The Hay Festival Cartagena, the Colombian version of the Welsh literature and arts festival, returns this Thursday to Cartagena de Indias for its nineteenth edition. Prominent Colombian and international figures have landed in The Heroic, where, until Sunday, they will talk about issues ranging from literature and journalism, science and the environment, to total peace and assisted suicide. There are more than 160 guests from 25 countries. Among them are two Nobel Prize winners – former President Juan Manuel Santos, from Peace, and the American Venki Ramakrishnan, from Chemistry -, and highly renowned writers and journalists such as the American John Lee Anderson, the Brazilian Eliane Brum or the Libyan Pulitzer Prize winner. -American Hisham Matar.
Voices from all over the world will be part of the festival, which already celebrated its Antioquian editions this week in Medellín and Jericó. Literature will be, as always, the main attraction. On Friday there will be a conversation at the Adolfo Mejía Theater between Matar, the Colombian Juan Gabriel Vázquez and the French-English Phillpe Sands in which the Libyan-American will present his new book The friends of my life. They are not the only renowned figures. Also participating are the Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dagaremgba, the Italian-American André Aciman – author of the famous book call me by your name-, the Spanish Javier Moro or the German Andrea Wulf. Among the Colombian authors are Héctor Abad Faciolince, William Ospina, Teresita Goyeneche, Jorge Franco and Ricardo Silva Romero, who has just published The book of grief.
Journalism is another focus of the meeting. In addition to Anderson, one of the main chroniclers of Latin America, well-known journalists from all over the world are present, such as the American Patrick Radden Keefe, the Ecuadorian Ana María Roura and the Venezuelan Moisés Naím. British Tina Brown, former director of vanity fair and The New Yorkerwill present on Saturday at the Adolfo Mejía Theater The Palace Papers, an investigation that delves into several of the scandals that the British royal family has faced in recent decades. Laura Ardila, from Cartagena, will address issues such as censorship and free access to information on Thursday. Last year, the journalist faced Planeta's decision not to publish Costa Nostraan investigation that later succeeded with the independent publisher Rey Naranjo and that denounces the maneuvers with which the Char family consolidated its power in Barranquilla.
The academy is also an essential part of the festival. Ramakrishnan will debate life, genetics and immortality with BBC journalist Carlos Serrano on Saturday. Euthanasia and assisted suicide will be addressed on Friday, in a forum moderated by Mexican doctor Arnaldo Kraus. The anthropologist, ethnographer and explorer Wade Davis, for his part, will talk about his book Cupcake, about the history of the river that was the backbone of communication between the interior of Colombia and the world. One of the most anticipated meetings is scheduled for Saturday, in which the Italian-American economist Mariana Mazzucato will speak on the economic and social situation of Latin America together with Rosie Collington, an academic with whom she wrote The great scam.
The music, both sung and spoken, is very present. Kevin Johansen and Phil Manzanera will talk in the opening talk with the journalist Andrés Mompotes, and Johansen will offer a concert that promises to be very particular, with live drawings by the Argentine illustrator Liniers. There will also be a presentation by Julio Victoria, a DJ who mixes electronic music with Colombian music, a conversation with the Antioquian pianist Teresita Gómez and a closing concert that will be performed by the Creole Group, a representative of San Andres rhythms.
The festival began in 1988 as an event held among friends in Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town of 1,800 inhabitants known for its large number of bookstores. Since then it has grown and internationalized. Today it is one of the main cultural events in Spanish, with editions in Arequipa (Peru), Querétaro (Mexico) and Segovia (Spain). In 2020, the festival won the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.
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EL PAÍS América is the media partner of the Hay Festival for its editions in Latin America. On this occasion, the director of the American edition of the newspaper, Jan Martínez Ahrens, and the heads of the office for the Andean region and the Colombian editorial team, Inés Santaeulalia and Juan Esteban Lewin, will be present. They will moderate panels on persecution of journalists, environmental protection and views from the global south.
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