Book
Burning Documentation:
A Chronology of Attempts to
Bring the Burning of Books in Cuba
to the Attention of the American Library Association
"There
were many beautiful books, but as they contained nothing but
superstitions and
falsehoods of the Devil, we burnt them." -- Diego de LANDA, Bishop
of Yucatan
Journalist:
“Comandante, are there books prohibited in Cuba?”
Castro: “There are no books prohibited in Cuba. There
is just not
enough money to buy them all.”
February
1998, at
the International Book Fair held in Havana
1999-2002
Reports of book burning emerge from Cuba
and are reported on the Friends of Cuban Libraries web site. See
Friends of
Cuban Libraries press release entitled "Library Books
Burned, Buried,
Dumped" (December 10, 1999)
and "Library Books Burned, Buried, Dumped: A Mystery Solved?"
(March 9, 2000), and
the
following post
of September 21, 2002. (See
full text at end of this report)
April 2003
Following the arrests of 75 dissidents in late
March 2003,
the trials excerpted below were held for defendants who had been
involved in
attempts to form independent libraries. The Cuban court records, later
obtained
and translated by the Florida State University Center for the
Advancement of Human
Rights and posted on the “Rule of Law in Cuba” web site at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/,
document many of the titles taken from these residential libraries. The
court
records cited below also contain directions for the incineration of the
books,
or their destruction by other means, as follows.
(See many
translations of Court Documents, with lists of the books that were
burned, at the
end of this report.)
September 2, 2003
Associated Press
writer John Pain publishes the article, “Cuban documents show
dissidents
received no justice,” reporting on the launching of the web site
containing
orders for the incineration of books in the above sentencing documents
excerpted above, at the Florida State University Center for the
Advancement of
Human Rights.
December
9, 2003
John Berry sends e-mail
to ALA Council list which mentions an "investigation" into the book
burning documents. Freadom later learned (see below) that Amnesty
International officials were turned down in their offer to help this
process, and that the FSU center which Mr. Berry mentions here was
never called to ask about the documents.
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/ALACOUN/log0312/msg00105.html
Quoted in a fax From Walter Skold to Nat Hentoff January, 7th 2004
·
To: ALA
Council List <alacoun@ala1.ala.org>
·
Subject:
[ALACOUN:10909] Message from John W. Berry re: Cuba
·
From: "Elizabeth
Dreazen" <edreazen@ala.org>
·
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 16:13:31 -0600
·
Cc: "John W.
Berry" <jberry@nilrc.org>
Council Colleagues:
With the recent volume of messages regarding Cuba on the Council
list, I
want to provide a very brief update on the joint IFC/IRC Task Force
looking at
this issue. IFC Chair, Nancy C. Kranich
and I (as IRC chair) appointed a joint Task Force on Cuba this fall in
response
to last summer's Council referral of an IRC resolution on these issues
back to
the two committees. Peg Ottinger, Martin
Garnar and Candace Morgan are the IFC representatives while Al Kagan,
Anne
Lipow and I (as convener) represent the IRC.
This group has been reviewing and examining a wide range of
documents
and reports from ALA, IFLA, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
plus
materials provided by members, and other sources (including transcript
copies
that are said to be from some of trials of Cuban dissidents http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/index.cfm
The International Relations
Office is currently
investigating the group hosting these documents and is examining
the
veracity of the documents themselves. The
Task Force will meet by conference call
next week. We want to thank Councilors for your comments as the Task
Force
evaluates these complex and often intensely political issues. The Task
Force
will make a recommendation to the full IRC and IFC as we move toward
the
Midwinter Meeting next month.
John W.
Berry Chair, International Relations Committee and Past President The
American
Library Association
“Information is the currency of
democracy." --
Thomas Jefferson "If information is
the currency of democracy, then libraries are the banks." --Wendell
Ford,
former U.S. Senator
Anne Grodzins
Lipow (Term:
07/01/02 - 06/30/04)
Director Library Solutions Institute 2137
Oregon St. Berkeley, CA
94705
Tel: (510) 841-2636 Fax:
(510) 841-2926
Al Kagan
IFC Chair Nancy C. Kranich
(2002–2004); 212-874-5860; nancy.kranich@nyu.edu
Candace D. Morgan (2001–2005),
Fort Vancouver Regional
Library, 707 SW Dolph Street, Portland, OR 97219; 360-699-8817; Fax:
360-693-2681
Margaret Anne Oettinger (2002–2004),
631-928-4387;
Martin Garnar
(2003–2004), Regis University, Dayton Memorial
Library, (303) 964-5459; Fax: (303)
964-5497
January 14, 2004
The ALA joint task force report by members of the
Intellectual Freedom Committee and the International Relations
Committee is
accepted and approved by the ALA Council. The controversy at this time
was
whether to ask for release of those imprisoned for their involvement
with
independent libraries, rather than any concern over the burning of
books.
Spring 2005
The scheduled
appearance of author Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, the
temperature at
which paper spontaneously ignites, presents an opportunity to highlight
the
ignition and incineration of books ordered by the Cuban courts in April
2003.
Columnist Nat
Hentoff, who has become involved in protesting the ALA failure to
demand
the
release of persons imprisoned for exercising their freedom to read in
Cuba,
contacts Ray Bradbury and provides him with background on this issue.
June 25, 2005
Walter Skold writes
first request to Don Wood to include Cuban examples of book burning to
the ALA
book buring page.
WSkold
<libertas@dialmaine.com> 06/25/05 1:55 PM >
Hello Mr. Wood,
The web page
said to write you with
comments/questions.
I did not see
anything about the book burning
that has occured in Cuba recently, so I
wanted to bring that to your
attention for placement with the other
examples.
I have attached
a file with the examples from
the website which has documented this.
These could just as well go
on the destruction of libraries page too, as
collections were
ordered destroyed as well in
2003.
Let me know what
you think, Sincerely, Walter
Skold
June 27-28, 2005
Bradbury, in his
televideo linked address to ALA, did not mention Cuba’s
burned books. Following his remarks to the
ALA meeting, Bradbury sent to Nat Hentoff the statement following
statement
with his permission to publish and attribute his words:
“I stand
against any library
or any librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in
any way
for the books they circulate. I plead with Castro and his government to
immediately take their hands off
the independent librarians and release
all
those librarians in prison and send them back into Cuban culture
to
inform the
people.” Ray
Bradbury
-- Telephone call of 4:30 p.m. EDT,
27 June 20, day of keynote speech to
ALA
July 3, 2005
After not hearing back from Mr.
Wood, Walter
Skold posts an “Open Question for Don Wood” on the IFFORUM listserv,
providing
the web site URL for the sentencing documents and asking why ALA
book burning web page fails to mention these documented book burnings.
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFFORUM/log0507/msg00041.html
On
this July 4^th weekend, when the ALA
is launching yet another
campaign
vs. the abuse of liberties that might, or could take place
under
the Patriot Act, the independent library movement in Cuba
still
has
members rotting in Castro’s jails. Secret police have infiltrated
their
friends, patron records have been stolen, dissident-librarians
have
been sentenced after Stalinist show trials, and to top it all off –
their
book collections have been destroyed and actually BURNED!
See:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/search.cfm?q=incineration&confirm=Search
<http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/search.cfm?q=incineration&confirm=Search>
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45050
Since
Mr. Wood has not answered several e-mails of mine, (and neither
could
Judith Krug be found for 2 days to respond to media inquiries
about
book burning) I am asking this open question on an open list in
hopes
that I might get some statement for my next news article (It
doesn’t
look to go to have to say in a story, that despite Ray Bradbury
speaking
out about book burning in Cuba,
the ALA
did not respond with a
comment.)
So,
Mr. Wood, if you have an answer to any of these questions, please
let
them be made public.
1.
Why does the ALA
webpage on book burning which you oversee fail to
mention
the documented book burnings in Cuba?
ALA leaders have KNOWN for
over
a year about these fanatical actions of Cuban judges, but have not
once
made any statement vs. it? You have found time to post information
about
the treatment of the Koran in Gitmo (which was NOT burned and
stolen
from the inmates), but you still have not seen fit to educate
people
about Cuban violations, where actual books were burned? Why is
this,
sir?
Do
you plan to add them to site anytime soon?
2.
