A corner with books on the history, traditions, culture and literature of Cuba was opened on Thursday in the Sts Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia. This will be the 13th book corner of a foreign country to open in the National Library since the start of the initiative at the beginning of 2022, on an idea of the Director of the National Library, Krassimira Alexandrova.
Besides being a form of cultural exchange, the book spaces are also an opportunity for contact between the national libraries of the countries that have formed their own corner and Bulgaria’s National Library.
The Ambassador of Cuba to Bulgaria H.E. Mrs. Caridad Yamira Cueto Milián announced that the National Library of Cuba and the National Library of Bulgaria have started cooperation on a project to digitize the works of poets and revolutionaries Hristo Botev and José Martí.
Milián herself has selected and arranged the books in the Cuban book corner in Sofia. She said that she found the activity to be very exciting and that over the years more than 3,000 Cubans have studied and worked in Bulgaria, most of them spending many hours in the reading rooms of Bulgaria’s National Library.
Alexandrova drew attention to the valuable publications that are exhibited in the Cuban Corner, among which is the book One Hundred Hours with Fidel Castro, translated by Venko Kanev, as well as wonderful drawings from Bulgarian students, who were awarded in a competition, entitiled “Cuba – far and near”. “These book corners of literary wealth from different countries will be periodically updated and enriched,” Alexandrova said.
The opening of the Cuban book corner was attended by Deputy Tourism Minister Mariela Modeva, the ambassadors of Argentina, Vietnam, Algeria, Iran, Libya, Palestine, Serbia and North Macedonia, and many university professors, politicians, representatives of educational and cultural institutions.
Modeva expressed hope that the book corner provokes the interest of tourists to both countries.
Opera singer and violist Rosalina Kasabova performed an aria from Verdi’s “The Power of Destiny”, and young guitarist Philip Donkov, a sixth grader from the National Music School charmed the guests with his interpretations of Cuban melodies.
A Kazakhstani book corner will soon be opened in the National Library.
