Hay Festival Arequipa 2025

Carlos Chávez and Esther Cruces in conversation with Edward de Ybarra

Eccles Institute event: archives of a return journey

Friday 7 November 2025, 6pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Arequepay

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

Lecture-workshop with Alejandra Moffat

Friday 7 November 2025, 6pm GMT-5 –  Universidad Continental (sala de Audiencias)

Alejandra Moffat (Chile) is a natural when it comes to telling stories, whether as novels, tales or for the screen, and this is clear from her many successful screenplays for fiction, animation and documentary film. The young people who attend the workshop will learn basic notions when it comes to expressing their ideas in the outline of a script: from developing the plot to profiling the characters, and setting out the progression of the action.

Reading club with Andrés Barba and Omar Zevallos

The rise and fall of Bam the Rabbit

Friday 7 November 2025, 6pm GMT-5 –  Instituto Cultural Peruano Alemán

The Hay Festival reading club comes to Arequipa lead by Omar Zevallos presenting Andrés Barba (Spain) and his novel Auge y caída del conejo Bam. This animal fable, featuring a rabbit protagonist, is a tale about social manipulation, ideals and lies, fear and violence.

Sponsored by SURA

Ricardo Raphael in conversation with David Marcial Pérez

The Wallace case: a fabricated mourning

Friday 7 November 2025, 8pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Arequepay

The story that all Mexico believed: the kidnapping of a child and the later media campaign of a mother seeking justice, which involved the highest spheres of power in the country. This was the Wallace case, when the victim became the perpetrator. In Fabricación, the journalist and writer Ricardo Raphael (Mexico) tells how a manufactured mourning became a spectacle, and a manipulation of the reality, justice and the media. A true story that could have been a thriller and a systematic reminder of the impunity that haunts us. In conversation with David Marcial Pérez.

Roxana Barrantes, Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke in conversation with Fernando Carvallo

Can the free market promote social equity?

Friday 7 November 2025, 8pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Municipal

The polarization of Peruvian society is clear in many spheres, including the economy. Given this situation it is appropriate to wonder whether a right-wing political economy can integrate social policies for the most disadvantaged. Can social equity be promoted with free-market basis? With a general election coming next year, two former Economic ministers —Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke—, and one of the directors of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, Roxana Barrantes, will talk about these matters together with the journalist Fernando Carvallo.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Natalia Sobrevilla and Alberto Vergara in conversation with María Luisa del Río

Peru explained

Friday 7 November 2025, 8pm GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)

Explaining the past helps us to understand the present, and even more so when dealing with a country as complex as Peru. Natalia Sobrevilla and Alberto Vergara will be the ones to undertake this challenge, in a conversation that will begin with their recent publications. Perú global, co-edited by Vergara and Adrián Lerner, is the first volume in a series to cover the issue of Peru in the world. Around 20 researchers analyse key moments from the country’s past, set in a global context. Sobrevilla has written about the life of Ramón Castilla in Los años de Castilla (1840-1865), telling us about the figure who was president of the republic on two occasions. In conversation with María Luisa del Río.

Pedro Baños in conversation with Hernando Torres-Fernández

Geopolitics: a Hispano-American viewpoint

Friday 7 November 2025, 8pm GMT-5 –  Colegio de Arquitectos (auditorio)

Pedro Baños (Spain), a retired army colonel and geopolitical analyst, is a highly influential thinker about strategy and international relations in the Spanish-speaking world. In his latest book, Geohispanidad, he considers a geopolitical strategy to unite the Spanish-speaking countries and reinforce their global influence. He will talk to the diplomat and expert in international relations, Hernando Torres-Fernández, about the new alliances that are coming together, and the geopolitical board taking shape today.

Sponsored by Credicorp

A City in a City

Documentary screening

Friday 7 November 2025, 8pm GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano

The Hay Festival Arequipa presents A City In A City (1971), a documentary directed by Roberto Savio about the Saint Catalina Convent, written and narrated by Mario Vargas Llosa. This cinematic masterpiece, awarded at the Cannes film festival in 1971, captures a unique historical moment: the first opening of the cloisters to the public. Roberto Savio, recognised Italian journalist and commentator, will offer an exclusive and once-in-a-life-time testimony on his creative process and his collaboration with the Peruvian Nobel prize winner, bringing back a valuable document of our cultural memory. Presented by José Carlos Mariátegui.

Reading club with Alejandra Moffat and Omar Zevallos

Mambo

Friday 7 November 2025, 8pm GMT-5 –  Instituto Cultural Peruano Alemán

Sponsored by SURA