Imagine yourself as a Cuban academic. You live in a country that takes pride in having one of the highest educated populations in the Western hemisphere, with full literacy. Yet, as a Cuban academic and reader you face a great challenge: How do you get hold of the books that you are after? More often than not, the subsidized state bookstores do not always stock them. Access to Internet is limited, and Amazon is not an option. A search for a specific book might take you weeks. Perhaps you ask around, above all in second-hand bookstores that might help you locate it – if you can afford to pay for second-hand books, that is. Like new books published abroad, these can be considerably more expensive than new subsidized books from Cuban publishing houses and often not within reach for people with a Cuban paycheck. Then there are libraries, and friends. Texts also circulate electronically in Cuba these days, mostly unofficially and via social or (semi-)professional networks. And, eventually, there is the annual Feria Internacional del Libro. The 2016 edition took place in Havana between February 11 and 21, with provincial mini-fairs beginning at the start of March. As usual, Cuban and foreign publishers were present, and this year, close to a thousand new titles were launched, making the Feria a place for finding books.
The rest of the year, however, it is always a surprise if an interesting book comes your way. Such was the case toward the end of the three day 13th International Symposium on Literary Translation, organized in Havana in November 2015 by the Asociación Cubana de Traductores e Intérpretes (Cuban Association for Translators and Interpreters). Big news was announced: All participants would be given a free copy of Teorías contemporáneas de la traducción (2014). The book is a partial translation into Spanish of Anthony Pym’s Exploring Translation Theories (2010), one of the most widely used introductory textbooks in the discipline of Translation Studies, by one of the best-known figures in contemporary translation theory. I, at least, was both astonished and glad when this was announced. Not for my own part, but on behalf of the Cuban scholars, because I know how difficult it can be to get hold of books and texts. Whereas I, in Norway, can access most texts without even leaving my desk (we have an excellent library service at my university), here in Cuba consultar bibliografía takes time, and effort, and a lot of time.
According to Lourdes Arencibia, one of the conference organizers and a central figure among Cuban translators and translation scholars, the Pym edition was a gift from the author himself. Cuban publishing houses, which are state owned and subsidized, do not pay international royalties. This means that la cesión de derechos or the transfer of copyright is the only option for international contemporary writers to be published in the island: They must give up all copyright claims. Therefore, the Cuban book industry is limited by the goodwill of foreign authors and publishers. In Cuba, Teorías contemporáneas de la traducción was published by Editorial Arte y Literatura, a publisher under the auspices of the Instituto Cubano del Libro (National Book Institute). Before arriving in the hands of Cuban translators and translation scholars, the book had taken a winding trajectory. Arencibia explained to me that a portion of the print run was allocated to members of the translators’ association, but that when the book came out, the association did not hear from the publisher. Instead, Pym’s book appeared in bookstores like Alma Mater, by the University of Havana, and at some institutions, like the Literature and Linguistics Institute. The Translators’ Association, however, was left out despite the initial arrangement. Only over a year after publication (February 2014), boxes of the title were in the Instituto del Libro’s stockroom, amidst other dusty boxes, thanks to Arencibia’s tenacity: she enlisted no less than the Institute’s director to help in the search. At last, during the symposium the book was available for us to indulge.
So it can be seemingly arbitrary. In this case, single individuals in single institutions were key to making just one important theoretical work available to the Cuban translation community (and only to the ones who happened to be present at the symposium at the time when the book was distributed. If you weren’t there, te lo perdiste, or rather, your loss). And it is not only about getting the book published. Does that really matter if the printed books are left in a broken truck along the distribution route (a hypothetical example in this case, although a well-known situation in Cuba) or stored away in boxes in ways that require in-depth investigations to be able to relocate them? The importation and circulation of ideas through texts in Cuba can be a labyrinth full of obstacles. It is a place where unpredictability reigns, and where creative minds must resolver, inventar and conseguir (still the most important verbs in cubano) to publish, distribute, read and be read.
It is hard to measure exactly how well known Pym’s and other translation theorists’ work is among Cuban translators and translation scholars. What is for sure is that during these three days of the symposium, only one or two presentations actively responded to or applied (modern) translation theory – the American scholar Lawrence Venuti was one of those few mentioned. This seems to reflect the general trend: translation theory has only to a very limited extent circulated among Cuban academics with translation interests, and this situation is not particular for the discipline of Translation Studies. “Cuba es un país antiteórico” (Cuba is an antitheoretical country), said Desiderio Navarro – Cuban critic, translator and editor, and advisor of the Pym publication – at the book presentation. He referenced the broader history of the circulation of theory on the island, strongly influenced by what he calls the antitheoretical traditions of Spain and North America. This is one of the reasons, at least, why translation theory books are nearly inexistent in Cuban libraries, study plans and publishing plans.
Navarro has his own cultural-theoretical project through the Centro Criterios, dedicated precisely to the dissemination of theory and ideas, above all through the journal with the same name, Criterios. Every now and then, Navarro organizes 1001 textos en una noche (1001 texts in one night). If you showed up with a USB memory stick to the next one, Navarro promised to get you access to all of Pym’s academic articles, as well as other translation studies books. And some 989 other texts, in Spanish (originals and translations), but also in English, French or other Romance languages. Underway since 2007, Navarro’s initiative is one important step toward a broader theoretical orientation in Cuban research and thought. Beyond the 1001 textos en una noche, the occasional book by Pym, or the Feria, we can hope for more initiatives in the future – both individual and state policy-driven – that can facilitate easier access to ideas and theories through books and texts in Cuba. Meanwhile, the book search continues, and every once in a while you will even experience that you find what you are looking for.
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Cover Image: Detail of Havana’s 2015 International Book Fair poster.