The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
By Nat Hentoff
Published January 31, 2005
The public library in Vermillion, South Dakota, celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, and also exemplified the freedom to read in this country by being the only American public library to show concern for those independent Cuban librarians whom Fidel Castro sent to prison for 20 and more years in 2003 for daring to allow Cubans the freedom to read.
On Nov. 18, the Vermillion Public Library Board of Trustees voted to sponsor the Dulce Maria Loynaz Library in Havana, Cuba, which, like other imperiled independent libraries in that country, offers public access to books not obtainable in Cuba's censored "public" library system.
As a sponsor, the South Dakota library will be sending books to its sister library in Cuba, paid for solely by private contributions. The first two in Spanish-language editions, sent to library director Gisela Delgado, are the first two volumes in the "Harry Potter" series, as well as a collection of works by that powerful paladin of free thought, Mark Twain (who would have made Fidel Castro shake in his combat boots).
The Dulce Maria Loynaz Library was among those raided by Castro's enforcers, who confiscated "offending" books, burning many of them. But Gisela Delgado was not imprisoned.
Mark Wetmore, Vermillion Public Library Board of Trustees vice president, who was instrumental in forging the relationship between the two libraries, says: "It diminishes all our libraries a little if we know that there are people being persecuted for trying to operate free, uncensored ones and we don't at least... |