Reply #138: Even these intellectuals?

[Book Lover]

http://villagevoice.com/news/0506,hentoff,60822,6.html

A U.S. Library vs. Fidel

Fidel Castro, I'm sure, never heard of the small town of Vermillion, South Dakota, until late last year, when the Vermillion Public Library—founded in 1902, on the eve of the Progressive era in American politics—began to gain international attention by becoming the first, and only, American library to call attention to Castro's imprisoning of 10 of Cuba's independent librarians to sentences of more than 20 years.

Spurred by Mark Wetmore, vice president of the library's board of trustees, the Vermillion library voted on November 18 to sponsor and support the Dulce Maria Loynaz Library in Havana, Cuba.

In March 2003, Castro's State Security police arrested 75 Cuban dissenters: journalists, human rights workers, and labor organizers, along with independent librarians who provided access to books excluded from Cuba's censored library system. These "subversive" independent public librarians were sent to Castro's foul prisons, along with the other dissenters.

During the raids on these independent libraries, the offending books were confiscated, and many of them burned. The Dulce Maria Loynaz Library was one of the targets, but it remains under the directorship of Gisela Delgado, who was not imprisoned.