Hay Festival Arequipa 2022

Explaining the past helps us to understand the present, and even more so when dealing with a country as complex as Peru. Natalia Sobrevilla and Alberto Vergara will be the ones to undertake this challenge, in a conversation that will begin with their recent publications. Perú global, co-edited by Vergara and Adrián Lerner, is the first volume in a series to cover the issue of Peru in the world. Around 20 researchers analyse key moments from the country’s past, set in a global context. Sobrevilla has written about the life of Ramón Castilla in Los años de Castilla (1840-1865), telling us about the figure who was president of the republic on two occasions. In conversation with María Luisa del Río.

Pedro Baños (Spain), a retired army colonel and geopolitical analyst, is a highly influential thinker about strategy and international relations in the Spanish-speaking world. In his latest book, Geohispanidad, he considers a geopolitical strategy to unite the Spanish-speaking countries and reinforce their global influence. He will talk to the diplomat and expert in international relations, Hernando Torres-Fernández, about the new alliances that are coming together, and the geopolitical board taking shape today.

The Hay Festival Arequipa presents A City In A City (1971), a documentary directed by Roberto Savio about the Saint Catalina Convent, written and narrated by Mario Vargas Llosa. This cinematic masterpiece, awarded at the Cannes film festival in 1971, captures a unique historical moment: the first opening of the cloisters to the public. Roberto Savio, recognised Italian journalist and commentator, will offer an exclusive and once-in-a-life-time testimony on his creative process and his collaboration with the Peruvian Nobel prize winner, bringing back a valuable document of our cultural memory. Presented by José Carlos Mariátegui.

Héctor Abad Faciolince (Colombia) has been captivating readers for almost 20 years with the book Oblivion, the moving homage to his murdered father. Now his writings bring to us an even more personal event, the 2023 missile attack on a pizzeria in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region of the Ukraine. Abad Faciolince was unharmed, but Victoria Amelina (Ucrania), his travel companion and guide, died in the Russian attack. Ahora y en la hora is his report of the events, and a meditation on life, aging, death, war, violence and guilt. In conversatio with Jeremías Gamboa.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Caviar and latte liberals, woke, lefties… all pejorative terms linked to a left wing, and all becoming more and more common. But, what is the woke left? Who are the latte drinkers? In Left Is Not Woke, Susan Neiman (United States) argues that the true progressive spirit —universalism, justice, reason— has broken up into identitarian posturing that is resulting in a new woke conservatism. The political commentator Eduardo Dargent (Peru) analyses the Peruvian version of the phenomenon in Caviar. Del pituco de izquierda al multiverso progre; as an insult, a label or a smokescreen, “caviar” is one of the most effective and persistent threads in the national political discourse. A conversation about works that (de)construct the left, with Pablo Quintanilla.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

In Noche negra, Pilar Quintana (Colombia) returns to the untamed and exuberant Colombian Pacific that she portrayed so convincingly in the acclaimed novel La perra. In her latest book, the protagonist finds herself alone for four days in a setting that is both terrifying and fascinating. She feels threatened not only by nature, but by the people around her. As well as her work as a writer, Quintana has recently edited the second issue of the Biblioteca de Escritoras Colombianas. In conversation with Clara Elvira Ospina.

In Artificial Hells, Claire Bishop (United Kingdom) followed the trail of artistic practices that discomfort, interrupt and reconfigure what we understand by seeing. Now, in Disordered Attention, in the context of an economy characterised by programmed distraction, she once again asks what it means to look. Her analysis dismantles the idea of pure contemplation and highlights the power of performance, dance and political interventions to mould a new type of perception: emotional, hybrid and shared. In conversation with Fernando Zvietcovich and Heiner Valdivia.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Five years, five topics, five jugos. Jugo (formerly Jugo de Caigua) is five years old, and the jugueros Patricia del Río, Gustavo Rodríguez, Natalia Sobrevilla and Dante Trujillo will celebrate it at the Hay Festival Arequipa. The authors reflect on five of the most important matters of the last half decade. Liquid for us all to reflect on.