Why, when you posted to the IFACTION list the WND article that I
wrote,
did you not mention anything about the fact that it dealt with
Ray
Bradbury’s call for the release of the independent librarians, nor
about
book burning? He had just been a keynote speaker in Chicago, was
this
news unworthy? Instead, you posted a nice, positive quote from
Bradbury
that appeared in the Sun-Times. Are you trying to cast doubt on
his
quote, or hide it? I don’t want to assume, but since you will not
answer
my emails, and the Press Office can’t find Mrs. Krug, my only
recourse
is to ask publicly. Are all book burners equal, but some less
equal
than others?
Some
people I spoke to for my article have charged that you are like one
of
the Pro-Castro Marxists that sit on Council, and that if you don’t
have
to you don’t want to post anything too negative about your hero,
Fidel.
I can’t make that charge, as you’ve never explained your seeming
Pro-Cuba
slant, or the un-selecting of news critical of Castro’s regime.
But
I must say, something is very, very suspect when you and your
superiors,
who are always lecturing people about how bad we have it here in
America
under the tyranny of the Patriot Act, etc. etc., cannot find
the
time to make any comment about BOOK BURNING!!!!! Can you explain, so
that
the charges vs. you, of ideological preference, can be dropped by
your
critics?
I
mean, if the common people of Cuba had access to the Internet (which
they
don't), and they wrote a question like this to one of the
subservient
officials of the Cuban Library Association, they would
possibly
have the police pay them a visit, upon which all their books
would
be stolen from them, and later burned. But we aren't in Cuba
here,
Mr.
Wood. We have a free press (although some of your colleagues think
that
is a myth, like Chompsky says), and I am celebrating my 4th of July
and
my enjoyment of free speech and press by writing this open letter to
you.
July
11,
2005
After not hearing
anything yet from the officials at the OIF, Walter Skold starts a Book
Burning
Watch.
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFFORUM/log0507/msg00113.html
Just how long is it going
to take Don Wood or Mrs. Krug to respond to
the questions posted a
week ago on this site? Even though the officials
on the International
Relations Committee have known about the Cuban book
burning for over 1.5
years, the recent statements by Ray Bradbury have
put the issue on the
"burner" again.
I'm starting the weekly ALA book-burning in Cuba censorship watch with
this post. One can only
assume, that if Mr. Wood and others do not put
the information on their
book burning website, nor answer public
questions posted on this
forum, that they wish to censor this information.
See public query of one
week ago:
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFFORUM/log0507/msg00041.html
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFFORUM/log0507/msg00050.html
"All book burners are
equal, but some are more equal than others."
The new slogan for the ALA book-burning site? Hello
Don....anybody out there?
July 11, 2005
Later that day Don Wood finally
writes a reply to Walter Skold.
July 11, 2005
Dear Walter Skold,
I have attempted to verify the
instances of book burnings in Cuba that you
cite, but am unable to find any
references to them in legitimate news sources
(e.g., New York Times, Washington
Post, San Francisco Chronicle). Please
send me such sources for your
information.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Don Wood
August 10, 2005
Steve Marquardt sends an e-mail to Don Wood containing book
burning quotations and citations from the sentencing documents
available at the
Florida State University “Rule of Law and Cuba” web site, urging that
this news
be included on the “Book Burning in the 21t Century” web site of the
ALA Office
of Intellectual Freedom.
From:
MARQUARDT, STEVE
Sent: Wednesday,
August 10, 2005 3:38 PM
To: Don Wood (dwood@ala.org)
Subject: Book Burning web page - new entry suggested
Don, I was
interested to see Cuba included on the “Book Burning
in the 21st
Century” web
page of ALA, at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bookburning/21stcentury/21stcentury.htm,
specifically this entry:
Pentagon: Koran was
'mishandled' at
Guantanamo (April 6, 2005)
“The US military has
detailed for the first time how soldiers at Guantanamo Bay mishandled the Koran,
including a case in
which a guard's urine splashed onto the Islamic holy book.” See
also Tortured Logic (June 7, 2005).
ALA should also include a
reference to the incinerations and
destruction of books documented at the Florida State University web site http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/
where you can find
the documentation that I have summarized below and in the attachment.
I would be
interested in your response regarding how soon this information might
be posted
on ALA’s page. Or please let me
know if
this suggestion needs to go to someone else.
August 11, 2005
Following inquiries by Walter Skold and the e-mail of yesterday,
Don Wood replied:
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:20 AM
> To: Marquardt, Steve
> Cc: Beverley Becker; Deborah Caldwell-Stone; Jen Hammond; Judith
Krug;
> Jonathan Kelley; Nanette Perez
> Subject: Re: Book Burning web page - new entry suggested
>
> August 11, 2005
>
> Dear Steve Marquardt,
>
> Walter Skold has corresponded with the Office for Intellectual
Freedom
about this matter. I believe he copied you and Steve Denney with
our
response via his reply ("Cuban Book Burning Sources," July 11, 2005).
>
> Once again, I and others have attempted to verify the instances of
book burnings in Cuba that you cite, but we are unable to find any
references to them in legitimate news sources (e.g., New York Times,
Washington
Post,
San Francisco Chronicle). Please send me such sources for your
information.
>
> Thank you.
August 22, 2005
Nat Hentoff publishes the nationally-syndicated
article, “Fidel’s Victims and enablers” in the Washington Times, citing
just one of the bookburning edicts of
the
Cuban courts, and also publishing Ray Bradbury’s statement on the
subject.
Available at http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050821-103902-4719r.htm
<>
For years, Ray Bradbury's
novel, "Fahrenheit 451... the temperature at which books burn," has
been an inspiration to me and other millions around the world who
believe in
the freedom to read -- very particularly in those countries whose
dictators
forbid dissenting books.
We
were talking about Fidel Mr. Castro's recurring
crackdowns on those remarkably courageous Cubans who keep working to
bring
democracy to that grim island where dissenters, including independent
librarians, are locked in cages, often for 20 or more years. Mr.
Bradbury knew
about the crackdowns, but until I told him, was not aware of Mr.
Castro's
kangaroo courts (while sentencing the "subversives") often ordering
the burning of the independent libraries they raid, just like in
"451." For example, on April 5, 2003, after Julio Valdes Guevara
was sent
away, the judge ruled: "As to the disposition of the photographic
negatives, the audio cassette, medicines, books, magazines, pamphlets
and the
rest of the documents, they are to be destroyed by means of
incineration
because they lack usefulness." Hearing about this, Mr. Bradbury
authorized
me to convey this message from him to Fidel Castro: "I stand against
any
library or any librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or
punished in
any way for the books they circulate. I plead with Castro and his
government to
immediately take their hands off the independent librarians and release
all
those librarians in prison, and to send them back into Cuban culture to
inform
the people." Among the books destroyed through the years by Fidel's
arsonists have been volumes on Martin Luther King Jr., the U.S.
Constitution,
and even a book by the late Jose Marti, who organized, and was killed
in, the
Cuban people's struggle for independence. . . .
September 15, 2005
FREADOM issues a
press release:
“Read a Burned Book, Librarians Urge,”
(Original copy at:
http://webpages.charter.net/tomeboy/cubanbook.html)
For Immediate Release
September
15, 2005
READ A BURNED BOOK
LIBRARIANS URGE
Re: Banned Books Week (September 25 - October 2, 2004)
To mark this year’s
celebration of
Banned Books Week (BBW), a nationwide group of librarians is
encouraging
readers to protest cases of censorship and human rights abuses by
reading
literature that has literally been burned.
But first a quiz.
“What do The Biography of
Martin
Luther King, Jr., the US Constitution, certain works by José
Martí, The Power
of the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel, and Your Body is Yours, have in
common?”,
asks Steve Marquardt, the co-founder of FREADOM, and Dean of Libraries
at South
Dakota State University.
“They are among the
hundreds of
books, pamphlets, and personal papers that have been judged
‘subversive’ and
ordered burned by Cuban authorities in recent years in their crackdown
against
independent libraries and independent thought,” says Marquardt, a
long-time
human rights activist.
FREADOM, a 2-year old group
of
librarians, writers, and human rights activists, is calling on
libraries to
display these and other burned books during BBW, and is asking patrons
to read
such literature to celebrate American liberties.
“In America, local librarians are often on
the front
lines of defense for upholding the principles of intellectual freedom
and the
freedom to read,” said Marquardt, “But in Cuba, book burning is documented as
a
state-sanctioned answer to independent reading.”
By challenging library
patrons to
read books that were ordered burned, the FREADOM group is hoping to
raise
awareness of the persecuted Independent Library movement in Cuba that began in 1998, but in
recent years
has seen several of its directors jailed and library collections
incinerated.
