VILLA CLARA, July 13 (Edel José García, CNP) - The independent
library "Carlos Quintela" in Santa Cruz del Norte, Havana province, is
averaging 15 visitors a day in spite of government efforts to keep people from
using them.
The government uses mass organizations, such as the Committees for the
Defense of the Revolution (block watch committees) and the Federation of Cuban
Women, to dissuade people from frequenting places such as the independent
libraries, considered by the government as centers of counterrevolutionary
activities.
The official library system doesn't satisfy Cuban readers' demand, among
other reasons because there are many books that are banned as contrary to
official ideology, and because of bureaucratic limitations.
The independent libraries emerged to meet this need and are typically
organized around volunteers who serve as librarians and whose homes often double
as libraries. The "Carlos Quintela" was named after a Cuban journalist
and writer who recently passed away in the United States. For years, Quintela's
voice was heard in Cuba through Radio Martí broadcasts into the island.
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