Arequipa 2020

From neither here nor there? Or Andalusian and Chinese at the same time? As the daughter of immigrants born in Spain, Quan Zhou has often found herself on both sides of the fence, caught between questioning her own identity and being the target of racist discrimination. These life experiences have been covered by her with intelligence and humour, in autobiographical works such as the comics Gazpacho agridulce and Andaluchinas por el mundo, as well as the graphic essay Gente de aquí, gente de allí. She is also the creator of the documentary podcast Mi familia española, which uncovers an invisible chapter in the recent history of Spain: the experiences of migrant mothers, their children, and the Spanish nannies who looked after them in the 1980s and 1990s, when racial diversity was virtually non-existent.

When Rosa Chávez Yacila (Peru) wrote Las nerviosas, she was writing about her mother and the women in her family; about bodies made for domestic labour; about immaterial heritage; about ancestors who never found the space to heal their wounds. Women who are melancholy, “nervous”, from a grief that seems to go from generation to generation. Because there were always other priorities. Because the link between poverty and mental health is not a matter in question, but something obvious to see. The novel’s author will talk to Fedra Rodriguez Pissano.

On the centenary of Blanca Varela’s birth, tributes to the Peruvian poet have flourished, and one outstanding example is Fietta Jarque’s biography La vértebra perdida. Through interviews and published material, the journalist and writer delves into pivotal moments such as Varela’s trip to Europe and her integration into the cultural world, as well as darker chapters, such as the death of her son Lorenzo and her dismissal as director of the Fondo de Cultura Económica. A biographical account that reconstructs, through a meticulous examination of her life, her personal and literary journey from Lima to international acclaim.

Mircea Cărtărescu (Romania) is one of the most prominent authors in contemporary European literature. A writer with a mystical bent, he has constructed a dreamlike, almost Macondian literary universe in which the real and the imaginary are interwoven with lyrical force. The author himself has remarked that some people view Romania as a Latin American country lost in Europe, and that he agrees with this view. The author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction and essays, his most recent works translated into Spanish are the monumental Blinding trilogy—considered to be the summit of his literary output, together with Solenoid, Theodoros and Los conocedores. In conversation with Giovanna Pollarolo.

Consecutive interpretation from Romanian to Spanish available

El pastor y los lobos by Santiago Roncagliolo (Peru) is the true story of Pope Leo XIV and the darkness. The story: a narrative investigation into Robert Prevost’s rise to the papacy. The darkness: the internal struggles, contradictions and challenges facing the Catholic Church. Two factions, one reformist and the other fundamentalist; two ways of understanding the Church, and one had to choose the successor to Francis I. It was here that the discreet figure of Prevost, far removed from the media spotlight, emerged. Roncagliolo traces the clergyman’s path, from his ecclesiastical and social work in Chiclayo to his pivotal role in investigating the Curia’s most murky cases. He also weaves a personal narrative in which he confronts values such as hypocrisy and faith, as well as corruption and justice. He will speak with Gabriela Caballero Delgado.

It is said that Patricio Pron (Argentina) is a writer’s writer and that his understanding of literature, his efforts to avoid conventionalism and to experiment with language, make him one of the most distinctive and daring storytellers of his generation. En todo hay una grieta y por ella entra la luz begins as a biography of Benjamin Fondane, but soon becomes a tale of a fractured world, a snapshot of the dizzying pace of New York, with pain at the heart of the narrative, all woven together through footnotes. Pron says that literature is “a reservoir of possible ideas”, which is why this conversation with Patricia del Río is an invitation to reflect on the role of literature in our time.

¿Qué son las humanidades? Un equipo dirigido por por estudiantes de la especialidad de Literatura hispánica PUCP, con el acompañamiento y guía de sus profesoras, María Gracia Ríos y Rosario Yori, ofrecerá una charla-taller para reflexionar sobre la importancia de las humanidades en el mundo contemporáneo. Los estudiantes del COAR crearán su propio fanzine, en el que explorarán sus emociones e intereses.

The KNM Berlin Ensemble is one of Europe’s most prestigious contemporary music ensembles. Having grown and established itself as a leading force on the Berlin and German music scenes, it has built an international reputation based on premiering new compositions and working closely with composers from around the world. A regular feature at some of the leading contemporary music festivals, and having performed at iconic venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the ensemble will give a concert in Arequipa in which experimentation, curiosity and intercultural dialogue will be the hallmarks of the sextet comprising Rebecca Lenton (flute), Theo Nabicht (clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and saxophone), Theodor Flindell (violin), Kirstin Maria Pientka (viola), Cosima Gerhardt (cello) and Jonathan Heilbron (double bass).

Since 2019, the Hay Festival Arequipa has been organising sessions in men’s and women’s prisons in Arequipa with the aim of reinforcing its commitment to the most vulnerable sections of the community. At this year’s event, Perú Runners, Peru’s largest running organisation, and La Bibliobici de Arequipa will be hosting a workshop led by María José Rodríguez Larraín on the body, movement and breathing.

The very short version goes as follows: Phillip Chu Joy (United States/Peru) went from playing video games to giving away houses. But the story is considerably more complex: a content creator, entrepreneur and promoter of philanthropic initiatives, he spoke for over a decade about technology and video games on the television programme Tec. He currently runs a video game development company and has built a community that combines entertainment, benefits and social action. His life story is told in La diversión es un negocio serio, written by Luis Wong and illustrated by Melissa Siles. He has recently published Aventura infinita, an interactive book featuring games and puzzles. A successful career built on creativity and a desire to do things differently.

The magazine Cuadernos hispanoamericanos promotes understanding and exchange amongst writers of different generations and nationalities, united by a shared language and a literary tradition enriched by these diverse origins. At this special gathering Claudia Apablaza, author of La siembra de las nubes, and Santiago Roncagliolo, author of El pastor y los lobos, will talk about their work and literary worlds with Ricardo Sumalavia.

