The story
Feria Internacional del Libro de La Habana in Havana
Tracing its roots to a 1937 open-air book exhibition and formally established in 1982, the Feria Internacional del Libro de La Habana has been held annually since 2000 at the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana, the colonial fortress overlooking Havana harbour. After its February opening in the capital, the fair tours provincial cities across Cuba over the following weeks.
The Feria Internacional del Libro de La Habana traces its lineage to an open-air book exhibition held on the Malecon and the Paseo del Prado in May 1937, organised by Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring and Jose Luciano Franco with Havana's leading bookshops, but the fair in its modern form began in 1982 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, opening with a modest showing of Latin American publishers and a special exhibition devoted to Jose Marti, Nicolas Guillen and Georgi Dimitrov.