“We librarians have the
freedom to
oppose our President, circulate books which argue that he is a
criminal, help
change our laws, or find any book on any topic that a patron wants,”
said
Marquardt, “But in Cuba you can go to jail for lending the wrong book
to your
neighbor.”
Earlier this June, Ray
Bradbury
author, of the famed “Fahrenheit 451,” said “I stand against any
library or any
librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in any way
for the
books they circulate,” and he called on Castro to unconditionally
release all
jailed librarians
Cuban government and
library
officials deny that there is censorship in Cuba and say that any dissident
librarians
jailed by the Castro regime have been tried as “agents” of the United States, which, along with other
governments, has
openly supported the growth of the Independent Library movement in Cuba.
“It would be particularly
useful
for American to realize again just how subversive the US Constitution
is of
tyrannical powers like those which Fidel Castro wields,” said Walter
Skold, a
librarian and writer from Maine.
“In schools around the
country
last week we’ve just celebrated the Constitution, which forbids any
government
authority from burning books or closing independent publications,” said
Skold,
“And Banned Books Week gives us the opportunity to not only celebrate
our press
freedoms, but also to remember those writers and librarians worldwide
who can
be jailed for “incorrect” thoughts.”
A partial list of the many
books
burned in Cuba, as well as information about
writing
letters to support the Independent Libraries in Cuba can be found at the groups blog
site:
www.4freadom.org/blog
As part of its efforts,
FREADOM is
publicizing the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights
(http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/index.cfm), which has online the
official
sentencing documents smuggled from Cuba that detail which books and
materials were
ordered burned by Cuban courts.
“FREADOM is happy to join
with the
American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and
the
American Society of Journalists and Authors in calling on Americans to
read
books that have been burned or banned as a way of exercising the
freedoms we
have,” said Marquardt.
Partial List of Burned
Books
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
The
Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cuba's
Repressive Machinery: by Human Rights
Watch
The
Black Book of Communism
US
Constitution
The
Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel
Diary
of the Cuban Revolution by Carlos
Franqui
Como
Llego La Noche by Huber Matos
September 16, 2005
The September 2, 2005, Associated Press article by John Pain
– “Cuban documents show dissidents received no justice” – is sent to
Don Wood
by Walter Skold.
From: WSkold
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 5:29 PM
Subject: AP Article on Sentencing Documents 2003
Here
is a copy of the AP article from Sept 2, when FSU apparently had their
press
conference. I could not find in Lexis any other papers that ran
articles, but
Mr. Schlakman told me that other papers in Florida had
articles. He said
on Tuesday he would check his press files/kit from 2003.
I would go ahead and email this to Don Wood, those of you who have
contacted him.
My guess is that he will still refuse to accept it because the AP did
not
actually do an investigation to see if the documents were authentic
(double
standard) and because the US Interests Section is mentioned as helping
them to
obtain them. That is as well a concern for me, that I will ask Mr.
Schlakman
about.
September 2, 2003, Tuesday, BC cycle
SECTION:
State and Regional
LENGTH: 596 words
HEADLINE: Officials: Cuban documents show dissidents
received no
justice
BYLINE: By JOHN PAIN, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: MIAMI
The sentencing
documents of the 75 Cuban dissidents convicted in
the Castro government's crackdown on opposition earlier this year show
the lack
of basic freedoms, human rights and impartial justice on the communist
island,
supporters of a university project said Tuesday.
The documents were obtained by Florida State University, which launched a Web site
Tuesday
containing the hundreds of pages of court records.
The university's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights worked with
the
U.S. Interests Section in Havana to get the documents but the
center
funded the Web site independently, university officials said.
"As a Cuban-American whose family escaped a totalitarian regime ... I
know
the price a society pays when it lacks freedom to speak, freedom to
worship and
freedom to dissent," Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero said
before a news conference at the university in Tallahassee.
The 75 defendants, including independent journalists, were sentenced in
April
for receiving money from the U.S. government and working with Washington to undermine the regime of
Cuban
President Fidel Castro. They received anywhere from six to 28 years in
prison.
None of the trials lasted more than a day.
"People are really getting arrested simply for disagreeing with their
government," Cantero said at the news conference.
The goal of the Web site is to draw attention to the "very, very severe
and we think draconian human rights abuses," according to Terry Coonan,
the center's executive director. The site is also intended to invite
people to
advocacy, he said.
Carlos Rey, a law student from Miami, was one of the students who
worked on
developing the Web site this summer.
"This is not simply a Cuban issue," Rey said. "It's not simply a
Cuban-American issue. It's a human issue."
Katia Tchourioukanova, who came to the United States from Russia six years ago, is studying
education at Florida State. She also worked on the Web
site.
"You don't have to be a political science major or a lawyer or a
diplomat
to become involved in the field of human rights and to try to make some
difference," she said.
Lazaro Herrera, a spokesman with the Cuban Government Interests Section
in Washington, declined comment Tuesday. Cuba's government has said the trials
were necessary to protect itself
from U.S.-funded attacks.
The sentencing documents detail how the defendants received
money,
computers, recording equipment and other help in Havana from the U.S. Interests
Section, Washington's diplomatic outpost. The dissidents
set up Web sites, talked on U.S.-funded radio stations and published
articles
to criticize the Cuban government, the documents said.
One journalist, Julio Cesar Galvez Rodriguez, was convicted of "trying
to
plant the seeds of uncertainty and distrust in the population about the
revolutionary functioning of our social system." He was sentenced to 15
years in prison.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National
Foundation, said
the documents give a clear picture of the faults of the Cuban justice
system.
"There is no actual process of reaching evidence and establishing
fact," he said. "These are accusatory documents that are often
ratified by the prosecution and defense attorneys."
"At the expense of the 75 political prisoners, the Castro regime has
provided the world with an unfortunately tragic view of the state of
affairs in
Cuba today," said Mark Schlakman,
program
director of the university's center.
On the Net: Rule of Law and Cuba: www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu
September 28-30,
2005
Cuba’s
banned and burned books is the subject of a exhibit booth display at
the
Nebraska Library Association conference in Lincoln,
assembled by Robert Boyce of the Lincoln City Libraries.
September 29, 2006
Steve Marquardt of South Dakota State University and Mark
Wetmore of the Vermillion Public Library Board make a presentation
about Cuba’s
imprisoned library workers, a sister library relationship with the
Dulce María
Loynaz Library of Havana. The presentation includes a display of
several of the
books the incineration of which is known to have been ordered by the
Cuban
courts.
October 7, 2006
Steve and Mark repeat their presentation and display at the
South Dakota Library Association conference in Pierre.
Thursday October 13,
2005
Three requested newspaper articles about Cuba’s
court-ordered book burning were sent to Don Wood by Walter Skold.
The newspapers that published these reports
were the Miami Herald, the Orlando
Sun-Sentinel, and the Tallahassee Democrat. Notice of this was posted publicly on the alaoif
list, see
below:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alaoif--ala1.ala.org/message/35720?viscount=100&l=1
[IFFORUM:4327] Don Wood &
Cuban Book Burning- Part 2
Thursday October 13, 2005
Re: Public challenge to Mr. Wood
and Associates (See today's story at:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19814
)
On Monday, July 11, I started a Cuba Book Burning watch,
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFFORUM/log0507/msg00113.html
and later that day Mr. Wood wrote me
the
following (referenced in an August e-mail):
"I and others have attempted to verify the instances of book burnings
in
Cuba
that you cite, but we are unable to find any references to them in
legitimate
news sources (e.g., New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco
Chronicle). Please send me such sources for your
information.
Thank you."
I have answered Mr. Wood's request by sending him the documentation he
requested this morning. Here is the e-mail I sent him and the others at
the OIF
office. When they have found the time to review the evidence a public
response
would be welcome.
To: dwood@...
Subject: News Articles You requested on Cuban book burning
Cc: jkrug@...,dstone@...,bbecker@...,nperez@...
X-Attachments: C:\Documents and Settings\Walter\My
Documents\MLS\FREADOM\Press\Book Burning 05\FSU
Docs\TallDemocratPressConference.pdf; C:\Documents and
Settings\Walter\My
Documents\MLS\FREADOM\Press\Book Burning 05\FSU
Docs\SunSentinelPressConference.doc; C:\Documents and
Settings\Walter\My
Documents\MLS\FREADOM\Press\Book Burning 05\FSU
Docs\HeraldPressConference.pdf;
Dear Mr. Wood,
On July 11th you asked me, and later my friends at FREADOM, for
newspaper
accounts of the Cuban book burning before you would be able to put that
information on the 21st Century book-burning page of OIF. After some
research I
am responding to that request (and cc'ing the folks you included in
your cc to
Steve Marquardt on August 11th)
I am enclosing three articles from the Florida press in September of
2003, all
of which come from reputable newspapers there, whose editors must have
felt the
veracity of the documents was established. As you know, and are right
to be on
guard for, they have to be careful of false information from all sides
with
regards to Cuba.
