In Artemisa, a town west of Havana with a population of 78,000, readers purchased 44,000 books in just the first three days of the week-long fair. Reporters described how books "virtually disappeared before their eyes" at nine sales sites throughout the town.

The annual Havana International Book Fair was held here February 7–17. The expanded festival is part of the campaign being waged by the Cuban revolutionary leadership to extend and transform the cultural horizons and educational opportunities of the Cuban people.

Speaking at the closing event of the Havana fair February 17, fair director Jorge Luna pointed out that for the first time the cultural festival was being taken beyond the country's capital and was going on the road to 18 locations in the country's provinces.

The regional events began with a week-long book fair in five cities and towns in the west of the island, including Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Matanzas, and the Isle of Youth. From there it has moved to the central re gion, taking in among other places the provincial capitals Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Sancti Spíritus. It concludes with a week in the east--in Guantánamo, Las Tunas, Holguín, Bayamo, Manzanillo, and the country's second city, Santiago de Cuba, where the closing ceremony will be held March 11.

"People are buzzing about the book fair coming to Sagua la Grande," Jorge Luis Pérez, a leader of the Cuban Communist Party in that town in Villa Clara province, told the Militant. "One hundred thousand books are being made available for sale here--a city of 60,000 inhabitants. People have drawn up their lists of books to buy. Families are talking about it. People are talking about it on the street and at workplaces."  
 
Tenfold increase in books at fair
Five million books--multiple copies of 800 titles--are being published for sale in Cuban pesos at the different fairs. This is a 10-fold increase from last year, when 500,000 books were distributed through the Havana book fair by Cuban publishers. This increase was graphically captured by the tall stacks of thousands of books filling the central sales area at the Havana fair where every day throngs of readers eagerly lined up to purchase literature.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the book fair here in the capital, Cuban president Fidel Castro said, "From now on we'll no longer speak of the Havana book fair, but rather of the Cuba book fair."

The event in Havana itself broke all records for what has become an annual event here. Some 310,000 people attended, compared to 200,000 last year, the previous record. A special shuttle bus service was organized from different points in the city to facilitate attendance. In addition to Cuban publishers, 120 publishing houses from 24 countries had stands at the fair.

In 1994 and 1996, when economic conditions were extremely difficult and the book fair was being held every two years at a different site, 80,000 and 60,000 people attended respectively.

For the last three years the fair has been held at the San Carlos de la Cabaña, the Spanish colonial fort dominating the entrance to the Havana harbor. The structure will now become known as the "book fortress," Fidel Castro said at the opening ceremony. The fair has expanded so much that for next year the organizers are considering taking over the adjoining Morro fortress as well, using it for the array of activities known as the Children's Pavilion, one of the book fair's main components and attractions.  
 
'To read is to grow'
The book fair is held under the banner "leer es crecer"--"to read is to grow." Each year it has become more and more the center of a broadening range of cultural activities that include literary gatherings, TV roundtable discussions, film showings, theater productions, and ballet performances. Special book fair-related events were held in Havana's libraries and at the University of Havana.

There were also almost nonstop poetry readings, fine art and photo exhibitions, computer demonstrations of electronic magazines, and a permanent exhibition of the work of Norwegian anthropologist and Kon-Tiki author Thor Heyerdahl. The children's pavilion, which drew thousands, held a number of events each day such as puppet shows, music, games, and an exhibit of African illustrators, as well as serving as a place for kids to sit down with piles of newly acquired books and simply read.

The inauguration event was broadcast live on Cuban TV and Castro's speech was later rebroadcast to ensure the widest access. There were daily items on the book fair in the press and broadcast media reporting on the hundreds of book launchings, literary prize ceremonies, and other events. Each night, concerts were held at the fair with prominent Cuban artists performing a variety of music such as Compay Segundo, Síntesis, and Grupo Moncada. TV round-table host Randy Alonso described the book fair as really being a "festival of the people."

Illustrating what this meant for ordinary Cubans, Nidia Areas Rojas, a cook, reported that her granddaughter Gretel had said that for her eighth birthday, which was coming up, she didn't want a party or a cake or to go out to eat but rather, "I want to go to the book fair and buy books!"  
 
