young People, with 120 copies, and Our History Is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution, with 60 copies sold.

CENAL president Ramón Medero announced at the closing of the fair that the country of honor next year will be Argentina and the fair’s theme will be “The United States: A Possible Revolution.”
 
 
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