By
Richard Steinberg
No cute, pithy, or intriguing quote to kick off this month’s entry. Just some names and numbers.
Nelson Alberto Aguiar Ramírez, 58
Sentence: 13 years
Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés, 38
Sentence: 18 years
Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, 55
Sentence: 25 years.
Pedro Argüelles Morán, 56
Sentence: 20 years
Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta, age not known
Sentence: 15 years
It’s good we discuss our craft here. It’s even better that through original entries and well thought out comments we engage in a spirited dialogue about what it means to be a writer, about how the industry works, about the definitions of genre, and the (relative) mental health of writers as a whole. Personally, I particularly enjoy it – and learn from it – when we kick around our personal processes and discover we’re not as alone (or weird) as we thought we were.
But this column is not about us, or publishing, or process.
Mijail Barzaga Lugo, 36
Sentence: 15 years
Oscar Elías Biscet González, 43
Sentence: 25 years
Margarito Broche Espinosa, 45
Sentence: 25 years
Marcelo Cano Rodríguez, 39
Sentence: 18 years
Manuel Vázquez Portal, 52,
Sentence: 18 years
What this column is about, is the people who believe in us; the people who go to great lengths to see that our private, often tortured, visions that we translate into words are then transported into the hands of eager readers. Not the buyers for Borders or Amazon or Barnes & Noble – although I fear one day we might be talking about them in a similar light – and not the librarians who fight sometimes successfully (and sometimes not) against narrow minds that don’t trust their neighbors to reach their own conclusions.
But rather, this column is about those stalwart, often terrified souls who risk EVERYTHING from their status to their possessions to their very life, just so their neighbors have something to read that hasn’t been sanitized, shrink-wrapped, cleansed of all meaning beyond that which their government would like to be read.
They are called the Independent Library Movement.
Ariel Miguel Sigler Amalla, 38; General Pedro Betancourt Library (Matanzas)
Sentence: 20 years
Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, 46; 20th of May Library (Sancti Spiritus)
Sentence: 25 years
Antonio Ramón Díaz Sánchez, 40
Sentence: 20 years
Alfredo Rodolfo Domínguez Batista, age not known
Sentence: 14 years
Oscar Manuel Espinosa Chepe, 63
Sentence: 20 years
The independent library movement began in Havana with a simple statement:
“Our goal is not revolution, or even the civil toppling of any political forces. All we seek is for the people to be allowed to choose what they want to read, and to be allowed to draw their own conclusions from that reading. Many great things have come from the Cuban Revolution; most exceptional among them is the rise in literacy of all Cubans from 18% to 98%. We now simply ask for the right for Cubans everywhere to use that gift of literacy from the Revolution to read what they want. And we ask the Revolution to trust its children to draw the right conclusions from that reading.”
Omar Pernet Hernández, 57; 20th of May Library II (Villa Clara)
Sentence: 25 years
Raúl Rivero Castañeda, 58; Dulce María Loynaz Library Branch II (Havana)
Sentence: 20 years
Juan Adolfo Fernández Sainz, 55
Sentence: 14 years
José Daniel Ferrer García, 33
Sentence: 25 years
Luis Enrique Ferrer García, 27
Sentence: 28 years
And at first, the Cuban government did allow that trust. What possible threat could there be from 15 paperbacks on a shelf in someone’s backroom? Castro himself is an admitted fanatical fan of Ernest Hemingway. So, as a sign that the Revolution wasn’t the harsh, overbearing, tyranny that the United States claimed it was, the Independent Library Movement was allowed to grow. Helped by the Cuban expatriate community, writer’s organizations from around the world, and individual writers, more small shelves in back rooms began to pop-up.
The Gastón Baquero Independent Library in the city of Banes.
The Félix Varela Independent Library in Las Tunas.
The José Antonio García Tablada Independent Library . . .
The Benjamin Franklin Independent Library . . .
The Martin Luther King Jr. Independent library . . .
None of them magnificent edifices of brick and mortar with sculpted lions out front and high-end cocktail fundraising parties on the weekends.
ALL OF THEM in a room in someone’s house . . . someone who had taken a tremendous risk only so their neighbors would have the right to select for themselves what they want to read.
Which of us writers has taken such a risk as these representatives of our work have?
Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, 52; Reyes Magos Library (Pinar del Río)
Sentence: 26 years
Juan Roberto de Miranda Hernández, 57; Father Félix Varela Library (Havana)
Sentence: 20 years
Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, 39
Sentence: 26 years.
Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez, 59
Sentence: 15 years
Edel José García Díaz, 58
Sentence: 15 years
Well, sure enough, the Cuban government decided the good press they were getting wasn’t worth the freethinking they were getting, and things changed.
