The name of Holguín doctor Bernardo Fernández Velázquez and San Pedro Poveda are now linked to give life to a new stage of the Diocesan Library of the city of Holguín, Cuba.
During years the library of the Diocese of Holguín operated at the consulting office of now deceased Doctor Fernández. Now this same space begins a new journey that includes a Resource Center under the name of San Pedro Poveda that Will be coordinated by TA members in Holguín at the request of the Diocese.
Construction of knowledge
In her welcoming remarks during the inauguration ceremony of this new stage of the library, Ela Alvarado, who coordinates the project, explained its objectives: “We aspire for this place to offer an environment where formative processes are generated that allow the construction of knowledge, a place where faith and culture go hand in hand, a space for human formation through socio-educational and cultural mediations.”
She referred to the origins of this dream when, in 2022, members of the TA in Holguín exchanged ideas in order to create a small cultural space in their home, an initiative that, three years later, has become a reality in the Library, with the support of the Diocese.
She explained that her father studied medicine and “practiced medicine as a priest. Here he sought remedy for the ailments of the body, but also relieved the pains of the spirit of many of those who came. He was a true doctor of body and soul.”
She thanked “first of all, the Church that designated this place to be a Library and Resource Center and thanked all those who began this journey among books and knowledge, making a dream come true.”
La Nena, as Rosa María is known, recognized the presence of those who promoted the Library in its first stage and expressed her gratitude to Monsignor Emilio, “who has rightly entrusted the Library to the Teresian Association and whose members, “have accepted me among them”. For more than a year they have worked tirelessly in the organization of the books deposits.
The Library
Since 2019, the Library was closed due to the arrival of Covid19 and its reopening has involved, for TA members and collaborators, months of cleaning, of adaptation of spaces and of digitalization of some 2,000 books and hundreds of magazines, subscription of 83 entities, in order to offer a more agile service to the population and a space suitable for meetings and conferences.
“The Church has always been interested in education and culture,” explained Father Francisco Expósito during the ceremony. As an example of this, he recalled that the first public library in Holguín was located in the temple of San Isidoro, now the cathedral, in 1922, although it had to close in 1947 due to lack of official funding. A plaque in the Cathedral commemorates its existence.
Regarding the origin of the Diocesan Library, he recalled how, as a seminarian in the 1980s, he was in charge of the Library of the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary in Havana. When a bishop and priest historians died, they left their libraries to the seminary. Duplicated books were identified and he requested them to form a library in the Bishopric of the diocese of Holguín, started in 1979, which did not have one.
The library began in a room on the ground floor of the bishopric. Years later, a library was organized in the House of Youth and when Dr. Fernández died in 1996, the two collections were combined in his ‘home-consultation’ under the care of the Jansen Center for the Formation of the Laity, where it operated until its closure due to the Pandemic.
At the event, before the blessing of the place, Bishop Emilio Aranguren Echeverría projected a video of Pope Francis asking that libraries be an “oasis of encounter.”
At an event organized by the Vatican Apostolic Library in November of 2024, the Holy Father pointed out that in the face of ideological colonialism and the erasure of memory “we must respond with the care of culture.” The Pope recalled that libraries are called to transmit the heritage of the past in a meaningful way for new generations, “increasingly immersed in a liquid culture.”
During this event, Marilyn Aldama, director of the Orfeón Holguín, performed two boleros and in a celebratory atmosphere refreshments were offered to the participants.
The next day, the first user entered the library and spent the entire afternoon reading the Bible and taking notes on the Life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Araceli Cantero.
Published in News