Hay Festival Querétaro 2021

Get your paper, brushes, paints and felt-tip pens ready —although we’ll have all the materials ready for you— because Queretaro’s most special illustration workshop is here! Sofía Romo Saavedra and Sam Sama will run a workshop for children where we will learn the basics of drawing and painting. A unique opportunity to learn from the best and improve our skills!

Martín Solares (Mexico) is the author of the children’s book El libro de la magia y la aventura de Bassim Bassam. It tells the story of a seller of magical objects who must set off on an adventure. The event will be hosted by Tere Alcántara.

One question has captured the imagination of dozens of children and teenagers in Queretaro in recent weeks: what is a day in the life of Donxu the doll’s child like? Having received countless stories and drawings brimming with imagination, the time has come to present them to the public.

The journal Cuadernos hispanoamericanos promotes knowledge and exchange among writers and thinkers of different generations and nationalities, united by a shared language and a literary tradition enriched by these diverse origins. In this special conversation, Pedro Salazar Ugarte (Mexico) and Carissa Véliz (Spain/Mexico/United Kingdom) discuss their works — Totalitarismo total and Prophecy, respectively — and their ideas with Juan Carlos Pérez (Colombia).

Life rarely turns out the way we imagine it will. Sometimes this means returning to square one, as happens to the protagonist of El principio del mundo, a novel by Jeremías Gamboa (Peru), who returns to his native Peru at the age of 33 in search of refuge. At other times, we swim in circles, in spaces that ought not to exist; such as the one created by Catherine Lacey (USA) in The Möbius Book, where the narrative folds in on itself, blending memory and fiction, with no beginning and no end. And sometimes, as in My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley (UK), the relationship between mother and daughter becomes fertile ground for frustration and estrangement. They will be joined by Elvira Liceaga (Mexico) to discuss the narrative paths each has found to navigate life’s twists and turns.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

For more than three decades, Emmanuel del Real has been one of the cornerstones of Café Tacvba. A multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter, he may have built a career with a lower profile than those of his bandmates, but one that has always been crucial to understanding the band’s sound. La montaña encendida, his first solo venture and one of last year’s most interesting albums, reflects one of the most creative and sensitive minds in Spanish-language rock. In this conversation with Sopitas, he looks back on his musical journey, his creative processes, his artistic interests and what it has been like to be part of a generation that has become ingrained in popular culture.

Otras historias del Archivo de Indias is an anthology that compiles texts by ten renowned Ibero-American authors who have created works of fiction based on documents held in the Archivo General de Indias. This project by the Hay Festival and CAF aims to bring the archive’s vast collection of documents to the general public and to offer a critical and diverse perspective on the multitude of stories that record and challenge the colonial memory of the Americas. Two of the writers taking part in the initiative, the Mexican Yásnaya Elena A. Gil and the Colombian Cristina Bendek, discuss the anthology with Javier García del Moral (Spain). Introduced by Mayra Arauco.

Does the American Dream exist? Today, the concept no longer shines quite as brightly as it once did, and the idea has given way to new American dreams: a series of alternative perspectives that reflect the many realities coexisting on the continent. Come and see how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast is recorded live in Spanish, and listen to the thoughts of Enrique Díaz Álvarez, Mara Rahab Bautista López and Óscar Martínez on new ways of writing and living.

Presenters: Iñaki Lasa Etura, Carlos Millet and Luis Pérez

Scripting: BullterrierFM and Hay Festival Internacional

Production: BullterrierFM

Letra Capital, the Querétaro Municipal Publishing Fund, presents Cajas de agua, its children's book collection. Proudly created in Querétaro, these books will also be distributed free to everyone attending the event. This year, alongside the beauty of literature and the magic of illustration, there is a new element: the bond between mothers and their children, who have written and illustrated several of the books in the collection together. Taking part are Ana Saavedra and Sofía Romo Saavedra, authors of Asuntos de duendes; and Isabel Gamma and Ana Llerena, creators of El saltamontes viajero. Presented by Margarita Ladrón de Guevara.

Darío Sztajnszrajber (Argentina) is something of a rock star of philosophy. With his accessible, direct style, he has brought philosophy to large audiences, television and radio. He has captivated non-specialist audiences and is a populariser of both the great philosophical questions of history and contemporary ideas. In El amor es imposible, he dismantles normative romantic love in eight theses. The philosopher questions concepts such as the soul mate or ideal partner, and invites us to rethink heartbreak as part of the desire for the impossible.

A conversation for readers and aspiring writers. For all those who find themselves full of questions when reading a work of fiction or poetry. Or when writing one. The novelist, publisher and workshop leader Martín Solares (Mexico) is the author of El fantasma de las novelas, an essay in which he proposes quick and creative tools for unravelling the secrets of fiction. The poet and playwright Nick Makoha (Uganda/UK) regularly offers creative writing workshops specializing in memory, resilience, and "imaginative renewal", the process of renewing creativity, breaking free from stagnant thought patterns, and discovering new ways of seeing the world.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The abyss can take many forms and be explored from various perspectives. Proof of this can be found in Rosa Ramírez Mazaheri (Mexico/Iran) and Elaine Vilar Madruga (Cuba), who approach the darkness from two completely different realities. The former’s journey begins with introspection, through a fragmented narrative in which the protagonist of Material inflamable reflects on identity, family roots, mental health and addiction. La piel hembra is a recent example of Latin American horror literature, where everyday darkness blends with the fantastic; where the jungle inhabited by its female protagonists is mystical, gloomy, exuberant and nightmarish.

“Oxygen is the book I never wanted to write.” The sentence might be read as a literary device, but it takes on a different significance when one realises that Marta Jiménez Serrano (Spain) was on the verge of dying alongside her partner. A leak in the boiler, carbon monoxide poisoning, waking up drowsy, making her way to the bathroom, falling, losing consciousness. What could have been the end becomes a reconstruction encompassing the accident, its consequences and the life that made it possible, including the precarious circumstances that triggered it.

Sexism has countless faces, and many of them originate and are perpetuated in the media. In this conversation, we will look at the various forms of gender bias that still persist in journalism, from how certain narratives are constructed, to who tells them. Digital violence and harassment, the angle of coverage of a femicide, the manosphere, and the structural barriers that women journalists still face will be among the topics discussed. Diana González, Claudia Ivonne Hernández, Isabel Posadas and Dalia Larisa Juárez Otero sit down to share their experiences and criticise attitudes that still prevail in the media.