Cuban Libraries Support Group

I have, let's see...

The title for this article comes from a poem by Nicolas Guillen, a Black Cuban poet, who powerfully describes the changes bought about by the Cuban Revolution. The poem ends : "I have...learned to read, to count...to write, and to think, and to laugh. I have...a place to work and earn...to eat...I have what was coming to me."

I had this poem in mind when I visited the Havana Literacy Museum in February 1999. Between late 1960 and the end of 1961 the revolutionary government organised a successful campaign to teach one million Cubans to read and write. Central to this effort was the mobilisation of 100,000 young people to go to the countryside, where they lived with the peasants they were teaching. As a result of this drive, Cuba virtually eliminated illiteracy. This was combined with steps to foster the development of libraries and book publishing, expanding access for millions of people in city and countryside.

The jewel in Cuba's library crown remains the Jose Marti National Library which has pride of place on one side of Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion. The library has 16 floors housing lending rooms ; children's and young people's sections (these are not found in most National Libraries) ; an auditorium and gallery ; general and reference rooms ; rooms on Cuban ethnography and folklore, slave languages and music sections ; storerooms and collection deposits ; and selection and acquisition departments.

When I visited the National Library I was reminded that, at the beginning of the revolution, library workers made signs carrying a statement by Fidel Castro : "The revolution doesn't tell you to believe - the revolution tells you to read". In other words, being exposed to reading and knowledge is in itself an act of liberation. It was at the National Library on 30 June 1961 that Fidel Castro made a speech, known in Cuba as his "words to the intellectuals". Fidel's guidelines for artistic expression - "within the revolution, anything ; against the revolution, nothing" - serves as a summary of the revolution's cultural policy to this day.

The National Library stands at the centre of a network of public libraries, currently numbering 385. I visited one of these - the Biblioteca Publica Provincial Ruben M Villena - in Old Havana. On my previous visit to Cuba in 1995, this library was housed on the ground floor of the Education Ministry. On my return in 1999, I found the library in brand new premises on the Plaza Armas.

The spacious ground floor lobby contained a display of recently published Cuban books. Cuba has a strong publishing infrastructure, although this has been adversely affected by the US blockade and the collapse of trade with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Cuba still manages to publish over 1,800 titles pa with a total print run of 45 million copies. The lobby also had foreign journals and newspapers on display, to which I added the "Morning Star".

Jose Lopez Arias took me on a tour of the library, which was opened last year. The building is of a very high standard with comprehensive children's, adult lending and reference collections. There is a room where children can play games, and a delightful library garden. Jose told me that the library is pleased to receive donated items from the UK which can be channelled via Book Aid International (0171 733 3577).

I also visited a public library in Regla, a small town on Havana harbour which can be reached via a short ferry ride. Regla is a centre for Santeria, a fusion of African Yuruba deities and Catholicism. The public library is on the main street and opens up into a courtyard. The adult library contains a good colllection of books in braille, and the children's section has a quote on the wall by Che Guevara : "La arcilla fundamental de nuestra obra es la juventud".

The final leg of my tour of Cuban libraries took me to Matanzas, Cuba's second largest province, and the heartland of the Cuban sugar industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Towns like Matanzas were built with sugar money, and this includes the Biblioteca Gener y Del Monte. Housed in the former Casino Espanol, this library was founded in 1835 which makes it one of the oldest libraries in Cuba. It is also one of the few libraries to pre-date the Cuban revolution in 1959.

The adult library is on one corner of the main town square, with an open plan design and plenty of study space. The children's library is in a separate building on the adjacent corner of the square and housed an exhibition celebrating the 164th anniversarry of the library. Here I met a local artist who gave me one of his drawings. Another library user gave me a song which he had composed. I also visited the local publishing house which specialises in making hand made books. Matanzas seemed to be full of cultural activity and bore witness to Fidel's 1961 statement that " a true social revolution produces a cultural revolution".

As a memento of my visit I purchased a poster headed "Informed, aware people, who read write and think". Containing pictures of students reading, authors signing books and the Juan Marinello printing plant in Guantanamo province, the poster stated : "Once a country with a million illiterates and more than a million semi-illiterates, Cuba today gives its workers a minimum ninth grade education. Ten times more books per person are available now than in 1959".

My brief tour of Cuban libraries confirmed the poster's final message that "Cuba is a nation of passionate readers constantly seeking more information and understanding". From the very first days of the revolution, the Cuban leadership has always given a great deal of importance to the fight to extend culture and raise the cultural level of all working people in Cuba. Public libraries have become a key weapon in that fight. As such they provide an inclusive model for library services in other countries, including the UK.

For more information about the Cuban Libraries Support Group, contact John Pateman at John.Pateman@merton.gov.uk

John Pateman is a member of the Society of Chief Librarians and has visited Cuban libraries in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2000.

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