I should start by commeding the staff at Marshfield Public Library, Wisconsin for their forsight in having Mr. Ramón Colás, co-founder of the ILC tell his story. I can't imagine Mr. Colás getting a big audience, after all it is a story about censorship, and very few are interested in censorship. Isn't Guillermo "Coco" Fariñas on the brink of death, because the Cuban government will not allow him access to the Internet? And yet, I bet that not a single person attending Mr. Colás' presentation knows about Fariñas. Does Colás know about Fariñas?
Speaker talks about life in Cuba without books
When Ramón Colás began distributing books under Cuba's totalitarian leadership in 1998, he viewed it as a service to the nation. The government saw it in a different light and persecuted him for it.
Colás is co-founders of the Independent Libraries of Cuba, a civil society initiative that reflects the desire of Cubans to study in neutral spaces free of ideology. Independent librarians lend their homes to provide the service.
Ironically, the organization began with the words of Fidel Castro.
"No, there are no books that are prohibited. We just don't have the money to buy them," Colás said Castro told foreign media.
"When Castro said that, I found a great fissure," Colás said. Read the rest of the story.
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Several years ago I had sent several Selecciones and baseball magazines to a friend I met in Trinidad. A friend of his who lives in Miami forwarded a letter he wrote me informing me that pages were torn from the Selecciones. He had asked me about the magazines when he used to hear his dad talk about Selecciones. I was actually amazed that anything made its way to him. I haven't sent anything since then.
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