Besides these articles, I am including the link to a story of mine
which
appeared today:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19814
Besides the articles, I have done my own investigative
research, by
speaking with the Cuba expert at Amnesty International, USA, and it
seems that
a very strong case can be made for the veracity of the book-burning
cases
documented in the court papers from Cuab. The article I wrote makes a
public
challenge to you and your office, Mr. Wood, which includes these two
paragraphs:
”But getting back to the issue of burned books in Cuba, now that a
fellow
librarian has provided him with several reliable sources, as well as
information from the head researcher for Amnesty International, whose
phone
number I’ll gladly give him, I wonder if he will now add the incidents
of
fanatical communist book burning in Cuba to the OIF public-service
website? In
the first part of this series I said that ALA
officials seemingly have no problem censoring such
information. If
nothing is added to the website, and no credible reason is given as to
why the
sources I cite are themselves wrong, then the public would sadly have
to
conclude that the ALA wants to censor this information.”
Also, "Since the editors of FRONTPAGE believe in academic freedom, I’m
sure they would be happy to give Mr. Wood an opportunity to explain why
book
burning and library destruction in Cuba is not a human rights or censorship issue."
Now that I have sent you the information that you requested, my
colleagues and
I at FREADOM look forward to hearing what the opinion of your office is
with
regards to posting the Cuban citation to the 21st Century page.
Sincerely, Walter Skold
October 14, 2006
Steve Marquardt repeats the presentation and display at the
joint conference of the Wyoming Library Association and the Mountain
Plains
Library Association, in Jackson. He also
presented at this joint conference an October 13 poster session on the
theme of
“Taking Banned Books Week International” by offering library users the
opportunity to learn about and sign petitions for the release of
imprisoned
authors in foreign lands, including persons whose books had been seized
and burned.
[October
18, 2006] Below is part of the message that the WLA President
recently sent. I would encourage all SDLA members to go to the
web site
and look at the presentations that were webcast. This is the
first time
that MPLA has ever participated in such a venture. There were
some
absolutely excellent speakers the quality of which I have not
personally heard
in a long time. It is well worth your time to check it out – Joe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``
Greetings!
I'd
like to thank everyone from Wyoming who made
the Joint WLA/MPLA Conference so
wonderful. For those of you who could not make it, or if you
missed a
program, remember that most of the conference was webcast.
The webcast website is http://www.tclib.org/mpla
and the archive should
be available today. Also, many WLA and MPLA members blogged their
experiences (thanks MPLA EC Committee!) and that website is at http://mplawla2005.blogspot.com
Erin
Kinney
WLA
President & Webmistress
WLA/MPLA
Joint Conference Co-Chair
October 18, 2006
Receiving no answer from Don Wood to his quation on IFFORUM
asking about posting the Cuban book burning on the ALA web page devoted
to that
subject, Walter Skold again sent an e-mail query to Mr. Wood.
From:
owner-IFFORUM@ala.org [mailto:owner-IFFORUM@ala.org]
On Behalf Of Walter Skold
Sent: Tuesday,
October 18, 2005 12:29 PM
To: Intellectual Freedom Forum
Subject: [IFFORUM:4374] Book Burning: 2 Weeks and Waiting Mr. Wood....
Dear Mr. Wood,
<>>
A week ago
now I wrote you a public question
(see:
http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFFORUM/log0510/msg00064.html) in which
I asked you when you are going to put the information about
Cuban book burning on the page you edit. I also sent you the newspaper
evidence
that you had requested, from three reputable papers in Florida.
<>On
the same day, a long article was published
(see: (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19814)* in
which the evidence was laid out about Cuban book burning, including
the testimony of the head researcher for Amnesty International. If you
and the
folks at the OIF wish to be considered censors of this news, so be it,
but
before I come to that conclusion I'll give you another week to respond,
just in
case you were on vacation last week. I also e-mailed the documents to
every
member of the OIF office.>You
have been presented with the evidence you
requested sir, when will you post the link to you site or explain why
the
Amnesty researcher and Florida
papers are lying or deceived?
<>>
Sincerely,
Walter Skold
<>>
(PS. I am
sorry to say, but this issue will
NOT go away. The credibility of your judgment is on the line, and you
are a
leading representative of our profession. To my knowledge you have
never
expressed admiration for Castro's regime - as have other Council
members - so
it is hard to figure out the continual silence of people who tell the
rest of
us about intellectual freedom....)
<>>
* From http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19814
is the following account of ALA investigation into the Cuban issue, including
claims of book burning:
During
the few months that committee looked into
the
situation in Cuba, the former president of the ALA and head of the task force,
John W.
Berry, claimed in an e-mail
to the ALA Council that “The International Relations Office is
currently
investigating the group hosting these documents and is examining the
veracity
of the documents themselves.”
Here
are the serious problems with this claim that ALA committee-members should
be forced by Council members to explain:
1.) I called Mr. Mark
Schlakman, who directs the FSU Center for Center for the Advancement
of Human
Rights. Not only did he provide me with three news articles from major Florida newspapers, the professional
editors and
journalist of which all apparently trusted validity of the Cuban court
documents, but he also discussed the often-dangerous process by which
these
sorts of documents escape Cuba. Why couldn’t Mr. Wood find
these press
articles, and if he tried to verify the disputed documents, why didn’t he simply call FSU like I did?
2.) Mr. Berry said his task
force was “investigating” the FSU
center, but officials I spoke to there have no recollection of anyone
from the ALA calling them to ask about the documents or how they judged them authentic.
Mr. Berry, who did you ask about this
group, Fidel Castro? How did you examine
the veracity of these documents
if you or a staffer never called the center that released them?
3.) Perhaps something of the
zeal of this task force to get to the bottom
of Cuban crimes is best revealed in this
pathetic fact. Mr. Berry claimed that his task force
looked at reports
written by Amnesty International (AI) and other human rights groups. That’s funny, I called one Holly Ackerman, the
main Cuba researcher for Amnesty
International in
the US and herself an academic
librarian, and
she said no one from the ALA ever called her to ask about
these documents. What is worse
is this – Ms. Ackerman told me that she sent a personal letter to the
committee
and offered to help them with their investigation and to answer any
questions
they had. She told me that no one ever wrote her back. Essentially, the AI contact in the US
was ignored by
this dedicated task force! Even Ms. Ackerman was
astounded, as she said that at least when
groups or governments don’t want AI’s help
they at
least write back and say thank you for offering! [Holly
Ackerman told Steve Marquardt that ALA never contacted anyone at AIUSA or AI
headquarters in London, in which event she, as the Cuba country specialist, would have
been
notified. – Steve Marquardt]
Now . .
. there is the issue of the veracity of the
book
burning reports to return to.
First,
Mr. Wood, Mrs. Ackerman spent 30 minutes explaining the detailed,
careful and
sometimes dangerous process by which the International Secretariat of
AI goes
about verifying documents like those smuggled from Cuba. She said the organization
would never
have concluded that these 75 people were prisoners of conscience if
they did
not have full confidence that the documents were authentic copies. She
explained that because of intelligence officers infiltrating groups
like the
independent libraries, there is much danger, as well as disinformation,
when it
comes to information coming from Cuba. Also, the sources which AI
have actually
risk their freedom by helping to smuggle such documents out . . .
Secondly,
you demanded from my colleagues and me at FREADOM articles from
“legitimate”
papers and now I have at least three of them. One of them is an
editorial about
the documents from the September 6, 2003 issue of the
Sun-Sentinel, which include this:
“The
charges, not the dissidents’ actions, are what is
criminal. No human being, in any country on this planet, should be
jailed for
one second, let alone decades, for voicing an opinion.”
It seems pretty clear that Mr.
Wood trusts the editorial judgments of this paper because jut
two weeks
ago he alerted his IFACTION readers about the story from the
Sun-Sentinel (http://lp-web.ala.org:8000/guest/archives/IFACTION/log0509/msg00141.html)
in which a local library director caved into pressure by a
Cuban-American Democrat
official to change the date of a showing of the movie “Motorcycle
Diaries”
which glorifies the mass murderer, Che.