During four days in early 2003, the Cuban Secret Police (DGSE) made a series of raids, arresting 93 individuals that contributed to, whose works were carried in, or who ran Independent Libraries throughout the island. They claimed that these “malcontents” were in violation of Revolutionary Law #88 which promises harsh sentences for anyone guilty of, among other outrages:
“owning, distributing or reproducing subversive materials.”
Typical of these raids, were the confiscation from one man’s house of 130 books – which made up the collection of the José Antonio García Tablada Independent Library. At the Félix Várela Independent Library (set up in the kitchen of an ILM volunteer) they confiscated 162 books, 46 magazines, a box of uncataloged newspapers and paperbacks, a photo album and a package of loose photographs. They also took 25 issues of Vitral magazine (edited by the Catholic Church) and a number of issues of Pasos magazine, also edited by the church. Some of these “dangerous” books that were taken had been bought at the Havana Book Fair, sponsored by the Cuban government.
In both cases, the occupants of the house were arrested under Law 88.
José Luis García Paneque, 38; Carlos J. Finlay Library (Las Tunas)
Sentence: 24 years
Ricardo Severino González Alfonso, 53; Jorge Mañach Library (Havana)
Sentence: 20 years
Diosdado González Marrero, age not known
Sentence: 20 years
Léster González Pentón, 26
Sentence: 20 years
Alejandro González Raga, 45
Sentence: 14 years
Each received a trial . . . lasting one day, including the appellate process.
75 of the 93 were convicted . . . of wanting their neighbors to be able to choose what to read. The things endorsed by the government, or . . . Hemingway, Faulkner, Conroy, King, Stoker, Stevenson, Bombeck, or even Steinberg; since I sent copies of the Spanish Language versions of The Gemini Man to various independent libraries over the years.
75 of the 93 . . . because 18 of the detainees simply disappeared before their trials and were never seen again.
For two and a half years now, these 75 librarians and contributors to libraries have been held in the harshest of prison conditions: not being allowed to communicate with the outside world, often not being allowed to see their families, usually denied basic medical care, often tortured or harassed by prison authorities. All for the crime of making books freely available to the public.
And what happened to the roughly six thousand books that were taken in the raids?
They were burned . . . by Judicial Orders.
Library Associations from Sweden, England, Germany, Spain, Israel, most of the countries of Eastern Europe, many of the countries of South America, Africa and Asia all specifically and in detail decried this trampling of the right of free expression. It was a near universal outcry: LET THESE PEOPLE GO AND LET YOUR PEOPLE READ!
Almost, because the American Library Association remained silent on the issue; even after I contacted them for comment on this column.
Iván Hernández Carrillo, 32; Juan Gualberto Gómez Library II (Matanzas)
Sentence: 25 years
Jorge Luis González Tanquero, 32
Sentence: 20 years
Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, age not known
Sentence: 20 years
Normando Hernández González, 33
Sentence: 25 years
Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, 37
Sentence: 20 years
The American Library Association’s official position (www.ala.org/ala/iro/iroactivities/alacubanlibraries.htm) amounts to this:
They take no specific position other than saying they support the IFLA’s (International Federation of Library Associations) general goals . . . despite the fact that the IFLA specifically and dramatically begged Castro to free these librarians and writers, and the ALA has not.
They “remain committed to intellectual freedom,” and they have “deep concern,” for the 75 prisoners.
But believe the United States must share some of the blame in that: “the U.S. embargo . . . restricts access to information in Cuba . . .” Although what that has to do with the Independent Library Movement leaders’ and contributors’ arrests remains a mystery to me.
Maybe I’m dumb.
Privately, several of the ALA leaders have said that because these people ran these operations informally from their homes, they were not really librarians and therefore not worthy of the ALA’s support. And because they were technically charged with “aiding U.S. interests” and not – technically – with illegally distributing books, this falls outside of the Association’s purview.
Yeah, right.
Again, every significant library association around the world has specifically called for the release of these librarians and writers, and for the Cuban Government to allow the Independent Library Movement to operate freely . . . to allow the Cuban people to make their own decisions about what to read.
To stop burning books.
Which, in my childlike view of the world, makes the American Library Association either stupid, or insignificant.
Now, not everyone within the ALA is unwilling to stand up for the concept of free expression. Karen Schneider of the Governing Council of the ALA offered a statement to be adopted by the ALA:
“ALA joins the IFLA in its deep concern over the arrest and long prison terms of political dissidents in Cuba in spring 2003, and calls for their immediate release.”
The statement was rejected, almost unanimously, by the Governing Council.
Ray Bradbury, after addressing the ALA last year, after reading court transcripts of the so-called “trials” of the librarians, said this:
“I stand against any library or any librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in any way for the books they circulate. I plead with Castro and his government to immediately take their hands off the independent librarians and release all those librarians in prison, and to send them back into Cuban culture to inform the people.”
