Andres Oppenheimer. Published Thursday, June 15, 2000, in the Miami Herald
It's hard to believe, but some of the world's most prestigious Spanish-language publishing houses -- the very ones that publish original works by writers like Mario Vargas Llosa and Guillermo Cabrera Infante -- may be passively accepting censorship.
The issue was raised in the current issue of Letras Libres, a Mexican literary magazine, which echoed reports in literary circles that Editorial Alfaguara -- the publisher of Vargas Llosa and Cabrera Infante, among others -- was seriously considering opening a bookstore in Havana, accepting
Cuban government demands to exclude books by those two and others who have been critical of the Cuban regime.
``It seems that the condition set by Cuban authorities to give their authorization [to the bookstore] is to enjoy the privilege of selecting which of the authors of the publishing house's catalog will be read [in Cuba],'' Letras Libres said. ``We hope that . . . the publishing house will
not doubt for one single moment in backing off from its Havana project unless the free sale of all of its authors is fully guaranteed.''
Well-placed sources in Mexico's publishing industry tell me that several other publishing houses -- including Grijalbo, Ediciones B and Ocano -- have either opened or are in advanced negotiations to open branches in Havana.
Alfaguara publisher Sealtiel Alatriste told me that, for now, his company has decided not to open a store in Havana. But he added that his Spain-based holding firm, Grupo Prisa, may still decide to do so.
``Cuba does not have a blacklist per se, but the Cuban government reserves for itself the right to buy the books it wishes,'' Alatriste said. ``It is a veiled form of censorship, if you want. They select the books, and in that process, there is an elimination of some authors that oppose the
regime.''
Alatriste noted that big book chains in Mexico do the same thing when they refuse to buy books with nude pictures on their covers.
There is a difference, however. While a private book chain's selection process does not prevent readers from going to another bookstore -- or the Internet -- to get what they want, there is no such choice available in a totalitarian regime where the state has a monopoly on information.
Grijalbo was the first Mexican publishing house to open a bookstore in downtown Havana's Casco Viejo section in April 1999. It now offers 2,500 titles, and about 40,000 books, most on self-help themes, in its Cuban bookstore.
Grijalbo's top editor was traveling and unavailable for comment when I called him.
But Mexican book industry sources tell me that the Cuban regime blocked virtually all Grijalbo books on Mexican and Latin American politics, including my own Crnicas de Hroes y Bandidos (Chronicles of Heroes and Bandits), published by Grijalbo in 1997, a collection of stories on Latin
American leaders.
The fact that the political dinosaurs running Cuba are blacklisting authors shouldn't surprise anybody. But if major Spanish-language publishing houses from Mexico and Spain are happily going along with it, the whole thing is all the more serious. |