Hay Festival Arequipa 2021 – Equality

Nando López is a writer and dramatist, and lectures on the Master’s course in Playwriting at the University of Alcalá de Henares. He has a doctorate in Hispanic Philology and holds an outstanding position in young adult writing in Spanish, with an impressive body of work that includes over thirty books, including the acclaimed La edad de la ira. His latest book, El río de las primeras veces, is a love story involving two young women, set after a year when it seems as if nothing will ever be the same again. Some say that you never pass over the same river twice, but there are rivers you cross more than once.

Event for students

Two male writers talk about works that bring to life female characters. With the writer and communicator Gustavo Rodríguez (Peru), author of over 15 books of short stories, novels and non-fiction. In 2021 he launched the podcast Machista con hijas, in which he talks about his relationship with his three daughters and all the transformations in his thinking, and all the things he has unlearned, because of being a father. His most recent novel, Treinta kilómetros a la medianoche (2022), begins when a man, with his girlfriend at a party in the outskirts of Lima, receives a phone call; it is a friend of his daughter, who says she has suffered an “accident” at a nightclub and is in hospital. Nando López (Spain) is a writer, dramatist and doctor in Hispanic Philology. He is the author of books for adults and adolescents, holds an outstanding place in youth literature in Spanish, with a body of work that includes over 30 titles, including the acclaimed La edad de la ira. His latest book, El río de las primeras veces, is a love story involving two young women, set after a year when it seems as if nothing will ever be the same again. In conversation with Jimena Díaz.

Nikita Lalwani (India/United Kingdom), born in Kota and brought up in Cardiff, is the author of the novels Gifted (2008), The Village (2012) and You People (2020). Her work, which has been well received by reviewers, explores stories of migrants and families with different cultural identities. This award-winning novelist, screenwriter and contributor to media such as The Guardian and The Observer, is a member of the Royal Society of Literature and her work has been translated into 16 languages.

Event in English for students

Ignacio Martínez de Pisón (Spain) is the author of over 15 books of essay, novel and short stories. He is known for novels such as Derecho natural (2017), Filek (2018) and Fin de temporada (2020), and the long essay Enterrar a los muertos (Seix Barral, 2005), which won the Rodolfo Walsh and Dulce Chacón prizes and was much praised by reviewers and critics in several European countries. In his last book, Partes de guerra (2022), an anthology of stories about the Spanish Civil War, Martínez de Pisón carries out a publishing and literary task by compiling examples of the collective memory, voices that tell of the horrors, heroes and, above all, the history of a conflict that spilled across sides and boundaries. More than 30 Spanish writers give their particular view of the war, mediated by the excellent prose of Martínez de Pisón. In conversation with the author and journalist Dante Trujillo.

Two writers share their view on a subject that is revolutionary, private and controversial all at once: gender identity. The writer and journalist Mark Gevisser (South Africa) is the author de The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers (2022), a look at the incredible political, social and cultural transformations that have occurred already during our century with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity; from the achievements of the dissident movements that have resulted in the legalization of marriage between people of the same sex, and gender transitions, to tougher penalties for homosexuality, the two opposing positions have become entrenched. Gabriela Wiener (Peru) is a fiction writer and journalist; this expert on matters related to gender and feminism won the 2018 National Journalism Prize for investigating a case of sexual violence. She has written highly successful books that have tackled the issue of gender, including Sexografías, Nueve lunas and Dicen de mí. They will talk with the editor of the Radio Ambulante podcast, Ana Pais.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

With over 400 million people sharing a single language, one of the most biodiverse territories in the world, connections that date from a colonial past and have continued throughout political history, Latin America enjoys a glorious diversity and richness; it also faces some intimidating challenges: growing poverty and social inequality, corruption, populism and violence. Faced with this unsettling yet dynamic panorama, and in conversation with the historian Natalia Sobrevilla Perea, three key experts will discuss the future: the historian Carmen McEvoy, author of Patrias andinas, patrias citadinas; and the historian (Peru), a doctor in History from the University of London and author of Los inicios de la república peruana and Independencia; and ; the economist Andrés Velasco (Chile), former Finance Minister in the Michelle Bachelet government and the author of Contra la desigualdad and Liberalismo en tiempos del cólera.

We live in countries with constitutions that, in theory, guarantee individual rights; we live in societies where meritocracy is described as the best system for making progress; we live in societies that define themselves as multicultural. So how then do economic inequalities, racism and the discourses that perpetuate hate arise? We talk about inequalities with three experts who have reflected on why our societies are not yet equal. With César Rendueles (Spain) and Patricia Nieto (Colombia) in conversation with the political commentator Carlos León Moya.

Inequality in Latin America has been a constant throughout history: gaps in income distribution; inequalities in access to goods and services because of differences of origin, or working or social condition; or growing economic divergences between strata, sectors or classes. All these have caused crises in the region and created great social discontent, as well as the rise of populism. The sociologist and journalist Farid Kahhat, author of El eterno retorno; the economist Carlos Paredes Lanatta, who has written Resilientes pero no indolentes. Reflexiones sobre la crisis peruana; and the academic Natalia Sobrevilla, author of Independencia, will talk to the political analyst Gonzalo Banda.

A doctor in Philosophy and lecturer in Sociology at Madrid’s Complutense University, César Rendueles has worked extensively as a translator, editing classic works of philosophy by Walter Benjamin, Jeremy Bentham and Karl Marx, and is the author of the books Sociofobia (2013) and Capitalismo canalla (2015). His most recent work is Contra la igualdad de oportunidades (2020), a text that explores the development of equality in different social contexts, from gender equality to culture, work, family and education, and which examines concepts such as the one we know as “equality of opportunities”, the value that we give as a society to individual liberties and the reigning inequalities that threaten true democracy. He will be in conversation with Mariana Sánchez Aizcorbe.