General Programme

Linda Kamau in conversation with Andrea Rizzi

Women who transform technology

Saturday 6 September 2025, 10.30am CST –  Cineteca Rosalío Solano

Linda Kamau (Kenya) is a pioneer in the field of the inclusion of women in technology. As a co-founder of AkiraChix, she has trained hundreds of young people in programming, offering them tools to transform their lives and communities. She has been recognized by initiatives such as the Obama Foundation’s Leaders Africa programme, and is a member of the Segal Family Foundation. Her leadership has encouraged a generation of women who are transforming technology. In conversation with Andrea Rizzi.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

In collaboration with Nairobi Litfest. With the support of the British Council’s UK/Kenya Season 2025

Alma Delia Murillo in conversation with Dalia Larisa Juárez Otero

Saturday 6 September 2025, 10.30am CST –  Jardín Guerrero

Alma Delia Murillo tackles one of Mexico’s most painful realities: the tireless struggle of mothers searching for their children. Raíz que no desaparece is a work of fiction that deals with what is a part of so many women’s lives: mothers who are searching, who, faced with an absent State, seek the truth on their own, mothers who do not give up and will never give up.

Sonia Faleiro and V. V. Ganeshananthan in conversation with Mario Arriagada

South Asia Speaks

Saturday 6 September 2025, 10.30am CST –  Museo de la Ciudad (espacio escénico)

The South Asia Speaks mentorship initiative, founded by Sonia Faleiro (India), seeks to amplify the emerging literary voices in the region. One result of this project, published late last year, was the book How I Write: Writers on Their Craft, a compilation of conversations with writers from South Asia. One contributor was V. V. Ganeshananthan (Sri Lanka/USA), author of Brotherless Night, who talks about his literary experience. Faleiro is also the editor of the anthology Gaza: The Story of a Genocide which will be published soon. Both writers will talk to Mario Arriagada (Mexico).

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

With the support of Open Society Foundations, South to North conversations

Mardonio Carballo and Jemima Peláez in conversation with Héctor Guerrero

Eccles Institute event: language custodians

Saturday 6 September 2025, 10.30am CST –  Museo de la Ciudad (sala 2)

Two language custodians will talk about how their work allows them to care for, celebrate and preserve their language. Mardonio Carballo in poetry, journalism and activism in his indigenous language; and Jemima Peláez through her role as an out-of-the-ordinary librarian.

With the support of Eccles Institute for American Studies at The British Library

Juan Gabriel Vásquez in conversation with Elvira Liceaga

Saturday 6 September 2025, 12.30pm CST –  Teatro de la Ciudad

Juan Gabriel Vásquez is one of the most celebrated and outstanding authors in contemporary Colombian literature. At this event he will talk about his most recent book, Los nombres de Feliza, a recreation of the life of the sculptor Feliza Bursztyn, who was a freethinking artist who went beyond the limits set by the times for women like her. This rigorous novel weaves together art, history and memoir.

Register to watch online

Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and Patricia Ledesma in conversation with Ayelén Oliva

Hay Festival Constellations: archaeology

Saturday 6 September 2025, 12.30pm CST –  Cineteca Rosalío Solano

Hay Festival Constellations creates a space for intergenerational dialogue within the Mexican cultural scene, in fields such as literature, film, music, science and architecture. To understand the present, it is necessary to understand the past, and in this regard we owe to Eduardo Matos Moctezuma much of Mexico’s current identity. Together with Patricia Ledesma, this event examines that history in order to think about what has made us. The past and the present will come into dialogue here, in a conversation moderated by Ayelén Oliva.

Nacho Lozano in conversation with Nena Mounstro

Deconstruct your macho side

Saturday 6 September 2025, 12.30pm CST –  Jardín Guerrero

How can we stop being macho? The journalist Nacho Lozano has written Macho menos, aimed at those men who want to deconstruct themselves, in order to open the way to new masculinities. This is a book that also incorporates women’s voices in order to shed light on some of the more questionable aspects of men’s behaviour.

LSM Mexican sign language interpretation available

Olivia Rosenthal in conversation with Javier García del Moral

Saturday 6 September 2025, 12.30pm CST –  Museo de la Ciudad (espacio escénico)

Olivia Rosenthal (France) is a writer whose work fuses fiction, essay and personal testimony. For Que font les rennes après Noël?, which examines our relationship with animals and the domestication of emotional feeling, she interviewed several people who work with animals. In On n’est pas là pour disparaître, she reconstructs the case of a man suffering from Alzheimer’s who attacks his wife, and confronts us with the fragility of identity and personal links.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

With the support of the French Embassy in Mexico

Janet Martínez, Andrea Rizzi and John Vaillant in conversation with Francesco Manetto

The United States of the Americas

Saturday 6 September 2025, 12.30pm CST –  Museo de la Ciudad (sala 2)

Mexico, the USA and Canada share more than borders: migratory policies, the climate emergency and common challenges. The relationships among the three countries have not always been stable, and according to who is in power, changes in course occur. Three experts will talk about the urgency of building bridges among the three nations: John Vaillant (USA/Canada), a witness to the ecological disaster; Andrea Rizzi (Italy), Global Affairs Correspondent for El País, and the Mexican journalist Janet Martínez. They will be joined by Francesco Manetto, journalist of El País América.

