Knowledge, traditions, stories, lives are amalgamated in literature which, over time, has varied its ways of reaching different audiences. However, its power to summon and unite people remains unchanged. With that certainty, the 31st Havana International Book Fair was inaugurated yesterday, with Colombia as guest of honor.
The opening ceremony, at the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, was attended by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez; the members of the Political Bureau, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power, Manuel Marrero Cruz, prime minister of the Republic and president of the National Assembly of People's Power, Manuel Marrero Cruz, president of the National Assembly of People's Power, Manuel Marrero Cruz, president of the National Assembly of People's Power; Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister, and Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President of the Republic; as well as Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party and head of its Ideological Department, and Inés María Chapman Waugh, Vice Prime Minister.
Colombian Vice President Francia Elena Márquez Mina, who arrived at the Fair accompanied by Minister of Culture Patricia Ariza Flórez, with the firm will to continue building histories between both nations, recalled the place of the Greater of the Antilles as a supportive witness of the writing of a new chapter in the path of her country in the search for peace.
This edition, in the words of Juan Rodriguez Cabrera, president of the Cuban Book Institute, expresses the will to preserve the cultural legacy on which the Cuban Revolution has been built.
Three hundred publishing novelties, more than 4,000 titles and some four million books are, as of today, available to Cuban readers.
In the greatest celebration of literature that takes place in our country, homage will be paid to the centenaries of Fina García Marruz and Antonio Núñez Jiménez, and will be dedicated to the prominent bibliographer Araceli García Carranza Bassetti and the outstanding writer Julio Travieso Serrano.