Below is an excellent article from today's Washington Post. Its only
drawback is a lack of awareness of the severity of the campaign of repression
being directed against the independent librarians, as documented by Amnesty
International, the Friends of Cuban Libraries and the disturbing in-depth
report by IFLA (www.faife.dk, in the "news and events" section).

Sincerely,

Friends of Cuban Libraries

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Independent Libraries Mix Politics, Culture in Cuba

By Karen DeYoung

Thursday , August 3, 2000 ; A26

HAVANA –– The thousand or so bedraggled books stacked on the dusty floor and
sagging shelves of Ricardo Gonzalez's single, sunlit room are an eclectic
mixture. There are some paperback novels, biographies of Jose Marti and the
"Thoughts of Fidel Castro." There are Cuban authors banned for ancient and
forgotten reasons, and a shelf of poetry.

The Jorge Manach Independent Library, named for a once-famous journalist in a
different, long-ago Cuba, is open to lend, but there are few borrowers.

"Sometimes [Communist] Party youth come here," said Gonzalez, a former
government journalist with a booming voice and a ready laugh. "Not many,
because they're scared. We're really just a service to the community, but
some in the community are scared. Of course, some people just come for the
prohibited books, and ask for them by name. Whoever comes, no matter what
they think, if we have the book, they can have it. I don't care what they
take. People have the right to read."

Actually, getting your hands on a book that the government has decided you do
not need to read can be difficult here. Although Cuba has an extensive
network of state and school libraries and what Gonzalez says is one of the
Third World's best technical collections, admission is often restricted, and
access to certain volumes is determined by a need-to-know color code.

Having and reading books on your own is not a crime in Cuba. But it can draw
always-risky attention. The government seems to decide on an ad hoc basis
what is not permitted--the recent seizure of 11 books from another of
Havana's independent lenders included a volume on Cuba's agricultural system
and "Short Stories From Here and There," along with some Catholic magazines.

The first independent libraries began when a few intellectuals decided to
take Castro at his word when the Cuban president said in a 1998 speech that
"there are no banned books in Cuba--there just isn't any money to buy them."
Gathering old, moldering volumes forgotten or hidden in pre-revolutionary
collections, they set them on shelves and opened their doors.

Books are donated by Cubans leaving the country, and occasionally a
sympathizer abroad will send a few new volumes by air freight--although that
heightens the risk of arbitrary seizure by customs agents.

Gonzalez estimates that about 50 independent libraries are scattered around
the country--some general interest, some devoted to specialized topics such
as women's issues, the history of the North American Revolution, agrarian
literature or music. Although each library is aware of others, they remain
autonomous, lest they be perceived as forming a prohibited "movement." Other
than occasional seizures or a rare shutdown, however, the government largely
leaves them alone.

"This isn't a political undertaking, it's a cultural one," Gonzalez said.
"But of course, in these conditions, it's hard to separate the coffee from
the milk in your cafe con leche." In Cuba, all things are political.

"For instance, look at this book--'Mea Cuba,' a play on the words 'mea
culpa.' It was written by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a winner of the
Cervantes Prize. . . . The book was published in the early 1960s, but it is
prohibited. He was the Cuban cultural attache in Belgium and broke with the
government and started to criticize it. This book is his thoughts and
remembrances" about pre- and post-revolutionary life here. The author,
Gonzalez said, "is more controversial than the book."

"Here's 'The Works of Che Guevara,' and 'Nation and State in Liberal
Spain'--that one's not allowed. If somebody comes in and asks about human
rights, here's the official version, 'Cuba and Human Rights.' Here's another
version, published by UNESCO. It's prohibited. I show them both, and I don't
care which one they take."

"We have only two rules for books," he said. "No racism and no violence."

There are also books by Jorge Manach, including his biography of Marti, the
father of Cuban liberation. Manach "was an author and a politician in the
pre-revolution times," Gonzalez said. "In the 1920s, he was one of the
greatest Cuban journalists--he was always intransigent against any
dictatorship." When Castro was imprisoned by Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s,
Gonzalez said, he wrote letters to Manach.

"But he died in exile in 1961," he said of the library's namesake. "For the
Cuban government, it's like he never existed."


© 2000 The Washington Post Company


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