| Por
que "Incineration"? Book Burning in Cuba |
Class Activities: Reading & Analysis
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| Introduction Top Ten Books Burned in Cuba List of Books & Materials Burned in 2003 Links to History and Practice of Book Burning About the Project For Teachers |
..........Why Do Governments and Movements Burn Books? Using the Top Ten books that were burned in Cuba as examples, you will explore why it is such books are perceived as a threat or a danger to political and/or religious leaders. There are 10 reading and response activities, each with assorted links to articles by or about the authors whose works have been burned. Work alone or in pairs as your teacher directs to look deeper into the ideas which make these books so dangerous to Cuba's ruling Communist Party. To wrap up, there are two thematic questions about book burning in general. You will most likely work with your class can to seek answers for the larger question of why do tyrants, or governments, or various movements seek to burn the books of others?
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THESE ACTIVITIES ARE STILL BEING UPDATED -- Jan 18 2007.
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1. Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Perhaps the most incinerated document taken from
the independent libraries in Cuba has been
What would you think the Cuban
government would find most objectionable? Human Rights Council, and this report from the human rights group "UN Watch." Questions: Notice how the official from Cuba responded to criticism. Does this give any clues as to why his government might resort to burning books it felt were dangerous? |
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2. Cuba's Repressive
Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years After
the Revolution, Questions: What do you see about the Cuban Constitution that might allow a government to abuse the rights of people in the name of the people What specific information is so damaging about this report that the government would want it burned? |
| 3. View of Dawn
in the
Tropics, by G. Cabrera Infante. Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine. (London: Faber, 1988) http://www.organicanews.com/news/article.cfm?story_id=287 Smoke Rings (From Fall 2005) An appreciation of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, by Dionisio D. Martínez http://www.centerforbookculture.org/interviews/interview_infante.html An Interview with Guillermo Cabrera Infante By Marie-Lise Gazarian Gautier |
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5. Martin
Luther King:
Contra todos las exclusiones, by
Vincent
Rousell (Bilbao [Spain]: Editorial Desclée De Bouwer, 1995). Question: What ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr., would you think to be most offensive to the Cuban government? Ladies in White links |
| 6. EI
Viaje de Juan Pablo II,
or
The Journey of John Paul II.
Questions: Castro treated the Pope with respect when he came. Why would his judges order copies of this book burned? What is the status of religious freedom in Cuba? Did Castro study at a Jesuit school? Is Communism like a competing religion? |
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7. El Proyecto Varela [The Varela Project] by Alberto Muller [and] Oswaldo Payá (Miami, FL : Ediciones Universal, 2002). Can view parts of a video funded by NDI. http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/ngcuba_1.htm An Analysis of the Varela Project, and comparison With Cuban Constitution and UDHR. http://www.directorio.org/varela/varela.htm#4 What is the basic goal of the Verala Project? Does it seem like it would harm the security of Cubans to allow this Project to go forward? |
| 8.
Reporters Without Borders Report Questions: Is there a free press in Cuba? Why wouldn’t the government want people learning how to be good journalists? Raul Rivera speech, he was a journalist. Link to Reporters Without Borders page: http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=367 |
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9. The Black Book of Communism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999). http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html?show=reviews Questions: What does the book report about communism in Cuba? How does Cuban communism differ from that of the Soviet Union? |
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10.
The
Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern
Europe, by
Vaclav Havel http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?sec=1&id=1 Speech of Havel
in
Florida Why would a government be afraid of “powerless” citizens? |