Hay Festival Jericó 2024

Jorge Franco is a Colombian writer, known for his novel Rosario Tijeras (1998), which was adapted for film and television. His book El cielo a tiros (2018) tells the story of a group of children of drug dealers, and deals with how the guilt of their fathers reaches down into the next generation. His most recent work, El vacío en el que flotas, was published in 2023. He will talk to Pilar Gutiérrez.

One of Colombia’s best known and loved comedians, Dany Alejandro Hoyos, is also a writer, cultural promoter and creator of the character Suso el Paspi; he will talk to Pascual Gaviria about his recent book, El árbol de guayacán, in which he talks about his relationship with his grandfather (whom he lost during the pandemic), about life in his small town in Antioquia (Ituango), Colombia’s recent past, and mourning, always with a sense of humour.

Freddy Lupin belongs to a proud family of werewolves. Confident that he will soon become a fearsome werewolf, Freddy is surprised to discover that he is not as terrible as he had hoped.

Director: Alexs Stadermann (Australia)

96 min. For children.

Beatriz Helena Robledo has written the biography of the Colombian pianist Teresita Gómez, covering the six decades of her music career. Gómez, from Medellin, started to play the piano very young, and since then has displayed a talent that has taken her to the most famous stages around the world, including the Chopin Society in Warsaw, the Royal Palace in Madrid, and the International Franz Liszt Festival in Weimar. As well as covering the career of this great figure, Robledo deals with the systemic racism that the pianist has had to overcome in order to achieve her true potential. In conversation with Paola Mejía, the pianist Teresita Gómez and her biographer Beatriz Helena Robledo will talk about a life dedicated to art, an unstoppable vocation, and a great inspiration for new generations of musicians in Colombia.

The lawyer Humberto de la Calle (Colombia) was a government minister during the César Gaviria presidency, Vice-president of the Republic, and Ambassador to Spain and then the United Kingdom in the late 1990s; in 2012 he was designated Head Negotiator of the government delegation during the peace process with the FARC. After the signing of the Final Agreement at the Colón Theatre, he was presidential candidate in 2018. Today he is a Senator in the Congress of Colombia. He has recently published a novel based on real events: La inverosímil muerte de Hércules Pretorius, about a young lawyer who has always been interested in the idea of a peaceful social revolution. The M-19 movement is growing in the convulsive Colombia of the 1970s, and this gives Hércules, and many others, an option and hope in terms of fighting for his ideals. In conversation with Octavio Escobar.