The Friends of Cuban Libraries needs you.

I just received the following from Robert Kent, Co-chair of the Friends of Cuban Libraries.

If you are in or near Pasadena this week, please consider lending a hand to those Cubans incarcerated for simply lending books and standing firm against people like Michael Gorman of the ALA, who through ignorance, arrogance, and support for fidel castro's regime are complicit in the human rights violations gainst the Cuban people.

Dear library bloggers:

You are in a unique position to exert influence on important issues, and I would like to bring such an issue to your attention. The California Library Association (CLA) begins its annual conference at the end of this week. Michael Gorman, the president of the ALA, will attend the CLA conference, and his appearance there presents an opportunity to help the people in Cuba who are being persecuted for daring to open uncensored libraries. It is not known how many events Gorman will be attending (please consult the CLA conference website), but he will definitely be speaking on Sunday, Nov. 6, from 12:00 to 1:30 P.M., at the CLA's Annual Coulter Lecture and Luncheon.

As some of you may know, the Friends of Cuban Libraries tried recently to contact Michael Gorman. We appealed for his help in saving the life of Victor Rolando Arroyo, an imprisoned independent librarian who was near death as a result of a hunger strike to protest mistreatment. On Oct. 3 the Friends even made an emergency telephone call to Gorman's office. He was "busy," but his receptionist passed on word that he had promised to return the emergency phone call. In fact, he has failed to return the call, or to respond to e-mail messages on this subject.

Victor Rolando Arroyo is now out of danger, but Mr. Gorman's refusal to respond to emergency appeals to save a human life is troubling. Bloggers have an important role in informing and energizing the public, including the California librarians who will be attending the CLA conference. I hope you will generously address this issue on your blogs. Please ask your readers to approach Michael Gorman at the CLA conference and politely ask him why he has not responded to appeals to save the life of Victor Rolando Arroyo.

An important principle in involved here, and I think you will agree that Michael Gorman, as president of the ALA and a human being, has a professional and moral duty to respond to questions involving efforts to save the life of a colleague.

As background information, printed below is the text of an Oct. 3 Open Letter from the Friends of Cuban Libraries to Michael Gorman. Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Robert Kent
Co-chair, The Friends of Cuban Libraries
(http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org)
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Saving a life: Open letter to ALA president

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2005 (Friends of Cuban Libraries) -

Dear Mr. Gorman: October 20, 2005

On October 3 I made a telephone call to your office to request support for saving the life of an imprisoned Cuban librarian, Victor Rolando Arroyo, who was near death as a result of a prolonged hunger strike. The receptionist who answered the telephone was informed of the emergency nature of the call, and she tried without success to put the call through. But she did say you had promised to return my emergency telephone call.

Sadly, as of today, no return telephone call has been received. This effort to save the life of Victor Rolando Arroyo followed upon an earlier message sent to your e-mail address on September 27. The e-mail message did not receive an answer either.

In March 2003 the Reyes Magos Library, of which Mr. Arroyo is the director, was raided by the Cuban security police, and he was arrested. According to secret government documents smuggled off the island and published on the Internet, the contents of which the ALA refuses to even acknowledge, Cuban courts ordered the confiscation or burning of thousands of library books during the 2003 crackdown on the island's independent librarians. In a similar pattern dating to 1998, when Cuba's innovative free library movement was founded, the persecution of the independent librarians has been systematically denied, ignored and covered up by a group of extremists within the ALA who dominate key committees. Among them are the International Relations Committee and the Intellectual Freedom Committee. This dereliction of duty continues due to ongoing inattention on the part of the well-meaning but complacent majority on the ALA's governing Council, which declines to examine the distorted investigative reports on Cuba issued by extremist-dominated ALA committees upon which ALA policy is based.

Victor Rolando Arroyo, along with other independent Cuban librarians, is now serving a 20-year jail term and has been named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. In a pattern which is now familiar, the ALA has refused to protest, or even acknowledge the existence of, the Castro regime's ongoing persecution of Cuban citizens for the alleged crime of founding a network of uncensored libraries to challenge government control of information.

Fortunately, thanks to appeals issued by respected human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, the Cuban government finally took measures to save the life of Victor Rolando Arroyo.

We in the Friends of Cuban Libraries would appreciate learning why, as president of the American Library Association, you have not responded to appeals to help save the life of Victor Rolando Arroyo, and why the ALA continues to ignore the Cuban government's bookburning and persecution of librarians.

Sincerely,

Robert Kent
Co-chair, The Friends of Cuban Libraries

Posted by Val Prieto at October 31, 2005 09:18 AM

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Posted by: Kathleen at October 31, 2005 12:50 PM