Favoring a statement that generally blames BOTH Cuba and the United States for the atmosphere that led to the arrests, the ALA has rejected appeals like these.
As, oddly enough, the Cuban Government has rejected the appeals of the surviving arrestees.
The same Cuban government which has applauded the ALA for their non-actions.
In July of this year, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright called on the American Library Association to harden its position on the imprisoned librarians. And when they didn’t react beyond giving her a polite hearing, Eliades Acosta, Director of The Cuban National Library (whose book collection consists of only approved titles) issued a statement on behalf of the Cuban Government:
“Ms. Albright failed to achieve her objective to poison relations between Cuban and American librarians, despite having employed all of her histrionic skills in the New Orleans theater. There was no change whatsoever made in the traditional positive position of the ALA toward Cuba.”
When a man’s right, he’s right . . . there’s been no change.
The ALA still refuses to specifically condemn the arrests or call for freedom for the writers, poets, playwrights, essayists, and the librarians who loaned their work to the public . . . but ALA leaders say they’re thinking about it.
No new arrests have been made in Cuba of the remaining leaders of the Independent Library Movement . . . but they say they’re thinking about it.
José Miguel Martínez Hernández, 39; General Juan Bruno Zayas Library (Havana Province)
Sentence: 13 years
Regis Iglesias Ramírez, 33
Sentence: 18 years
José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, age not known
Sentence: 16 years
Reinaldo Miguel Labrada Peña, 40
Sentence: 6 years
Librado Ricardo Linares García, 42
Sentence: 20 years
Tomorrow, begins the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. There will be events at most every library, many bookstores, some schools around the country. I’ve been invited to participate in several.
I’ll participate in none of them.
Instead, I’ll spend the week shouting into the wind. In promotion of Banned Librarians Week.
For while the ALA takes the hypocritical stance of opposing the library and bookstore provisions of the Patriot Act and does nothing about these forty people named above and their compatriots named below, I’ll have nothing to do with them or their works.
Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, 38
Sentence: 20 years
Luis Milán Fernández, 34
Sentence: 13 years
Nelson Moliné Espino, 39
Sentence: 21 years
Angel Juan Moya Acosta, 39
Sentence: 20 years
Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, 61
Sentence: 20 years
But let me leave the last word on the atrocity of these acts against the human spirit to a most remarkable spokesman on the importance of universal free access to books.
“In prison, there were no rifles for training, no stone fortresses from which to shoot. Behind those walls, our rifles were books. And through study, stone by stone we built our fortress, the only one that is invincible: the fortress of ideas,” Fidel Castro
Shame he doesn’t want to share that invincibility.
Believe – in those writers, poets, essayists, novelists, journalists and most especially those noble, brave librarians that I’ve named above, along with:
Jesús Miguel Mustafá Felipe, 58, Sentence: 25 years; Félix Navarro Rodríguez, 49, Sentence: 25 years; Jorge Olivera Castillo, 41, Sentence: 18 years; Pablo Pacheco Avila, 33, Sentence: 20 years; Héctor Palacios Ruiz, 62, Sentence: 25 years; Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez, age not known, Sentence: 20 years; Horacio Julio Piña Borrego, 36, Sentence: 20 years; Fabio Prieto Llorente, age not known, Sentence: 20 years; Alfredo Manuel Pulido López, 42, Sentence: 14 years; José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, age not known, Sentence: 20 years; Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique, 61, Sentence: 18 years;; Alexis Rodríguez Fernández, 33, Sentence: 15 years; Omar Rodríguez Saludes, 38, Sentence: 27 years; Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, 58, Sentence: 20 years; Omar Moisés Ruiz Hernández, 56, Sentence: 18 years ; Claro Sánchez Altarriba, 50, Sentence: 15 years;; Guido Sigler Amaya, 46, Sentence: 20 years; Ricardo Silva Gual, age not known, Sentence: 10 years; Fidel Suárez Cruz, 33, Sentence: 20 years; Manuel Ubals González, 34, Sentence: 20 years; Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara, 52, Sentence: 20 years; Miguel Valdés Tamayo, 47, Sentence: 15 years; Héctor Raúl Valle Hernández, 35, Sentence: 12 years; Orlando Fundora Alvarez, 48, Sentence: 18 years; Próspero Gaínza Agüero, age not known, Sentence: 25 years; Carmelo Agustín Díaz Fernández, 65, Sentence: 16 years; Eduardo Díaz Fleitas, 51, Sentence: 21 years; Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, age not known, Sentence: 26 years; Efrén Fernández Fernández, 54, Sentence: 12 years