Hay Festival Querétaro 2021

Hay Festival Constellations creates a space for intergenerational dialogue within the Mexican cultural scene, in fields such as literature, film, music, science and architecture. At this event, Mardonio Carballo and Alejandra Sasil Sánchez Chan will talk to Rafael Volta about the power and value of poetry: or when language is a weapon that can fight for existing and resisting.

Two award-winning writers share the floor with Gaby Wood. The two-time Booker prize shortlisted, Deborah Levy (United Kingdom), returns with a novel about her own life: August Blue, which is a revision of her old stories and a renewal of her identity in a dazzling portrait of a transformation. Rebecca Makkai (USA), shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, presents I Have Some Questions for You, a true crime story that hones in on the grey areas of truth, memory and collective responsibility.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

In a country that, unfortunately, has become used to horrors, the discoveries at the Izaguirre Ranch, in Teuchitlán, were on such a scale that they have shaken the country. It has also served to bring back into the spotlight one of Mexico’s most painful realities: forced disappearances; and to place value on a group of brave women, the Madres Buscadoras. Guests are Mirna Nereida, founder of the Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte; Yadira González, a rastreadora who discovered the Tepeji del Río mass grave; and Alma Delia Murillo, a fiction writer who has written about the strength and grief of these mothers in Raíz que no desaparece.

Faced with an autobiographical book called La mujer incierta, it might be thought that it deals with an amalgam of uncertainties. Yet, in reality, the Colombian poet, fiction writer and essayist, Piedad Bonnett, takes her own experiences as a starting point to tackle the times she has lived through, and reading it we can know a bit about the many women she has been; all written in a prose that is poetic, sensitive and emphatic.

Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo, Pati (Mexico) has dedicated her life to environmentalism, as founder of the Sierra Gorda ecological group, and guardian of one of the country’s most biodiverse areas. At this event, we can find out about her background and very important work in ecological activism.

Joselo Rangel is a multidisciplinary artist. Although he is well-known as the guitarist of Café Tacvba, one of the most iconic bands in Spanish-language rock, as a writer Joselo is the author of books such as One hit wonder, the novel Los desesperados, and the book for children La niña aburrida. His creativity as a musician, composer, producer and writer means he can move freely from one genre to another. On this occasion he will talk to another multifaceted artist, also known as one of the most important bassists in the world of music, Cha!.

What if music and illustration came together? Kevin Johansen sings and Liniers draws, until they mingle to create a concert in which the sings are illustrated and the drawings sing. A spontaneous, unpredictable show… or, in other words, chaotic good fun.

The Internet is full of viral videos of cats that jump when they see a cucumber. This strange fact is the starting point for The Cat and the Cucumber, the children’s book by Marisa Ebsworth, illustrated by the Queretaro artist, Sens. A story about the friendship between Pepe, a black cat, and Carlos, a cucumber, who become inseparable and have adventures together.

Thousands of people have come to poetry thanks to the warmth of Elvira Sastre. With poetry books such as Baluarte and Aquella orilla nuestra —in addition to the novel Las vulnerabilidades— she has made poetry an everyday form of expression for a generation of readers. Here, the Spanish author will speak to Laura García, and offer the audience a poetic reading.

Feminisms have taught us that there is not only way to love, just as love has not just one goal or way of working. Aura García-Junco (Mexico), Ángeles Romero (Mexico) and Tamara Tenenbaum (Argentina) reflect with Connie Garrido Sicilia on the many ways of creating emotions and living love.

Hiram Ruvalcaba is a contemporary voice who tackles the complexities of memory and violence in Mexico. After winning acclaim and awards for her stories and reporting, Todo pueblo es cicatriz is Ruvalcaba’s debut novel. He will talk to the cultural producer Javier García del Moral.

«There is only one mother», as the saying goes, but there are many different motherhoods. Such as one of the characters in Yeguas exhaustas by Bibiana Collado (Spain), a mother whose fingers are stiff from work, in a novel about exhausted mothers; or that motherhood that never comes in Chispitas de carne. Fatima Ouassak (France), in La puissance des mères, proposes that mothers can become a new revolutionary subject, able to challenge institutional violence and transform fear into resistance. From a force for peace to a threat to the established order.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

In La hermana, the Argentinean journalist Liliana Viola reconstructs the story of Martha Pelloni, the nun who challenged the political authorities of Catamarca (Argentina) in the 1990s after the rape and murder of the young woman María Soledad Morales. A profile and a work of literary journalism that has won the 6th Anagrama Reporting/Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation Award.

Both Elvira Liceaga, in Las vigilantes, and Tania Tagle, in Fauce, explore the complexities of bereavement and female relationships. Liceaga does so through the link among three women marked by loss; Tagle, through the voice of a mother who must speak to her son about death. In La próxima vez que te vea, te mato by Paulina Flores, the grief lies in the future —or perhaps not—, since the protagonist is trapped in the midst of a polyamorous relationship. In conversation with Miguel de la Cruz.

Become a cosmic explorer with Braulio Guerra Mendoza in this astronomical adventure. We discover far-off galaxies, brightly-coloured nebulae and clouds of stars that shine like jewels in the sky. Weather permitting, we will look at the sun, safely, using a phone screen and a telescope that everyone will be able to use. To finish, we will send the universe a symbolic message with our very own cosmic ray. An experience for looking at the sky, but also leaving something there.

There is a mobile library on two wheels that has over two hundred stories and books, and which can become a space for sharing literature. With reading-matter for all ages, the Biciteca Akari promotes social inclusion, creativity and socio-emotional education through sharing stories. At this event with Jemima Peláez we can see the Biciteca Akari for ourselves, exploring tales that help to boost identity, self-esteem and acceptance, aiming for each participant to take away a new view on harmony and inclusion.

The story that all Mexico believed: the kidnapping of a child and the later media campaign of a mother seeking justice, which involved the highest spheres of power in the country. This was the Wallace case, when the victim became the perpetrator. In Fabricación, the journalist and writer Ricardo Raphael (Mexico) tells how a manufactured grief became a spectacle, and a manipulation of the reality, justice and the media. A true story that could have been a thriller and a systematic reminder of the impunity that haunts us.

Hay Festival Constellations creates a space for intergenerational dialogue within the Mexican cultural scene, in fields such as literature, film, music, science and architecture. At this event, Ilse Salas and María Fernanda Monroy Gómez talk about the profession of telling stories on screen, playing the part that is the simplest and most complicated of all: oneself. In conversation with Romina Pons.

In order to understand Un millón de cuartos propios (2025 Paidós Prize) by Tamara Tenenbaum, we must go back to mid-2022, when the Argentinean writer was asked to translate Virginia Woolf’s famous book, A Room of One’s Own. Against this background, she proposes a re-reading of the classic work in order to reflect on the current situation of women. Her view is that even a major landmark of feminism such as Woolf’s deserves an update, a hundred years after it was first published. In conversation with Jumko Ogata.

Mariana Salomão Carrara (Brazil), winner of the 2023 São Paulo Literature Prize in the Best Novel category for Não Fossem as Sílabas do Sábado, deals with the intimacy of human relations at moments of vulnerability. Eduardo Rabasa (Mexico), who presents El hotel de los corazones rotos, explores in this novel matters related to identity and impostures, and social and family expectations. They will talk about their different approaches to writing with Gina Jaramillo (Mexico).

Simultaneous translation from Portuguese to Spanish available