From the Press Release:
The Vermillion, South Dakota, Public Library Board of Trustees took a stand for
intellectual freedom on November 18 when it voted to sponsor the Dulce Maria Loynaz
Library in Havana, Cuba.
Cuba’s Dulce Maria Loynaz Library, an unofficial institution free of government
control, is one of approximately 250 independent libraries founded since 1998 to
challenge restrictions on freedom of information. The goal of Cuba’s independent
library movement is to offer public access to uncensored books reflecting all points
of view.
From the Press Release:
The Vermillion, South Dakota, Public Library Board of Trustees took a stand for
intellectual freedom on November 18 when it voted to sponsor the Dulce Maria Loynaz
Library in Havana, Cuba.
Cuba’s Dulce Maria Loynaz Library, an unofficial institution free of government
control, is one of approximately 250 independent libraries founded since 1998 to
challenge restrictions on freedom of information. The goal of Cuba’s independent
library movement is to offer public access to uncensored books reflecting all points
of view.In March, 2003, many of the independent libraries in Cuba were raided by the State
Security police, resulting in lengthy prison terms for more than a dozen librarians.
All of those jailed have been recognized as “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty
International, which is calling for their immediate release.
The Dulce Maria Loynaz Library was one of the institutions singled out during the
2003 crackdown. The director, Gisela Delgado, was not detained during the raid on
her library, but her husband, Hector Palacios, was arrested and sentenced to 25
years in prison. During the raid, most of the Loynaz Library’s books were
confiscated by the police. The Cuban courts have ordered the burning of many of the
books seized from the independent librarians.
“Cuba’s independent librarians have been targeted for repression because of their
principled challenge to censorship,” said Jon Flanagin, president of the Vermillion
library trustees. “We felt we had a moral obligation to offer our support.”
Flanagin emphasized that the library trustees’ action will be funded solely by
private donations and at no cost to the Vermillion library or to the city. The
first two volumes shipped to Cuba were a collection of Mark Twain and the first of
the Harry Potter series, both in Spanish.
“A hundred years ago the Vermillion library started out with 300 volumes, about the
same number of books as the Dulce Maria Loynaz library had before it was raided,”
Mark Wetmore, vice president of the trustees, stated. “But Vermillion’s library
grew rapidly from that beginning, in a society that nurtured free access to all
types of information. We hope that our sponsorship of an independent Cuban library
will, in some small way, help that process there, as well as encourage other
American libraries to offer similar support.”
With this action, Vermillion joins the French cities of Paris and Strasbourg, which
have also formally adopted a number of Cuba’s independent libraries. The Cuban
library is the second with which Vermillion has established a special relationship;
in 1989, it adopted the library in its sister city, Ratingen, Germany.
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