At the Biblioteca Provincial Julio Antonio Mella, during Camagüey’s Culture Week, a panel marked the 95th anniversary of the birth of Jaime Sarusky. For me, speaking about someone I barely knew, yet who left a profound imprint, always stirs a mixture of gratitude and tremor.

Although the Havana International Book Fair has been postponed due to Cuba’s complex current situation, the Camagüey-based Editorial Ácana continues its work. That persistence was evident at the Camagüey Writers’ Meeting, where several authors previewed completed projects and others still in progress.

A few days ago, the extracurricular reading assignment arrived: The Little Prince. My daughter, who is 11, found herself facing a book I had already read to her before. Because it’s small and slim, it didn’t seem overwhelming or intimidating.

For the second consecutive year, Camagüey once again becomes a stage for laughter, wonder, and imagination with the Fiñe Fair, held from February 12 to 15. The event is dedicated to children and serves as a tribute to the anniversary of the Guiñol de Camagüey, one of the longest-running and most beloved theater companies in Cuba.

At times, it felt as if the entrance to the Julio Antonio Mella Provincial Library was no longer in Camagüey but at a crossroads of centuries: ancient Greece, nineteenth-century Cuba, Dickens’s Europe, Eva Perón’s Argentina, Gaitán’s Colombia. As Félix Julio Alfonso López spoke, time seemed to open like a fan.

The third edition of the National Handicrafts Fair (FENAR) will take place from January 31st to February 13th at the Camagüey Fairgrounds, bringing together 67 exhibitors from several Cuban provinces.

Despite current economic constraints, Camagüey has decided to go ahead with its Culture Week, scheduled for February 1st–7th, as an exercise in responsibility and identity. Formats and scope have been adjusted, but the city has not renounced the core purpose of bringing together memory, artistic creation, and cultural life on the occasion of the 512th anniversary of its founding.