Hay Festival Arequipa 2022

The Archivo General de Indias, or Indies Archive, is one of the world’s most important documentary funds. Created in 1785 with the goal of keeping at a single site all the documents related to the Indies, it was the Spanish government’s main archive covering the New World. Its director, Esther Cruces, will talk about its history, its role in the construction of memory, and the challenges of rereading the bundles, maps, plans and documents held there. Presented by Santiago Rojas, Northern Regional Manager and Representative of CAF Peru.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Joseph Conrad immortalised it in the iconic words from Heart of Darkness: “The horror!, the horror!”, and it is true that darkness attracts writers the way light attracts moths. Horror, fantasy and the strange, of course, but also the darkness of the everyday. This is how Andrés Barba (Spain) and Pilar Quintana (Colombia) make readers’ hair really stand on end when the night falls on their pages.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Guillermo Arriaga (Mexico) is a master of building work through different voices. From 21 Grams, to El salvaje and Babel, his fiction is created through intertwined stories, revealing the many facets of the human identity. In El Hombre, his most recent novel, he brings this style to bear once again: six characters, speaking from different times, all related to Henry Lloyd. Human brutality, that other very Arriaga ingredient, is also present in its pages. He will talk to the BBC Mundo journalist Santiago Vanegas.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Although it is one of the most forgotten literary genres, the diary form is nonetheless a window onto the inner and personal world of its author. Héctor Abad Faciolince and Alonso Cueto are two examples of writers who share their privacy in this way: with Lo que fue presente. Diarios 1985-2006 in the case of the Colombian, and with the recent Los años. Diario personal, by the Peruvian author. They will talk to the El País journalist Camila Osorio.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Today it is possible to buy almost any kind of spice cheaply in supermarkets and markets around the world. Yet there was a time when cinnamon was worth more than gold, and with enough nutmeg you could buy an island. Thomas Reinertsen Berg (Norway) explores the history of humanity via society’s link with spices in To the Ends of the Earth. This book takes us on a fascinating journey along the trade routes that were the engines of empire, discoveries and conflicts. In conversation with Ignacio Medina.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

From the ecohydrology of the Andes and the Amazon, Fabian Drenkhan and Jhan Carlo Espinoza are direct witnesses of the climate change that our planet is suffering from. The two experts will talk to Santiago Rojas, Northern Regional Manager and Representative of CAF Peru, about a reality that is becoming ever more urgent and dangerous. Climate change is not a future possibility, it is a truth that is already here.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Both Saltwater —her debut novel and winner of the Portico Prize— and Milk Teeth have made Jessica Andrews one of the most promising and interesting writers in the United Kingdom. Her writings cover issues such as social class, gender and the body, and she has also done theatre adaptations such as Saint Maud. In Un lugar en la familia de las cosas, Claudia Paredes Guinand (Peru) portrays the confusion and instability created by a past that we cannot understand and a future full of uncertainty. In conversation with Sandra González Luna.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

A chance to discover and debate the matter of contemporary art, and what is being created in the global South, seen through expert eyes and from the point of view of artists themselves. With the art historian and critic Claire Bishop (UK), the feminist activist and performance artist María Galindo (Bolivia); and the musician, writer and cultural manager Boima Tucker (Sierra Leone/USA). Moderated by the multidisciplinary visual artist, Nereida Apaza (Peru).

The death of Mario Vargas Llosa in April, aged 89, has brought an irreparable loss to literature, not only the literature of Peru, but of the world. We pay homage to Arequipa’s Nobel laureate with Alonso Cueto (Peru), friend of the writer and author of Mario Vargas Llosa. Palabras en el mundo; Verónica Ramírez (Peru), who worked with Vargas Llosa for years; and Juan Gabriel Vásquez, the Colombian author who some literary critics have seen as the literary heir of the great writer. In conversation with Ainai Morales.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

The Carpa Librera is a space for reading and listening, where the reading mediators Estefani Bengoa and Sandra Linares Reategui will take turns reading 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.

A journey into the past to discover what happened when the Spanish reached the Incas. How did life, beliefs and habits change in the Inca Empire with the new government? Melissa Siles, Yesenia Silva and Patricia Villanueva present Perú virreinal, a way of understanding this cultural encounter, and of cultivating a critical look at a past that marks the Peruvian identity of the present day.

The children that take part in this workshop will receive sheets to colour in, with printed characters from the colonial period —leaders, intellectuals, clergy…—. They will also be able to paint the frames with motifs taken from the Cusco School. An activity for getting to know one’s past, boosting creativity and relating it to respect and national identity. With Melissa Siles and Yesenia Silva.

