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Freedom To Read!
A new movement to send a caravan
of uncensored books to the people of Cuba
by Nat Hentoff. The
Village Voice, February 14th, 2005.
In Castro's Cuba . .
. there were no newspapers, except official
ones. No books, except those sanctioned
by the regime . . . Jails filled with prisoners—from
those who violently opposed the regime to
those who simply dared speak out.
"Fidel Castro,"
American Experience, PBS, January 31, 2005
The American Library
Association opposes any efforts that result
in closing any path to knowledge.
Governing council of the American Library
Association (which nonetheless has refused
to demand immediate release of imprisoned
independent Cuban librarians), January 19,
2005
There are individual American librarians who
have written letters to Fidel Castro, asking
him to release the dissenters he has sentenced
to 20 years and more in his gulag. By now,
among those imprisoned are more than a dozen
independent librarians.
In a story by Kevin Sullivan in the February
14, 2004, Washington Post, the Cuban Commission
for Human Rights and National Reconciliation
reported that about half of these prisoners
are in " 'punishment cells' about three
feet wide and six feet long, have no windows,
little ventilation, and no running water.
Prisoners are subjected to extreme heat
in the summer and year-round infestation
by insects and rats."
The letters to Castro fromAmerican librarians—who
cannot understand why their national governing
council has abandoned their fellow librarians
in Cuba—have not been answered. And,
as reported here last week, only one U.S.
public library, in Vermillion, South Dakota,
has sponsored and begun to send books to
a sister independent library in Havana.
That decision has been hailed by library
associations in other countries.
This reverberating act of simple decency
was started by one person, Mark Wetmore,
vice president of the Vermillion library's
board of trustees. Wetmore tells me that
his impetus for bringing freedom to read
to Cuba came from reading my columns here
on Castro's brutish repression. But it was
Wetmore who actually did something that
has brought increased international attention
to those prisoners in the three-foot-wide
and six-foot-long cells.
Jack Powell, a fellow trustee of the Vermillion
library, told the Argus Leader in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota: "[Mark] kept us
on task during all our discussions, kept
coming back to the fact that the issue of
freedom of access to information was the
core concern. As a board, we're happy to
be collectively doing this, and we hope
other libraries will follow our lead."
Says Wetmore, who shows that one person
can begin to strike back at a dictator:
"It diminishes all our libraries a
little if we know that there are people
being persecuted for trying to operate free,
uncensored ones and we don't try to do something
about it." (Emphasis added.)
Wetmore keeps on keeping on. He has now
written a guide, Sponsoring an Independent
Cuban Library, that lays out "the steps
a library board in this country" can
take to join this freedom caravan. In it
he tells, with specificity, how the Vermillion
Public Library learned how to do it—and
much more, including how to ship books to
Cuba, and what it costs. (Librarians in
other countries have been adding to the
shelves of the independent libraries since
the Castro crackdown.)
Wetmore says, "I would be happy to
correspond or visit with anyone about Vermillion's
experience sponsoring an independent Cuban
library." Mark Wetmore can be reached
at 605.624.3738; his e-mail is mw@iw.net.
His guide begins: "As a board, trustees
should educate themselves on the issues
involved . . . first, the history and current
situation of the independent libraries in
Cuba, the debate within the American Library
Association on the subject and the ALA's
current position.
"Trustees need to discuss sponsorship
thoroughly among themselves, and with the
library director. Unanimity isn't necessary
at the beginning of the discussion, only
a willingness to consider sponsorship and
what it stands for. At least one trustee
needs to take the initiative to bring information
to the board and keep the discussion alive
to the point of a definitive decision .
. .
"The Cuban independent libraries exist
in a narrow, fluctuating space between government
repression and toleration for the sake of
international public relations. The Cuban
government does seem to care what the world
thinks and to some extent is susceptible
to world opinion.[Emphasis added.]
"Primary goals can be first, to provide
one-on-one, personal moral support and solidarity
to the brave people running an independent
Cuban library; and second, to add to the
movement in this country to follow many
European cities and library organizations
in demanding freedom for jailed Cuban librarians
and freedom for all intellectual pursuits
in Cuba . . .
"There have been no negative implications
for us [at the Vermillion library]. None.
All of the press coverage and local feedback
has been positive . . . [and] has enhanced
local awareness and appreciation of VPL
and has actually strengthened us . . . in
the community."
Enthusiastically supporting the Vermillion
Public Library is Anna Maulina, president
of the Library Association of Latvia, in
Riga. Speaking for "Eastern Europeans
who have experienced Communism," she
says: "I hope that the time will come
for Cuba to become a real isle of freedom
where free song will flow over free valleys,
where no librarian or any other person will
be arrested for disseminating information."
How inspiring it would be if the world-renowned
New York Public Library and its president,
Paul Leclerc, would join the small Vermillion
Public Library in South Dakota to further
circulate stories and songs of freedom by
sending books—and encouragement—to
the Cuban independent libraries. Many of
the multicultural users of New York's library
system would be proud of its flagship center
and its lions guarding the freedom to read.
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