Hay Festival Querétaro 2023 – Language

Based on the challenges of taking the verse of Garry Gottfriedson (Canada) from English into Spanish for Tierra y lenguaje, a collection of some of his most representative work, we present a conversation between the Secwépecm poet and the indigenous literature specialist, Luz María Lepe (Mexico), about the attention and care needed to translate poetry by native authors from one colonial language into another, moderated by the journalist and educator Ingrid Bejerman (Brazil-Canada).

Libraries and archives, repositories of history… and of histories, in plural. At this event, we start from the idea of how non-hegemonic history, in the Mexican case particularly the history of native peoples, has been researched through the existence of extraordinary archives. With Baruc Martínez Díaz (Chinampero people of San Pedro Tláhuac), historian, translator, poet, teacher and author of Faustino Chimalpopoca Galicia. Un intelectual indígena en el México decimonónico, a work that shows us the existence, continuity and scope of the indigenous intellectual tradition in Mexico. And with Javier Eduardo Ramírez López (Mexico), who works with the Teotihuacan Diocese and Chalco Valley Archives, where 4,000 documents are being digitalized; these documents, in Náhuatl and colonial Spanish, cover the period from the first decades of colonialism to Independence. Both will talk to the Zoque thinker and academic Josefa Sánchez Contreras (Mexico).

Two fascinating poets tell us about their recent work, in conversation with the literary critic Guillermo Núñez. With Garry Gottfriedson (Canada), poet, rancher and member of the Secwepemc community, who has just published Tierra y lenguaje, a representative sample of his poetry, published in bilingual format (English/Spanish). Poeta griego arcaico is the most recent book by Luis Felipe Fabre (Mexico), poet, fiction writer and dramatist, who returns to poetry after a number of years away, taking up the mythological story of Medusa and Perseus. This is a masterly retelling of ancient legends, bringing them into dialogue with us and our present, with a poetic language so precise and evocative that the images he sings will reverberate long in the minds of readers. Introduced by Ingrid Bejerman.