Alonso Cueto met Mario Vargas Llosa aged three, at a Christmas Dinner organised in France by his mother. Almost seven decades later he published Mario Vargas Llosa. Palabras en el mundo, his homage to Arequipa’s Nobel prizewinner, written before the death of the famous writer on 13 April this year. More than an academic essay, this is a personal text, an ode to the work and influence of Vargas Llosa, who has become more important than ever after his passing. In conversation with Carlos Granés.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

John Vaillant (USA/Canada) won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction for Fire Weather, a book about the terrible forest fire that burned Fort McMurray, the centre of the Canadian oil industry. In this brilliant work, Vaillant argues that it was not just a fire, but a warning that we need to prepare for an ever hotter and more inflammable world. In conversation with Jhan Carlo Espinoza, research director at IRD and hydroclimatologist at the Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (IGE) in Grenoble, France.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The magazine Cuadernos hispanoamericanos foments knowledge and exchange between writers of different generations and nationalities, united by a single language and a literary tradition enriched by authors of diverse origins. At this special event, Andrés Barba (Spain) and Fernanda Trías (Uruguay) will talk about her work and literary world with María Gracia Ríos.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Teresa Ruiz Rosas (Peru) present her most recent book, Coreografía para trenzas solas, a novel about the private stories of women at war, their pain and their beauty, and about the construction of a world through the unique Andean oral tradition. In conversation with Augusto Carrasco.

El reino de Belmar by L.M. Bracklow is the latest book of the Islands of Iros series. With this third book of the adventures of Luke, Damien and Kaori, the bestselling young Peruvian author has captivated millions of readers around the world, and the acclaim she has received has made her books a standard of Peruvian fantasy writing for young adults. In conversation with Nazareth Vega.

The chef Héctor Solís, an expert in the gastronomy of Chiclayo, will join the food critic Ignacio Medina to talk about the tastes and secrets of their cuisine and its international success. Tradition, identity, sea, and links to the land of Lambayeque are all channelled through fine dishes served at his Fiesta restaurants, and expressed in his associated culinary projects. This event will bring together a chef and a critic, experts with a knife and a pen respectively, and a delight for the public. Moderated by Santiago Rojas, Northern Regional Manager and Representative of CAF Peru.

Gustavo Rodríguez (Peru), Alfaguara Novel prizewinner, pays homage to his mother and grandparents in Mamita, in which family ties take us to the Amazon region in the 20th century and the social and cultural tensions of that time. A “delayed family duty”, that has become one of the most personal and reflective of this Peruvian writer’s novels. In conversation with María Luisa del Río.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Young people make up 30% of Peru’s voters and their voices need to be listened to. It is not enough to tell them that nothing changes, or that Peru is broken: they want a different country. At this intergenerational event, Tatiana Huamanraime and Fernanda Pacho, from the Ya Toca platform, will talk to the economists and former ministers of Economy and Finance Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke, to express their frustrations, demands and ideas for (re)imagining the future.

François Vallaeys is a philosopher and teller of popular stories from the age-old oral tradition. Through humour and tenderness, he will offer an event with stories to guide listeners towards the most profound human wisdom, with tales from all over the world. These are not the kind that are read to send girls and boys to sleep, but rather those that wake adults, that through their simplicity manage to cure the wounds of the soul.

Poetry reading with the participation of six young highly promising authors based in Arequipa and three programme participantes: José Aburto, Jessica Andrews, Esteban Couto, Vanessa Begazo, Moisés Jiménez, Maritza Mejía, Heiner Valdivia and Majo Villegas. Presented by Augusto Carrasco.

From settings as different as clandestine activities during the Chilean dictatorship or a dystopian Lima in ruins Mambo by Alejandra Moffat (Chile) and Criaturas virales by Dany Salvatierra (Peru) converge on a single idea: situating their work in hostile landscapes through which characters affected by silence and violence travel. From a girl who grows up among murmurs and secrets; to the inhabitants of Villa Diodati, creatures who survive drowning in poverty. In conversation with Jorge Malpartida.

A unique encounter between musical cultures and languages. The Italian pianist based in Switzerland, Afra Kane, and the Arequipa saxophone player Sofía Bolaños will improvise live, fusing their musical worlds. They will alternate live music with a conversation with Doris Zuzunaga, in which they will talk about their careers, influences and love of improvised music.

A paso de vencedores. La ruta del BICIntenario is a short documentary that takes us on a journey of over 700 kilometres, from Huaura, on the coast, to the heights of Ayacucho, on the Pampa de la Quinua. Four cyclists and a film crew emulate the Route of Peruvian Emancipation, stopping at places that were key in the process of making the country independent. Presented by the screenwriter, director and producer of the documentary, Natalia Sobrevilla.

Director: Natalia Sobrevilla

Duration: 43 minutes

Serpentina is a film festival that lets children and young adults discover in films a place of possibilities, cultural diversity and self-discovery. Together with Victoria Arias and Edward de Ybarra, we screen a selection of shorts, divided into two blocks. The first has short films made in his workshops, inspired by stories from the Andean oral tradition; the second takes us on a journey through the different territories and cultures of Latin America.