HAVANA, Feb 18 (NNN-ACN) — The 32nd Havana International Book Fair (FILH) stands as a decolonizing event in Cuba’s cultural panorama, said Juan Rodriguez Cabrera, president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL by its Spanish acronym), in Havana.
Before Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, Rodriguez Cabrera stated at the opening ceremony of the FILH that in Cuba, reading is a priority for the Government and educational and cultural institutions, in terms of the spiritual and intellectual growth of the nation.
Rodriguez Cabrera, who is also president of the Fair’s Organizing Committee, said that more than 400 writers and promoters from 46 countries are in Cuba to participate in the event, which will allow for the development of a massive and popular Fair.
About Brazil, guest of honor at the Fair, he considered that it is a nation with which Cuba maintains strong friendship, cooperation and solidarity ties, in the face of the escalation of the neoliberal right in the world.
The archipelago welcomes its Brazilian brothers and sisters with open arms and will do its best to make them feel at home, said Rodriguez Cabrera to the delegation headed by Margareth Menezes, Minister of Culture of the South American giant.
He highlighted the work of philosopher and researcher Isabel Monal and professor and writer Francisco López Sacha, personalities to whom the 32nd edition of the Fair is dedicated.
He pointed out that homage will be made to novelist Alejo Carpentier on the 120th anniversary of his birth and to Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Father of the Homeland, on the 150th anniversary of his fall in combat.
Among the events of the FILH, Rodriguez Cabrera highlighted the holding of the Professional Book Fair, the Second Publishing Business Forum, the Second Meeting of Policies in favor of Reading and the panel of the Digital Cuba Project.
He also announced the premiere of reading classrooms for children and teachers in educational centers.
The FILH will reaffirm the importance of reading as an essential tool to combat cultural colonization and barbarism, as is currently happening in Palestine, emphasized the president of the ICL.
He affirmed that it will be, once again, the event that will be the event that will support the ideals of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, the main architect of this initiative.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Esteban Lazo Hernandez, member of the Political Bureau of the PCC and president of the National Assembly of People’s Power; Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PCC and head of the Ideological Department, and Ines Maria Chapman Waugh, deputy prime minister of the Republic.
The 32nd Havana International Book Fair will take place until Feb 25. — NNN-ACN