Part of battle of ideas
"The expansion of the book fair is part of the battle of ideas," Castro explained. The battle of ideas is the popular term in Cuba for the political offensive waged to defend the socialist revolution in the face of both the imperialist ideological drive portraying capitalism as the only future for humanity, and of the contradictions and inequalities that have grown up with the penetration of the capitalist world market over the last decade. The latter is the result of measures taken to revive industrial and agricultural production during what is known here as the Special Period--the sharp crisis provoked by the collapse of the Soviet Union and countries of Eastern Europe, with which most of Cuba's trade was conducted, and the tightening of the U.S. embargo.

Central to this battle of ideas is deepening the participation of working people in the revolution and reinforcing proletarian internationalism. Broadening the education of the Cuban people and expanding access to cultural activities is central to this effort. In his speech at the inauguration, Castro took the opportunity to talk about this campaign and its continuity with the cultural policy of the revolution.

"A country can have many writers and poets," the Cuban leader explained. "But you have to ask yourself first, when talking about artistic talent, how many citizens have learned to read and write? The development of artistic talent, the development of literature, and other such matters, depend in the first place on the educational level of the population."

When the Cuban Revolution triumphed in 1959, he said, "illiteracy was 30 percent. Our first battle was to eliminate illiteracy. Within the first two years we mobilized 150,000 youth" to carry out a literacy campaign. The Cuban president explained that this was followed up by sending teachers to areas that prior to the revolution had none.

Castro described how, given improving economic circumstances, the government is seeking to reconquer the level of book production that existed prior to the Special Period. Currently the average print run of a new book published by Cuba's 123 publishing houses is 9,000. The objective is to increase this.

"We acquired 15 inexpensive printing presses for $11,000 each so that in every municipal district of the country, young writers, poets, and essayists will be able to publish their works," he explained.

In addition, Cuba has embarked on an effort using newsprint to publish literary classics at the rate of 25 every three months. "One of the first titles published in newsprint edition was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson," said Javier Dueñas, proudly displaying a copy. Dueñas, a leader of the Union of Young Communists, is one of the people with central responsibility for the publishing project.  
 
'Popular libraries'
Castro said that the objective was for each household in the country to eventually have a library of 300–400 titles. Along that road an expanded public library system is being developed. "Popular libraries," each with 10,000 books--10 copies each of 1,000 titles--are being established in working-class neighborhoods and rural areas. Twelve of these popular libraries are now operating as a pilot project.

In his speech opening the book fair, Fidel Castro took up the measures being introduced to improve Cuba's educational system. "This year we're going to introduce 45,000 computers in Cuba's schools, from primary through pre-university levels. This in turn has necessitated the training of teachers," he said. The Cuban leader spoke of the Joven Club, the Computer Youth, which are centers where young people can go to get computer training. After seeing what their children are learning, "parents are requesting computer training" too, Castro noted.

The number of television sets in schools is being increased, from one for every 100 pupils to one per each 50, he added.

"Each of Cuba's 6,000 schools, no matter how isolated, either has a television or is in the process of being rigged up for TV and video," reported Luis Ernesto Morejón, a UJC leader with central responsibility for the project, in an interview. "If there's no electricity, which is still the case in some of the remotest areas, we're installing solar panels. It doesn't matter how many pupils there are. In one very remote school, where there's just one pupil, it's being rigged up for a TV, video, and computer."

In Havana province, where 3 million people reside, there is now a third TV channel that is dedicated to education. In the "University for All" nationwide TV program, language teaching is being extended. "We can think of a not too distant future when our citizens will command four foreign languages," Castro remarked. Class sizes are being cut to a maximum of 20 pupils per teacher. "And we're not just concerned about the extension of education but with its deepening, with improving the quality of education."

Castro noted that all this is being accomplished in the face of an economic war being waged by Washington against the Cuban Revolution.  
 
