BY MARK FRIEDMAN
GUADALAJARA, Mexico - "What are you doing here? I didn't know there was a publisher like this in the United States! I thought socialism was dead! Are you afraid the U.S. government will do something to you?" These were the rapid-fire questions asked by Berta Muņoz to the volunteers staffing the Pathfinder Press booth at the Guadalajara international book fair. Muņoz got so excited she helped promote Pathfinder books and other revolutionary literature.
Scores of youth came by for books on the Cuban revolution. Many had their interest piqued by recent revelations about the burial site in Bolivia of Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution.
The book fair here, which took place November 25- December 3, is the largest international exhibition of books and periodicals in the Americas. More than 850 publishers from over 25 countries participated, displaying 75,000 titles. Most publishers came from Latin America, Spain, and the United States. Some 100,000 people from Mexico visited the week-long fair, as well as hundreds of book industry professionals.
A team of workers and youth from Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and two cities in Mexico staffed the Pathfinder booth. This is the second year the publisher has participated in the fair. The booth featured the Nueva Internacional series, the Spanish-language edition of the Marxist magazine New International.
Twenty-two copies of Nueva were sold at the fair, making it the top seller. The magazine's latest issue, featuring the article "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War" by Jack Barnes, was the most popular, largely because of interest generated by the impact on Mexico of the worldwide depression and the ongoing fight by peasants for land in the southern state of Chiapas.
In all, Pathfinder supporters sold more than $500 worth of books at the fair. This is significant, given the rolling devaluation of the Mexican peso, which now stands at 7.5 to the U.S. dollar compared to a rate of 3.5 to 1 a year earlier.
Ernesto and Claudia, two Mexicans at the fair who did not want their last names used, gave a concrete example of the impact of the sharpening economic crisis. In order to cover child care and rent for a modest apartment, they said, you need to hold a job paying four times the minimum wage of 18 pesos per day.
Pooled money to buy books
Many of the books at the fair cost between 50 and 90
pesos, even at discounted prices. Radicalizing students
and workers often commented that they needed to buy copies
of Nueva Internacional or Pathfinder titles such as Habla
Malcolm X (Malcolm X speaks), despite the economic
squeeze. Often, several people would collectively scrape
together the equivalent of one to three days' pay to buy
one of these books at the Pathfinder booth.
A number of people who purchased Pathfinder books last year returned for more this time. Ricardo from Guadalajara had bought To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's Cold War against Cuba Doesn't End at a bookstore in Anchorage, Alaska, last summer. He said he appreciated that book and bought Nueva Internacional no. 2 featuring a series of articles on Che Guevara, Cuba, and the road to socialism.
Pathfinder representative Toba Singer, who works in a library in San Francisco, spoke at the bilingual teachers workshop at the fair. A number of teachers who attended asked for suggestions on books to use in their work and got copies of the Pathfinder catalog.
More than 30 publishing enterprises from Cuba participated in the fair. Their booths were constantly busy, selling a large number of books, tapes, and T- shirts.
Pathfinder supporters worked with representatives of La Gaceta de Cuba, the magazine on culture and politics of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, to promote and sell subscriptions to that publication. Pathfinder distributes La Gaceta in North America. Norberto Codina, editor of the magazine, attended the fair and spoke at a workshop that helped promote La Gaceta. He also spoke at a reception hosted by Pathfinder supporters. Some 45 copies of La Gaceta were sold at the fair and hundreds of librarians were introduced to the magazine here.
During the fair, socialist workers and others staffing the Pathfinder booth took time off to visit the University of Guadalajara, where they spoke to several professors and representatives of the school library about purchasing Pathfinder books. The student government sponsored a presentation by Roberto Molina on Nueva Internacional.
Twenty-five students came and joined in an exchange on the Cuban revolution and the conditions facing the working class in the United States. As a result, half a dozen students decided to begin a discussion group on Nueva Internacional no. 2.
Mark Friedman is an airline worker and member of the International Association of Machinists in Los Angeles.