Hay Festival Cartagena 2024

Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2024 was held from 25 to 28 January. In this page you can find the events in the general programme as well as Hay Joven activities for university audiences, Hay Comunitario sessions which took place in different areas of Cartagena, Reading Clubs and Talento Editorial.

Events video and audio is available on Hay Festival Anytime.

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Event HFJ10

Florence Thomas in conversation with Julián Navarro

Friday 31 January 2025, 12pm Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)

The psychologist, columnist, writer and feminist activist Florence Thomas (France / Colombia) is recognised as one of the most influential voices in the women’s rights movement in Colombia. At 81 years of age she presents Fragmentos de vida, a book that weaves public and private memories, from her childhood in France to her activism in favour of the rights of Colombian women at the National University and the decriminalisation of abortion. Thomas reveals a life characterised by diversity and challenges, defying the narrative of a linear, perfect life. In conversation with Julián Navarro.

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Florence Thomas in conversation with Julián Navarro

Event HFJ17

Javier Zamora in conversation with Claudia Ayola

Saturday 1 February 2025, 10am Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)

The award-winning writer and poet Javier Zamora (El Salvador / United States) is the author of the poetry book Unaccompanied and the memoir Solito. In this last book, the author tells the story of his journey of over five thousand kilometres, between El Salvador and the United States, aged just nine. The civil war in El Salvador had expelled his family from the country, and the journey, which was meant to take two weeks, became a two-month odyssey, undertaken with a group of strangers and a “coyote” through Guatemala, Mexico and the Sonora Desert (the world’s most dangerous overland migratory route). Solito is the story of that time. In conversation with Claudia Ayola.

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Javier Zamora in conversation with Claudia Ayola

Event HFJ19

Silvia Vásquez-Lavado in conversation with Joel Samper

Saturday 1 February 2025, 12pm Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)

The guest at this event is a pioneer with great achievements. She was the first Peruvian woman to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), and to climb the six highest peaks on the other continents. She is also the first openly LGTBI+ person to reach the seven summits. Silvia Vásquez-Lavado tells her story in the book In the Shadow of the Mountain, which also deals with a past of trauma and excess, and of childhood abuse. It reveals how an ayahuasca ceremony helped her to connect to the mountains, and how she undertakes her expeditions, together with other victims of sexual abuse, as part of the Courageous Girls project, founded in 2014. She will talk to Joel Samper about her activism, her memories and about the film that is currently being made.

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Silvia Vásquez-Lavado in conversation with Joel Samper

Event 62

Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera

South to North conversations

Saturday 1 February 2025, 7.30pm Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)

The writer Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and was raised in the United States. A professor at the University of Southern California, he has received Guggenheim and MacArthur foundation fellowships. Author of the acclaimed The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, he has also written the short story collection The Refugees, the book of non-fiction Nothing Ever Dies, finalist for the National Book Award, and he edited the anthology of refugee writings The Displaced. His recent publication, A Man of Two Faces, is a brilliant memoir that tells the life story of Nguyen as a refugee, and his identity, both Vietnamese and American. In conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

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Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera

Event 81

Silvia Vásquez-Lavado and Javier Zamora in conversation with Angel Cárdenas

Sunday 2 February 2025, 5.30pm Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)

Silvia Vásquez-Lavado (Peru) is the author of the autobiographical book In the Shadow of the Mountain, in which the author deals with her past of trauma and excess, of alcoholism and promiscuous sex and, before this, of childhood abuse. She has undertaken climbing expeditions accompanied by other victims of sexual abuse, as part of the Courageous Girls project, founded in 2014. The award-winning writer and poet Javier Zamora (El Salvador / United States) is the author of the book of memoir Solito. In it, Zamora tells the story of his five-thousand kilometre journey, between El Salvador and the United States, aged just nine. In conversation with Ángel Cárdenas.

All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.

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