Hay Festival Arequipa 2021

Iban Zaldua (Basque Country, Spain) is a versatile writer who has written both novels and non-fiction, but whose most outstanding works are short stories. His most recent book is Panfletario (2021), a compilation of some outstanding texts from his published work, including short texts, stories and pamphlets that reflect on the different dimensions of his writings, which have been translated by the author himself from Basque into Spanish. The main themes tackled are his love of short fiction, reflections on the writing process and translating one’s own work. He will talk to the Peruvian writer and journalist Enrique Planas.

The Editor of El Comercio newspaper, Aurelio Arévalo Miró Quesada, will talk to four teenagers, who will tell us about their experiences during the pandemic: what it has been like to live in confinement without contact with their friends, with their parents acting as teachers, with the presence of the disease, connectivity problems, the stress of restricted freedom, and the many changes, difficulties and learnings that they have had to face at a relatively early age, during these two years of the pandemic. This event also covers the El Comercio project, Corresponsales Escolares, an educational initiative that returns in the times of Covid after a nine-year hiatus, with the goal of giving a voice to the school community. These teenagers will participate in the first event and tell us about their experiences and what they have learned. With Edu Huamán, Irene Huamán and Jackson Pereyra.

The Catalan philosopher and professor Josep Maria Esquirol is the author of a large body of work that, among other things, explores the links between philosophy and psychiatry, and sets out a philosophical proposal that he calls filosofía de la proximidad or “nearness philosophy”. His book La resistencia íntima is a moving essay about the human condition, of great relevance for contemporary living and the “monochrome nature of a technified world”. According to Esquirol, this is countered with self-care and nearness as resistance, as a guide, light and warmth for those who are nearby, giving primacy to the everyday and home life over the virtual, technified links that take up so much of contemporary existence. His most recent book is Humano, más humano (2021), which reflects on the four essential infinitudes of human experience: life, death, you, world. He will talk to the Peruvian philosopher Pablo Quintanilla.

We celebrate 50 years of the Turner publishing house with some of the most outstanding writers from its portfolio. Fernando Cervantes, a prominent historian and researcher who teaches at the University of Bristol, is the author of Conquistadores (2021), a book that revises the history that was written by the winners of the conquest. Drawing on diaries, letters, chronicles and treaties, the author has investigated the process of conquest and colonization of what today is Latin America, analysing both the glorification and condemnation of figures such as Columbus, Pizarro and Cortés, questioning what really happened in the so-called “New World”. In conversation with the historian Natalia Sobrevilla.

Despite the fact that contemporary Latin American societies are formally secular from the socio-political point of view, religion continues to be one of the main forces that influences the region in many different ways. Unfortunately there continue to be cases in which terrible abuses are committed in the name of God, something that has been investigated by Martín López de Romaña, a photographer and writer with a background in Philosophy and Theology, for his work La jaula invisible (2012). This book is a collection of shocking testimony about the Sodalicio Catholic congregation, a religious institution that he belonged to for 14 years and which he, together with his brother Vicente, José Enrique Escardó Steck, Óscar Osterling Castillo and the journalist Pedro Salinas, denounced in 2016 for the physical, psychological and sexual abuses perpetrated by eight of its members. He will talk about this chilling case with Paola Ugaz.

Fernando Iwasaki (Peru) is a writer and historian with a particular interest in cultural studies and the importance of identities, world views, globalizations, comparative literature and the history of religions. The author of over thirty books, including works of historical research such as ¡Aplaca, Señor, tu ira! Lo maravilloso y lo imaginario en Lima colonial, as well as novels, essays, short stories, literary journalism and compilations of articles. His latest publications are Brevetes de historia Universal del Perú, Sevilla, sin mapa, Nueva Corónica del Extremo Occidente and Mi poncho es un kimono flamenco. He will talk to Alberto Vergara about his recent work.

Gloria Mendoza Borda (Peru) is a Peruvian-born poet whose work has been translated into Aymara, English, French, Portuguese, Italian and Greek. She has directed literary projects, including the Arequipa Alianza Francesa’s Literary Thursdays, and the Tertulia Literaria Itinerante initiative. In 2020 she published the poetry book Amusa. David Robertson (Canada) is a writer and speaker. He is a member of the Norway House Cree nation and has published over 25 books, a number of which have featured on Canadian educational syllabuses. His most recent work is the illustrated children’s book On the Trapline, which celebrates some of the indigenous traditions of Canada. They will talk to Ingrid Bejerman.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

The English version of this event is availble here to watch again

The Peruvian journalist Marco Sifuentes (Peru), the presenter of the very popular virtual news programme, La encerrona, brought together for his book, Casi bicentenarios, a dozen Peruvian voices with the aim of offering an understanding of Peru’s place in history, taking as a basis two events that have left their mark on the country: the particular experience of Peru during the global emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the arrival of the much awaited bicentenary of the country’s independence. Three voices from the book, Juan Carlos Celis Salinas; Alberto de Belaúnde, a lawyer and Member of the Peruvian congress; Ana Lucía Mosquera Rosado, an Afro-Peruvian communicator and activist; and her publisher, Marcos Sifuentes; will talk to Jorge Turpo.