“It constitutes a great challenge for all those involved in its organization (the 34th Havana International Book Fair), due to the crisis the country is facing as a consequence of the measures taken by the United States government,” said Juan Rodríguez Cabrera, president of the Cuban Book Institute, during the press conference for the event.
This statement aligns with Fidel Castro’s belief in never giving up in the face of adversity. One example is his work, beginning in 1959, in the process of transforming Cuban publishing houses to disseminate literary works, finding a country marked by a fragile publishing industry.
The cultural event will take place in Havana, with its main venue at the Cultural Station on Línea and 18th Streets, and Russia as the guest of honor. It will also include the participation of Mexico, China, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, among other countries.
In the pages of the book Fidel y la industria editorial cubana: una Revolución desde las letras (Fidel and the Cuban Publishing Industry: A Revolution from Literature), by Francisca López Civeira and Fabio Fernández Batista, one can find information regarding the thinking and strategies adopted by the historical leader to contribute to the improved functioning of publishing houses in the country.
The authors begin with an overview of the situation before 1959 regarding reading, with illiteracy as a fundamental issue due to the low level of education. During this period, intellectuals lacked coherent mechanisms for disseminating their work. The scarcity of funds for the promotion of science, the humanities, and literature was an undeniable reality. The space that the press afforded creators was, without a doubt, insufficient.
The authors perfectly reflect Fidel’s desire to do something immense regarding education, and how the role of the book in this mission stemmed from his love of literature and his conviction of the importance of disseminating literary creation and fostering the habit of reading among all sectors of the population.
In the year of his centennial, we cannot forget when, in a 1985 interview, he highlighted his fondness for historical novels and books dealing with history, biography, nature, and fiction.
Education and culture were, for him, two pillars of the revolutionary process. “The future of our homeland must necessarily be a future of men and women of science, it must be a future of men and women of thought,” he declared in a speech on January 15, 1960, at the Cuban Speleological Society.
Ambrosio Fornet (1932-2022), a Cuban writer and researcher, compared the pre-revolutionary Cuban publishing landscape to a “wasteland dotted with a few islets of vegetation.” For him, only the work of spontaneous editors like Fernando Ortiz, Emeterio Santovenia, and Samuel Feijóo prevented the landscape from being completely desolate.
Another important fact is that major literary figures such as Alejo Carpentier, Lino Novás Calvo, Virgilio Piñera, and Dulce María Loynaz were unable to publish their first works in Cuba.
Currently, our country boasts publishing houses for all tastes, such as Casa Editora Abril, Gente Nueva, Verde Olivo, Cubaliteraria, Capitán San Luis, Letras Cubanas, Arte y Literatura, Ediciones ICAIC, and Editorial José Martí, among others.
This year’s Cuban Book Fair carries within it the spirit of Fidel Castro, both in the fight against current adversities and in the works that will be presented. Among the titles about the Commander-in-Chief are Fidel, Always a Lawyer and Fidel Castro: What Did He Find After the Triumph of the Revolution?
As the President of the Cuban Book Institute aptly put it, “We organized it (the 34th FILH) with the spirit that the Fair created by Fidel will not die.”