C O N F I D E N C I A L, AUTORES FIRMANTES, 2015
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable
Original documents discovered by historian Dr. Lillian Guerra in the Ministry of Culture, Cuba. Facsimiles were created by Coco Fusco with the support of Alejandro Yoshii and Jennie Putvin. Translations into English by Coco Fusco, 2015.
English translation of the letters appears below. Images of the documents are in the Confidencial: Autores Firmantes Gallery.
1. To: Comrade René Roca DGICL -‐ 2852 Date: May 21 1971
Director Group III CONFIDENTIAL General Management Office
SUBJECT:
I instruct you so that you give the pertinent orders for the urgent removal of the following names and authors from international commerce and from the lists and catalogues of our organization. In the coming hours we will be adding new names and titles, and will also be making decisions regarding national circulation.
JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Sartre Visits Cuba
The Captive of Venice, Tintoretto The Words
What is Literature? Volumes I and II The Search for Method
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
The Cubs
JULIO CORTAZAR
Hopscotch Stories
About Julio Cortazar (Casa Notebooks)
JORGE SEMPRUN
The Long Journey
CARLOS FRANQUI
The Book of the Twelve
ITALO CALVINO
The Cloven Viscount
MARGUERITE DURAS
Whole Days in the Trees
LUIS (sic) GOYTISOLO
The Island
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Casa, Multiple
DGICL-2852
VARGAS LLOSA, CORTAZAR, FUENTES, OTHERS
Fifteen Stories from Latin America
JAN KOTT
Shakespeare, Our Contemporary
NICANOR PARRA
Poems
EDUARDO HERA LEON
The Steps on the Grass
NORBERTO FUENTES
The Condemned of the County
If there are obstacles to or comments against carrying out these instructions I ask that you please inform me as quickly as possible, as well as letting me know about the measures to be taken with the warehoused stock of these works. These measures should be taken with the highest degree of discretion possible so as not to create a ruckus about the issue.
Revolutionarily,
Rolando Rodríguez
General Manager
cc: Miguel Rodríguez, Editor in Chief
Eduardo Neira, International Relations
CONFIDENTIAL
Comrade Rolando Rodríguez May 22 1971
General Manager The Year of Productivity
Dept. of International Relations
Comrade:
Expanding upon our memo from from May 19th, we continue with a list of titles of books that we recommend be withdrawn form circulation. We would like to clarify that since there is no complete list of books published by the organization, we cannot be sure yet if our list is exhaustive.
1. Poems for Che
2. New Spanish Poetry
3. The Route of Hernan Cortez - Benítez
4. Limits and Potentialities of the May Movement - ANDRE GORZ
5. The Burning Plain - JUAN RULFO
6. Pedro Páramo
7. Tropisms - N. SARRAUTE
8. A Brief History of the Mexican Revolution - SILVA HERZOG
9. Las Casas and Trujillo - HANS MAGNUS - ENZENBERGER
10. Juan Rulfo - Multiple Evaluations
11. OCTAVIO PAZ
12. CLARIDAD ALEGRIA
13. R. ROSSANDA
Revolutionarily,
Fatherland or Death
We Shall Win!
DGICL – 2901 - (Confidential)
DOCUMENT I
Policy for the CUBAN BOOK INSTITUTE to carry out with regard to those intellectuals (and their works) that have taken a position of open hostility toward the Cuban Revolution due to the Heberto Padilla case
Due to the detention of Heberto Padilla – for frankly counterrevolutionary activities – a group of European and Latin American intellectuals (many of the latter being residents of European capitals), have assumed an attitude of open hostility toward the Cuban Revolution – an attitude that was first shown by the signing of the document that was sent to the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government, Commander Fidel Castro; and then by the signing of the second document, also addressed to comrade Fidel, dated after the end of the National Congress of Education and Culture; and the writing of a document sent by Mexican intellectuals, and in various declarations that some of these intellectuals have made to the Mexican press, and other Latin American magazines.
After analyzing the documents we have noted that some of these intellectuals are signatories of the first and second documents sent to our government; signatories as well of the letter from Mexico, and that they have made declarations against our revolution. This is to say, that
DGICL – 2901 - (Confidential) 2.
some of these intellectuals display an open, active and manifest hostility toward our revolution and government. There are others who, after having signed the first documents, did not sign the other two, nor have they made declarations against our revolution. This attitude is to be expected given that they have not publically recognized their having been unjust in their attacks nor have they retracted them.
Confronted with this situation, we are compelled to evaluate the degree of participation of these intellectuals – their degree of involvement is indisputably not the same in all those implicated. For this reason, we think that, if different degrees of participation exist among the said intellectuals, it is necessary to make pertinent distinctions with regard to this case.
