Hay Festival Querétaro 2021

Maruan Soto Antaki is a writer, born to a Syrian mother and a Mexican father, who is one of the major Mexican analysts of the political and religious situation in the Arab world. He is the author of five novels and several books of non-fiction, including Pensar Medio Oriente, Pensar México and Pensar Occidente. He presents his first work of non-fiction for young people, Lo que hicimos mal los adultos, illustrated by Bernardo Fernández, Bef, with the intention of explaining some of the main conflicts in the world to today’s teenagers, so they have more tools available to them in order to understand the crises that will still be with them in the future. Based on his great understanding of the issues, he will talk about the way he sees the Middle East, the West and Mexico.

In recent years, we have seen how profound technological changes have had important political consequences, not always aligned with the values of democratic societies, something that might lead to the question of whether technology represents a threat rather than a force for good. Three experts will talk about matters linked to democratic security in the context of dizzying technological change: Ha-Joon Chang (South Korea), who lectures in Economics at Cambridge and writer of several books including the recent Economics: The User’s Guide; Thomas Porcher (France), economist and author of Traité d’économie hérétique; and Carissa Véliz (United Kingdom), lecturer in Philosophy at the Institute for Ethics in AI and author of the book Privacy is Power. In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Gaëlle Obiégly is an art historian and the author of ten novels. In Une chose sérieuse, Daniel, the protagonist, writes in secret about his life in a survivalist community, funded by Madame Chambray, a wealthy and manipulative patron. Daniel, the woman’s guinea pig and scribe, must write the memoires of Chambray, and he accepts the implantation of a microchip in his brain, one that increases his abilities but decreases his free will. Daniel uses the little time that remains to him, free of vigilance, to write the raw material for this novel. In conversation with Paula Canal.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Two of the most outstanding of the republic’s academics present the Diccionario de mexicanismos. Propios y compartidos, the result of the most complete investigation ever carried out into the Spanish spoken in Mexico, an initiative organised by the Mexican Academy of the Language. The text reveals the richness of the language used up and down the country, and it covers popular genres, clothing, culture and other matters. It includes terms from native languages such as Maya and Nahuatl as well as foreign languages such as English or French. In total, the dictionary contains: 10,587 lemmas; 431 sublemmas, which are forms of the lemma which create new meanings; 22,333 headwords and, at the end, a list of voices exclusive to Mexico. With Concepción Company, Assistant Director of the Academy. In conversation with Juan Villoro.

Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos is an initiative for the promotion of knowledge and exchange between writers of different generations and nationalities, united by the same language and a literary tradition enriched by authors of different origins. The project consists of an established author selecting a young writer from the other side of the Atlantic for conversation. On this occasion we present a conversation between Brenda Navarro (Mexico) and Greta García (Spain).

The author of the essay Feminismo sin cuarto propio, included in the anthology of feminist texts Tsunami 2, and of the outstanding short story collection Perras de reserva (2022), Dahlia de la Cerda (Mexico) returns with Desde los zulos (2023), a book that combines autofiction, journalism and essay to reflect on marginal feminisms, the danger of excluding practices within the social movements and proposes a more plural and diverse view of feminism. Dahlia de la Cerda has a degree in Philosophy, was a fellow of the 2015 Aguascalientes Programme for the Stimulation of Artistic Creation and Development and was also a beneficiary of the FONCA Young Artists’ Programme in 2016 and 2018. She is a co-founder and co-director of the Morras Help Morras feminist collective. She talks to Jumko Ogata Aguilar.

Elisa Guerra (Mexico) lectures in Education at the University of Harvard. In 2015 she was named Best Educator in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Inter-American Development Bank, and she was a member of the International Commission of UNESCO’s Futures of Education. At this event she will talk about her latest book, Las voces de los árboles, a work that takes readers into a parallel world in which trees of different species and places around the world tell their stories and allow us to reflect on the harm we are doing to the planet.

The Spaniard Leontxo García works in educational chess and has experience in over 30 countries. He gives lectures on the educational, social and therapeutic applications of chess (particularly its power to combat aging of the brain and Alzheimer’s), as well as its history and famous champions (having met all of them since Botvínik). Principal Councillor for Educational Chess of the World Chess Federation (FIDE, 199 countries), he has also been a journalist since 1983. He offers us a fascinating lecture on the educational power of chess, especially for young children, establishing links with the most common school subjects.

Artist, musician and fashion icon, Paul Simonon (United Kingdom) was the bass player and founder of the legendary band The Clash and the supergroup The Good, The Bad & The Queen, as well as a collaborator of Gorillaz. With his new musical project, Galen&Paul, alongside Galen Ayers (United Kingdom), Simonon returns to the musical scene with Can we do tomorrow another day? an evocative record with very European references and songs in Spanish and English. He will talk with Chris Salewicz, biographer of fellow The Clash member Joe Strummer, about a fascinating life devoted to art.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Manuel Vilas (Spain) presents Nosotros, the work that won him the prestigious 2023 Nadal Prize. It is a book that the author describes as a passionate defence of novels about love. He tells the story of Irene who, after losing the love of her life, undertakes unusual forms of avoiding loneliness, invoking the company of her husband. At this event with Primitivo Olvera, Manuel Vilas takes us on a tour through the sites of love, expressing this in literature of the finest quality.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika (Nigeria/United Kingdom) was the Director of the Board of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, California, and has been on the jury of a range of literary awards. She is the author of three books that deal with the African diaspora through fiction and non-fiction. One of them is In Dependence, which tells the story of over 30 years of the relationship between Tayo, a young Nigerian who goes to study at Oxford, and Vanessa, the daughter of a former colonial official. In conversation with Fortino Domínguez.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The acclaimed Mexican writer Verónica Murguía will talk about her most recent work, El cuarto jinete. Set in 1348, when the world’s most devastating outbreak of plague occurred, decimating the population of Europe in just two years, this novel offers a kaleidoscopic vision of the pandemic, with an awareness that the children and grandchildren of those who suffered would bring about the Renaissance. This is a story which, despite the centuries of distance, chimes with a world that has suffered a pandemic in its own times. In conversation with Antonio Lazcano.

