It could be said that all writers are good readers; However, not all writers dedicate their time to promoting literature, beyond their personal work. The experienced author from Pinar del Río Alberto Peraza Ceballos He is one of the convinced defenders of the act of reading, reading before writing, as he always recommends to those who decide to venture into the world of letters.
In his case, the first readings were the titles of Jules Verne, when he was only about eight or nine years old, and probably no one in the family imagined – much less him – that that little boy would also become a writer.
Awards such as the 2019 Nicolás Guillén poetry prize; The Golden Age award from the Cuban Book Institute and La Rosa Blanca for Children’s and Youth Literature endorse the acceptance of his texts. But, Peraza is, above all, a distinguished and tireless literary promoter.
Since the first times in the primary school of his native Río Seco, in San Juan y Martínez, it has been almost 50 years of inviting reading. Currently he is the host of Como pan Caliente, one of the most liked spaces at the Pinar Book Fair; of regular clubs in the Ramón González Coro provincial library and a segment of the cultural magazine Somos Contigo of Radio Guamá. In each scenario, the desire to bring the other closer to a book is invariable.
“Promoting reading is one of the most important tasks that human beings have, and if we are writers, much more so. I am always guided by Martí’s phrase: ‘Reading is growing.’ It helps you grow inside and out.”
He has worked with audiences of different ages. Is there a stage in life that is most conducive to promoting a love of reading?
“It can be encouraged at any time, but it is practically like learning to speak. It is significant to learn to read in early childhood, although I know adults who go to my clubs and who have confessed to me that they had never read before.
“One day we were at the library entrance talking about Carilda Oliver, a pedicab driver approached, bought the book we were promoting and the following Saturday he arrived with a poem he had learned. He told me that she had never learned a poem, so I asked her: ‘Would it be good for you to waste an hour of your time working on the pedicab to come here to the club?’ And he answered me: ‘This hour is more profitable for me.’ Today he is one of the regular participants in the space. Reading at any age is good, and an excellent reader is under any stone.”
In addition to your pedagogical training and the charisma to attract the attention of others, what resources do you use to make others fall in love with a book?
“The literary promoter has to have communication skills to convince. I look for link points between public libraries, school libraries and bookstores. That is why our Saturday space at the Provincial Library is aimed at presenting the public with books that they can take home, that they can give as gifts, but also that they can find in the back of the Library because they are no longer for sale. And we always bring this to school libraries as activities before and after the teaching and learning process.
“If you precede a History class that deals with the Invasion from the East to the West with a story inspired by that event such as The scarf, by Nersys Felipe, the child now gets closer to the historical event. There are many ways to bring a child closer to a book; for example, inviting him to dramatize a fragment, with a riddle; Giving a book is also a great motivation.”
Recently he brought to Mexican lands a sample of Cuban literature, especially from Pinar del Río. How were our letters received there?
“I was lucky enough to be in the two most important libraries in Mexico, where we had a work session and, in addition, donations of books by authors from Pinar del Río and from all over the country. The main objective was to develop an entire campaign for reading, relying on the Editorial Cauce project, A channel to the school library. I also brought books from Ediciones Loynaz.
“I taught a course on Latin American Children’s and Youth Literature at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, the second largest in that country. I was able to confirm that Cuban literature is known. We also went to a very intricate little school, in a very cold place, there I asked about José Martí and there was total silence, I was there for about eight hours and when I left everyone knew who José Martí was. There I left several copies of The Golden Age”.
What experiences earned your admiration as a literary promoter?
“In Mexico, a lot of work is done on books with a Braille reading system, including transcription in sign language. In the little school I was talking about, each child must plant a small pine tree, take care of it daily; In celebrations, cards are placed in it and one day they replant it in the forest. I thought it was a beautiful idea to promote reading.
“I liked the very direct work that exists between publishers and libraries. The publishers receive the texts to publish and do not leave them until they reach the recipient. In Cuba it is not like that, there is a divorce between the publisher and the distribution network, and it should not be, the publisher has to be responsible until the book reaches the hands of its final recipient.
Do we have good readers today in Cuba?
“All readers are good; I would call someone who has not discovered that he can read a bad reader, not that he knows how to read but that he can read. Fatally, we do not have all the readers we would like, but there are many readers on the networks, internet sites, there are even writers who already make comics to share on social networks, it is a way to attract young people.
“It is true that there are those who entertain themselves a lot in the most vain communication and waste time reading, but we live in very turbulent times, times in which the priorities have become spiritual and material subsistence. So, I recommend everyone, readers and non-readers, to pick up a book. “Literature brings you closer, even through fiction, to very great universal realities.”
