Aracely believes in the book’s usefulness for sharing knowledge and believes that physical support will never disappear despite technological advances. Photo: Maykel Espinosa Rodriguez Author: Mikel Espinosa Rodriguez

At 85, Araceli Garcia-Carranza Bassetti never forgets the day she first started working at the National Library. It was the 1st. February 1962, and a 25-year-old girl, recently graduated in philosophy and literature, entered the institute, driven by the curiosity that the temples of knowledge arouse in those who enjoy the sweet privilege of reading, critical reflection and research.

What this young woman did not know was that, six decades later, she would be recognized as one of the most distinguished Cuban intellectuals, for her outstanding work as a librarian, researcher and bibliographer, but above all for her entire life devoted to the world. letters in which we live. Let’s celebrate the 31st together. International Book Fair in Havana.

These days, Araceli lives her own hustle and bustle that accompanies the preparations for the party that is just beginning and where she will be one of the winners along with the writer and winner of the National Literary Prize 2021 Julio Travieso. In the midst of interviews, protocol activities, conference preparations, events that add to his duties as head of the research department of the José Martí National Library (BNJM), García-Carranza makes room for a conversation with rebellious youth and view interesting facts about his six decades of remarkable work.

“Right now, work is everything for me,” says a well-known bibliographer who, despite her advanced age and some mobility issues, visits her BNJM office at least once a week to continue her duties. things she is passionate about.

“When I entered the institute, I started doing analytical indexes, but soon fell in love with bibliography, because I was reading BNJM, a publication that cultivates biobibliography, and this caught my attention. Over the years, the institute has been creating a section on the biobibliography of deceased intellectuals, and I was interested in developing this line of work, ”comments the researcher, one of the first tasks of which was to work with Marty’s bibliography, which she maintains today.

Demonstrating her simplicity, Aracely proudly relates that Cynthio Vitier, her colleague in the Cuban collections department, prepared Martí’s yearbook and once asked him to compile a bibliography for the edition. “I started compiling Marty’s bibliography at the Library up to number 7. In 1977, Dr. Armando Hart Davalos founded the Marty Research Center and they took over the yearbook, although I continued to work on Marty’s bibliography until today and we already have the edition in Progress. Yearbook 45” warns who has been awarded various awards, such as the 2003 Cultural Studies Award.

Martí was part of the beginning of the biobibliographic work, focused primarily on prominent figures in Cuban literature, carried out by García-Carranza.
with care, selflessness, patience and celibacy, as, he assures, befits a good bibliographer. Through his hands passed the works of the leading figures of our culture, such as Alejo Carpentier, Eusebio Leal, Emilio Roig, Lezama Lima, whose reviews Araceli returned to us in the form of books, critical essays or accurate observations from his professional field.

But the beginning of this interest stems from his approach to the work of Don Fernando Ortiz. “Before the death of Don Fernando Ortiz, the National Library had to go in search of his library. Since I was the head of the Cuban Collection, the head of the selection, Maria Lastio, invited me to participate in the program. When we brought the texts, and I began to arrange them on the shelves, it occurred to me to make a biobibliography of don Fernando Ortiz, and this was my debut in this matter, ”says the scholar, who wrote several texts with their bibliographic results.

To keep the reader happy

Another special fact related to its production is that of Alejo Carpentier, with whom he met and with whom he developed a strong friendship based on his interest in the bio-bibliography of this remarkable writer. “Again, through Maria Lastio, I wrote to Carpentier in the 70s, when
He served as an adviser to the minister of the Cuban embassy in France to propose a bio-bibliography and he immediately responded to me with his approval.

“From that moment on, every time I came to Cuba, he would go to the library to bring me books, press clippings, the manuscripts of all his great novels, and there I started doing all the biobibliography, I worked on all the manuscripts and typescripts. , unpublished sections of his catalog. It was published by Letras Cubanas in 1984,” says the bibliographer, who has published several texts about the author’s work. Age of Enlightenmentwhich he continues to investigate, and will even publish new material on the subject in this issue of the Fair.

The Road to Carpentier: Bibliographic and Critical Essays on Alejo Carpentierwill be one of the author’s titles, which, together with Bibliography of Cynthio Vitierwill be added to Knowledge as passionRafael Acosta de Arriba, who compiled a selection of selected texts by his colleague at the head of the BNJM magazine.

These will be some of the treats that Araceli will receive during these holidays, in which, on her behalf, the entire Cuban library sector will also receive a tribute. “To work in a library, you need to have a certain curiosity and, above all, an interest in everything you do. This is a difficult job because the librarian, even if he does not want to, faces all branches of knowledge. I like it when a reader leaves the library happy. We have to provide services, we have to attract Cubans to the libraries, because otherwise we will not have cultured people,” Garcia-Carranza explains.

Araceli controls his confidence: “I must remain the way I am until life allows me.” She has a lot of work ahead of her and is taking on the challenge with the integrity of her calling, which she loves. He is currently working on completing the publication of three volumes (only one has been published) of Armando Hart’s bio-bibliography with the help of his widow; but he still has time for Marty, Carpentier, Lezama and, lately, he works with the bibliography of Graziella Pogolotti.

Gone were the lessons given to him by such figures as Jorge Maniach and Roberto Fernandez Retamar at the university, the fascination of knowing that he would be working with Cynthio Vitier, whom he had read with admiration a few months before. This is the sun of the moral world; the pleasure of getting lost in this paradise he calls a library and creating wonderful bibliographic compositions, such as those on the wars of independence, or his approximations to the work of cultural gems such as Antonio Baciller y Morales, the first Cuban bibliographer.

Araceli Garcia-Carranza, as Rafael Acosta de Arriba assures, is an institution within an institution. “It has been a privilege for me to be in the National Library for 60 years. This place is heaven and I feel full there. There will always be problems and difficulties around, but with decency, good manners, education, and with the strength that your calling gives you, you can get ahead.

Source: Juventud Rebelde