A Special Report / The Friends of Cuban Libraries. April 16, 2000.
In March 2000 a delegation of librarians visited Cuba under the leadership of Ms. Rhonda Neugebauer. The stated purpose of the delegation was to visit libraries and hold discussions with Cuban librarians regarding philosophy, values, ethics and professional practices. On April 10 Larry
Oberg, a member of the delegation, sent a report to Charles Harmon, the Chair of the American Library Association's Committee on Professional Ethics, describing his view of the delegation's findings. Although the Neugebauer delegation visited a country where human rights violations have been
well-documented, where books, magazines, newspapers, and radio and television broadcasts are rigorously censored, and whose President has declared, "All criticism is opposition and all opposition is counterrevolutionary," Mr. Oberg's report fails to mention the existence of any
violations of intellectual freedom in Cuba. Instead, Mr. Oberg singles out for criticism that nation's independent library movement, founded in 1998 with the goal of offering the Cuban people access to uncensored books. He is also critical of the Friends of Cuban Libraries, who support the
independent librarians.
The purpose of this response from the Friends is to evaluate Mr. Oberg's report, especially with regard to intellectual freedom issues and the ALA Code of Professional Ethics. By way of background, the Friends of Cuban Libraries is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which
opposes censorship and all other violations of intellectual freedom, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, regardless of whatever government may be in office in Cuba. As an organization, we do not comment on issues outside of our mandate, such as international relations,
political philosophy, or the advisability of going to Cuba. The members and supporters of the Friends hold a range of views on these and other issues, but we are united in promoting our organization's only goal: an uncompromising defense of intellectual freedom. We believe it cannot be a
crime, in Cuba or any other country, to oppose censorship, to read uncensored books, or to open and operate a library.
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM AND THE ALA
For members of the American Library Association and other organizations, support for intellectual freedom is not an option; it is an obligation. The preamble to the ALA Code of Ethics emphasizes the central importance of this principle: "[W]e are members of a profession explicitly
committed to intellectual freedom and freedom of access to information. We have a special obligation to ensure the free flow of information and ideas to present and future generations." Section 2 of the Code of Ethics requires all ALA members to "uphold the principles of intellectual
freedom and to resist all efforts to censor library resources." The members of the Neugebauer group share this obligation, as affirmed by Mr. Oberg: "Ms. Neugebauer and the other members of our research group are deeply committed to intellectual freedom and oppose censorship in all
its forms." Further, he declares that the members of the delegation "[i]n all encounters with Cuban librarians... conducted themselves at the highest professional level; a level that does honor to our profession and the American Library Association."
HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA: AN OVERVIEW
The suppression of human rights in Cuba, including freedom of expression, has been documented by every reputable human rights organization that has reported on the island nation over the past forty years. Amnesty International, for example, in the most recent of its many reports on Cuba,
states that "freedom of expression, association and assembly are severely restricted in law and in practice [for Cuban citizens].... Those who attempt to express views, organize meetings or form organizations that conflict with government policy are frequently subjected to punitive
measures." Findings similar to Amnesty's have been documented by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Pax Christi Holland, the Inter-American Press Association, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Sans Frontieres, the European Union's Human Rights Commission and the Committee to Protect
Journalists. Mr. Oberg's failure to refer to, or even acknowledge the existence of, any of these reports reflects poorly on the accuracy of his testimony as to the absence of censorship in Cuba's official libraries. At a minimum, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the members of the
Neugebauer delegation, in preparing for their research trip to the island, were not interested in studying the existing documentation on the Cuban government's longstanding violations of intellectual freedom.
Even if the members of the Neugebauer delegation saw fit to dismiss or ignore the reports of numerous human rights organizations, they could have found evidence of wholesale violations of intellectual freedom in the government's actions and policy statements over the past four decades. Cuban
writers are held to rigorous if ill-defined standards, as proclaimed by the National Congress on Education and Culture in 1971: "The cultural media cannot serve as a framework for the proliferation of false intellectuals who try to convert snobbery, extravagance, homosexuality and other
social aberrations into expressions of revolutionary art...." In 1969 the official writers' union, UNEAC, warned its members to "increase revolutionary vigilance, to avoid all forms of weakness and liberalism, and to denounce all attempts at ideological penetration and
counterrevolutionary activity...." . In practice, the Cuban government defines a "revolutionary" as someone who unquestioningly obeys official policies, while anyone who dissents from official policies or opposes the government, peacefully or not, is termed a "counterrevolutionary."