October 19, 2006
Walter Skold posts a brief account
of his having sent e-mails of October 13 to Don Wood and Judith Krug,
with no
response being returned,
October 21, 2006
Walter Skold sent a certified letter
to Don Wood to confirm
his receipt of documentation of the book burning in Cuba.
October 26, 2006
Steve Marquardt repeats the banned and burned books presentation
and display at the annual conference of the Wisconsin Library
Association, in
La Crosse.
November 17, 2006
The receipt card from the certified letter is received by
Walter Skold, who telephones Don Wood and is told by the latter that
“the
office is still discussing it.” Walter Skold’s notes of this
conversation follow:
Hi
Mr Wood, this is Walter Skold, how are you?
Silence...fine.
Say, since I sent you the articles you asked for recently I was
wondering when
you might be considering if you will put the news on the book burning
website?
(deadly pause...Don coming up with excuse...[in a tert tone]: "The
office
is still discussing it."
[I was momentarily stunned, not being prepared for a stonewall] O,
well, aren't
you in charge of the website, can't you make a change on your own?
[defensively] "I am not the director of the office!" We will need to
wait until Mrs. Krug comes back, "she is still recuperating from
surgery."
I then changed the topic and asked what he thought about having
citations at
the burning site about incidents which did NOT have to do with actual
burning,
and why these incidents were not on banning web pages. I remarked that
I'm sure
he'd agree with me that charges of book burning are serious...
He said he did "not see the big difference between banning and
burning" and compared it to being killed by a gun or a knife, and then
said "I think you have an axe to grind and that is why you are
intentionally making something of it" when there really isn't an issue.
I said yes I do have bias on this issue, but the reason it is important
is
because I too am a professional librarian, and charges of book burning
are too
serious to make non-chalantly.
"This is our website, we don't tell you what to put on your website."
"Yes, but your site says it is a public service and it solicits
feedback.
In fact, you often post things to IFACTION that concerned members of
the
Intellectual Freedom Network send you."
[getting pissed] "You don't know what we don't publish that people send
us"
"True, But I do know what you have not posted that I sent you."
(Sensing the conversation reaching a nadir, and not having the presence
of mind
to ask him "Have you called Holly Ackerman yet," I began to end the
call...
He said "alright" when I asked him to let me know when they have made
a decision, but he didn't give any timeline as to when Krug would be
back to
the office....
Why the hell does it take a collective decision, when Don post whatever
he hell
he wants to any day of the week and Krug does not vet his posts???? Why
is a meeting
necessary about Cuba?
And why no meetings necessary when it comes to alleged urination on a
Koran
when it is the US Army who are the ones charges (and also why no
mention in the
citation that the military investigation cleared everyone of the charge
of
intentionally pissing on a Koran, and, if memory serves, relieved
soldiers of
duty who had thrown the Koran on the floor or something like that. In
any case,
there was NO burning at all.
November 30, 2006
Rosa Baez, of the Bibioteca Nacional José Martí and its
online publications La Polilla and Librinsula,
posts a message to IFFORUM
stating that the “extensive list of leaflets (or marked counter
revolutionary
character,” seized from the library of Julio Antonio Valdes Guevara
“are not
even useful for a reading eager and knowledgeable public of excellent readings) [sic] an honest
judge
has decreed the insineration [sic] for mistake of ‘thirty two leaflets
on the
letter of human rights”, it is an open to criticism mistake, but not a
‘crime
of lesa humanity’”.
December
31, 2005
Note
Posted on previous edition of FREADOM blog: (Available at Wayback
Machine or in our Archives)
"Let's
see, how many months has it been since Mr. Wood at the OIF office
of
ALA
has been presented with the EVIDENCE for book burning in Cuba,
and
yet there is nothing about it on the book burning web site. Back on
November
17 his explanation was that Mrs. Krug was sick, and that the
office
was "still discussing" the issue anyway.
Don,
what is taking so long to make a decision, and why is there any
need
to "decide" something which the facts you requested are so clear? Could
it
be ideology? We hope not, but what alternative is there for folks to
think
when you ignore the Cuban actions, and continue to promote "book
burning"
stories in the US
which have no book burning at all?
We
at FREADOM will be asking you again in the New Year Don. Since other
news
stories on the web indicate that Mrs. Krug has attented meetings in
December,
it would seem she is physically able to continue the serious
office
meeting you claim is taking place to decide this issue.
Happy
New Year!
February 28, 2006
Library Association of Latvia adopts a “Resolution on
Imprisoned Cuban Librarians for IFLA 2006” containing a reference to
books
“ordered to be seized or burned by the Cuban courts (http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu)”
and resolving that IFLA should protest “the seizure and burning of
their
library collections . . .”
March 9, 2006
The Lithuanian Librarians Association “Draft Resolution on
Imprisoned Cuban Librarians for IFLA 2006 Conference Agenda” containing
a
reference to books “ordered to be seized or burned by the Cuban courts (http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu)”
and resolving that IFLA should protest “the seizure and burning of
their
library collections . . .”
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/council2006.htm
LATVIJAS
BIBLIOTEKĀRU BIEDRĪBA
LIBRARY
ASSOCIATION OF LATVIA
K.Barona
iela 14
Tālr.:
(371) 7365251 Rīga,
LV-1423 Fakss:
(371) 7280851
Tērbatas
iela
75
Tālr.:
7312791; 7312776 Rīga,
LV-1001 Tālr./ fakss: (371) 7312793 Latvija
E-pasts:
lbb@lnb.lv
IFLA
Secretariat:
RESOLUTION
ON IMPRISONED
CUBAN LIBRARIANS FOR IFLA 2006
Whereas
IFLA's commitment to defend
freedom of access to information is based on Article 19 of the
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to
"seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of
frontiers"; and
Whereas
the IFLA resolution on human
rights and librarians, adopted in Munich,
Germany,
1983,
states:
"In
the name of human rights,
librarians must, as a profession, express their solidarity with those
of their
colleagues who are persecuted for their opinions, wherever they may be"
(http://www.ifla.org/faife/policy/munich.htm); and
Whereas
IFLA/FAIFE’s Mission
and Actions
statement declares:
“IFLA/FAIFE
responds to violations
of freedom of access to information and freedom of expression affecting
libraries and librarianship. IFLA and IFLA/FAIFE supports and
cooperates with
relevant international bodies, organisations or campaigns such as
UNESCO,
International PEN, Article XIX, Index on Censorship, IFEX and Amnesty
International” (http://www.ifla.org/faife/faife/presen.htm); and
Whereas
in 2003 the Cuban government
intensified a campaign of repression directed against Cuban citizens
who have
opened a network of uncensored libraries designed to challenge
government
control of information, resulting in one-day trials which sentenced a
number of
the librarians to prison sentences of 20 years or more; and
Whereas
Cuban court documents, removed from the island and published on the
Internet,
prove that the independent librarians were arrested for the alleged
crime of
opening libraries, and that thousands of books in their collections,
including
copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, books by George
Orwell and
other classic works of freedom, were labeled "subversive" and ordered
to be seized or burned by the Cuban courts
(http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu); and
Whereas
the
independent librarians imprisoned in Cuba have been named as prisoners
of
conscience by Amnesty International which, along with other human
rights
organizations such as International PEN, Human Rights Watch and
Reporters
Without Borders, is demanding the immediate and unconditional release
of the
librarians on the grounds that they have been convicted for exercising
their right
to freedom of expression; and
Whereas
computers being shipped to Cuba
by
organizations in the United
States
were recently confiscated by U.S.
border
agents; therefore
Be
it
Resolved that
IFLA
protests the ongoing persecution of independent librarians in Cuba and
the
seizure and burning of their library collections, and we join Amnesty
International and other human rights organizations in calling for the
immediate
release of the independent librarians in Cuba who are imprisoned for
exercising
their rights to intellectual freedom; and
that
IFLA
expresses solidarity with all those in Cuba, in both the official and
unofficial library world, who struggle against difficult economic and
political
obstacles in order to meet the information needs of the Cuban people;
and
that
IFLA
condemns the 2005 seizure by United
States
border agents of computer equipment
being shipped to Cuba,
which is a
violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Adopted
at the 11th Conference of the
Library Association of Latvia (LAL),
Riga, 28 February
2006
Anna
Mauliņa LAL President
(The
original document with signature sent to IFLA HQ by mail.)
