Hay Festival Arequipa 2021

The scientific evidence clearly indicates that the present rates of greenhouse gas emission and ecosystem destruction will have catastrophic consequences for our environment. Together with the political, diplomatic and economic initiatives, international law has a role to play in the transformation of our relationship with the natural world. It is in this context that, in late 2020, the Stop Ecocide Foundation convened a panel of independent experts for the legal definition of ecocide. Three of these twelves lawyers, Philippe Sands (United Kingdom), Pablo Fajardo (Ecuador) and Rodrigo Lledó (Chile), will talk about the work involved in preparing a practical and effective rendering of the crime of ecocide, and how this, in June 2021, provided the basis for a consensus about a basic text offering a definition of ecocide as an international crime. The inclusion of ecocide in the Statute of Rome would add a new crime to the practice of international law. It may also contribute to a change of awareness, one that points in a new direction in terms of protecting the environment, one with a more collaborative and effective legal framework safeguarding our future together on the planet we share. They will talk to the British Ambassador in Peru, Kate Harrisson.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

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Trocito. Un pedacito de tela que soñaba con ser bandera is a book written by Carmen McEvoy and Mariana Sansone about a grandmother and her granddaughter who together transform a bit of cloth lost on the ocean into one of the most important of patriotic symbols: the flag. McEvoy and Sansone, respectively a historian and a political scientist, and also mother and daughter, present this wonderful illustrated story for children, one that deals with, among other things, the construction of Peruvian identity.

For children ages 4 to 6

If there is something that classic works have in common, it is that they can be interpreted and reinterpreted again and again, and at each turn we can find a new view or possible meanings, in such a way that the dialogue between the work and each new period is always up-to-date. The entertaining and versatile Mexican illustrator, writer and musician Juan Gedovius presents the classics by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and The Hunting of the Snark, in versions illustrated by him. At this event, Gedovius will share the story of Alice, the girl who, one summer’s day, came across a white rabbit who was wearing a jacket and carrying a pocket watch, and followed it until she fell into the legendary Wonderland, and discovered a varied and unforgettable group of characters. He will talk to the children who attend about his own adventure transforming these great works into pictures.

For all ages

One of the great experts on what characteristics education will need in order to face the challenges of tomorrow’s world is Alex Beard (United Kingdom). He is a member of Teach For All, a network of independent organizations that work for global education, and author of Natural Born Learners, an important book that draws on two years of travel around the world observing educational models in very different places, particularly ones that have brought success in terms of social or technological development. At this event, Beard will talk about the challenges faced by education today –particularly with the Covid-19 pandemic– and how we can move towards forms of education that face up to the difficulties of our times: health emergencies, the climate crisis, the dizzying advance of technology, and social inequality. He will talk to Fernando Bolaños Galdos, also an expert on education.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

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mónimo is an independent Latin American publishing house born in 2021 that seeks to build a children’s catalogue focusing on fiction, from Peru. Its first book is the collection of Peruvian Gods, beings and spirits in the form of the alphabet: Diosario. Using humour and with a unique visual narrative, it seeks to bring us close to the fantastic world that this country embraces. With an interdisciplinary group of talents from different nationalities, Diosario is built with its feet on the ground, placing the most venerated creatures at a close distance while we touch the sky. With the writer of the book Elena Fernández Ferro (Argentina), the illustrator Mariana Río (Portugal) and the editor Julia Viñas (Argentina).

For children ages 2 - 8

As has so often happened in its history, Latin America has been going through a period of great transformations and socio-political turbulence, something that has been made worse by the devastating effects on the region of the current pandemic. Although the territory has an incredible geographical, linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity, there are certain shared historical, social, political and cultural patterns that will be dealt with at this event and discussed by well-known experts on the situation of Latin America today. From social inequality, political and economic instability, forced disappearances and protests against the system, to the challenges of being a good journalist when faced with censorship and disinformation, Sandra Borda (Colombia), Glatzer Tuesta (Peru) and Daniela Rea (Mexico) will talk about the diverse and complex Latin American scene, in conversation with Gonzalo Banda.

Ken Follett is one of the most read authors in the English language and has captivated an extraordinary number of readers around the world in his 35-year writing career: his books have sold over 160 million copies in at least 30 languages. He is perhaps best known for his historical novels, from the publication of Eye of the Needle, and his acclaimed work The Pillars of the Earth, one of the world’s most read novels, to the recent prequel, The Evening and the Morning. This distinguished writer has recently caused a commotion in the literary world with his new novel Never, which takes the history of the First World War as the inspiration for a hypothetical Third World War. The protagonist, Tamara, aims to stop the conflict from a CIA base in North Africa, juggling with actors that range from local terrorist groups to the US President. In conversation with the BBC journalist, Juan Carlos Pérez.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Click here to watch again this event in English

The reality of the current series of environmental disasters is accompanied by a narrative of catastrophe that, at times, makes it difficult to conceive or imagine the possibilities for global cooperation needed to face the challenges that the climate crisis poses. Therefore an urgent task is to produce and disseminate stories of hope and transformation, ones that are linked to local realities and to the latest scientific knowledge. The possibility of inspiring communities around the world to envisage their own positive climate futures will enable the imagining, and the doing, of the work needed to reorient economies and cultural practices around the world towards more sustainable models. The Climate Imagination Fellowship, presented by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination, is intended to stimulate the creation of positive stories about the future that can act as catalysts for action in the present. Libia Brenda, the first Mexican woman nominated for a Hugo Award, and Vandana Singh, a speculative fiction writer and a Physics lecturer, will talk to Ed Finn, Director of both the Center for Science and the Imagination and the Climate Imagination Fellowship, about fiction, hope and climate justice.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Click here to watch again this event in English.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is considered to be one of the most talented writers on the international scene, as the author of contemporary classics such as Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah and the essay We Should All Be Feminists. Her most recent work is entitled Notes on Grief, and in it the author talks about her mourning after the death of her father, setting her thoughts within the context of the global pandemic, obliged to grieve at a distance since she was unable to leave the United States while her father was dying on another continent. This moving work will resonate with the experiences of millions of people around the world, at this moment of great trauma when grief, loss and death have become an even greater presence for so many people all over the planet. In conversation with writer Santiago Roncagliolo.

The life of Anahí de Cárdenas was turned upside down in 2019 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, this Peruvian actor, singer and dancer has undergone a complex and transformational process of healing, undergoing a course of chemotherapy. In 2020 she created the digital festival Fuck Cáncer + Fuck COVID, a free musical event that raised funds to fight cancer and Covid-19. She has recorded this difficult but life-changing time in her book Fuck cancer, about which she will talk in conversation with the journalist Jimena Díaz Zapater.

The Instituto Cervantes has organized and exceptional exhibition in Madrid: Libros y autores en el Virreinato del Perú. El legado de la cultura letrada hasta la Independencia. The first press in South America was located in Lima, and between 1584 and 1700 the Peruvian capital had the monopoly of the editing business in the region. Peru also had the most important libraries, and the elites had power over what was being written and were fostering a series of decisive ideas for their country's emancipation. The director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero, will talk about this topic with one of the curators of the exhibition, Alonso Ruiz Rosas.