This definition is evident in an interview a Spanish reporter held with Roberto Fernandez Retamar, the director of the Casa de las Americas, a cultural institute visited by the Neugebauer delegation and praised by Mr. Oberg in his report. When the reporter asked about censorship in Cuba, Mr.
Fernandez Retamar replied: "When a writer asks the revolutionary authorities to what degree he is free, what he is really asking is to what degree he can be a counterrevolutionary." A librarian at the Casas de las Americas, Olga Andreu, was reportedly dismissed from her job after she
listed the novel of an exiled author, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, on a bibliograpy. Cuban newspapers have never reported that Mr. Cabrera Infante was awarded Spain's Cervantes Prize, the highest literary award in the Spanish-speaking world, nor can his books be found on the shelves of official
libraries.
The consequences for authors who dissent from official orthodoxy appear in a speech given in 1969 by Nicolas Guillen, the president of UNEAC: "Cuban writers and artists have the same responsibilities as our soldiers, with respect to the defense of the nation.... He who does not [fulfill
his duty] regardless of his position, will receive the most severe revolutionary punishment for his fault." What this means in practice was illustrated in 1971 by the internationally-publicized "Padilla Case," when Cuba's most renowned contemporary poet, Heberto Padilla, was
arrested by the State Security police after writing poems such as "Outside the Game:".
The poet! Kick him out!
He has no business here.
He doesn't play the game.
He never gets excited
Or speaks out clearly.
He never even sees the miracles....
Following a month-long interrogation by the State Security police, Mr. Padilla was forced to appear before an audience at the writers' union and deliver a lengthy public confession. After repudiating his own writings, he declared himself to be a counterrevolutionary and made similar
accusations against other prominent Cuban writers, including his own wife, Belkis Cuza Male. When foreign intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Susan Sontag, signed a public letter protesting the treatment of Heberto Padilla, they were denounced by President Castro
as "bourgeois liberals," "agents of cultural colonialism," "shameless pseudo-leftists," "intellectual rats," and "CIA agents." Mr. Padilla and his family were later permitted to go into exile; his books cannot be found in official libraries.
Although, since the 1990's, writers are no longer persecuted in Cuba because of their sexual orientation, the repression of dissenting authors continues in full force, as illustrated by the case of the poet Maria Elena Cruz Varela. In 1991, after forming an organization, Criterio
Alternativo, which advocated freedom of speech and other reforms, the home of Ms. Cruz Varela was besieged by a government-directed mob, and she subjected to what the official media call an "acto de repudio" ("act of repudiation"). She was forcibly removed from her
apartment, dragged down several flights of stairs and beaten by the mob while onlookers chanted slogans. Copies of her writings were forced into her mouth in an effort to make her eat them, resulting in permanent physical injuries. At the end of this ordeal, Ms. Cruz Varela was arrested and
imprisoned. She was eventually permitted to leave the country; her writings cannot be found in her homeland.
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM IN CUBA'S OFFICIAL LIBRARIES
It was in this decades-long climate of fear, intimidation and systematic repression that the Neugebauer delegation "visited many [official] libraries and spoke with countless librarians...," asking "penetrating questions about government interference in collection development,
the independence of Cuban librarians, and other questions that probed their philosophy, values, ethics and professional practices." After being reassured by the official librarians' unanimous, on-the-record (and no doubt anxious) replies, Mr. Oberg concludes that the Friends' reports of
censorship in official libraries are "unproven" and "[in] conflict with what I found in long and probing conversations with these very librarians." Apparently, the members of the Neugebauer delegation did not ask why, if there is no censorship in offical libraries, all of
the Cuban books, magazines and newspapers found in these institutions express one, and only one, point of view. Nor did they ask why the works of many renowned Cuban writers, such as Heberto Padilla, Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Maria Elena Cruz Varela, cannot be found on the shelves. Nor do
they seem to have inquired why the government bans or severely restricts access to the Internet, e-mail, personal computers, photocopiers, cellular telephones, satellite antennas and UHF antennas.
