The XXXIII Havana International Book Fair, scheduled for February 13 to 23, closes this Sunday in Havana with an event at the fortress of La Cabaña.
The public continues to express its pleasure to participate in this literary festival every February, which will now travel throughout Cuba with new presentations and South Africa as guest of honor.
There have been days in which cold, sun, rain have alternated, and energy and transportation difficulties remain, among others, but La Cabaña and other Havana sub-venues of the Fair offered the reader their variety of titles and proposals.
The edition upholds Martí’s premise “Reading is growing” and the theme “A whole country in books”; in addition to the participation of more than 40 nations and more than 400 foreign guests.
This year, tribute is paid as personalities to the researcher and professor Francisca López Civeira, National Prize for History 2008, and for Social Sciences 2022, and the poet, essayist, researcher and literary critic Virgilio López Lemus.
It also commemorates the 25th anniversary of the creation of the territorial publishing system, and is dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the fall in combat of the National Hero of Cuba, José Martí.
The Fair has more than two million printed copies and more than 2,600 digital books, while it displays 2,500 artistic–literary activities, donations of books in schools and hospitals, among other actions.
More than 15 authors arrived from South Africa with their works, which are exhibited to the public in the pavilion of that country, in addition to others on children‘s themes, young people, culinary, novels, stories and more.
This is the third country on the African continent to be guest of honour at the Fair, only preceded by Angola and Algeria.
Personalities from culture, politics, authors, publishers, promoters and booksellers from various continents meet at the great festival of letters in this archipelago, which will end in Havana and will spread to the other provinces until culminating in March in Santiago de Cuba.
In addition to literature, other artistic manifestations such as music, dance, visual arts and cinema are present for the visitor‘s greater enjoyment.
As is traditional, these days in La Cabaña the national awards for Literature, History, Publishing, Social and Humanistic Sciences, and Design have been awarded in an official ceremony, in addition to other important awards such as the Alejo Carpentier and Nicolás Guillén, for poetry.
The great premiere of the XXXIII edition has been the People‘s Library, a collection of 82 volumes that brings together the most select of Cuban and universal literature, a presentation in which the Cuban Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, participated.
The theoretical program includes spaces such as the Professional Book Salon, where the National Bookseller‘s Workshop, the Meeting of Literary Publishers and Translators and the Meeting of Public Policies in Favor of Reading are held.
The Meeting of Young Writers of Ibero–America and the Meeting of Poetry Promoters are also held at this time, and the Tesoro de Papel Children‘s Pavilion, the Cuba Digital project and a business forum are operating.
Regarding this great cultural event, the president of the Cuban Book Institute and the organizing committee of the event, Juan Rodríguez, said that despite the adversities and shortcomings, the Cuban Government maintains its support for the realization of the Fair, the production of books and the subsidization of publications, reaffirming its commitment to the development of national culture.
For her part, on the opening day, the Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture of South Africa, Bertha Peace Mabe, highlighted literature as a bridge that connects across cultures and geographical origins.
He also praised the great friendship between the peoples of his country and Cuba, twinned by their culture and history.
With information from Prensa Latina/ Translated by Radio Angulo
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