In a column published in the July 8 Miami Herald, school board member Frank Bolaños said, “Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for entrenched and misguided bureaucrats who want to whitewash the horrors of life under Castro and his brutal regime.” He was referring to the government of Cuba headed by President Fidel Castro.

The book is part of a series published by Heinemann Library, a division of Harcourt Education. It is geared to five- to seven-year-old students. It is one in a 24-part series depicting life for children in countries like Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, England, Greece, Israel, Japan, and Vietnam. The covers of most of these books are similarly adorned with pictures of smiling children. The school board voted to remove the entire series.

Shortly after the board’s decision, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit challenging the ban and a federal judge told the school board the ban is on hold until a hearing is held.

Cuban librarians have protested the ban. “It’s outrageous the Miami school libraries would prohibit the presence of Vamos a Cuba because it shows the truth about how our children live,” librarian Margarita Bellas Vilarino told Juventud Rebelde, a Cuban daily published by the Union of Young Communists.
 
 
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Cuba’s contribution to Africa’s freedom struggle  
 
 
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