LIETUVOS
BIBLIOTEKININKŲ DRAUGIJA LITHUANIAN LIBRARIANS’ ASSOCIATION
Kodas
9191897
Šv.Ignoto
g. 6-108 Tel./faks:
8~389 61606
LT-2600 Vilnius El.p.:
lbd@uvb.lt
Dear
IFLA Headquarters,
Lithuanian
Librarians‘ Association would like to propose
DRAFT
OF A RESOLUTION ON CUBA
FOR THE IFLA 2006 CONFERENCE AGENDA
Whereas
IFLA's commitment to defend freedom of access to information is based
on
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which
guarantees
everyone the right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers;" and
Whereas
the
IFLA resolution on human rights and librarians, adopted in Munich,
Germany,
1983,
states:
"In
the
name of human rights, librarians must, as a profession, express their
solidarity with those of their colleagues who are persecuted for their
opinions, wherever they may be"
(http://www.ifla.org/faife/policy/munich.htm); and
Whereas
IFLA/FAIFE’s Mission
and Actions
statement declares:
“IFLA/FAIFE
responds to violations of freedom of access to information and freedom
of
expression affecting libraries and librarianship.... IFLA and
IFLA/FAIFE
supports and co-operates with relevant international bodies,
organisations or
campaigns such as UNESCO, International PEN, Article XIX, Index on
Censorship,
IFEX and Amnesty International”
(http://www.ifla.org/faife/faife/presen.htm);
and
Whereas
in
2003 the Cuban government intensified a campaign of repression directed
against
Cuban citizens who have opened a network of uncensored libraries
designed to
challenge government control of information, resulting in one-day
trials which
sentenced a number of the librarians to prison sentences of 20 years or
more;
and
Whereas
Cuban court documents,
removed from the island and published on the Internet, prove that the
independent librarians were arrested for the alleged crime of opening
libraries, and that thousands of books in their collections, including
copies
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, books by George Orwell
and other
classic works of freedom, were labeled "subversive" and ordered to be
seized or burned by the Cuban courts
(http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu); and
Whereas
the
independent librarians imprisoned in Cuba have been named as prisoners
of
conscience by Amnesty International which, along with other human
rights
organizations such as International PEN, Human Rights Watch and
Reporters
Without Borders, is demanding the immediate and unconditional release
of the
librarians on the grounds that they have been convicted for exercising
their
right to freedom of expression; and
Whereas
computers being shipped to Cuba
by
organizations in the United
States
were recently confiscated by U.S.
border
agents; therefore
Be
it Resolved that
IFLA
protests the ongoing persecution of independent librarians in Cuba and
the
seizure and burning of their library collections, and we join Amnesty
International and other human rights organizations in calling for the
immediate
release of the independent librarians in Cuba who are imprisoned for
exercising
their rights to intellectual freedom; and
that
IFLA
expresses solidarity with all those in Cuba, in both the official and
unofficial library world, who struggle against difficult economic and
political
obstacles in order to meet the information needs of the Cuban people;
and
that
IFLA condemns the 2005 seizure
by United
States
border
agents of computer equipment being shipped to Cuba,
which is a
violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Signed
by:
Vida
Garunkštytė
President
Lithuanian Librarians Association
Emilija
Banionytė Vice-President
Lithuanian Librarians Association
March
9, 2006
Vilnius,
Lithuania
(The
original document with signatures sent to IFLA HQ by mail.)
March 13, 2006
<>Ten (10) of 19 ALA Council
candidates responding to an informal e-mail poll expressed opposition
to the
book burning in Cuba and support for listing this Cuban violation of
reading
material on the ALA book burning web site.
For details, see the “Freadom” blog site at http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=22980467
and
http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=22980467.
>
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Trial
of Guido Sigler Amaya, in Matanzas, 5 April 2003 [Sentence
number 9], available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm.
“… the handwritten,
typed, printed,
signed and recorder [sic] documents which are also detailed in prior
paragraphs
… will be immediately destroyed by incineration.”
These include the following:
“several copies of the
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.” One hardcover edition of the
UDHR is published by Applewood Books (November
1, 2000).
32 pages. ISBN: 1557094551.
Source:
Amazon.com
El
resurgimiento
global de la democracia. Unknown Binding: 341 pages.
Publisher: Insituto de Investigaciones
Sociales, UNAM; 1. ed edition
(1996)
Language: Spanish. ISBN: 9683649904. Source:
Amazon.com
Vista del
amanecer en el trópico, by Guillermo Cabrera Infante
(Paperback) Publisher:
Penguin Books (March 1, 1997).ISBN:
0140262865. Source: Amazon.com
[English translation: View
of Dawn in the Tropics, by G. Cabrera Infante. Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill
Levine. (London: Faber, 1988) First
U.K. Edition. Source: Alibris.com]
Hacia la gran nación, by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat (Miami,
Fl : D'Fana Editions, 1995), 32
p. ; 21 cm. Source: OCLC WorldCat
Trial of Julio Antonio Vales
Guevara, in Santiago de Cuba, 5 April 2003. Case no. 5 of 2003. Available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm.
“…
books, magazines, brochures and the rest of the documents to proceed to
destruction by means of incineration
for lacking utility; …”
These
include the following:
TIME
(magazine)
El Disidente
(magazine)
Fragura
(“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Por Cuba
(“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Palestra
(“journal … edited in the United States”)
Hispano Cubana
(magazine “published in Spain”)
José
Martí: la
invención de Cuba, by Rafael
Rojas. (Paperback)
Editorial
Colibri (November 20, 2000), 145 pages.
ISBN: 8492355069
Source: Amazon.com
Cuba's Repressive
Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years
After the Revolution, by Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, July 20,
1999). Paperback, 263 pages).
ISBN: 1564322343
Source: Amazon.com
Buscando un modelo
económico en América Latina :
mercado, socialista o mixta? : Chile, Cuba y Costa Rica, by Carmelo Mesa-Lago; Alberto
Arenas;
Malena Barro (Caracas, Venezuela : Nueva Sociedad ; [Miami?, Fla.] :
Universidad Internacional de la Florida, 2002
1. ed. en castellano. 681 p. ;
ISBN: 9803171836 23 cm.
Source:
OCLC WorldCat
Letters from Burma, by George Orwell.
It
is interesting that books and magazines are destroyed because they
“lack
utility,” while other confiscated items are put to use by various
agencies [--
S.M.]:
“One arranges
that on the photographic negative, cassete of audio, medicines, books,
magazines, pamphlets and the rest of documents it procédase to
his destruction
by means of incineration to lack utility; on the three radio receiving
with its
batteries, the shipper, the transformer and its cable, the antenna with
its
cable and its case and the headsets has its delivery to the
Headquarters of the
Inner Ministry of Granma so that they are conserved like material test
of the
injerencista activity, of the United Government of the State of America
against
the Republic Cuba; the typewriter entréguese to the Basic Unit
of Services of
Manzanillo; the magnetic compass with its case entréguese to
Gcocuba de Granma;
the wood group and metallic and the previous aluminum tubes its
disarmament to
give to the Company Provincial de Prime Materias of Granma for its
advantage.“
“As far as
the Cuban Flag of medium size, its definitive delivery is had to the
Municipal
Direction of Education of Manzanillo so that him the use that really
deserves
our national standard.”
Trial of Blas Giraldo Reyes
Rodriguez, in Sancti Spiritus (#1), 5 April
2003. Available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm.
“Also
the destruction is had [of] …”
“sixteen
books Encounter of the Culture Cuban
[etc.]”
Book
titles are machine translated from the Spanish as follows:
Encounter of Cuban Culture
Plowing in the Sea
Heating of the Planet
Uses and Abuses of Gasoline
World without Winter
Visual Atlas [of the] Ocean
Destruction of Nature and
the Ecology
System of Environmental
Average Management
Conquering
Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba, by Sergio
Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Perez-Lopez.
(Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press (April
1, 2000)
(Paperback,
328 pages). ISBN:
0822957213
Source: Amazon.com
“Classic
texts of Carlos Franqui” (Dominican Republic, 2001). These could include Family
Portrait with Fidel: a Memoir, or Camillo Cienfuegos,
Diary of the Cuban Revolution, or Vida, aventuras y desastres de un hombre llamado
Castro. Or it could be the first edition of his Textos
críticos del socialismo y la
revolución, Edition: 2.
ed. [S.l. : s.n.], Rodes Print. Corp.) 2003, ©2002.
159 p. ; 22 cm.
Source:
OCLC WorldCat
The
Power of the Powerless: Citizens
Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, by Vaclav Havel (M. E. Sharpe; Paperback
Reprint edition, June 1, 1990). ISBN: 0873327616
Source: Amazon.com
Reporters
Without Borders, Mission report in Cuba. Probably this
is the September 2000 report found at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3213.