THE JOSE MARTI NATIONAL LIBRARY: A CLOSER LOOK
Not only did the Neugebauer delegation fail to discover any evidence of censorship in official libraries, but Mr. Oberg singles out Havana's Jose Marti National Library for special praise: "The national library collects materials on all topics and does not limit its collections to
materials that support the ideology of the Cuban government. They actively solicit, for example, copies of materials published by dissident Cuban writers who reside abroad." If there is no censorship in Cuba or the National Library, however, then one has to wonder why Mr. Oberg failed to
ask why dissident writers are forbidden to publish books in their own country. Nor, apparently, did he ask whether the dissidents' books collected by the National Library are listed in the catalog or available to the public.
Given the prominence of the Jose Marti National Library, the Friends have made a special study of this institution in order to assess the accuracy of the Neugebauer delegation's findings. After reading published materials and interviewing people with experience at the National Library, we
conclude that it is not, as Mr. Oberg asserts, an institution which supports intellectual freedom or impartial collection development. The novelist Reinaldo Arenas, whose memoir "Before Night Falls" is recommended for anyone interested in knowing the scale and severity of Cuban
censorship, worked at the National Library after President Castro came into office. Arenas was present when the director, Maria Teresa Freyre de Andrade, was dismissed for reportedly being "a lesbian, an aristocrat and a counterrevolutionary." Her replacement as library director held
the rank of captain in the National Revolutionary Police. "A few days later," recorded Arenas, "I decided the library was no longer a place for me, either. Any book that could be deemed to be 'ideological diversionism' disappeared immediately." Reinaldo Arenas was later
imprisoned and died in exile. His books cannot be published in his native country and have disappeared from the shelves of official libraries, including the institution where he was formerly employed.
Another witness to the operations of the Jose Marti National Library is Norma Montero, who was a librarian in the institution's Cuban Collection during the 1970's; she is now the director of a branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library. When contacted by the Friends of Cuban Libraries,
Ms. Montero was surprised to learn of Mr. Oberg's description of the National Library as a place where intellectual freedom and balanced collection development policies are respected. She remembers, as affirmed in the memoirs of Arenas, how the institution's prized Cuban Collection was purged
of objectionable books. She also recalls how, after Cuban writers were arrested, went into exile, or were otherwise officially disgraced, staff meetings were held at the National Library and orders issued to remove the works of the offending authors. Ms. Montero reports that some of the purged
books were destroyed; others disappeared into a special locked area of the library known among staff members as the "Infiernillo" ("Little Hell"). Only a few librarians, members of the Communist Party, were permitted to enter the Little Hell or to possess keys to it, and
only approved researchers were allowed to read books kept in the Little Hell.
Ms. Montero's account is consistent with the testimony of another library worker interviewed by the Friends. This person wishes to remain anonymous out of consideration for family members and former colleagues still living in Cuba. As confirmed by this library worker, a special area
exists in the National Library where banned books are kept under lock and key. Access to this locked area is limited to approved researchers, such as reporters for Cuba's only daily newspaper, who can produce a letter of authorization from a supervisor. If the letter of authorization is
approved, the researcher's official identity card is kept by a librarian while the book is read under supervision. This method is effective in preventing the loss of restricted materials because any Cuban citizen who cannot produce an official identity card upon demand is arrested.
In summarizing our analysis of Mr. Oberg's remarks about the Jose Marti National Libary, we conclude that his description bears little resemblance to the testimony of several people who worked there.
END OF PART I
To be published in the near future: Part II of this report entitled "Cuban Libraries, Intellectual Freedom and the Oberg Report," which will focus on the many errors, inaccuracies, omissions of fact, and irrelevant remarks contained in Mr. Oberg's account of his
visits to independent libraries in Cuba.
For further information about the Friends of Cuban Libraries, contact Robert Kent at: rkent20551@cs.com or telephone (USA) 718-340-8494. Address: 474 48th Avenue, #3-C, Long Island City, NY 11109 USA |