The Xunta de Galicia will install an exhibitor at the most important Ibero-American book fair, Guadalajara, in Mexico. But the organization of the institutional presence of Galician literature at the meeting, carried out with its back to the main associations of the sector, has generated discomfort in the literary and publishing world. The absence of dialogue, the opacity of the criteria for choosing members of the delegation, strategic errors or the overrepresentation of authors in the Spanish language are some of the criticisms of the department’s action. This, in response to questions from elDiario.es, defends itself: “Each year the department programs participation in top-level cultural events which it attends with its own exhibitor and the participation of professionals selected by virtue of their relevance and quality.”
Starting this Saturday, five authors will travel to Guadalajara. Eva Mejuto, specialized in children’s and youth literature, and the best-selling Pedro Feijóo -her latest novel, No one will tell the truth (2023), is a thriller about political corruption – they work in Galician. Manel Loureiro, whose work oscillates between the fantastic and the noirand José María Paz Gago, his latest book is about Galician stew but he is above all a poet, they usually do it in Spanish. They will be accompanied by the cartoonist Manel Cráneo. “They will participate in different activities such as presentations, conferences and activities,” says, without going into more details, the press release that the Department of Culture released this week. “Five authors who attend to show the quality of Galician literary creation,” he adds in communication with this newspaper.
In that same statement, the department headed by José López Campos reports that the Galician Government exhibitor in Guadalajara “will exhibit a selection of the most relevant titles of recent times from the main Galician publishers.” These are the historic Galaxia and four others: Hércules, Bululú, Demo, El Patito, Medulia and Between clouds and stories. In addition, the text adds, “thanks to the aid from the Xunta, nine beneficiaries of the subsidy will also travel to Mexico, including editors, illustrators and writers.” Does not give details. The opening of the fair will be attended by the General Director of Culture, Anxo Lorenzo.
“Wrong strategy”
“The Xunta’s Galician book internationalization strategy is useless, totally wrong,” says Henrique Alvarellos, president of the Galician Association of Publishers (AGE), which brings together 46 companies, 90% of the Galician book trade. according to your own data. “But it is an old issue that has run aground. We are not able to make the department see that it is necessary to change methods,” he says in conversation with elDiario.es. The problem, he explains, is that the Galician Government understands book fairs as promotional events for the administration itself and not as professional meetings, where publishing business is done, rights are bought and sold, and translations are approved. “The objective of the Xunta,” says the department itself, “is to achieve the best projection of Galician books in the main international fairs.”
The union’s historical demand is that the Xunta copy the model of other administrations “in Euskadi, Catalonia, France or Germany, everywhere.” That is, Alvarellos explains, that “the sector manages the contents” of the stand of the Galician book, “with the support and presence of the Government, of course.” But the bridges of dialogue are broken, he says. The department does not see it that way: “We maintain a constant dialogue with the sector and we are open to finding a model that satisfies all parties involved.” And he mentions the annual agreement he maintains with the association, endowed with 15,000 euros.
In any case, since 2016 and in view of its disagreement with the methods of the Galician Government, AGE has set up its own space at international book fairs. In Guadalajara it will do so under the umbrella of the Federation of Editors’ Guilds of Spain and the delegation will include Alvarellos Editora, Kalandraka, Hércules de Ediciones, Cumio, Triqueta Verde, Ediciones del Viento, Creotz Ediciones and Arnoia Distribuidora. In addition to the work agendas of each label, AGE will celebrate the century since the beginning of modern Galician publishing – in November 1924, Leandro Carré and Ánxel Casal founded the Lar publishing house – with a conference by Alvarellos and will participate in the Edita Forum on the challenges of the sector.
No recognized writers
The Xunta has also not asked for advice or advice from the Association of Writers in Lingua Galega, which brings together 550 members. “They have always tried to delegitimize us as a representation of the authors,” its president, the poet Cesáreo Sánchez Iglesias, resigns, “despite our forty-odd years of history.” However, he expresses his opinion on the institutional expedition to Guadalajara. “There are the international awards for Galician literature, which should be reflected in the delegation,” he says. This year alone, the Ministry of Culture has awarded the National Prize for Literature to Manuel Rivas, the prize for poetry to Chus Pato, and the prize for comics to Beatriz Lema. Invited precisely by the ministry, the poet and narrator Ismael Ramos -National Prize for Young Poetry in 2022-, the novelist Ledicia Costas -one of the most internationally renowned in Galician literature- and the publishing house Apiario -specialized in poetry- will attend Guadalajara.
Sánchez Iglesias, who calls on the administration to promote the presence of poets or playwrights in international fairs – “the non-majority genres” – also regrets the overrepresentation of authors in Spanish. “It is not a problem with the authors who go, but the Spanish Government already has specific subsidies for this,” he assures, before relating what happened to the positions of the Popular Party, which has governed Galicia since 2009, on the Galician: “We must leave to the world to denounce it, because the language extinction program is going very well for them.”
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