/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-CUBA: Havana Fair Awakens Reader Anxieties, Appetites

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Feb 6 2001 (IPS) - The Havana International Book Fair has become one of the rare opportunities for Cubans to connect with the island’s own literary production and a small sampling of what is being published in the rest of the world.

The nine-day fair, running Feb. 2-10, stirs anxiety among readers to buy all kinds of books and magazines, because they know that if they don’t purchase them now they probably won’t be available later.

The Cuban economic crisis, begun in 1990, struck a heavy blow to the island’s publishing industry. The number of copies of any one book was drastically reduced, most bookstores closed their doors and book prices skyrocketed.

A decade on, there is increasing talk of the recovery of the Cuban book, but supplies remain scarce and sales are generally transacted in hard- to-come-by dollars.

“You have to go early, get there at five in the morning so that when it opens you’ll be among the first in line,” said Mercedes Sotolongo, a retired professor who holds tickets for each day of the fair.

“It’s the only time of year you can buy good books and at a more or less accessible price,” commented Sotolongo. “The rest of the time is for reading everything I buy these days, and then it’s wait until next year.”

Book lovers began buying tickets in mid-January for the fair, which this year is dedicated to Spain and its literature, and to Cuban writer Roberto Fernández Retamar.

The national publishers alone expect to put more than a half million books on sale, double what was sold last year, when the festival was held for the first time in the historic La Cabaña Fort, the largest structure of its kind, built by Spanish colonists.

The site is a veritable city encircled by walls that have been completely restored, extending along one side of Havana Bay.

The Cuban Book Institute and the Cuban Chamber of Books, governmental entities that organise the fair, report that the exposition area this year is four times larger than in 2000.

Some 145 titles will be presented in the area set aside for book sales, and include some re-print editions, an option that had practically disappeared over the past decade due to the economic crisis.

Three bookstores will be open all day, selling in Cuban pesos, while in the area designated for foreign publishers, sales will be conducted in US dollars only.

Spain’s top publishing houses are participating in the fair with their own individual locales, or represented by the publishers’ guild. Also represented are publishers from Italy and France, the latter to be the country of honour at next year’s event.

For the first time, the fair has set up a hall for Cuba’s electronic publications in order to show off the country’s digital products and to familiarise the public with the related technology.

The ‘Cuba Literaria’ portal makes its debut during the fair, with more than 20 websites of Cuban writers, an achievement given the fact that Internet access on this socialist-run island is extremely limited and only authorised individuals can obtain it at their places of work or study.

Among the novelties at the Havana event is the National Literature Prize Collection, which includes the works of authors who have received the award, the latest being poet and novelist Antón Arrufat.

Fair-goers can purchase Cuban editions of books by contemporary foreign authors, such as José Saramago, Portuguese winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Spain’s Almudena Grandes and Jorge Enrique Adoum of Ecuador.

The fair’s schedule also involves panel discussions about Spanish authors in Cuba, narrative written by women, the contemporary novel in Ibero- America, and youth literature.

Edel Morales, assistant director of the Cuban Book Institute, indicated that the country does not yet have the wherewithal to resolve all of the problems that affect the book industry, but this year has already shown some positive signs for the sector.

Last year, the Institute published 338 titles, with 2,000 to 4,000 copies of each. Approximately 25 percent of total output were reprints.

Sales in Cuban pesos increased last year, though prices continued to be high, especially given the average income of 200 pesos a month, or 9.5 dollars in the official exchange houses.

Prior to 1990, the average price of a Cuban book was less than a peso, and total copies published of any one title reached 20,000 to 30,000, according to official data.

In the mid-1990s, the average price surpassed five pesos per book, though it was practically impossible to buy books in Cuban pesos and the country’s total publication output barely surpassed a million copies.