TheXXXII Havana International Book Fair, which began last Thursday, February 15, caught the attention of the Cuban youtuberRosy Wanderlust, who visited the Castillo del Morro, venue of the event, and left his impressions on his channel.
“Today I am going to take you to the Book Fair, an annual event here in Cuba and extremely chaotic, because for me taking transportation to go there, to El Morro, seems terrible,” the young woman said at the same time. which recounted the different means of transportation that he had to take to reach his destination, always nuanced by the fuel crisis that Cuba is experiencing.
The YouTuber said that they were waiting too long for a bus to pass by, so she decided to take a collective taxi to Old Havana and from there take another bus that would cross the Havana tunnel. “Wow, how peaceful, how relaxing!” he said ironically while recounting the adventures.
He criticized that the Book Fair seemed like the Carnival of food, although in times ofshortage That seems to be more of a virtue than a deplorable fact in the Cuban context.
In the images that the young woman showed, empty shelves were visualized, exorbitant prices on school and office supplies, which in other places would have much lower values, the usual queues, which are a heritage of the Cuban imagination, especially in these types of events that call for to the massiveness, but above all, the lack of book proposals was striking.
His conclusion to the visit to the Book Fair was one of disappointment. He regretted having spent almost two hours traveling to El Morro, only to be at the venue for 40 minutes.
“I tried to make this an instructive video, that it had many nice things, that it was more dynamic, but life passes away here in transportation,” was his farewell.
The Fair, which has Brazil as the guest of honor, was inaugurated last Thursday, February 15, with the presence of the Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez. At that event, the president of the Cuban Book Institute, Juan Rodríguez Cabrera, assured that there were “three million physical books and two thousand digital books,” a proposal that apparently has not been displayed on the shelves of the event.
In a scenario where much has not changed for the better compared to the previous year and in which the Cuban government has plunged the island into a serious economic crisis, the complaints from the last edition seem to be recycled in this event.
In 2023,Dozens of Cuban mothers complained online about the high prices at the Havana Book Fair, and compared it to Dubai, one of the most expensive cities in the world.
"Hello, I'm stopping by to invite you to the Dubai Book Fair, to cry that the tea was lost, good afternoon," said a woman on Facebook.
Another added in another publication: "Mommies, if you go to the book fair, get ready, I went alone and spent a lot. Imagine with the children, candlelight, hold on to the brush."
What do you think?
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