García's comments are typical of many who have stopped by the booth. The Spanish-language collection of Malcolm X's speeches and interviews is the most sought-after title among the broad range of political books that have drawn visitors to Pathfinder's books and pamphlets.

The Havana International Book Fair opened here February 2. Around 65,000 people attended the first two days, according to the daily bulletin produced by fair organizers. The fair lasts through February 10.

Roberto Fernández Retamar, one of Cuba's best-known writers and the guest of honor at this year's fair, addressed the opening of the nine-day event. Eduardo Junco, the ambassador to Cuba from Spain, the honored country at the event this year, gave brief greetings, saying that books were necessary for freedom. He was followed by Iroel Sánchez, president of the Cuban Book Institute. Sánchez noted, "Thanks to the freedom we have won, culture belongs to the majority in this country." As a result of the Cuban revolution, he said, "we are a country without illiteracy."

The book fair, which is being held at the historic San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress, an 18th century Spanish fort, has a festival atmosphere. Every day tens of thousands have crowded the book stalls and formed snaking lines across the sunny courtyards to purchase titles on a wide range of topics. A large Children's Pavilion draws thousands of families to buy much-coveted children's books and to watch puppet shows and musical performances.

Pathfinder has participated in every international book fair here since 1986. This year the revolutionary publisher's booth is being staffed by an international team of volunteers from Canada, France, Iceland, Iran, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

One new Pathfinder title that has attracted interest is Fertile Ground: Che Guevara and Bolivia, an interview with Bolivian communist leader Rodolfo Saldaña, who joined ranks with Ernesto Che Guevara in the 1966-67 revolutionary front led by Guevara in that South American country. A launching of Fertile Ground is scheduled to take place at the fair February 9. It will also highlight the Spanish-language edition being brought out by Editora Política, the publishing house of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

Besides Fertile Ground and books by Malcolm X, the most popular titles at the Pathfinder booth so far include Capitalism's World Disorder and The Changing Face of U.S. Politics, both by U.S. communist leader Jack Barnes, as well as issue 5 of Nueva Internacional magazine with the lead article "U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War."

Other titles drawing attention include a Spanish-language compilation of articles on the origins of women's oppression by Evelyn Reed; Che Guevara Talks to Young People; How Far We Slaves Have Come, by Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro; In Defense of Marxism, and The Revolution Betrayed, the latter two by Leon Trotsky.

A number of people who have visited Pathfinder's booth in previous years have returned this year. Josué Gómez Perdomo, a 29-year-old teacher, bought "U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War" last year. Visiting the booth again this year, he said he had read that issue of the Marxist magazine and called it "excellent, especially the parts about what really happened in the Eastern European countries and why the governments there fell [in the early 1990s.] That's information that's hard to get."

A half dozen students from the University of Havana, members of the Federation of University Students (FEU), came to write down titles of books they planned to buy later in the week. Last year these students purchased Nueva Internacional no. 1, featuring the article "The Opening Guns of World War III," as well as the Spanish-language edition of Socialism on Trial by James P. Cannon and a copy of Perspectiva Mundial, a monthly socialist magazine in Spanish.

One student explained that he was especially interested in the testimony of Cannon, a leader of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party, at the 1941 trial of SWP leaders, who were railroaded to jail because of their opposition to Washington's participation in the imperialist slaughter of World War II. He said he had been unaware there were communists who were active in the United States.

Giulio Ricci, another of the students, said, "Your books are very helpful for understanding the situation in the United States. We have a lot of respect for you because you are preparing for the moment when there will be big opportunities to build a revolutionary party."

Aurelio Alonso Torres, a tobacco worker at the José Cano plant in Havana, spent more than an hour looking at Pathfinder books. Now in his 60s, he took part in his first internationalist mission, to Algeria, when he was 19, in the early 1960s. He spent 17 years in Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Torres commented to some of the younger volunteers at the Pathfinder booth, "It's not enough to believe. We have to read in order to go forward. You need to know the past in order to understand the present and build the future."
 
 
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