Consecutive interpretation from English to Spanish available

Daniel Mordzinski and Juan Gabriel Vásquez in conversation with Cristina Fuentes La Roche

Passion for literature

Saturday 6 September 2025, 3.30pm – 4.30pm CST –  Cineteca Rosalío Solano

Three great connoisseurs of the literary scene in Spanish talks about decades of literature and reading with the most relevant authors of this fascinating universe. Daniel Mordzinski, the "writers' photographer", who presents Vargas Llosa, el escritor y la vida, a special book about the Peruvian Nobel Prize Winner. He will also talk about this photographic exhibition that celebrates ten years of the Hay Festival Querétaro; and the Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez. In conversation with Cristina Fuentes La Roche, International Director of Hay Festival.

Carmen Aristegui and Miriam Ramírez in conversation with Daniel Pardo

Hay Festival Constellations: journalism

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5pm CST –  Teatro de la Ciudad

Hay Festival Constellations creates a space for intergenerational dialogue within the Mexican cultural scene, in fields such as literature, film, music, science and architecture. Truth, ethics and the urge to tell us the facts are all a part of good journalism. Carmen Aristegui and Miriam Ramírez will dialogue about the current state and value of a profession that has gone from being seen as «the Fourth Estate», to being mistrusted and even vilified by certain discourses and some sectors of society.

LSM Mexican sign language interpretation available

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Michel Nieva in conversation with Eduardo Rabasa

Future hacking: science fiction and neoliberalism

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5pm CST –  Cineteca Rosalío Solano

Michel Nieva (Argentina) is a creator of gaucho-punk, which fuses the gauchesca tradition with the cyberpunk genre. In Ciencia ficción capitalista he draws our attention to the capitalist fantasies of the technological gurus. This essay explores how the language of science fiction has been kidnapped by the neoliberal ideas of Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg and co. In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa.

With the support of Open Society Foundations, South to North conversations

Fernando Benavides in conversation with Paula Rosas

True crime, from podcast to novel

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5pm CST –  Jardín Guerrero

Mix a few drops of murder, disappearance, political investigation and unsettling theories, and stir in some vigorous narrative rhythm and a great sense of story, and you have all the ingredients that have made Fausto, the true-crime podcast by Fernando Benavides (Mexico), the most listened to in Latin America. On this occasion, he presents the novel La vulnerabilidad del azar, a work written in his characteristic style: based on a real case, with multiple murders, and the resulting police investigation.

LSM Mexican sign language interpretation available

John Vaillant in conversation with Cristina Fuentes La Roche

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5pm CST –  Museo de la Ciudad (espacio escénico)

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 Cristina Fuentes La Roche.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Mar García Puig and Mariana Matija in conversation with Felipe Rosete

Reconnections

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5pm CST –  Museo de la Ciudad (sala 2)

Mar García Puig (Spain) and Mariana Matija (Colombia) advocate for a reconnection with fundamental aspects of our existence, from different perspectives. In her book, Això tan tenebrós, García Puig presents an argument in favour of the complexity of metaphors and the darkness, as against the prevailing literalness and desire for purity; in her work of non-fiction Niñapájaroglaciar, Matija looks to a more aware and harmonious relationship with nature.

With the support of Instituto Ramón Llull

Gina Jaramillo and Patricia Vázquez del Mercado in conversation with Bárbara Arredondo

Universum: learn about science through play

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5pm CST –  Patio de la Delegación del Centro Histórico

The UNAM’s Museum of Science has created Universum, a space for children to learn about science through curiosity and play. Gina Jaramillo and Patricia Vázquez del Mercado will discuss the museum’s new proposal, a pioneer in Mexico due to its accessible and inclusive approach, and because of the cooperation between the public and private sectors involved. In conversation with Bárbara Arredondo.

Sponsored by CAF

Elvira Sastre in conversation with Alberto Villarreal

Saturday 6 September 2025, 5.30pm CST –  Tequisquiapan, Plaza principal

Elvira Sastre has managed to achieve the improbable: bring poetry to thousands of young people. Using a familiar approach and subject matter that is relevant to their lives, she has connected with various generations of readers, keeping alive the spark of literary sensitivity.

With the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E

Andrés Cota Hiriart in conversation with José María Herrera Marquina

The axolotl, an emblematic creature

Saturday 6 September 2025, 6pm CST –  Pinal de Amoles, Kiosko Municipal

There is a real-life monster that lives underwater, able to regenerate its limbs and which is always young. This is the amphibian known as the axolotl, and it is… Mexican! In this fascinating conversation together with José María Herrera Marquina, the Mexican biologist and writer Andrés Cota Hiriart will tell us anecdotes, curiosities and surprising information about this small and mysterious animal that always seems to be smiling.

Lol Tolhurst in conversation with Sopitas

Gothic pride

Saturday 6 September 2025, 7pm CST –  Teatro de la Ciudad

In his most recent book, Goth, the legendary founding member of The Cure, Lol Tolhurst (United Kingdom) returns to his origins: the music scene of the late 70s and early 80s, years when new bands were arriving: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Joy Division and, of course, The Cure. This work records the channelling of a force that goes beyond music: a community, a feeling of belonging, and something that meant the shadows and darkness –and those basslines– became a light that drew people together.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

With the support of British Council

Register to watch online

Pedro Baños in conversation with Javier Solórzano

Spanish-speaking America on the geopolitical map

Saturday 6 September 2025, 7pm CST –  Cineteca Rosalío Solano

Pedro Baños (Spain), a reserve colonel and geopolitical analyst, is one of the most influential thinkers on strategy and international relations in the Spanish-speaking world. In his latest book, Geohispanidad, he considers a geopolitical strategy to unite Spanish-speaking countries and strengthen their global influence. He will talk to Javier Solórzano about the new alliances that are being forged, and they geopolitical map that is taking shape today.

Sponsored by CAF