The Carpa Librera is a space for reading and listening, where the reading mediators Estefani Bengoa and Sandra Linares Reategui will read children’s books. In a place designed for both young and old —including those who cannot read—, they can enjoy the stories hidden in books, and so perhaps the reading bug will bite them. The Carpa Librera will also have a small mobile library for children, young readers and adults.

What is a book? Starting with this question, the participants in this workshop, given by Anaisa Cornejo, will create new items based on the object-books they have at hand. At first, the pages will be completely blank, but will be given stories by means of collage, and so leave behind their status as objects and become books.

Rodrigo Quian Quiroga (Argentina) is the discoverer of “concept neurones”, sometimes known as “Grandmother cells”, which activate the recognition of specific concepts, people or images. The neuroscientist explores the human brain in Cosas que nunca creeríais. De la ciencia ficción a la neurociencia, and tells us how the human brain turns scientific advances that once seemed impossible into reality. In conversation with María Fernández Flecha.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

We are puppets of the algorithm, although sometimes we don’t realise it. The puppet master is not always artificial intelligence itself, but rather those who pull the strings to predict and mould our behaviour. The science journalist Laura G. de Rivera (Spain) has spent years researching the consequences of this invisible control. In Esclavos del algoritmo she offers a necessary and critical view of the impact of algorithmic systems on our lives. In conversation with María del Milagro Lozada

Mathilde Forget (France) has been inspired by the events of her own life to write her second novel, De mon plein gré, a short, sharp book about a woman who ends up doubting her own version of the facts. A portrait of a legal system and administrative violence that blames and shames those who seek help, and where the ambiguities of the language used can create a battlefield. In conversation with Verónica Ramírez.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Playing with games that already exist is fun, but it isn’t every day that we can experience designing our own, with the excitement of seeing how ideas take shape and sharing them with others. Participants at this workshop with Rodrigo Laguna will design and build a boardgame inspired by an idea that motivates them. An activity that awakens creativity and encourages working together.

This year the festival is offering a number of activities in homage to the life and work of Mario Vargas Llosa, including an exhibition by Morgana Vargas Llosa, dedicated to her father, and the publication of a book together with the Fondo de Cultura Económica which compiles the conversations of the Nobel laureate which have taken place at Hay festivals over the years. We meet the exhibition curators, Alejandro Castellote and Carlos Caamaño, and the book’s editor, Dante Trujillo.

Artificial intelligence has come into our vocabularies and our lives, and is here to stay. Yet when we talk about it, what exactly are we talking about? AI goes beyond algorithms, robotics and promises of utopian and/or dystopian futures. Laura G. de Rivera (Spain), author of Esclavos del algoritmo, and Rodrigo Quian Quiroga (Argentina), neuroscientist and the discover of “concept neurones” talk to Layla Hirsh.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

B movies have always been a type of refuge of all kinds of anti-hero. These stories have been low in budget, but high in imagination, and have often been transgressive and have featured those who live on the margins of society, those who are ignored. They have also been an inexhaustible source of inspiration in literature, as Alberto Fuguet (Chile) and Dany Salvatierra (Peru) will tell us, in conversation with Giancarlo Cappello.

With its love of memory, literature can be a good remedy against forgetting. Zoila Vega Salvatierra reconstructs the history of Arequipa through the voice of six forgotten pianos in Cantan al hablar. Sonia Cunliffe traces a history of migrations, losses and grief in El tropiezo del sol, which tells the story of two women whose lives are brought together by two separate earthquakes. In El álbum de las cosas olvidadas, Enrique Planas explores the emotional links we have with the objects that time has left behind, and examines our own obsolescence. In convrsation with Jorge Malpartida.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

The remains of the civilisations of ancient Peru were a great attraction for the French adventurers, dealers and explorers who crossed the Atlantic in search of its mysteries. Pascal Riviale recreates the history of these ethnological journeys in Los viajeros franceses en busca del Perú antiguo (1821-1914). A unique view of French archaeology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Peru. In converation with Mario Rommel Arce Espinosa.

