Excerpts are printed below. The full text of these news articles can be found in the Recent News section of our website at:
http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org
Library debate roils academic conference
NEW YORK, April 30, 2011 (Friends of Cuban Libraries) - Academic conferences are usually sedate affairs... but this staid pattern was broken at a three-day conference on "Cuban Futures" held from March 31 to April 2 at the City University of New York.... The disputed event featured a presentation by Rhonda Neugebauer and Dana Lubow on a project to send a bookmobile... to the official library system of Cuba's Granma Province.
...Ms. Neugebauer was asked by a member of the Friends of Cuban Libraries why she testified during an ALA investigation that she has been unable to find any evidence of censorship in Cuba during her visits to the island over the past twenty years.
Visibly annoyed, Ms. Neugebauer at first tried to stonewall the issue by declaring, "This question does not deserve an answer!" But a few moments later, possibly after reflecting on the bad impression imparted to the audience by her refusal to answer the question, she said....
Library leader threatened, harassed
HAVANA, April 25, 2011 (Ana Aguililla/Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez) - When library leader Omayda Padrón Azcuy complained to State Security agents that they were harassing her, one of them answered: "No, if I was really repressing you, I would break down the door and drag you outside right now."
Library raid in Pinar del Río
HAVANA, April 9, 2011 (Mario Hechavarría Driggs/www.miscelaneasdecuba.net ) - José Ramón Rivera, the director of an independent library in Pinar del Río Province, complains that a State Security officer entered his house at #655 Garmendia St. and took away four boxes of books....
New secret agent-librarian revealed!
NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2011 (Friends of Cuban Libraries) - On Feb. 25 Cuba's official TV network aired a documentary on two members of civil society groups who revealed their true identity as underground agents of the secret police. One of the agents, Carlos Serpa, identified himself as the director of the Ernest Hemingway Independent Library....
Nat Hentoff: "Endless shame of the spineless ALA"
NEW YORK, January 13, 2011 (Nat Hentoff/Galesburg Register-Mail) - In the many columns I've written..., I've cited the ALA's refusal to demand the release of these librarians.... As my documented stories on these and future imprisonments went on, I was targeted by the director of Cuba's National Library Eliades Acosta: "What does Mr. Hentoff know of the real Cuba?" My public reply: "I know that if I were a Cuban, I'd be in prison."
Full text of articles are in the Recent News section of our website at: http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org
Sincerely,
Friends of Cuban Libraries
HTTP://WWW.FRIENDSOFCUBANLIBRARIES.ORG