There are times when it seems as though the world has lost its bearings, and that there is no compass to guide us through its political decisions. Situations in which the established rules appear to be blurring and international relations fluctuate with the emergence of new conflicts, alliances and world orders. The political scientist Farid Kahhat (Peru) attempts to shed some light on current socio-political events in his book of essays El mundo se ha vuelto un lugar extraño, in which he analyses the most relevant issues in contemporary international politics. He will speak to Camila Osorio, El País journalist about the coordinates needed to navigate such uncertainty.

Stories change depending on who tells them and from where. Some stories only emerge when we shift our perspective and it is our viewpoint that shapes the narrative. The anthology Otras historias del Archivo de Indias is a project in which 10 writers from Latin America and Spain connect the historical legacy of the Archive with the present of their countries and contexts. Come and learn how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast in Spanish is recorded live, and listen to the reflections of Cristina Bendek, Carlos Fonseca, Edmundo Paz Soldán and Mayra Santos-Febres on their participation in the anthology and their personal perspectives on the project.

Presenters: Miguel Barreda Delgado and Iñaki Lasa Etura

Script: Hay Festival Internacional

Production: Miguel Barreda Delgado and Vía Expresa

Serge Barbet (Francia-Argentina) es un periodista especializado en educación y es el director del Centro de Educación en Medios e Información (CLEMI, por su siglas en francés). En conversación con XX, hablará sobre alfabetización mediática y la importancia de educar nuevas audiencias, desde la juventud, para que participen de manera más consciente en la vida democrática.

Se ofrecerá interpretación consecutiva del francés al español

Can art explain a continent better than politics or history? Latin America has found in creativity a space to imagine futures, challenge power, preserve memory and reinvent its identity. The Colombian essayist Carlos Granés, author of Delirio americano and El rugido de nuestro tiempo, reflects on the relationship between art, culture and politics in the region. The journalist and writer Fietta Jarque (Peru), author of El museo imaginado and known for her long career as a critic and chronicler of the visual arts, explores how Latin American artists have covered the continent’s major transformations and challenged traditional perspectives on its history. These two thinkers will engage in a dialogue alongside the researcher, lecturer and artistic director Katerina Valdivia Bruch.

For over half a century, Yuyachkani has used theatre as a way of listening to Peru. Miguel Rubio, the group’s founder, will be in conversation with the writers Luis Nieto Degregori and Karina Pacheco, whose novels have explored many of the questions that have accompanied Yuyachkani: memory, violence, identity, diversity and the possibility of reconciliation. Moderated by Luis Rodríguez Pastor, they will reflect on how art has helped to tell the story of a complex and diverse country, and on the role of creativity when a society needs to remember, understand and reimagine itself.

Neither Greta García (Spain) nor Alessandra Pinasco (Peru) write to please. On the contrary, they relish flirting with the irreverent, pushing the boundaries of what is socially acceptable. Pinasco does this in Tan simple, tan puro by tackling one of the taboos of traditional mores: speaking explicitly about sex. Her collection of short stories explores desire, memory and autonomy in a world of hypocrisy and violence. García, meanwhile, does so right from the title — Muere, papá — through biting humour and the premise of imagining the death of her father, José Toro, who, incidentally, illustrates the book.

More than two decades ago, the Truth Commission documented the wounds inflicted by the armed conflict. Since then, Peru has made progress in acknowledging past violence, though challenges persist regarding racism, classism, territorial exclusion and the inequalities that run through society. Is knowing the truth enough to move toward reconciliation? How can we build a shared national identity when there are differing ways of interpreting our past? Javier Ciurlizza, Julio Arbizu, Cecilia Bákula and José Luis Ramos Salinas reflect on what we have learned from our history and on the challenges of building a more inclusive and reconciled Peru.

From neither here nor there? Or Andalusian and Chinese at the same time? As the daughter of immigrants born in Spain, Quan Zhou has often found herself on both sides of the fence, caught between questioning her own identity and being the target of racist discrimination. These life experiences have been covered by her with intelligence and humour, in autobiographical works such as the comics Gazpacho agridulce and Andaluchinas por el mundo, as well as the graphic essay Gente de aquí, gente de allí. She is also the creator of the documentary podcast Mi familia española, which uncovers an invisible chapter in the recent history of Spain: the experiences of migrant mothers, their children, and the Spanish nannies who looked after them in the 1980s and 1990s, when racial diversity was virtually non-existent.

Mircea Cărtărescu (Romania) is one of the most prominent authors in contemporary European literature. A writer with a mystical bent, he has constructed a dreamlike, almost Macondian literary universe in which the real and the imaginary are interwoven with lyrical force. The author himself has remarked that some people view Romania as a Latin American country lost in Europe, and that he agrees with this view. The author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction and essays, his most recent works translated into Spanish are the monumental Blinding trilogy—considered to be the summit of his literary output, together with Solenoid, Theodoros and Los conocedores. In conversation with Dante Trujillo.

Consecutive interpretation from Romanian to Spanish available

We are sexual beings whose survival depends on biological reproduction. But sexuality is also understood within a socio-cultural context, based on our beliefs and traditions. Lucho Nieto Degregori (Peru) explores the evolution of sexuality in Peru from pre-Inca times to the present day, analysing social transformations from a historical and cultural perspective. It is precisely in the present day that the stories about sexual diversity in En un mundo raro. Antología de voces LGTBIQ+ en español are set. This collection of diverse dissident voices has been co-published by AECID, whose Deputy Director of Cooperation and Cultural Action for Sustainable Development, Eloísa Vaello, will also join the discussion. The session will be moderated by Diego Molina Rey de Castro.