CUBA-CULTURE: Change in Reading Habits

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Feb 20 1997 (IPS) - Young adults in Cuba today are more interested in gossip concerning US singer Michael Jackson, the latest French fashions or romantic novels by Corin Tellado than in reading about how their country is faring under sanctions.

Images of young people – eager for the latest on Cuba’s revolution – reading newspapers on the bus, in store check-out lines or in parks are just a memory of life 30 or 40 years ago.

A research project of the Study Center for Youth (CESJ) has determined that the limited number of books and magazines being produced in Cuba is the fundamental cause of young people turning to foreign publications. And young people made it clear that were eager for magazines like Cosmopolitan in order to know more about the world, its diversity, fashions and gossip concerning music and cinema stars.

Juan Carlos Lopez, a 22 year old who collects automobile advertisements for cars he would never be able to buy for himself, doesn’t want to hear about Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges and even less about local writers who these days sell their works in the lobby of the Writers’ and Artists’ Union of Cuba.

Mailen Rodriguez, a young 18 year old who follows fashion magazines passed from hand to hand on the streets of Havana – magazines that can only be purchased in dollars – says “they are instructive because they provide me with beauty tips”.

Cubans, who average a monthly salary of 200 pesos, pay up to 20 pesos for one dollar – which makes the price of foreign publications expensive at around two dollars each. Corin Tellado’s romantic novels may sell for as much as five dollars!

The economic crisis that has been affecting this Caribbean country since 1990 has lowered the output of Cuban books and magazines. Until recently local publishers relied on cheap imported paper from the now extinct communist nations of Europe.

Among the first consequences of Cuba’s current crisis was the gradual disappearance of more than 100 periodical publications. Little by little, there was a diminished supply of all kinds of books and finally the closing of most of Cuba’s bookstores.

The legalization of the dollar in 1993 as part of the economic adjustment plan implemented by Fidel Castro’s government brought about the proliferation of stores that dedicate themselves to the sale of books but only in dollar-denominated amounts.

“I used to read everything and would open a book anywhere; in my high school classroom we used to pass around books of French realism, detective novels, the latest by Garcia Marquez”, said Nadia Sanchez, a 33 year old philosophy graduate.

But Sanchez also has had to change her reading habit in recent years because, as she pointed out, there has been increasingly less time for it, and furthermore, it was getting much more difficult to obtain good literary works at a modest price.

Mayra Abreu, a CESJ researcher who helped conduct the study, said that “Cuban publications ought to have a more exciting format that satisfies the informational demands of our youth”.

The study revealed that the majority of adolescents and young adults were attracted to foreign publications due to their “attractive design.. and not talking about politics.” The overseas books and magazines were also praised for being “realistic, and for preparing us for life.”.

Fashion, sex education, humor, human interest stories and sports were deemed the five themes that most attracted Cubans under 18. Young adults aged between 19 and 34 added to this list: romance, current events, politics and cultural themes.

Sixty percent of all those polled said that reading is a source of great pleasure, whereas only 8 percent of adolescents and 18.7 percent of young adults said they were in the habit of reading. For Abreu, one cause of this situation was the loss of entertainment provided by habitual book and magazine reading at the decisive moment of the intellect’s formation in a child when aged between eight and nine years.

For their part, young adults say that they lack time, that reading is boring, that reading is uninteresting, that they have little patience and scant economic resources to buy literature.

According to the study, the educational level of Cubans did not influence reading habits since 61 percent of high school and university graduates alleged that they read “only seldom”.

This trend was even more pronounced among young adult workers, who occupy an occupational sector wherein 89 percent of those polled said that the never read and furthermore, are completely disinterested in international affairs as well as those of their own country.

With a population of 11 million inhabitants, Cuba boasts a zero rate of illiteracy. Cuba also sustains a system of obligatory schooling for everyone under 14 years of age.

“But what 59 percent of university graduates read least are newspapers,” according to Abreu’s study. It found that the informational material published in Cuba did not satisfy the needs of a public with an educational level higher than the relatively low level appealed to through the daily press.

Rafael Garcia, a 27 year old engineer, said: “The newspapers always report the same stuff: the sugar harvest, commentaries about the Helms-Burton act, and reports about the national scene that do not reflect our reality in all its subtle shades.”