Monday June 12, 2006
What's up with 'A Visit to Cuba'?
Over on Net for Cuba, Agustin Blazquez argues passionately for the removal of Vamos a Cuba and its English counterpart, A Visit To Cuba, from school libraries (via 26thparallel). The two books are in the middle of a giant debate, because it’s a “unreasonably sunny portrait of life under Fidel Castro.”
Blazquez’s argument boils down to this: if you remove books offensive to other groups (as is the school board’s policy), then you must remove remove this book, because it is extremely offensive to Cuban-Americans. The problem with that argument, of course, is that it could be used to remove books about nuclear power from schools if they are deemed offensive to environmentalists, or to remove books about computers if they offend the Amish.
No, the only sensible reason to remove a book from a school is if the book could be harmful to children. That would actually be the case if it misrepresented the political situation in Cuba. I haven’t seen the book, so I can’t make up my mind for sure. According to the description on Amazon, the book covers “land, landmarks, homes, food, clothes, work, transportation, language, school, free time, celebrations, and the arts.” It’s unclear how a denunciation of the Castro regime, or even depictions of suffering, would fit into this program: the book is intended for grades 2 to 4. What’s more, it’s part of a series, and I’m guessing the rest of the volumes don’t discuss the politics of the nations they’re from.
But yes, it’s a touchy subject, and it’s certainly possible that some of the pictures in the book cross the line. I suspect that what’s happening here, though, is that we have a book that is free of politics, and that is what bothers the Cuban-Americans. Any opportunity to criticize the Castro regime should be seized, and any such opportunity missed should be condemned. And while I’m generally sympathetic to that attitude, I don’t believe it should be extended to a book intended for little children. If all the it does is make the idea of people living in Cuba more of a tangible reality for children, then it’s doing exactly what it should to prepare them to understand the situation Cuban people live under. With any luck, by the time they’re old enough to learn about the specific politics, the Castro regime will be long gone, and Cuba will be democratic and prosperous.
Update: it’s gone.
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You hit the nail in the head. Basically these people are demanding that the book teaches children about torture and repression. It makes as much sense as demanding that a “Vamos a Brasil” book featured children living on the favelas.
I read the text of the book published by Conductor in his blog and it’s just a neutral description, in very general terms, of how Cuban kids live (and I was one). Seeing politicians pandering over the issue and hearing exaggerated claims like “it’s deeply offensive to our community” only reinforces the perception that Cubans are intolerant, unreasonable people.
Gansibele, ditto. So with you.
The problem isn’t that particular book and this particular issue. The problem is books generally, and their insidious impact on enlightening readers. Remember, Miami has a reputation to uphold, as recently reported in bizjournals.com (by way of Rick at SOTP:
“The city of Miami has the lowest brainpower rating of any large community in America. Two-thirds of its adults never went to college. Nearly half—47 percent—didn’t even graduate from high school.”
Get that book the hell off the library shelves before some kid hurts himself! Fire the librarians and sack the schools! To prepare young Americans for the 21st century, teach ‘em soccer. That should delight not only the Cubans, but the South Americans, Europeans, and sub-Saharan Africans all at one fell (Nike) swoop.
Better hidden behind a fence than under a skyscraper.
I am sure I am far from the only person who can appreciate the irony of a bunch of people who complain about communism arguin for the banning of a book, right?
There is a certain amount of irony to it. The flipside of the irony is the inhumanity of living under totalitarianism, and the rage that comes of seeing that inhumanity covered up.
But what do you do with that rage? Do you turn around and do the same things you despised?
After having to read Vargas Llosa, Cabrera Infante, Borges and Kundera in secret, the last thing I want to do is ban a book.
It’s a subtle point, but removing a book from a library because it’s inaccurate, distasteful, or inappropriate is not the same as “banning” a book. The authority in question here (the school) lacks the power to “ban” books. It selects some volumes for display and doesn’t select others: the question here is why it would “de-select” one it already selected. And if the answer is, “because the community doesn’t want it,” then it could be fairly said that it’s accommodating the community. Which is something public institutions ought to do.
That noted, it’s all horseshit grandstanding by an irrational stereotype of a foaming Cuban who is embarrassing us all, Cuban and non-Cuban alike. Don’t immigrants ever learn? First thing the Pilgrims did when they came here to escape their own religious persecution is persecute other religions. 350 years later, Cubans arriving to escape Castro’s political persection start their own campaign of political persecution.
Guess it all depends whose ox is gored.
Okay, I was just in Cuba and I never had a problem bringing in or out books and I noticed at least a few of the titles that Gansibele mentioned in the library of my host/family. (I may be misinterpreting that she was implying Cuba.)
And I am more than sick of Alesh’s “totalitarian” deal as if this could not be applied to a whole bunch of nations, including many in our backyard (all the more appalling b/c of U.S. government involvement that creates/maintains it). I also find it striking b/c he does not deal w the political prisioners and suppression in the U.S. Selective moralizing for the sake of pandering may be more egregious than not failing to have any moral perspectives whatsoever…
Hose B makes some good points whether we agree on the general characterizations or not. One of the things I find incredible is that in the war of manipulation and propaganda, a very real way of getting around things is by bureacratic decisions by those with an agenda. While I have family in Cuba that would foam at the mouth (and regularly do in our conversations) about me saying that a book is banned in Cuba b/c it is not available, they will split the semantic hairs.
There is so much more that I could write on this but it is simply not worth it, and not here. Stop fingers! I told you not to bother!
First of all I’m a he. Second, I mention authors, not titles. Third, what are you taling about? I read them in Cuba, so obviously they exist there. I borrowed them from friends (writers, painters, etc) who brought them into the country. But you won’t find them on the bookstores, with the exception of a compilation of Borges essays published in the early nineties, and “La ciudad y los perros” published before Vargas Llosa broke with Cuba. You won’t find them in the curriculum of Cuba’s schools (again, “La ciudad y los perros” is the exception).
You wouldn’t find either (in books or lessons) these Cuban authors: Zoe Valdés, Reinaldo Arenas, Edmundo Desnoes (even though he’s being “rediscovered” right now), Daina Chaviano, Jesus Díaz and many others.
When I was growing up, those authors and a bunch of others were banned. You could get in real trouble if you brought one to school. In the nineties, as part of the process of “rectificación de errores” (correction of mistakes), some of tose attitudes relaxed. But still those books wouldn’t be published or sold (except for during Havana’s Book Fair, and that’s an event closed to the general public and the books are sold in US dollars).
And I’m not even going to get into the subject of the illegal independent librarians and how you can go to jail for the crime of lending a banned book. Don’t believe me? Here’s Ray Bradbury:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45050
Bad in Havana, bad in Miami. Period. I’ll make sure to duplicate my annual ACLU fees so they can slap those pandering dunces on the School Board with the lawsuit they deserve.
And you know what the saddest part is? Tomorrow Castro is going to be gloating over this. Way to give him yet another chance to show the world what intolerant extremists Cuban exiles are. A phyrric victory if there was ever one.
John’s dead on in at least one regard: ass-clenched bueaurocrats with an agenda, particularly one created by policy stooges above them, can enforce as strict an ideological repressive state as a booted militia. And from the standpoint of the little guy, it’s all the same damn thing. Just as one mugger can ruin an entire neighborhood, one dipshit (with an agenda) on a board can screw over an entire school system.
“Pandering dunce,” gansibele? I like it a lot.