CAMAGÜEY- An ambitious recovery project for the Camagüeyan book shops is carried out since a little less than a year with the objective of turning such spaces in cultural centers of the community and dignify the Camagüeyan writer.
The initiative trains the staff in charge of selling the books as cultural promoters for all kinds of audiences, expressed Yunielkis Naranjo Guerra, director of the Provincial Book and Literature Center in Camagüey. His institution has united efforts with the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), the project Golpe a golpe, the Union of Writers and Artists (Uneac), the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and the Provincial assembly of People’s Power.
Although the province currently has 24 book stores, 4 outlets, the promotion center Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and Editorial Ácana, and the income plan rises to over a million pesos, the constructive state of most facilities in unfavorable and the book had a slow sales motion.
As pointed out by Naranjo Guerra, the situation is not completely solved, but this 2019 has turned out positive since they reopened the doors of the “Mariana Grajales”, “Ateneo Viet Nam” and “Carlos Marx”, in the capital municipality, as well as the “Ana Betancourt” in Sibanicú.
The figures raised from sales has increased, standing out the “Antonio Suárez”, “América Latina” and the traveling “Piti Fajardo”. The book shops have been inserted in different popular spaces, such as the All-Star Game and the Agricultural Fairs. However, some do not have expectations of meeting the annual plan related to the commercialization of items. In other cases, the volumes get old in the shelves and do not rotate in the provincial network.
Soon, it is intended to implement a chain of literary cafés, the most relevant are the proposals for the “Antonio Suárez” (with a space devoted to the work of Nicolás Guillén and the son), one within the Provincial Hospital Manuel Ascunce Domenech and another in the University of Camagüey, this last one is a joint project with the faculty of Language and Communication of the institution.
Besides, some book shops will carry the names of well-known Camagüeyan writers, as a way of tribute to those creators that constitute the oxygen of culture.
The Provincial Book and Literature Center in Camagüey was created in 1990. Ever since, it encourages the habit of reading in the population, besides it edits and commercializes titles by Cuban and Latin American authors.
- Translated by Elianna Díaz Mendieta