Don't 'believe,' read
Also speaking at the inauguration was president of the Cuban Book Institute, Iroel Sánchez. "Beyond the international financial crisis, hurricanes, hostile [U.S.] laws, plots, and slander," Sánchez said, "Cuba is developing its institutions and cultivating readers. It does so because it knows that this is the only possible road in this world of enormous conflicts and inequalities."

Reiterating the country's cultural policy established in the earliest years of the revolution, Sánchez went on, "We don't tell people 'believe,' we say, 'read.'

"And what has developed," he said, "is a country purged of illiteracy, with 700,000 university-trained professionals, thousands of libraries, and the broadest and most democratic educational system in the world. Facts, more than words, are testimony to our conviction that without culture, liberty is not possible."

Books presented at the fair included a range of world literary classics including a large number by figures from France, the country of honor at this year's fair. These included works by Marguerite Yourcenar, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and René Descartes.

A wide range of works by Latin American and Spanish authors was featured, from Jorge Enrique Adoum and Laura Esquivel to Jorge Luis Borges, Camilo José Cela, and Rubén Darío.

Taking advantage of the French-language participation, a special event was organized around French-speaking Caribbean authors from Guadeloupe, Guyane, and Haiti.

Works by Franz Kafka, Charlotte Bronte, Jack London, Emilio Salgari, H.P. Lovecraft, Alan Sillitoe, and Anton Chekhov; North American classics such as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper were presented at the fair, along with books by Ray Bradbury and Dashiell Hammett. There were new Spanish-language editions of the children's classics Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by the brothers Grimm, and The Black Doll by José Martí. New Spanish-language editions of Asterix the Gaul, the popular French children's book series, became a particular favorite of book fair participants, just as Pinocchio was when Italy was guest of honor two years ago.

Taking their rightful place as part of this world literature were titles by Cuban writers. These included a new dictionary of the thought of Cuban national hero José Martí; works by Cuban literary figures Alejo Carpentier, Rubén Martínez Villena, and Nicolás Guillén; and books by contemporary authors Roberto Fernández Retamar, Cinto Vitier, Ambrosio Fornet, Victor Fowler, Pablo Armando Fernández, Jaime Sarusky, Mayra Montero, and Antón Arrufat. The book fair this year was dedicated to Miguel Barnet, whose works were featured in several events. Renowned poet and essayist Nancy Morejón was awarded the National Literature Prize for her work Piedra pulida (Polished stone).

A number of books on aspects of the history of the Cuban Revolution were presented. These included reprints of titles long out of print such as Tania, a book by Marta Rojas, Mirta Rodríguez Calderón, and Ulises Estrada, that tells the story of Tamara Bunke, who was part of the guerrilla campaign headed by Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1966–67; another was El jefe del pelotón suicida (The head of the Suicide Squad) by Larry Morales. It is about Roberto Rodríguez, affectionately nicknamed "El Vaquerito" (the cowboy) by Che Guevara. Rodríguez, a Rebel Army captain who fought in the revolutionary war in Che Guevara's Column 8, headed up what became known as the Suicide Squad, a volunteer platoon that took on the most difficult and hazardous missions; he died on Dec. 30, 1958, in the battle of Santa Clara.

Other titles included Gente del Llano by Enrique Oltuski, about the revolutionary struggle waged in the cities against the Batista dictatorship by the July 26th Movement; a book by Orlando Borrego, a close collaborator of revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara, entitled Che: El camino del fuego (The road of fire); Escarmientos de pueblo (Punishment by the people) by Raúl Menéndez Tomassevich and José Ángel Gárciga, on the struggle in the early years of the revolution against counterrevolutionary bandits starting from the moment the revolution triumphed. Menéndez Tomassevich, a division general who died less than a year ago, had central responsibilities for the fight against the counterrevolutionary bands in the east and in the Escambray mountains.

Also launched at the fair was Cabinda by Army Corps General Ramón Espinosa Martín about the military struggle in northern Angola in 1975 in which 200 Cuban volunteers, including the author, participated. The Angola mission ended after the 1988 battle at Cuito Cuanavale, where the defeat of the invading South African forces also paved the way for the independence of Namibia and accelerated the struggle that a few years later brought the racist apartheid system in South Africa crashing down.

