| Read A Burned Book Campaign | Read A Burned Book Statement |
FREADOM.ORG
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The
books below, and books by these famous people,
are being burned in Cuba...
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In Response,
These Famous Authors Say:
Read
a Burned Book!
(
Please
Buy and Read our Supporters' BooksToo!)
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"Castro puede acabar con todo, menos
con los libros. Podrá
censurarlos, prohibirlos y hasta quemarlos pero, las ideas que contienen no pueden ser
destruidas. Como diría
Martí, las trincheras de papel valen mas que las trincheras de piedra." (English Translation) Carlos
Franqui, Cuban Revolutionary, Author "Family
Portrait with Fidel,"
Founder and Senior Editor of Carta de Cuba magazine. |
 Buy It |
The oldest
dictatorship in the world exists in Cuba, and left wing dictatorships,
like those of the right, have repugnant disdain for human rights...My
response to those who still try to justify Castro’s tyranny with the
excuse that he has built schools and hospitals is this: Stalin, Hitler
and Pinochet also built schools and hospitals, and like Castro, they
also tortured and assassinated opponents. They built concentration and
extermination camps and eradicated all liberties, committing the worst
crimes against humanity. (From
Foreward) Amb. Armando Valladares, Author of "Against All Hope," and US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission |
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To remain silent about the
suppression of rights in Cuba is to support the suppression of rights everywhere, and to negate all of the principles held high by the American Library Association, the National Book Foundation, and every decent human being on earth... Benjamin Franklin did not have a Master of Arts in Library Science either. Come to think of it, neither did Thomas Jefferson, who made his own library the centerpiece of the University of Virginia, literally, housing it in the great Rotunda.... Prof. Carlos Eire, Yale, Author, Waiting for
Snow in Havana,
winner of the 2003 National Book Award in nonfiction |
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I appreciate your
invitation and I thank you for what you are doing for
the cause of freedom. Please, add my name to the list. You can identify
me as an author. Best regards, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Author
Latest book: The Cubans: A History of Cuba in One Lesson |
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"Thousands
of Cubans have risked their lives to reach American soil and freedom.
Ideally, freedom includes access to published material without
coercion. That freedom does not exist in Cuba where books are
deliberately burned to suppress ideas and information. FREADOM is one
organization standing up for Cuban librarians and others who have been
jailed for supporting the FREADOM to read. It’s an act of freedom to find intact copies of books that have been burned or banned (in Cuba as well as the United States and elsewhere), to open the pages, and to READ—whether or not one agrees with the content.—Kathlyn Gay." Kathlyn Gay, Prolific Writer,
Author of "Leaving Cuba: Operation Pedro."
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"In our homes, the homes of many
of us who promote liberty and the defense of human rights in Cuba,
books are frequently confiscated, hundreds of books that deal with
human rights and with liberty. "...they tell me that books sent to me from abroad have been confiscated because they are counterrevolutionary and because they threaten the interests of the Cuban nation. How can a book threaten the nation when it contains poetry, stories, or the personal experiences of its author?" Gisela Delgado Sablon, Director of
Independent Library Project of Cuba
Organizer of Island-wide Literature Competitions |
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The Independent Libraries of Cuba Project, one of the most moving initiatives to come out of the struggle for freedom in the island, reminds me of the heroes of "Fahrenheit 451"--Truffaut's famous film based on Ray Bradbury's novel--who set out to memorize an entire collection of books in order to prevent the tyranny that has decided to burn them from obliterating literature. Alvaro
Vargas Llosa
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 Buy It |
It's
wonderful that you've done so much to help the librarians in Cuba- however,
unfortunately, it is not surprising that you cannot get more people involved in the
story. No one seems to much care about Cuba. I'm sure you've been following the events in Cuba as closely as I have- what a sad story- so much wasted time/talent- the wanton, senseless destruction of a people and it's culture! Just heartbreaking- now it's become a waiting game- waiting for an evil, senile old man to die. Carolina
Garcia-Aguilera, Author Lupe Solano Mystery Series
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 Buy It |
As a reporter on
intellectual-freedom issues, I have known and
respected many librarians around the country as they fought, sometimes
in peril of their jobs, against censorship by local politicians,
library boards, and right-wing and left-wing politically correct
pressure groups. After sentencing the independent librarians, Castro's judges, in a number of cases, declared the confiscated library materials "lacking in usefulness" and ordered them burned. Will the American Library Association hold a memorial service?.. Nat Hentoff,
Journalist & Civil Libertarian, January 29, 2004
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I support this campaign. Humberto
Fontova, Author of "Fidel:
Hollywoods Favorite Tyrant
and The Real Che Guevara |
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And
as for literacy, yes, people can read, but if they don’t have anything
to read except state propaganda, what is that? It’s just a way to
actually create a kind of illiteracy, to destroy whatever initiative or
reason one has for reading... The Cubans who serve in state libraries are state employees of the Cuban state and they are half policemen. They’re there to patrol and police the books rather than to make them available, and a lot of those books are not available. Andrei Codrescu, ALA
Keynote Speech, January 22, 2006
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 Buy It |
Education is always cited among the
"accomplishments" of the Cuban revolution. How can someone be educated
when he is limited in his choice of reading material? Reading opens new
worlds and the government fears comparisons. People in Cuba are
instructed, not educated
The Untold Exodus of 14,000 Cuban Childlren, and La Sabiduria de los Nuestros |
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Carolina
Garcia-Aguilera
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See Class Reading & Analysis Activities For Each "Burned" Title at the Top Then answer the question "Porque Incineration?" |
"The paper burns, but the words fly
away."
Rabbi
Akiba Ben Joseph A.D.
50 to A.D. 135
US Poster During World War 2
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"Do
not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings
or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make into a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book." |
Ray Bradbury
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