Post by Bozur on Feb 28, 2005 17:37:38 GMT -5
CITYWIDE (NYT)
A Cuban Revolution, in Reading
By DAVID GONZALEZ
Published: February 22, 2005
Jorge Rey/World Picture News for The New York Times
Fernando Mexidor, 36, has been the manager of the Felix Varela Independent Library in Las Tunas, in eastern Cuba, for the last five years.
[ftp]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/02/22/nyregion/books.shelves.184.1.jpg[/ftp]
Librado Romero/The New York Times
The Don Jose de la Luz y Caballera Library in Santiago is an alternative to the official state-run libraries in Cuba.
Richard Perry/The New York Times
A group that adopted a Cuban library includes, from left, Manuel Castedo, Rafael Pi Roman, Iraida Iturralde, Pablo Medina, Robert Kent and Paquito D'Rivera.
With all the shirts adorned with the solemn face of the Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara being sold in the city's souvenir shops, one would think he had once adopted New York and not Cuba as his home. That thought - not to mention that face - puzzles some Latins in Manhattan whose families had no choice but to leave Havana after the Cuban revolution.
More than 45 years later, these exiles are still here, Fidel Castro is still there, and Che is all over as fashion statement. But a group of these Cuban-Americans - whose politics range from liberal to conservative - decided to make their own statement. At the beginning of this year, members of the Cuban Cultural Center, an arts group that usually sponsors exhibitions and concerts, adopted an independent library in Cuba.
They chose one in Las Tunas, Cuba, the Felix Varela Independent Library, which is named for a Cuban priest famous for his work for immigrants and the Roman Catholic church in Lower Manhattan in the 1800's. The library itself, like some 100 others that have been founded since 1998, offers Cubans an alternative to the official media or state-run libraries. They carry newspapers and magazines from around the world or books considered taboo by the regime - like "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
"I know firsthand what it is not having something interesting to read," said the jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who left Cuba in 1980 and who voted to adopt the library. "I know what it is like to have to hide to read something that the government calls subversive."
Almost two years ago, about 11 independent librarians in Cuba were among 75 dissidents, journalists and others arrested and given prison sentences of up to 28 years for essentially collaborating with enemies of the state. Most are still in jail, despite an international outcry.
Although New York is home to magnificent libraries, world-class publishers and fierce champions of free expression, the cultural center is the only group in the city so far to adopt an independent library. They hope their action will send a dual message.
"It's not just about sending whatever books we can, but we want the people in Cuba to know they are not alone and that someone here recognizes what they are going through," said Rafael Pi Roman, an anchor on Channel 13 who belongs to the cultural group. "The dilemma is, we are doing this in a city where people have too often seen Fidel Castro as a romantic figure."
The main advocate for the independent libraries is Robert Kent, a reference librarian at the New York Public Library (whose gift shop drew exile protests last year for selling watches emblazoned with Che's face). He visited Cuba often in the 1990's, and began taking books there, ultimately with the aid of some exile organizations. His work recently led the Cuban government to accuse him of being "Roberto X," a spy conspiring to assassinate a high-ranking official.
"I'm still trying to figure out who's cashing all my C.I.A. paychecks," he said jokingly.
He is earnest, however, in insisting that librarians must defend intellectual freedom or risk tarring their reputation. He and his supporters hope to persuade members of the American Library Association, a national group whose members issued a statement last year that expressed "deep concern" over the dissident arrests as well as over the United States embargo against the island. While the group said the reasons for and conditions of the dissidents' detention should be fully investigated by human rights investigators, it did not urge the dissidents' immediate release.
"You don't throw people in the slammer for expressing ideas," said John W. Berry, the chair of the A.L.A.'s international relations committee. "In this case it was complicated by Cuban law and the notion that some of the dissidents were accused of accepting money and material from the U.S. government in an effort that, in the Cuban government's mind, was seen as undermining their government."
Mark Rosenzweig, a library association member who directs the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, an archive of Communist Party documents, said those arrested were political partisans in cahoots with the United States government.
