Hay Festivalito

Based on her experience of racism and inequality, Indhira Serrano will talk about the mindsets that hinder the realization of racialized individuals, launching a message of self-acceptance, respect for differences and pride in the Afro-Colombian heritage. Serrano began her career as a model, which gave her a very clear view of the media’s influence on people’s perceptions of themselves. Since 2015 she has been running a series of talks and workshops called Reconstruyendo Imaginarios (“Rebuilding Mindsets”), which reflects on the relationships we have with money, education, our partners and power. She has just published her first book, Rosa la crespa.

The author of books for children and young people, Irene Vasco founded and currently runs the Librería Espantapájaros in Bogota and also promotes the La Imprenta Manual programme, the goal of which is to educate through writing. She will read some of her own stories and those of other writers, together with those attending.

Children 7+ years

A poetry workshop run by the co-founder of the Pequeño Editor publisher and author of books such as Nada de luz, ni siquiera velas, La ciudad de los magos and Las aventuras de Bigote, el gato sin cola, among others. Her book Nadie les discute el trono received the Uruguayan Ministry of Education and Culture’s National Fiction Prize in 2006.

Children 7+ years

After having participated in three polar research campaigns, the biologist Sergio Rossi will talk to children about the Antarctic, about how it is possible to live in such an extreme climate, the effects of climate change and its importance for our future as a species.

Children 7+ years

Carmen Alvarado works in the world of culture, libraries and books. She has also written books featuring characters such as Tío Tigre (Uncle Tiger) and Tío Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) that come from oral tradition, and using them has tacked issues we find in daily life, such as friendship, love and death.

Author of a dozen novels and a film screenplay writer, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón has written the Los hermanos Bravo books for young people, the anti-war tale Una guerra africana and El viaje americano, a story set in 1930s Hollywood. At this event he will talk about his work and about the profession of writer.

Children 12+ years

Books on the screen: a new way of reading, listening and touching to discover the story. Menena Cottin is the author of El libro negro de los colores and Doble Doble, both award winners at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (2007 and 2014). Menena and her son Alfredo Cottin, a digital editor, run the And Then Story Designers publisher.

German author of books, plays and poetry for children and young people. Before starting out as a writer, he was a theatre director and scriptwriter. His books include the popular series The Wild Pack, featuring a very sophisticated chameleon, a gorilla with a big heart and an existentialist wolf.

Translation from English to Spanish available

Children 8+ years

A philosophy workshop for children, given by Jean Paul Mongin, French editor from Les petits Platons, a publishing house created to disseminate philosophical matters to both young and old, in a fun, entertaining way. He is the author of books such as ¿Por qué tienen nombre las cosas?, Un día loco en la vida del profesor Kant and La confesión de San Agustín, among others.

Children 10+ years

A poetry workshop run by the co-founder of the Pequeño Editor publisher and author of books such as Nada de luz, ni siquiera velas, La ciudad de los magos and Las aventuras de Bigote, el gato sin cola, among others. Her book Nadie les discute el trono received the Uruguayan Ministry of Education and Culture’s National Fiction Prize in 2006.

Children 7+ years

This event will focus on champeta, a musical style that began more than thirty years ago in the neighbourhoods of Cartagena; it will be given by one of the style's icons, Charles King, a prolific musician and author of more than 200 recorded songs, whose hits have been playing in the city for more than 20 years.

The historian Diana Uribe, presenter of the programme La Historia del Mundo on Caracol Radio, will speak about her book África: Una misma raíz.

Three well-known illustrators will give a range of workshops to groups of children that will result in the creation of a collective work: a large mural as a gift to the community, made by all participants. The mural will also act as a stage for a later game in which each child will create a large cartoon figure, of the body mask type.

Children 8+ years 

El aparentemente analógico mundo de la literatura es también un tema tratado por los youtubers, que en el caso de nuestros invitados demuestran ser no sólo apasionados lectores sino también apasionados críticos literarios. Conversan con Benito Taibo sobre lo que les gusta leer, sus libros favoritos y cómo es hablar sobre libros a través de la red.

La ciencia es la nave y el astrolabio que nos permiten realizar este viaje al origen y descubrir la sutil sinfonía de azares que culmina en el contacto de una neurona con otra. La historia de todas las cosas y de todos nosotros es la historia más grande jamás contada. Gerardo Herrera Corral es doctor en Física por la Universidad de Dortmund, Alemania, y actualmente profesor titular del Departamento de Física del Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV). Ha publicado más de 320 artículos en revistas internacionales especializadas en el área de física de partículas y es autor, entre otros, de los libros Entre quarks y gluones. México en el CERN (2011), El Higgs, el universo líquido y el Gran Colisionador de Hadrones (2014) y el recientemente publicado Universo. La historia más grande jamás contada.

The Argentinean cartoonist Liniers has become one of the best-known practitioners of the genre on the international scene, attracting comparisons with the impact made in their day by figures such as Quino and Fontanarrosa. His famous comic strip Macanudo, with its unique and dreamlike fantasy elements, is read around the world. He also specializes in giving curious portraits of everyday reality, through characters such as Enriqueta, the girl who loves to read; the adorable monster Olga; and the Mysterious Man in Black. Liniers has also done front covers for magazines including The New Yorker, and album covers for musicians such as Kevin Johansen and Andrés Calamaro. Furthermore, he has founded the publishing company Común. His most recent book, for children, is called Flores salvajes. Liniers will share the secrets of his own particular universe with a Hay Festival audience. He will talk to Mariana H.

For children aged 4 to 12

Probably many curious children have asked some of the following questions: what is the radio? What makes it create sound? What are the basic elements inside a radio set? What is a presenter? What are advertisements for? At this interesting, fun event, Tere Alcántara will explain all this and answer other questions, as well as teaching us how to make a homemade microphone with an empty milk carton, a piece of cloth, a hands-free set with a wire, glue and scissors.

Ages 6 and over

The writer and journalist Laura Castellanos and the illustrator Brenda Castro present La marcha del #TerremotoFeminista, an illustrated work of non-fiction that contextualizes feminism, from the origins of the patriarchy to the feminist movements of the 21st century. Readers follow Sofi, a teenager who joins the demonstrations that are protesting the oppression of the patriarchal system, and with whom we learn about all the victories won, and about all that still remains to be done.


From 12 years on

Alfredo García Servín is an award-winning author of more than thirty children’s books, a playwright and storyteller. In this workshop, the author will share some of his own stories, to then delve into some techniques of oral storytelling. The children can then move on to create their own stories with items from the room such as blackboards, lamps, doors and windows. Later on, the participants will create their own stories in which the main characters are a flowerpot, a book, a TV or a mural. At the end, with finished stories, the children will dramatize their literary creations.

For children ages 8 to 13