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Rafael Ferro, Grupo de Trabajo Decoro
PINAR DEL RÍO, December (www.cubanet.org).- "In Jalisco you
love willingly / because it's dangerous to love treacherously."
But the Cuban members of the official delegation invited to the
International Book
The Book Festival of Guadalajara turned a deaf ear to the refrain of the
well-known ranchera tune. They arrived in the land of Jorge Negrete loving
treacherously, and how!
The height of intolerance and extremism was staged shortly after the
festival kicked off by those sent by the Cuban government. The procession of
demagoguery began in the midst of the launching of the magazine "Letras
Libres" (Free Letters). The subject of the magazine, referring to a
possible and needed change in Cuba, was the detonator of the explosion.
A group belonging to the Cuban retinue and other young latinos continually
interrupted the well-known Cuban exile writer Rafael Rojas, who was speaking.
Turning aside the most elemental norms of ethics, the group let its screams of
protest and irrelevant, planned harangues be heard. It was the tangible evidence
of what the people live and suffer when they think differently from what the
government decrees.
The festival officials had the fitting idea of dedicating this year's event
to Cuba. But it appears they ruled out the situation lived on the island and did
not issue any rules. They did not require from the Cuban officials equality in
the conditions and rights of the intellectuals of the diaspora and of those who
live in Cuba whose works are prohibited by those in power.
No one is surprised by the conduct of the Cuban delegation to the
International Book Fair in Jalisco. Ever since Cuba was invited as the honoree,
the political intrigue plotted by Fidel Castro and his unquestioning followers
was already being watched closely.
The organizers of the fair should have kept writers from inside and outside
the island in mind. Like those who write about the Cuban reality, taking risks
for telling truths. And those who are read in the most absolute secrecy when
their banned works are published abroad.
The festival officials in Jalisco innocently swallowed the bait cast by the
Cuban regime. It seems that the recent revelation made by the pigheaded Cuban
head of state of a private conversation between him and President Vicente Fox,
which showed the most embarassing lack of presidential ethics, was all for
nothing.
The governing officials of Jalisco state have to be alert in the face of
Castro's Spanish strategy. Knowing the complete rejection that the Aznar
government has made of Cuban totalitarianism, Mr. Castro initiated the strategy
of ingratiating himself with the autonomous regions of Spain. Nothing could more
similar to what he is starting in Mexico, and it may be that Jalisco is the
sampling.
The Cuban delegation to the International Book Fair of Guadalajara shattered
all
expectations with a wave of intolerance. What could have been an advance
encounter for future dialogues of understanding showed the world that the Cuban
government stubbornly continues to censor other peoples' thoughts.
Those who dream of a truly free Cuba are only left to recall with nostalgia
the old song made popular by Jorge Negrete. Intoning it from within, like a
shout of warning and hope:
"Ay, Jalisco! Don't back out now!"
Versión original
en español
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