"These people were caught up in an unfortunate affair set up by the regime change experts in the United States," said Mr. Rosenzweig, whose archive is in the same West 23rd Street building as the Communist Party USA. "I can't say they got what they deserved, but they ended up violating the laws of the Cuban state. They were tried in trials which to the best of my knowledge conformed to the principles of Cuban legality."
Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch - which for years have been denied entry into Cuba - have no doubts about what happened in 2003 and have repeatedly called for the release of people they consider prisoners of conscience. But they know that any criticism they make of the Cuban regime will be countered by praise for Cuba's gains in health and education.
"Cuba continues to violate the fundamental civil and political rights of a good many of its citizens," said William F. Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Yet there is considerable ambivalence about Cuban political prisoners in general from those who are often traditionally advocates for human rights victims."
The members of the Cuban Cultural Center have encountered those attitudes. Pablo Medina said that until recent years he faced a frustrating response at the New School University, where he teaches creative writing. "The attitude there, a place which is traditionally known as a neo-Marxist enclave, was a reticence to look at the Cuban question," he said. "It was difficult to open people's eyes or get anyone to listen to you."
He said the arrival of former Senator Bob Kerrey as university president in 2001 signaled a shift at the college, which in the 1930's became a haven for European scholars fleeing totalitarian regimes.
"The response from others used to be 'I don't know what is happening' or that economically the Cuban people were better off," Mr. Medina said. "But after the dissident arrests in 2003, I got a call from Kerrey asking what he could do. So we gave the University in Exile Award to five Cuban dissidents."
Some members of the cultural group think that as more people in traditionally liberal circles begin to see what is happening in Cuba's dissident movement, they will realize that the idea of opposition to Mr. Castro goes far beyond old stereotypes of right-wing tropical exiles screaming for the cameras. The group itself is nonpartisan, and its members range from liberal to conservative.
"I have no idea what the politics are of anybody is in this room," Mr. Pi Roman said. "But none of us would say there should be human rights for Cuba but not for those people who are on the other side. None of us would have supported apartheid. One thing is sure: There is no hypocrisy. If you are for human rights for some, you have to be for human rights for all."
A Cuban Revolution, in Reading
By DAVID GONZALEZ
Published: February 22, 2005
Jorge Rey/World Picture News for The New York Times
Fernando Mexidor, 36, has been the manager of the Felix Varela Independent Library in Las Tunas, in eastern Cuba, for the last five years.
[ftp]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/02/22/nyregion/books.shelves.184.1.jpg[/ftp]
Librado Romero/The New York Times
The Don Jose de la Luz y Caballera Library in Santiago is an alternative to the official state-run libraries in Cuba.
Richard Perry/The New York Times
A group that adopted a Cuban library includes, from left, Manuel Castedo, Rafael Pi Roman, Iraida Iturralde, Pablo Medina, Robert Kent and Paquito D'Rivera.
With all the shirts adorned with the solemn face of the Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara being sold in the city's souvenir shops, one would think he had once adopted New York and not Cuba as his home. That thought - not to mention that face - puzzles some Latins in Manhattan whose families had no choice but to leave Havana after the Cuban revolution.
More than 45 years later, these exiles are still here, Fidel Castro is still there, and Che is all over as fashion statement. But a group of these Cuban-Americans - whose politics range from liberal to conservative - decided to make their own statement. At the beginning of this year, members of the Cuban Cultural Center, an arts group that usually sponsors exhibitions and concerts, adopted an independent library in Cuba.
They chose one in Las Tunas, Cuba, the Felix Varela Independent Library, which is named for a Cuban priest famous for his work for immigrants and the Roman Catholic church in Lower Manhattan in the 1800's. The library itself, like some 100 others that have been founded since 1998, offers Cubans an alternative to the official media or state-run libraries. They carry newspapers and magazines from around the world or books considered taboo by the regime - like "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
"I know firsthand what it is not having something interesting to read," said the jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who left Cuba in 1980 and who voted to adopt the library. "I know what it is like to have to hide to read something that the government calls subversive."
