SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — “These books are necessary for a new awakening,” Frankely Polanco, a building painter, said while he was looking over the Pathfinder Press stand at the 27th Santo Domingo International Book Fair Oct. 1. He was one of hundreds who visited the stand, the first time Pathfinder has participated.
Organized by the Ministry of Culture, the fair was dedicated to children’s literature and to historian Frank Moya Pons, who has written dozens of books on the history of the Dominican Republic. More than a book fair, the 11-day festival included some 650 events, from musical performances, film showings, plays and dance troupes to book presentations, panel discussions, poetry readings and more.
It attracted hundreds of thousands, including tens of thousands of high school, junior high and elementary school students in their school uniforms. The ministry reported 11,000 students took advantage of its offer of a free book. Many chose one on Juan Pablo Duarte, considered the father of the country’s independence struggle against Spain.
Pavilions for publishers, bookstores, authors and crafts were set up at Plaza de la Cultura, between the national theater, library, the Museum of Modern Art and other cultural institutions, which participants were encouraged to visit.
“I had no idea you were going to be here with these kinds of books,” said Polanco. He bought Labor, Nature, and the Evolution of Humanity; Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and Learning Under Capitalism by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes; What Is to Be Done? by V.I. Lenin and other titles in Spanish.
“The books on working-class struggles caught my attention,” said Clara Morel, a member of the Theatrical Workers Union SITEARD. “We face the same conditions as many other workers. Often our jobs are temporary or by contract, without any benefits.”
Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible? by SWP leader Mary-Alice Waters is one of the books she bought, in part because of how it describes the fight of immigrant workers in the U.S. “In the Dominican Republic, the press often paints the Haitian workers as invaders,” Morel said. “But Haitians are the main workers in sugar cane, construction and other industries, doing work that Dominicans don’t want to do. We have to confront these attempts to divide us.”
Victor Caro, an electrical engineer, bought Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, also by Barnes, and Revolution and the Road to Peace in Colombia by Fidel Castro.
“While there isn’t institutionalized racism in the Dominican Republic, unlike what existed in the U.S.,” said Caro, “there are similarities.” That is why he wants to read more on Malcolm X, the fight for Black rights and the class struggle in the U.S.
He gave an example of racist attitudes toward “Afro-descendants” that have been changing. “It used to be that a black woman with curly hair couldn’t get a job in the banks here unless she straightened her hair.”
Jesús Núñez, national coordinator of the Sugarcane Workers Union, brought more than a dozen workers originally from Haiti who have toiled for decades on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic and are fighting for pensions and other rights today. They wanted to come to the Pathfinder stand to pick out books to read in Spanish or French. One retired worker began reading his copy of The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward as soon as he got it.
One book fair worker said she’s been reading about the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. “It’s terrible what has been happening to Jews today,” she said, noting that her daughter lives in the U.S. and has been influenced by those who turn the truth on its head, claiming Jews in Israel are Nazis. She was glad to see The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class.
Not everybody shared her reaction. Some told volunteers at the booth Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is “genocide.” But the book was one of the top sellers, with 15 sold, as well as four copies of The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation by Abram Leon.
The Pathfinder stand was set up for the last five days of the festival. By the last day, participants had bought 287 books, most in Spanish, but a good number in English. The best seller was Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? with 22 copies; 21 copies of Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women; 15 of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels; 17 of Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara; and 12 of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, in three languages.
Pathfinder looks forward to next year’s festival.