Havana Bookshops Crowded before Fair
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- 02 / 11 / 2009
The 46 libraries open through out the city as anticipation of the Cuba 2008 Book Fair were packed from the very first moments by a non-stop flow of eager readers.
The residents at far away municipalities like Arroyo Naranjo and Marianao are benefitted after requests to carry the books near their homes.
Another demand fulfilled is to run larger prints and issue more titles for children and youth.
Extending the fair beyond the walls of the Moro-Cabana Fortress, its traditional seat that became small to host the raising avalanche of public.
Non-stop thirst for reading among Cubans was curtailed by the domestic editorial industry depression in the 90s, forcing to turn to alternatives like pamphlets.
They were usually a short selection of poems or short stories printed in leaflets and packed in a card jacket.
But the times when each book was a small victory in itself and circulated from hand to hand as gesture of solidarity are now left behind as blurry, diluted memories.
Books not only overflow the fair and travel nationwide, they also go into the streets in a mass adventure to conquer readers during the extended summer evening dusk, the nights in Prado or at the old city section.
Devoted to Chile and the 50th anniversary of Casa de las Americas, the Book Fair will be once more a fiesta of the spirit and intellect, the hoped for cultural dawn.
(PL)
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