Roundtable discussions included presentations on the works of Rosa Luxemburg and Antonio Gramsci.  
 
Interest in Pathfinder books
The book fair attracted people young and old from all walks of life. One of the stands that drew a constant stream of visitors was Pathfinder's. Among the many who stopped to talk with members of the international team staffing the booth were Antonio Castinegros, a retired colonel of the Revolutionary Armed Forces; Rafael Montano, an electrical worker; Mohamed Sarki, a student at the Latin American School of Medicine who is originally from Nigeria; Haniel García, 20, a fisherman; Juan Legio, an automation technician; and Zito Minami, a janitor in a train station who also helps out on his father-in-law's farm.

Pathfinder hosted presentations of three titles at this year's fair: From the Escambray to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the Cuban Revolution, an interview with Víctor Dreke; Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle, by Thomas Sankara; and Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas, by Fidel Castro and José Ramón Fernández. A number of people went to the Pathfinder booth looking for the three new titles and to see what other revolutionary literature was available from Pathfinder.

Julio Valladares, 59, a veteran of the Angola internationalist mission, came to the fair with Roy Laurenzo Salazar. Both retired dockworkers, they spoke about the importance of workers reading. "The capitalists are afraid of workers becoming cultured. If they get access to culture they can find an alternative," said Valladares.

"This is what scares the bosses in capitalist countries," added Laurenzo. "Cuba is the only country in the Americas where the government wants to raise the cultural level of the people."  
 
'We need books like these'
Discussions ranged over a wide number of topics. One of those that drew the most interest was the imperialists' Afghan war and the U.S. rulers' offensive against workers' rights, including the holding of prisoners at the U.S. military base on Cuban territory at Guantánamo. Other questions included life in Cuba today, the economic crisis and popular explosions in Argentina, which have been widely covered in the Cuban media; and the growing campaign by imperialism and its allies in Venezuela to overthrow the government of Hugo Chávez.

"We need books like these," said Lohania Aruca, a history teacher and researcher, pointing to Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes. "We know a great deal about the enemy but not so much about the working class in the United States." There was marked interest in Capitalism's World Disorder, also by Barnes, and many picked up issue 5 of the Marxist magazine Nueva Internacional to express their agreement with its title, "U.S. imperialism has lost the Cold War."

Not everyone agreed. Augusto Kohan, a graduate in economics from the University of Havana, came by to discuss the book he had bought at last year's fair. "From the point of view of communists, they have lost the Cold War," he argued. "From the point of view of the imperialists, they wanted to destroy the Soviet Union and this they succeeded in doing."

Isabel González was among the dozens of people who expressed interest in the writings of Bolshevik revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky. "I studied in Odessa in the Ukraine and I know about the crimes of Stalin," González said. "But I haven't read any Trotsky." Interest in books by Trotsky was second only to requests for books by Black U.S. working-class leader Malcolm X, a favorite year after year at the Havana book fair.

A number of Haitian youth studying at the Latin American School of Medicine came by as word got around that Pathfinder published in French. They cleaned out the stand of all French-language literature on sale. And many left their names and addresses to keep in touch.

Next year the book fair will be dedicated to Cuban writer Pablo Armando Fernández. Invited as guests of honor are the Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
 
 
Related article:
Thousands in Cuba mobilize to eradicate dengue fever virus
 

Militant readers are encouraged to contribute to the Books for Cuba Fund, which helps make it possible for Pathfinder books to reach working people and youth in Cuba.

Like their brothers and sisters around the world, Cuban working people find the titles published by Pathfinder to be effective revolutionary political weapons, including in the defense of the Cuban Revolution.

Through the fund, Pathfinder is able to send books and pamphlets to Cuban organizations and institutions that request them. During book fairs, the titles are made available to Cubans in pesos, at prices they can afford.

Among other initiatives, the fund also makes it possible to respond to the political interest in the books in Cuba with special donations to libraries and other cultural institutions.

Contributions, large or small, are welcome. Please send checks or money orders made out to the Militant and earmarked "Books for Cuba Fund" to the Militant, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.  
 
 
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