Trial of Felix Navarro
Rodriguez and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, in Matanzas,
4 April 2003. Sentence number 2 of 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm.
“printed
material and other that have films and recording will be immediately
destroy
[sic] by incineration, which it will
also be done with the handwritten and typed documents …”
These
include the following:
81
pamphlet(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
El Proyecto Varela by Alberto Muller [and] Oswaldo
Payá (Miami, FL : Ediciones Universal, 2002 1st
ed.). Spanish. Book
110 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
ISBN:
0897299981
Source:
OCLC WorldCat
Trial of Pedro Argfuelles Moran and Pable Pacheco
Avila, in Ciego
de Avila, 4 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm.
“all the publications that
include
books, magazines and pamphlets,
to
give to the Department of the Interior for
its destruction.”
These
include the following, as listed in the sentencing document:
Jose
Martí, The Invention of Cuba
book
"Letters to Elpidio";
book
Conquista of the Nature;
book
Your Body is Yours;
book
Contemporary Universal History;
history of the United States;
book
the Cost of the Terrorism in Human Suffering;
book
Foundations of the Media;
book
Technical of Education of the Media;
book
Journalism and Creativity;
two
books of International Human rights;
book
a More Effective and Less Expensive Government;
book
History of the United States;
book
titled Manual for the Journalists;
book
Evidence that demands a Verdict;
titled
book EI Viaje de Juan Pablo II;
two
books of the Declaration of Independence of the United States
book
the Constitution of the United States;
6
declarations of the Human rights;
two
universal declarations of the Human rights;
a
pamphlet of the Project Varela.
An all-in-one place
list of trial sentencing document Web pages, as detailed above:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-15e.cfm
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm.
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm
Book
Burning in Cuba
as
Documented
in the April 2003 Sentencing Documents of Cuban Courts, and as posted
on the
"Rule of Law in Cuba"
web site, at
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/index.cfm, maintained by the Florida
State
University
Center
for the Advancement of Human Rights.
LEONEL
DE PERALTA ALMENARES, Bartolomé Masó Library, trial of 7
April 2003,
in Santiago
de Cuba:
"
. . . all Literature and documents, and their destruction by means of
the incineration method."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-7e.cfm
<>JOSE
GABRIEL RAMON CASTILLO, Independent Culture and Democracy Institute,
trial of 3
April 2003,
in Santiago
de Cuba:
"The
incineration
. . . is arranged . . . all the pounds [books],
pamphlets, magazines, bulletins, agendas, leaves of notes, cardboards
with
business cards and others; fotocopiados documents, diplomas, you exceed
with
documents, a Cuban flag with writings and companies of people of the
political
military prison, notebooks with annotations, and all the obrantes in
folios from
the eight to the seventeen of the File of Preparatory Phase."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm
PEDRO
PABLO ALVAREZ RAMOS, Biblioteca sindical Emilio Máspero, and
AGUSTÍN DIAZ
FERNANDEZ, 5
April 2003,
in Havana:
"As
far as documents, magazines, notes, books, agendas, photos,
invitations,
stickers, propagandas, procédase to their destruction."
".
. . documents, books, magazines, notes, agendas, correspondence,
procédase to
their destruction."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm
<>NORMANDO
HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ, Colegio de Periodistas Independientes, trial of 4
April 2003,
in Camagüey:
".
. . one hundred fifty and seven publications and other materials ...
all the
publications that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to
the
Department of the Interior for its destruction."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-camaguey-1e.cfm
JULIO
ANTONIO VALDES GUEVARA, Unión de Activistas y Opositores "Golfo
de
Guacanayabo", trial of 5
April 2003,
Santiago
de Cuba:
"As
to the disposition of the photographic negatives, the audio cassette,
medicines, books, magazines, pamphlets and the rest of the documents,
they are
to be destroyed by means of incineration
because they
lack usefulness."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-6e.cfm
ARIEL
SIGLER AMAYA and GUIDO SIGLER AMAYA, General Pedro Betancourt Library,
trial of
5
April 2003,
in Matanzas:
".
. . the independent library where they appear books, magazines,
pamphlets and
posters . . . gathering together books and pamphlets that integrated to
a call
independent library . . . documents, typed, printed and signed
and
recorded which also are detailed in advance they will be destroyed by
means of
its opportune incineration."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm
PEDRO
ARGFÜELLES MORAN and PABLO PACHECO AVILA, Cooperativa
Avileña de Periodistas
Independientes, trial of 4
April 2003,
Ciego de Avila:
"That
a unit of the book titled "Cuba before the Civic Reason" a magazine
Free Letters, a magazine of the Journalistic Society mark STERLING, a
unit of
the Pinto book Eye, a unit of Jose Martí "the Invention in
Cuba", an
exemplary dissident magazine of September of the 2002, compendium of
seven
leaves "Reporter without Borders", a book "the Secret Wars"
of Fidel Castro, a book Pisses Cuba, a magazine of Cuba; a Cuban
Hispanic
magazine; ten subversive pamphlets of character, denominated "Society
and
American Values, to found Cuba Freedom, the Etica of Means of
Information,
Hedline, Paya esteem that the opposition in Cuba entered a new stage;
aid of
foreign policy of the United States; Cuba Social Facet; speech of
acceptance of
Sajaron Prize; by Cuba; Reporter without Borders; All United Ones;
Proposal of
Measures to leave the crisis; a titled unit "Brief History of Cuba";
a unit of the titled book "Letters to Elpidio"; a unit of the titled
book "Of the Mother country of One to the Mother country of All"; a
titled book Drug trafficking and Revolutionary tasks; three titled
books
"Encounter"; a book titled "Manual for Journalist"; a unit
of the Bulletin of the Cuban Committee Human Pro-Derechos; five
"Dissident" units of the pamphlet; two units of the magazine
"New Cuban Press; a denominated magazine "Images of the Cuban Civic
Resistance"; a denominated magazine "Thirty Days"; a denominated
magazine "Imago"; a pamphlet "EI Camagüeyano"; a
denominated pamphlet "Information Independent Economic Partner"; a
denominated pamphlet "All United ones"; three pamphlets denominated
"Without Censorships"; twelve denominated pamphlets
"Cubanet"; a denominated pamphlet "Declarations of President
Bush; on the examination of the Policy Cuba did "; a denominated
pamphlet
"Letters of Cuba"; a copy of the activities made by the Cuban
foundation of Human rights; . . . book Conquista of the Nature;
magazine 3
lives of the news article; project list Varela; magazine on Norge Bus
President; compendium Table OF Contien; book Your Body is Yours; book
Trip to
the Heart of Cuba; book Contemporary Universal History; book of
Geography Been
Unídense; manual for journalists; it guides for responsible
members of press;
the divided democracy; journalism and creativity; history of the United
States;
book of style of the Country; democratic letter to ínter
America; veintiuno
cases out of yellow color; book 24 of February CDEL 2003; pad of Pedro
Argfüelles; pad of reports of Pedro Argfüelles; compendium
the Camagüeyano;
letter to Fidel Castro of the 26 of September of the 2002; compendium
society
volume 7 department of State of the United States; compendium of price
and
treatment for the drug addiction: compendium Info Facts; seven leaves
of
reporters without borders; request of aid to a mother who is, the
nongovernmental
organizations; we celebrated 24 February; universal declarations of
human
rights; on yellows of the press office YT culture of the United States;
Pablo
Pacheco Avila: brief book history of the United States; book EI Great
World-wide Board, with a sphere of the world in the title page of the
author;
book Foreign policy with the subject After Casano; book the Cost of the
Terrorism in Human Suffering; book Foundations of the Media; book
Technical of
Education of the Media; book Idea and Life of the News article; book a
Press
without Fastenings; book Journalism and Creativity; two books of
International
Human rights; book the Great Rupture; book a More effective and Less
Expensive
Government; book Regulating Law of the Right Asylum, two books
Encounter with the
Letters; book History of the United States; Martín book Luther
King; book of
the Foundations of the Media; a titled book Literatures Unidenses
States; a
titled book Controlling the Corruption; book titled Manual for the
Journalists;
titled book the Courts of the United States; titled book Evidence that
demands
a Verdict; titled book EI Viaje de Juan Pablo II; titled book Doctor
Ajeno; two
books of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the
collection
Flash units 56.58.60.61.66.67.68.69.110 and 112 with subjects varied;
of the
Cuban Hispanic magazine numbers 9 and 10; titled book the Foreign
policy; a
titled magazine Change of the Climate; fourteen denominated pamphlets
Dissident; two volumes of the magazine of Cuba; a titled magazine New
Cuban
Press; four titled magazines NEW WEEK, in Spanish; three titled
magazines New
Cuban Press; a titled magazine the Movement of the Human rights and the
legacy
of Martín Luther King; a map of the United States of America; a
denominated
magazine ROME of the origin to the 2000; a denominated magazine Muslim
Life in
the United States; a magazine to the Introduction of the Human rights;
a manual
named the Democracy a Discussion; book the Constitution of the United
States;
the lining of a title page of a called book Black Libro of the Comunism
[sic];
two newspaper a Miami and Florida and the other Newspaper of the
Américas; 41
loose pamphlet leaves and magazines inside on yellow; 4 fotocopiados
pamphlets
titled Pulse of the Media; 6 denominated pamphlets Table OF ConText;
three
named pamphlets Independent Socioeconomic Information; 23 pamphlets of
several
subjects in relation to the media; 41 denominated pamphlets All United
ones;
proposals of measures to leave crisis; 6 pamphlets denominated without
censorship; 6 declarations of the Human rights; two universal
declarations of
the Human rights; a pamphlet of the Project Varela; . . . all the
publications
that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to the Department
of the
Interior for its destruction."
Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reports of book burning emerge from Cuba
and are reported on the Friends of Cuban Libraries web site. See
Friends of
Cuban Libraries press release entitled "Library Books Burned, Buried,
Dumped" (December 10, 1999)
and "Library Books Burned, Buried, Dumped: A Mystery Solved?" (March 9, 2000), and the
following post
of September 21, 2002.
NEW
YORK, September 21, 2002 (Friends
of Cuban
Libraries) - In the 1970's Roberto Ampuero, a young refugee from the
Pinochet
regime in Chile,
was granted asylum in Cuba.
But after enrolling as a student at the University of
Havana, Roberto
Ampuero's idealistic view of Cuba was put under strain by the reality
of life
in his new home, where the relatively tolerant cultural life of the
1960's had
ended with the show trial of Heberto Padilla, Cuba's greatest
contemporary
poet. By the early 1970's former supporters of President Castro, such
as Jean
Paul Sartre, were becoming critical of Cuba's
adoption of the Soviet political model, resulting in a crackdown on all
expressions of dissent which continues to this day.
Roberto Ampuero eventually left Cuba and is now an acclaimed author. In
a
memoir of his youthful life in Cuba, Nuestros Años Verde
Olivo
(Barcelona, Editorial Planeta: 2000), written in the form of a novel,
Roberto
Ampuero sets the scene of his gradual disillusionment. The
following
excerpt from Nuestros Años Verde Olivo, published with
the consent of
Mr. Ampuero and translated by the Friends, is set in a Havana
cafeteria, known
as "Fruticuba," where the author and a group of student friends often
gathered. In this passage the author describes how one of his
friends, a
student of multiracial background named Lázaro, considered
himself fortunate to
have obtained a job in the University library, at least until he made a
horrifying discovery:
"But that work also had its somber side. Every month
an
official of the Cuban [Communist] party's Directorate of Revolutionary
Orientation appeared in the library... with a list of texts that had to
be
removed from circulation and stored in an annex until their final
disposition.
In imitation of Soviet cultural policy, based on the promotion of
socialism and
the censorship of works considered questionable, the Revolution had
begun to
confirm that during the capitalist period the library [at the
University of Havana]
had accumulated many books critical of socialism which promoted what
was called
'ideological deviationism.....'
"Lázaro had told us that the prohibited books
were
being sent to a library with restricted access - based on the model of
the
libraries with restricted access developed by the socialist countries -
that
collected the texts of 'bourgeois' authors such as Ortega y Gasset,
Octavio Paz
or Arthur Koestler, and of 'purged' Cuban writers such as José
Lezama Lima,
Virgilio Piñera, Heberto Padilla or Antonio Arrufat, or of
exiled writers like
Sévero Sarduy, Carlos Franquí or Guillermo Cabrera
Infante. Anyway, this work
involved not only the removal of prohibited books from the library
shelves, but
it also allowed the mulatto the chance to read the books while they
awaited
their final destiny.
"But one afternoon when we were meeting at the
Fruticuba cafeteria... Lázaro confessed to us that he had
discovered something
at work that was truly a nightmare.
" 'Well, what is it, buddy? You're supposed to be
the
smartest guy around here....'
" 'The books that I remove from circulation don't
really go to a special library.'
" 'So where do they take them?,' I asked.
" 'They take them away in a truck.'
" 'But where to, damn it? To the Central Committee?'
" 'They pulp them for recycling or they throw them
into
boilers to be burned.'
" 'What?,' I exclaimed in shock, as memories came back to me of Chilean
soldiers burning books after the coup, horrifying images evocative of
the pyres
of burning books in Hitler's Berlin, which had reverberated around the
world as
a symbol of dictatorship. 'You're lying, pal, this is slander!'
" 'I'm just repeating what the guys said as they
were
loading the truck: "This printed paper is either recycled or it's
converted into energy, comrades." That's what they said.'
" 'Shit, you mean they throw them into a furnace?,'
I
shouted, as a couple who were eating guava slices at the next table
stared at
me in surprise
" 'Just imagine, the books of Solzhenitsyn,
Bulgakov,
Koestler, Vargas Llosa, Cabrera Infante or Padilla turned into wrapping
paper
for meat, or converted into hot water at a hospital, preferably the
latter.'
" 'I bet the Horse [a nickname for President Castro]
doesn't know about this,' commented the pale twin.
" 'And what do you think Fidel would do with
counterrevolutionay books removed from circulation?,' asked Willy.
'Store them
in a warehouse until we as a people have the maturity to read them?
Ship them
off to secondhand bookstores? To the Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution?'
" 'You can say whatever you want, Lázaro, but
here in Cuba
we've never burned books like in other countries,' declared José
Antonio. 'Fair
is fair.'
" 'They don't need to. It's enough just to prevent
them
from being published,' retorted Willy.... 'But the books that were
written by
people who went to Miami or were published in the sixties, when we had
a
cultural policy that applauded even Jean Paul Sartre, had to be made to
disappear one way or another. And I don't think they're being kept in
storage
somewhere.'
"My curiosity was piqued to know what texts ought
not
to be circulated because they were considered counterrevolutionary. In
the
Chile of Allende I had been accustomed, while in bookstores and
libraries, to
browse through works written by the most diverse authors.... But wasn't
it my
duty to denounce this irregularity, of which Fidel was surely ignorant,
to the
leaders of the university? Still, our youthful curiosity to taste
the
forbidden fruit - books that the Revolution wanted to hide from us -
couldn't
have been greater.
"We agreed among ourselves, there in the Fruticuba
cafeteria, while eating mangos and drinking guava juice, to do
something
unheard of: Lázaro would discreetly set aside the most important
books from the
ones being loaded on the truck, and we would keep them for our reading
pleasure
until the time came when they were again available to the public....
" 'They probably won't notice,' declared
Lázaro, 'because
nobody makes a list of the books we take from the storage room to the
truck. Besides, we haul them out and throw them into the truck
when it's
dark. Nobody will find out.' "
[NOTE: The banned authors mentioned in Roberto Ampuero's memoir of the
1970's
have met various fates. The works of deceased authors such as
José Lezama Lima
and Virgilio Piñera, who were not publicly critical of the
government, are once
again allowed to be published in Cuba.
After decades of silent repentance, Antonio Arrufat has been
"rehabilitated" and his new works meet with official approval. But
with the exception of a few pieces published in sanitized anthologies,
the
writings of many of Cuba's
greatest authors, such as Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Reinaldo Arenas,
Heberto
Padilla and Zoe Valdés, are still forbidden in their homeland,
although a few
readers considered "trustworthy" are allowed access to banned books
in the special closed section of Havana's
National Library. Nor, sadly, is the era of bookburning a thing of the
past in
contemporary Cuba.
As recently as 1999, hundreds of library books donated to Cuba by Spain
were
burned in Havana after pamphlets containing the Universal Declaration
of Human
Rights were found hidden among their pages. For details, please refer
to the
Friends of Cuban Libraries press release entitled "Library Books
Burned,
Buried, Dumped" (December 10,
1999) and "Library Books Burned, Buried, Dumped: A Mystery
Solved?" (March 9, 2000).
.