Almost two years ago, about 11 independent librarians in Cuba were among 75 dissidents, journalists and others arrested and given prison sentences of up to 28 years for essentially collaborating with enemies of the state. Most are still in jail, despite an international outcry.
Although New York is home to magnificent libraries, world-class publishers and fierce champions of free expression, the cultural center is the only group in the city so far to adopt an independent library. They hope their action will send a dual message.
"It's not just about sending whatever books we can, but we want the people in Cuba to know they are not alone and that someone here recognizes what they are going through," said Rafael Pi Roman, an anchor on Channel 13 who belongs to the cultural group. "The dilemma is, we are doing this in a city where people have too often seen Fidel Castro as a romantic figure."
The main advocate for the independent libraries is Robert Kent, a reference librarian at the New York Public Library (whose gift shop drew exile protests last year for selling watches emblazoned with Che's face). He visited Cuba often in the 1990's, and began taking books there, ultimately with the aid of some exile organizations. His work recently led the Cuban government to accuse him of being "Roberto X," a spy conspiring to assassinate a high-ranking official.
"I'm still trying to figure out who's cashing all my C.I.A. paychecks," he said jokingly.
He is earnest, however, in insisting that librarians must defend intellectual freedom or risk tarring their reputation. He and his supporters hope to persuade members of the American Library Association, a national group whose members issued a statement last year that expressed "deep concern" over the dissident arrests as well as over the United States embargo against the island. While the group said the reasons for and conditions of the dissidents' detention should be fully investigated by human rights investigators, it did not urge the dissidents' immediate release.
"You don't throw people in the slammer for expressing ideas," said John W. Berry, the chair of the A.L.A.'s international relations committee. "In this case it was complicated by Cuban law and the notion that some of the dissidents were accused of accepting money and material from the U.S. government in an effort that, in the Cuban government's mind, was seen as undermining their government."
Mark Rosenzweig, a library association member who directs the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, an archive of Communist Party documents, said those arrested were political partisans in cahoots with the United States government.
"These people were caught up in an unfortunate affair set up by the regime change experts in the United States," said Mr. Rosenzweig, whose archive is in the same West 23rd Street building as the Communist Party USA. "I can't say they got what they deserved, but they ended up violating the laws of the Cuban state. They were tried in trials which to the best of my knowledge conformed to the principles of Cuban legality."
Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch - which for years have been denied entry into Cuba - have no doubts about what happened in 2003 and have repeatedly called for the release of people they consider prisoners of conscience. But they know that any criticism they make of the Cuban regime will be countered by praise for Cuba's gains in health and education.
"Cuba continues to violate the fundamental civil and political rights of a good many of its citizens," said William F. Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Yet there is considerable ambivalence about Cuban political prisoners in general from those who are often traditionally advocates for human rights victims."
The members of the Cuban Cultural Center have encountered those attitudes. Pablo Medina said that until recent years he faced a frustrating response at the New School University, where he teaches creative writing. "The attitude there, a place which is traditionally known as a neo-Marxist enclave, was a reticence to look at the Cuban question," he said. "It was difficult to open people's eyes or get anyone to listen to you."
He said the arrival of former Senator Bob Kerrey as university president in 2001 signaled a shift at the college, which in the 1930's became a haven for European scholars fleeing totalitarian regimes.
"The response from others used to be 'I don't know what is happening' or that economically the Cuban people were better off," Mr. Medina said. "But after the dissident arrests in 2003, I got a call from Kerrey asking what he could do. So we gave the University in Exile Award to five Cuban dissidents."
Some members of the cultural group think that as more people in traditionally liberal circles begin to see what is happening in Cuba's dissident movement, they will realize that the idea of opposition to Mr. Castro goes far beyond old stereotypes of right-wing tropical exiles screaming for the cameras. The group itself is nonpartisan, and its members range from liberal to conservative.
"I have no idea what the politics are of anybody is in this room," Mr. Pi Roman said. "But none of us would say there should be human rights for Cuba but not for those people who are on the other side. None of us would have supported apartheid. One thing is sure: There is no hypocrisy. If you are for human rights for some, you have to be for human rights for all."