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CUBAN LIBRARIES
SOLIDARITY GROUP
PRESS RELEASE
June 28, 2003
A Library in Cuba: What Is It?
By FELICIA R. LEE
New
York Times
One of the last places you might expect a debate over free expression
is the American Library Association, the world's oldest and largest organization
of its kind and a longtime champion of open access to information. But
when the subject is as politically charged as Cuba, anything is possible.
So during the association's annual conference in Toronto, which ended
Wednesday, a little cultural cold war broke out among members over what
are known as independent libraries in Cuba. Small lending libraries run
out of people's homes, they circulate materials that the librarians say
are banned by the government. To some members, the association has been
ignoring the repression of their colleagues and the cause of intellectual
freedom; to others, a small group has been trying to hijack the organization
to pursue an anti-Castro agenda.
The latest battle began after the arrests of about 75 Cuban dissidents
in March. Convicted of "mercenary activities and other acts against
the independence and territorial integrity of the Cuban state," according
to a statement in Granma, the Cuban Communist Party daily, the dissidents
received prison sentences of up to 28 years. Fourteen were independent
librarians.
Robert Kent, a New York librarian and in 1999 (a year after the independent
libraries began) a co-founder of an informal group of librarians and others
called Friends of Cuban Libraries, has been pushing the association to
speak out on the harassment of the librarians. "For at least four
years, the A.L.A. has ignored, covered up or lied about the persecution
of people in Cuba whose only crime is to have opened libraries,"
he said.
After the latest events, Mr. Kent and his supporters asked the association
to hold a separate debate on Cuban restrictions that would have included
five Cuban librarians — all working for government libraries —
who went to the Toronto meeting. They also asked the 64,000-member A.L.A.
to pass a formal resolution denouncing censorship in Cuba and demanding
the release of the 14 jailed librarians.
In the end, the association allowed an "open mike" discussion
with the Cuban librarians after they gave presentations, but deferred
a resolution about Cuba to its next meeting in January, saying its members
needed more information.
"The reputation of the American Library Association will be damaged
by this," declared an outraged Mr. Kent about the deferment of the
Cuban resolution.
But Maurice J. Freedman, who has just finished his one-year term as president
of the association and is the director of the Westchester County library
system, dismissed Mr. Kent's charges. The association is concerned with
intellectual freedom everywhere, but the facts on Cuba are still murky,
he said.
Winston Tabb, the outgoing chairman of the library association's international
relations committee, agreed. "There was unanimous agreement that
the resolution was not ready," he said. "It's really complicated.
There were contradictory statements. People are positional about Cuba."
"One of the questions was whether there was too much focus on Cuba,
and whether we should focus on freedom of access to information and freedom
of expression, generally," he added. "Those questions arise
in Cuba but they arise in other places, too." Mr. Tabb, also the
dean of university libraries at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
cited Turkey and Zimbabwe. (In the past, the association has spoken against
library censorship in South Africa and recently condemned the destruction
of the national library in Iraq.)
Some members contend that it is important that most independent librarians
— there are about 100 still in Cuba — are not professionally
trained and are de facto political dissidents.
"If you have 100 books in your home and you make them available to
friends, are you a librarian?" asked Edward Erazo, the outgoing chairman
of the association's Latin American subcommittee and coordinator of library
instruction at Broward Community College in Davie, Fla. "It's political.
It has nothing to do with the fact that they operate independent libraries."
"But who knows?" he continued. "It is Cuba. Are there books
that are not circulated?"
For others, the wave of arrests in Cuba offers compelling reason to speak
out. "Just this latest crackdown, when you have independent librarians
imprisoned, is evidence enough that intellectual freedom is imperiled
in Cuba," said Laura Y. Tartakoff, a professor of political science
at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "The A.L.A. record
when it comes to Cuba is deplorable. The fact that a regime makes it a
crime to establish a library in your home is sinful."
Michael Dowling, director of the association's international relations
office, says the problem has always been competing versions of the truth.
Even with several library associations making fact-finding missions to
Cuba, there has been no definitive evidence that books are banned and
librarians harassed there, he said.
President Fidel Castro has said that no books are banned but that Cuban
libraries lack the money to carry every available title. A 2001 American
Library Association report on Cuba said, "Considering the small readership
of the private collections and the lack of trained librarians, if the
U.S. government wishes to get information into the hands of the Cuban
people, the most effective way is to deliver books directly to the extensive
and active public library system."
"By the same token," the report continued, "if the Cuban
government wishes to make information available without censorship, it
will allow the independent collections to operate without interference."
Mark Rosenzweig, the director of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies,
a research center in New York City, contends that Cuba has one of the
finest library systems in the developing world and that no books are officially
banned by the government.
He said he believed that the independent librarians had no connection
to professional librarians and were supported by American anti-Castro
groups. "These are a ragtag bunch of people who have been involved
on the fringes of the dissident movement," Mr. Rosenzweig said of
the independent librarians.
Mr. Freedman, the former library association president, said some association
members had even accused the independent librarians of being "paid
agents of the U.S. government."
Mr. Kent acknowledged that some of his 10 trips to Cuba were paid for
by Freedom House, a human rights group, and the Center for a Free Cuba,
an anti-Castro organization, which have received grants from the United
States Agency for International Development. And the co-founder of the
Friends group, Jorge Sanguinetty, is a Cuban exile and economic consultant
whose main client is the aid agency. But those government ties, Mr. Sanguinetty
said, do not change the reality of government-confiscated materials and
the harassment of librarians and their families.
Brigid Cahalan, a librarian at the New York Public Library and a member
of the Friends group, says she hopes that by the January meeting, tempers
will have cooled, and more details will have been clarified. "Many
in A.L.A. have not seen it as an intellectual freedom issue," she
said. "Maybe they've started to rethink things, based on what they've
heard and read."
JOHN PATEMAN
CUBAN LIBRARIES SOLIDARITY GROUP
28 June 2003
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