There in one person in particular that draws our attention and that is Jesús Silva Herzog, who we think has really been a victim – give his state of decrepitude – of those counterrevolutionary intellectuals who have taken advantage of this situation to obtain a signature of someone like Silva Herzog appear on their document.
We consider it important to highlight all the counterrevolutionary hate that is hidden in the signatures on the second document sent from Paris to comrade Fidel, in which with incredible virulence, our revolution is attacked,
DGICL – 2901 – (Confidential) 3.
accusing it of using draconian methods to “extract” Heberto Padilla’s self-criticism letter. It should be taken into account that already on this date the National Congress of Education and Culture had finished and Fidel spoke at the end; hence the document can be considered as a response to these events.
Looking at the situation in this way we might ask: what should the policy of the Cuban Book Institute be with respect to the attitude of these intellectuals? And what attitude should be taken with regard to their works?
We think that we should outline the actions to be taken in the following terms:
1. There will be no publishing of any works by the signatories of these documents, nor of those who have made declarations against the revolution and the Cuban government.
2. In the case of those authors whose works –- of recognized value due to their magnitude and quality -- will transcend them and will surely survive them, we should allow history to judge them and determine, on a case by case basis, if they merit being published or not, in the future, based on the criteria that artistic, literary, and scientific creation is part of the patrimony of humanity and not that of its creators.
3. Make an obligatory distinction, give the different levels of engagement, among the many cases and
DGICL – 2901 - (Confidential) 4.
analyze the situation of those who have made declarations in which they recognize how mistaken the positions that they had assumed were or in which they have sent a signal by not signing the aforementioned documents.
4. With regard to export, we should not sell any of the works by these intellectuals outside the country. We should also remove their works from the catalogues we use for export purposes.
5. With regard to national distribution, we should remove titles by these authors from sales if necessary. We consider that this should be done with the works of those who have assumed an openly anti-Cuban attitude. It is possible that many of these titles are already out of stock in bookstores, but if any remain they should be removed.
6. As a means of preserving works that deserve to be saved because of their value, those titles that are withdrawn from sale and reading rooms should be sent to libraries for their conservation and use.
7. With regard to general catalogues from our publishing houses that are in the process of producing books by these intellectuals, that process should be stopped until further notice pending a decision about what other actions to take, which will be made when conditions permit it
Havana, June 16 1971
THE YEAR OF PRODUCTIVITY DGICL: 2995 (CONFIDENTIAL)
Comrade Miguel Rodriguez Varela Editor in Chief
Comrade René Roca Muchulí Director Group III
Comrade Eduardo Neira García International Relations
Due to the situation that has developed in the last few weeks, we have made a final decision with respect to those who have assumed positions relating to the so-‐called Padilla case, which is to say those who say that the self-‐criticism was made under pressure or as a result of torture.
In this case there are those signatories of the second letter and those that, in statements and declarations, in cables and publications, have insinuated as much. Among them are Gabriel García Márquez and others who for greater accuracy, I include in an attached list.
The works of these same people, in accordance with the approach set out in the documents produced by this office, should be suppressed in the following manner:
a) All future publication possibilities.
b) The lists that appear in books that have been published in this country.
c) All catalogues
d) Catalogues of titles for export
e) Export
f) The circulation of their works, when they are found to be in reading rooms, or in bookstores.
g) The mention of these people in our publications, bulletins, etc.
h) References to these people, whatever form it might take, other than to make explicit that they are enemies of the revolution and definitely counterrevolutionary
i) Restriction on import of works by these same writers.
j) Absolute freeze of any and all warehouse stock.
Lastly, these measures should be adequate with respect to our foreign distributors and should be known in our provinces, while we insist on a high level of discretion in their application.
Proceed with communicating the measures taken to fulfill these provisions and the number of pertinent works that are currently in stock.
Revolutionarily,
Rolando Rodríguez General Manager
There are other national authors such as:
Padilla – Arrufat – César López – Yanes – Belkys Cuza – Buzzi – Reinaldo Arenas – Nogueras – Casaus or Pablo Armando Fernandez.
As examples, whose ideological attitude is known, but we consider that it would not be tactical to withdraw their books since we do not yet have precise analysis of those particular cases and the national policies with respect to them.
With regard to the foreign authors listed at the beginning here, although we believe that they did not deserve to be circulated in Cuba because of the attitude they have assumed, they should be carefully studied and it is urgent that the decision to withdraw them and of the method to be used be made, as it is probable that there will be leaks and this will have serious repercussions because of the quantity and the reach of the titles in question.
Revolutionarily,
FATHERLAND OR DEATH WE SHALL WIN!