Hay Festival Arequipa 2022

How can we educate people so they can better face the challenges of the future in a context of historical social inequality, discrimination and precarity? In Desde el corazón de la educación rural, the communicator Daniela Rotalde (Peru) deals with one of the key matters for the country’s development in a work based on hundreds of interviews carried out in educational communities in four districts of Huari, Áncash. De ilusiones, conquistas y olvidos, written by the anthropologist Francesca Uccelli Labarthe together with Carmen Montero, analyses the real capacity of the Peruvian State to offer a high-quality universal education to the rural population. Daniela Rotalde and Francesca Uccelli, in conversation with José Martín Vegas Torres, will talk about the failings of current social programmes and will offer proposals for dealing with one of the major challenges facing the national education system.

The Peruvian writer Gustavo Rodríguez presents Cien cuyes, winner of the prestigious Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2023. This is a story in which Rodríguez brilliantly combines comedy and tragedy to examine one of our society’s most sensitive issues: aging and the physical and mental deterioration it brings. This he does through the eyes of Eufrasia, a protagonist who goes from one end of the city of Lima to the other in order to look after elderly people who depend on her care, and to whom they entrust certain tasks that only she is willing to carry out. In conversation with Giovanni Barletti.

Emma Graham-Harrison (United Kingdom) is an award-winning reporter who works as an international correspondent for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers. She has covered conflicts in Zimbabwe, Iraq, Syria and, currently, the Ukraine. On this occasion, she will talk to Luis del Carpio about her work as a reporter in the different regions of the world that she has travelled to, as well as the difficulties of working in this profession and some ideas about what the future will bring. In conversation with Luis del Carpio.

How big is the task of restructuring education in Peru? How important is it to have personnel who are committed to their public task? Is it possible to redirect the critical situation of the education sector? The former Minister of Education, Jaime Saavedra (Peru), Head of Global Education at the World Bank, responds to these and other vital questions in Estamos tarde: Una memoria para recobrar la educación in Perú. At this event with Francesca Uccelli Labarthe, the author will talk about the magnitude of the challenge of restructuring education in Peru, highlighting the participation of good public workers and exploring the options for reforming a system that is key to developing the country.

Two journalists at one of the world’s most important and prestigious media organisations will give this workshop for university students. Alejandro Millán and Juan Carlos Pérez, members of the BBC Mundo team, will explain the working model of the Spanish-language operations of this British news service which has been running for over a hundred years and is renowned for its news rigor and quality, talking about how it broadcasts its news and content in this digital era.

The Peruvian writer Gustavo Rodríguez presents Cien cuyes, winner of the prestigious Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2023. This is a story in which Gustavo Rodríguez brilliantly combines comedy and tragedy to examine one of our society’s most sensitive issues: aging and the physical and mental deterioration it brings. This he does through the eyes of Eufrasia, a protagonist who goes from one end of the city of Lima to the other in order to look after elderly people who depend on her care, and to whom they entrust certain tasks that only she is willing to carry out. In conversation with Patricia del Río.

Martín Ibarrola (Spain) will talk about his travel book, La selva herida, which was written after a journey on which he accompanied the Basque explorer Miguel Gutiérrez on an expedition through Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. During the journey, Ibarrola documented the many people who make up daily life in the Amazon region, from a biochemist who measures the pollution levels of rivers, to indigenous communities who fight against the lobbies, and even a group of miners whose dream is to form a band one day. The author will share with the audience these stories and will talk about the dangers facing the Madre de Dios rainforest.

The acclaimed author of the Trilogía de la casa de los conejos presents her latest novel, a moving story based on real events. For A través del bosque, Laura Alcoba (Argentina-France) investigated the infanticide committed in 1984 by an Argentinean woman exiled in France, taking us into the minds of the survivors of that tragedy more than 30 years afterwards. At this event, Alcoba will talk about the process of creating the novel and the ways in which literature can give meaning and closure to the incomprehensible. In conversation with Teresina Muñoz-Nájar.

The journalist, travel writer and translator, Sabrina Duque (Ecuador), has lived and written in Portugal, Brazil, Nicaragua and now the United States. She has contributed writings to a range of media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic. She was shortlisted for the 2015 Gabriel García Márquez Journalism Prize for her book Vasco Pimentel, el oidor. In 2018 she was awarded the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Scholarship, granted by the Gabo Foundation, the Hay Festival and the Michael Jacobs Foundation for Travel Writing. Her most recent book, Necesito saber hoy de tu vida, is a compilation of nine profiles of figures linked to Portugal and Brazil from fields that range from lobotomy to football, from childcare to film, from prison to music, and from food to poetry.

Lindsey Hilsum (United Kingdom) has reported on conflicts and refugee movements in the Ukraine, Syria, Mali, Iraq, Palestine, Libya and Kosovo and has recently covered the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan. She was the only foreign English-speaking correspondent in Rwanda when the genocide began. A press and television journalist, a regular contributor to outlets such as The Guardian, The Observer and Granta, in 2019 she published In Extremis, a biography of the war correspondent Marie Colvin. Winner of numerous awards, she will talk about her work, career and experiences with Christiane Félip Vidal, author of Mujeres en conflictos.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Two authors will talk to Valerie Miles about their most recent works, in which identity (sexual, national, public) plays a very important role. With Catherine Lacey (USA), who returns to the literary scene with Biography of X, a novel in which the writer takes up some of her favourite themes, such as identity and the construction of the public person; and the German writer, Katharina Volckmer, who invites us into the world of The Appointment, a provocative and hilarious novel in which we follow the life of a young German woman living in London, and what happens when she consults the Jewish Dr Seligman.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available