Luis Jorge Boone and Julián Herbert, both from Coahuila, offer, with El polvo que levantan las botas de los muertos, a unique and intimate view of the Mexican Revolution, combining non-fiction with poetry and storytelling. By recovering the biographies of two people forgotten by history, that of a private in the federal army who is waiting for the enemy to arrive while he remembers his childhood, and that of a rural teacher who is made a member of the Congress founded by the Constitution of 1917. Both authors remind of us of the many life stories that were buried by the violence of the war and by the passage of time.

Valeria Gallo studied design at the National Institute of Fine Art’s Design School. She is an animator and creator of visual narratives, illustrator of over 40 books and the author of En sus zapatos, Nunca es demasiado circo and ¿Feminismo? ¡Eso qué! This last book is a graphic novel that tells the story of Camila, a teenager who couldn’t care less about feminism, until she begins to find out about women such as Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Malala Yousafzai and many more. Coming into contact with these figures, the heroines of the history of women’s rights, makes Camila question many things in her life, and finds in feminism a tool to turn these questions into action for change, actions to create a fairer, more equal world.

The singer, musician, composer and visual artist Andrea Echeverri (Colombia) is also one of Latin America’s most loved rock singers. The Aterciopelados vocalist presents her interdisciplinary show, half lecture, half concert, Ruiseñora: “I am Andrea Echeverri Arias, Ruiseñora, singer by profession and a shameless adult in a society that is ill, unequal, violent and sexist. My voice has grey hairs, wrinkles and certainties, its apocalyptic sounds move the earth, although not without an ironic touch and a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Fernanda Melchor is one of the most powerful voices in Mexican literature, and one worthy of the 2019 Anna Seghers Prize. She is the author of the book about drug-related violence in the state of Veracruz, This Is Not Miami; and four novels, including Hurricane Season (2020), her most famous book, with translations into over 30 languages, and her most recent, Páradais (2021). This book deals with two of the most urgent issues facing Mexico today: gender violence and social inequality. The author takes us to a luxury housing development where two teenagers meet each other at night and during these alcohol-fuelled encounters they share their impossible fantasies. Although they come from very different backgrounds, they both belong to a social context that is both suffocating and violent, and they plan to make their escape with a chilling plan. She will talk about her books This Is Not Miami and Páradais with the writer Julián Herbert.

Sintiéndolo mucho is a portrait of the living musical legend Joaquín Sabina, made not far from his skin, with nocturnality and premeditation, by his friend, the filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa (Spain). A tale that is like his voice, rough and unequalized, which tells the story of the artist's intimacy, behind the scenes, his other side, without mitigation; the story that starts when he leaves the stage, and accompanies him in his daily life, and in the unexpected: laughter and drama. Sintiéndolo mucho is the result of thirteen years of filming together, and tours all stages, public and private, luminous and hidden, of Joaquín Sabina. A promenade through the key points of his life and his work: what moves him, what inspires him, what hurts him, developed through live, shared situations as a musician and a filmmaker. The director will answer questions at the end of the screening.

The award-winning writer Isabella Hammad (United Kingdom) is the author of the novels The Parisian and Enter Ghost. She was selected in 2023 as one of the best of British writers by Granta magazine, and she has been a fellow of the Rockefeller and Lannan foundations. In The Parisian, Hammad examines the history of Palestine in the early 20th century, following a young Palestinian who studies in France during the First World War and returns to his country to find it enveloped in a new war. Aura García-Junco (Mexico) has been a fellow of both FONCA and the Foundation for Mexican Literature. She was one of those selected by Granta in 2021 to draw attention to some of best young Spanish-language writers. She is the author of El día que aprendí que no sé amar, Anticicitera, artefacto dentado, Mar de piedra and the most recent Dios fulmine a la que escriba sobre mí. This is the first talk of the Hay Festival and British Council “Literary Duos” series. Each “Literary Duo” will repeat their talk at the Wales Hay Festival 2024. They will talk to the BBC journalist Daniel García Marco.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Benito Taibo has been engaging readers with his stories for over four decades. As a writer he creates poetry, novels, comics, advertising and television programmes. Apart from Persona normal, the unforgettable story of the adventures of Sebastian and his Uncle Paco, Benito Taibo has written Corazonadas, the trilogy Mundo sin dioses and Cómplices: Esta vez, la aventura es leer (2022), a book about the love of reading. Today he will delight the audience with a selection from his celebrated poetry book, Pasar inadvertido (2022).

Vindictas is a research and dissemination project run by the UNAM in order to promote the work of 20th-century Latin American fiction writers whose writings have been ignored by the literary canons. The collection includes the re-publication of novels written by forgotten or lost voices, as well as an anthology of short stories. Vindictas. Cuentistas latinoamericanas is a central part of this initiative, and offers a range of writings by 20 authors from different generations and places within the Hispanic world. With Lola Ancira (Mexico), a Queretaro writer and author of the prologue to Todo ángel es terrible; Rosa Beltrán (Mexico), writer and Director of the UNAM’s Cultural Dissemination department; Aroa Moreno Durán (Spain), writer, journalist and author of the prologue to Tiempo de llorar y otros relatos; and Socorro Venegas (Mexico), editor of the Vindictas anthology.