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16th International Book Fair, Cuba 2007 ends in
Santiago
SANTIAGO DE CUBA.—With the
conviction of having hosted the end of one of the
most significant cultural events in our country in
recent years, the people of Santiago bade farewell
yesterday to the 16th International Book Fair Cuba
2007, which has covered 40 localities of the island
in more than one month.
Before the formal closing, Iroel
Sánchez, president of the Cuban Book Institute, gave
the press revealing figures: 5,216,933 books were
sold, more than two million up on last year’s total,
and close to five-and-a half million people visited
the fair’s different venues.
Poet César López and historian
Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, to whom the fair was
dedicated, spoke emotionally on what live contact
with their readers meant to them. For Torres-Cuevas,
as Abel Prieto, minister of culture and a member of
the Political Bureau recalled, the fact of ending
the tour in Santiago was extremely evocative. As a
young adult he participated in the Literacy Campaign
in Contramaestre and now, the minister noted, he can
perceive the avidness for reading of the men and
women from those areas as one of the fruits that he
sowed there.
The next International Book Fair will highlight the
intellectual contributions of National Literature
Prize winners Graziella Pogolotti and Antón Arrufat,
while the invited country of honor passes from
Argentina, guest in this edition, to France.
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