Spain will celebrate the bridges that unite us with Mexico at the FIL in Guadalajara

Spain already has its plan ready for the Guadalajara International Book Fair (the largest in the Spanish-speaking world), where this year it will be the guest country. The Spanish delegation will be made up of more than 170 authors, among whom are Bernardo Atxaga, Marta Sanz, Luis Mateo Díez, Anna Pacheco, Pol Guasch, María Sánchez, Alana S. Portero, Marta Jiménez Serrano, María Dueñas, Irene Vallejo, Katixa Aguirre, Patricio Pron, Joan Carles Mèlich, Antonio Monegal and Kirmen Uribe, among others. There will also be musical representation: Rodrigo Cuevas, Joe Crepúsculo, Tomasito, Camilo Lara, María José Llergo, Miguel Poveda, Califato 3/4, Ruper Ordorika…

Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture, described the event as a “country issue,” and recalled the pan-Hispanic perspective with which they face it: “We are not going to Mexico with the intention of showing Spanish culture to the country or the world, which they know very well. Therefore, what we are going to do there is a great celebration of the bridges that exist between both worlds. It is not that Spain comes to Mexico to explain, we are going to celebrate what we are together. “It is fundamental.” He also highlighted the opportunity to commemorate the exile at the fair, to thank Mexico for its role as a host country for Spanish writers and intellectuals after the Spanish Civil War (in 2024 the 85th anniversary of the arrival of Spanish exiles to Mexico is commemorated ).

Under the motto ‘Way back and forth’, Spain’s program aims to show an image of a “plural, diverse and multicultural” country. María José Gálvez, General Director of the Book, celebrated the equality of the delegation (117 men and 112 women), as well as the presence of all the languages ​​of the State, including non-official ones, such as Asturian. He also highlighted bibliodiversity: 60% of the authors who will come to Guadalajara publish on independent labels, and only 40% belong to large publishing groups. «This is an opportunity to show the vitality of our creation and the professionalism of the Spanish publishing sector, confirming that there is a literary reality intertwined on both sides of the Atlantic. As a country, I believe that literature and books offer us a window to show what country we have become after 24 years of our last participation in the FIL,” declared Gálvez.

Ana María Matute, Carmen Martín Gaite, Luis Martín Santos, Vicent Adnrés Estellés, Max Aub, Jorge Semprún and Luis Cernuda will be some of the authors honored during the FIL in Guadalaraja.

The curator Giselle Etcheverry, who has worked with the writer and Cervantes winner Sergio Ramírez, specified the proposal and revealed several of the topics that will be discussed at the table: immigration, voluntary or forced; mass tourism and its relationship with entertainment culture; the war; the destruction of nature; individual and collective memory… “With this program we hope to have the opportunity to discover new voices of culture, which will allow us to retrace the round-trip paths that unite us,” he stressed. For his part, Sergio Ramírez stated: «The Spanish exile in Latin America enriched the continent like never before in literary, academic and professional terms. Today, unfortunately, this current is returned in the form of exiles. And in this way Spain becomes richer.