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Fernando Báez
Preservation as a mission
Báez continues his painstaking work and hopes only to be remembered as "a humble defender of memory, the only thing that endows peoples with dignity, justice and democracy"
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His Universal History of Book Destruction is one of the most influential books in the 21st Century and has been translated into twelve languages (Photo: Handout / Fernando Báez)
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MICHAELLE HENRÍQUEZ
EL UNIVERSAL
 Báez, a Venezuelan, holds a degree in education and a PhD in library science and is an expert in the field of destruction of books. Based on his findings in Iraq and earlier research on the subject of destruction of cultural artifacts throughout history, in 2004 he published A Universal History of the Destruction of Books, a work that has been translated into 12 languages and is required reading for anyone interested n the subject. The opus began as a set of short articles, then metamorphosed into a 20-page essay and, finally, turned into a book that was originally turned down by Venezuelan publishers. In Europe, however, it was well received and found a publisher. A humanist vocation Love of knowledge has turned Báez into a versatile intellectual. He is the author of two books of poems, Alejado (1993) and Todo el sol de las sombras (2002); translations of three Greek texts: Tractatus Coislinianus (2000), Aristotle's Fragments (2002) and Aristotle's Poetics (2003); two novels, El traductor de Cambridge (2005) and Crónica del mar perdido (scheduled for publication in 2009); as well as six essays dealing with the annihilation of collective memory: La ortodoxia de los herejes (2002), Historia de la antigua biblioteca de Alejandría (2003), A Universal History of the Destruction of Books (2004), La destrucción cultural de Irak (2004), La hoguera de los intelectuales (2006) and El saqueo cultural de América Latina (2008). He considers that the two people who most influenced him in his training in the humanities were his father and José Manuel Briceño Guerrero. The former passed on his love of reading, and the latter helped him discover the Greek philosophers and gain a better understanding of the roots of Latin America. What was it, however, that triggered his interest in preservation of cultural assets? He attributes it mainly to his sad memories of the flooding and disappearance of the municipal library in his native town, San Félix, Bolívar State, where he spent most of his childhood. That unfortunate event kindled his interest in cultural destruction, leading him to assist Unesco in the assessment of damage to the heritage of countries affected by war, or to offer different countries advice regarding the condition of their cultural industries and education. He feels that government authorities in many countries have been very receptive to his work since he has been able to set up heritage networks in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela. "Now there are new university chairs and research centers on the subject, librarians play a more active social role and some governments have realized that, unless urgent measures are taken now, within 50 years mankind will have lost more than 60% of its historical heritage." Meanwhile, Báez continues his painstaking work and hopes only to be remembered as "a humble defender of memory, the only thing that endows peoples with dignity, justice and democracy." Translated by Francine Jacome |
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