7 News Belize

A Brief History of Belizean Books
posted (April 21, 2010)
This is book week – and though the printed word is not as popular as it once was –– there are still many stories that can only be told on paper. And a special exhibition at the image factor has gathered all of them – or almost all.

Curator Yasser Musa and told us about the collection that is on display:

Yasser Musa, Curator, Image Factory,
"We've decided to gather as many books that have been published in Belize or about Belize. And to my surprise, we came up with almost 300 books so I am really happy to present to the public this exhibit of books."

Jules Vasquez, Reporting,
"How comprehensive or thorough is this? "

Yasser Musa,
"Well I think its fairly comprehensive because we've gotten books from 3 main collections. First, the Craig Family collection. As you know, Ms. Meg has been an instrumental person, especially in the area of culture and history and her book collection is phenomenal. As you can see in our rare books, 95 percent of those books belong to her family collection. Books mainly from the 1920's, 30's, 40's and a few from the 19th century, the 1880's and so. In addition to that, we decided to also focus on a publisher – Cubola Books – and we have most of their books on display as well. And finally we have a display of books that we here, at the Image Factory, have published in the area of culture and art, as well as books from independent publishers that we have in our collection. So I think that the combination of those three collections would give you a good sampling of whats been published in the past 120 years."

"Anytime you have an exhibit, you want to see what is the oldest book and I think it would be good to look at the 1888 book about San Pedro that we have. I think while this exhibition is a cause for celebration, we should also reflect on the great problems we have in the areas of reading and writing in this country."


Montserrat Casademunt of Cubola Books
"But I really think there is a future for the printed book in Belize because there is many of us would still prefer to sit down, to sit in a hammock and pick up a book and read and turn the pages. It's a more wholesome experience."

Jules Vasquez,
"This building is on fire. You cant leave with everything. Which book would you grab from this building and run out with?"

Montserrat Casademunt of Cubola Books
"Oh that's a very difficult question. I will find a young poet. Yes. This is the book I will take."

Those are the words from Montserrat Casademunt of Cubola Books which going for 38 years is Belize's longest established media house. She told us about the activities planned for book week:

Montserrat Casademunt of Cubola Books
"We have an opening tomorrow in Belmopan. At the George Price Center with a book exhibit. We managed to invite this year a few international publishers so we are calling it the First International Book Fair even if it is a very small book fair. I think it is a first step towards building a really good international book fair later on. In the afternoon, we have two panel discussions at UB – The Future of Books and Copyright. And then we move the event to Belize City for 2 days – Friday and Saturday. Anybody is invited to come to the Bliss. We'll have all kinds of activities from library activities to bring-one-take-one book exchange which will attract a lot of people because everybody has books they would like to change."

All public events at Book Week are open attendance.

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