Listening to the Amazon to learn, and flying over it to make it heard. Both Nelly Luna and Iñigo Maneiro know the Amazon region well, and bring to us stories that illustrate the problems of natural resource extraction and not paying due attention to its inhabitants. In his article Sobrevuelo en la Amazonía: el rastro de los depredadores, Luna talks about how illegal mining has made part of the region into a tree cemetery. Maneiro has lived with the Awajún people and has learned about their relationship with birds, and has given us a view of their ancestral worldview in her book Saber escuchar el canto. Relaciones entre aves y humanos en el pueblo awajún.

Salma El Moumni (Morocco) and Diego Molina (Peru) present their debut novels: Adieu Tanger and La fascinación, respectively. The first, winner of a France Culture award for a student novel, and shortlisted for the Prix Médicis, is a story about the destructive power the male gaze can have over women. After publishing three poetry books —Homesick, No somos más sabios después del diluvio and Expreso transeuropeo—, the Arequipa lawyer and poet has written a novel, and has indicated that he will soon move into the territory of the short story. In conversation with Rosario Yori.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Nicómedes Santa Cruz, the renowned Afro-Peruvian poet, ethnomusicologist and intellectual, we celebrate the culture with a lesson in Afro-Peruvian zapateo with Karen Jara and Juan Felipe Miranda, known as Juno Miranda. The perfect and most enjoyable way to learn Afro zapateo.

Experimental poetry —especially electronic poetry— offers this author the chance to break free from the linearity of the book. José Aburto will offer non-linear techniques of poetry writing to workshop participants, so they can use them in different formats, which will also be looked at here. In this way, they will practice basic writing resources that can generate poetic expressions in dispersed media.

A fanzine is a homemade publication, one that usually combines different formats and resources (collage, photography, illustration and/or text) along with varied subject matter. Those attending this workshop will be able to explore the memories, interests and emotions that bind their families. A unique opportunity to reflect on family identity, as well as experiences both long past and recent. The workshop will be aimed at Hispanic Literature students of the PUCP, accompanied by two of the course lecturers, Ainaí Morales and María Gracia Ríos.

Darío Sztajnszrajber (Argentina) has brought philosophy to thousands of people, filling venues and appearing on television and radio. He has captivated non-specialist audiences by dealing with the big philosophical questions of history and contemporary ideas. In the eight theses of El amor es imposible, he dismantles the myth of normative romantic love. The philosopher questions ideas such as the perfect partner and invites us to rethink the notion of falling out of love as part of the desire for the impossible. In conversation with the BBC Mundo journalist Ana País.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Hidden hands pull the strings of the algorithms that make us slaves; a genocide in Gaza that the world watches without blinking; left-wing movements that are lost in tribal conflicts; and the diversity and complexity of the African continent. With the first quarter of our century past, we live in a time of challenges, when it is not always clear who holds the power. Laura G. de Rivera, Susan Neiman and Boima Tucker will put these topics, and other challenges, on the table in conversation with Eduardo Dargent.

With El rugido de nuestro tiempo, the Colombian essayist Carlos Granés continues his task of dissecting the present that he began in Salvajes de una nueva época. We live in a time of ideological and geopolitical disorder in which there are both decolonial debates and pan-Hispanic nostalgia; a time of messianic politicians and artists who sacrifice transgression to yield to the latest moral demands. To understand the noise of our times, there is nothing better than listening to Granés. In conversation with Patricia del Río.

The election of a pope with Peruvian nationality, his role in the changes that are hoped for in the Church, Catholicism’s challenges in terms of maintaining and attracting the faithful in an ever more secular era, what still needs to be done in the dissolution of the Sodalitium… With a quarter of the century passed, it is a good time to ask about the place of religion and Catholicism in the 21st century. Talking about this will be Elise Ann Allen, a journalist who specialises in Catholic affairs, and author of the biography León XIV; Pablo Quintanilla, an essayist and philosopher who has recently published Autoconocimiento y libertad; and Paola Ugaz, one of the journalists who uncovered the systematic abuses of the Sodalitium, and who worked on the book Mitad monjes, mitad soldados; they will be in conversation with the El País journalist Camila Osorio.