On his Twitter account, the president recalled that this day evokes the founding “in 1959 of the National Printing House, with Alejo Carpentier at the helm and an extraordinary work as the first book published: The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.”

“To read is to grow. And we grew up. Let’s grow more,” said Diaz-Canel, whose words are consistent with a speech by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, who said “We don’t tell the people ¡believe! We tell them ‘read!

Precisely, in commemoration of the Cuban Book Day, Casa de las Americas President Abel Prieto recalled Fidel’s message, as he “associated reading to emancipation, to decolonization, to freedom.”

After the establishment of the Printing House, the institution became the National Publishing House, later (1967) the Cuban Book Institute was created and a whole system of national and provincial publishing houses was founded.

The Cuban Book Day was established in 1981 as a tribute to that first step in the confirmation of the country’s publishing system and as an acknowedgement of writers, editors, designers, promoters, librarians, communicators, educators and all those who make up the world of literature.

jg/arm/mgt/lbl