Havana Cuba. — I am a regular reader since I was a child and I am 75 years old. I worked for 20 years in the commercial world of books. I have participated as a worker and visitor in almost all the Book Fairs in Havana. For all these reasons, my experience allows me to make an assessment of the recently completed.
A first aspect to point out is that slightly more than 70% of the books offered dealt with politics or the recent history of Cuba, with very precise subjects and of interest only to certain types of readers. So, rather than the Book Fair, it should have been called the Political Book Fair.
Cuban literature books did not arouse great interest, since they were written by new writers and often from the provinces, little known, with no national coverage.
Of Leonardo Padura, the most popular and internationally awarded Cuban writer today, there was not a single book at the Fair. He was totally silenced.
A novelty of this Fair was offering the option of digital books, which make up for the shortage of paper in the country. But this initiative does not work for many people, especially the elderly, who do not have this technology or have difficulty accessing it.
The problem of book prices is another aspect to highlight. It was said that the prices would be somewhat lower than the previous year, but the opposite happened: the titles cost two or three times more. The specimens that were previously sold for 20 or 25 pesos, depending on their importance and size, are now sold for 50 or 60 pesos.
The “Dienteleche” collection, whose copies, for children who are beginning to read, have a small number of pages, used to cost between six and 10 pesos. This year 25 were offered.
Most of the foreign exhibitors had as their main offer school supplies and stationery and office supplies. The prices were high: pens at 100 pesos, boxes of colored pencils at 300, small blackboards at 800; notebooks, from 300 to 500 pesos; notepads, between 200 and 350 pesos; rolls of adhesive tape, for 90 small ones and large ones from 1,000 to 1,300 pesos; and school backpacks, between 2,500 and 4,500 pesos.
Foreign exhibitors who brought books established prices that were around 500 pesos on average. The books of the most famous authors, such as Sartre and Camus, and those of the Harry Potter series, cost between 1,600 and 2,500 pesos. The exceptions were books by little-known authors, which cost 300 pesos.
Some discounts were made starting last Thursday at the headquarters, when they offered some books that cost between 100 and 200 pesos.
I did not find any books by authors of bestseller contemporaries on display. This was perhaps due to guidelines received from the Cuban authorities or was a preventive measure by foreign exhibitors to avoid problems.
The best offers in terms of prices were offered in the pavilion of the National Book Distributor, where books that had been published for years and had not been able to be sold were marketed at two pesos, to apply current legislation that requires said depreciation.
I contemplated an unusual event at the Zulik Stand, a Peruvian exhibitor who brought a wide variety of titles with few amounts in liquidation. To my surprise, among them was a copy of “La vida está en otra parte” and another of “La nada cotidiana”, both by Zoe Valdés, for 300 pesos. Either the exhibitor did not know that Zoé Valdés is an exiled author who is banned in Cuba or she managed to evade the censors and gave them a pig in a poke.
The low public attendance at what was until recently the largest popular participation event in the country was striking. A few years ago, going to the main headquarters of the Book Fair, in La Cabaña, and walking through the interior of this site was a martyrdom. This year you could walk with great freedom and getting to or leaving the place did not present any difficulty.
The sub-headquarters of the Cuba Pavilion reduced its space. The attendance was also reduced. The number of new titles was very limited and was completed with others from previous years or taken from bookstores that have not been sold for a long time.
In the Cuba Pavilion there was a Colombian exhibitor who brought very beautiful children’s books for three for 500 pesos, and which contrasted with the Artex proposals, whose titles cost between 120 and 150 pesos.
The Book Fair was extended this year to Old Havana and had another branch in the current University of San Gerónimo, where several book presentations were made. In addition, a large tent was added in the Plaza de Armas for the sale of some of the same titles that were in La Cabaña.
