GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Pointing to books on Cuba’s socialist revolution, the fight for women’s emancipation and titles by Karl Marx, Libertad Segura Meza said she was surprised to see so many books on working-class politics. The high school teacher was one of hundreds of visitors to the Pathfinder booth at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Latin America’s largest book festival, held here Nov. 30-Dec. 8.
“I am interested to know about other movements and their struggles,” she said. “We are many and we don’t have to be at a distance from each other.”
Segura Meza bought the Spanish language editions of Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women by Mary-Alice Waters, Joseph Hansen and Evelyn Reed and The First and Second Declarations of Havana. The latter is for her father, a supporter of the Cuban Revolution.
These were among the 160 titles that fairgoers bought at the Pathfinder booth, with books on politics and the class struggle in the U.S. especially drawing people’s attention. Pathfinder publishes books by Socialist Workers Party and other revolutionary working-class leaders.
The book fair is the second largest in the world, with over 900,000 attending. It hosted large displays from Spain, the country of honor this year, and from many other countries.
“I haven’t studied much about what happened on Oct. 7 and afterward in Israel and the Mideast. I’ve just heard what the media has showed,” Diego Gara Godoy told Jacob Perasso, a volunteer at the Pathfinder stand.
“Oct. 7 was a pogrom. Hamas and Tehran aim to destroy the state of Israel and murder Jews,” Perasso said. “Their program has its roots in the course of Amin al-Husseini, who was the grand mufti of Jerusalem and collaborated with Hitler in hopes of implementing the Nazis’ ‘Final Solution’ in the Middle East during World War II.”
Perasso pointed to The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class. “It explains the need to build working-class parties capable of overthrowing capitalism to end the threats Jews face,” he said.
After looking through the book, Gara Godoy said, “You have really opened my mind, I want to read more.”
Interest in labor resistance in U.S.
Many visitors to the Pathfinder booth were interested in discussing what working people in the U.S. face and what’s behind the election of Donald Trump.
“The working class is showing the will to fight back against the bosses and their speedup and unsafe conditions,” this reporter told Víctor Hernández Saldaña Jubilado. “And that didn’t change during the election campaign.”
“It interests me a lot, the fact that these kinds of books are being sold in the U.S.,” said Saldaña Jubilado, pointing to New International no. 11 with the title “U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War.” “It’s something to know that there are people in the U.S. conscious of the situation that the U.S. government has generated.” He bought this title and America’s Revolutionary Heritage by George Novack.
Many who stopped by the booth had lived and worked in the U.S. or had friends and relatives there. Two Mexican call center workers told Perasso they made well above minimum wage, but still struggled to meet the high cost of many essentials.
“The rent has gone up, it’s going wild,” Sara Juarez said. “I can’t afford to live in Guadalajara. I take the bus two hours each way to and from work.”
“I have a car, gasoline has gone up as well, it’s horrible!” Sara Myers, her co-worker said.
Perasso described similar challenges facing young workers in the U.S. to make ends meet and sustain families. Increased labor resistance in recent years is aimed at changing these conditions, he said.
Along with a dozen copies of The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch, other top sellers from the Pathfinder booth included 10 copies of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and Learning Under Capitalism by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes and eight copies of The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward.
The Cámara Cubana del Libro booth, featuring literature and political books from Cuba, drew steady interest, hosting a series of presentations by prominent Cuban authors, poets and other writers.