HAVANA -- Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker debuted the Spanish translation of her novel "Meridian" in Havana, telling her Cuban fans there is a direct correlation between the U.S. civil rights movement and the socialist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

"I thought about Cuba a lot when I was writing this," Walker told a packed audience Sunday at an international book fair. "It has meant very much to me that Cubans have understood what I'm doing. Sometimes in my own country, I am very severely criticized by people who don't bother to read me at all."

"Meridian," first published in English in 1976, explores the private internal and interpersonal struggles of a young protagonist by the same name who is involved in the civil rights movement in the United States.

"I feel that Meridian understands a very important basic thing, which is that it is very important to choose the people who make up the majority of the planet, to stand with the poor and to stand with people who are struggling, because in the end we will win," said Walker, 60.

Walker's appearance at the 13th International Book Fair marks her fifth visit to Cuba. She met with President Fidel Castro during two of her previous trips, but said it was unlikely she would get a chance to see him this time.

Walker, a Georgia native, won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1982 novel "The Color Purple."

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press