Hay Festival Jericó 2026

The documentary El extraordinario viaje de Carlos y Alvin is about other ways of seeing the world and a friendship that can help us shed stereotypes and stigmas in relation to blindness. Directed and produced by the BBC Mundo journalist, Andrea Díaz Cardona, it tells the true story of Carlos and Alvin, born in Colombia and the Bahamas, respectively, but with parallel lives: after meeting by chance, they realised that they were both premature babies and became blind as the result of the same medical error.

Duration: 18 minutes

Andrea Díaz Cardona, the director and producer of the BBC Mundo documentary El extraordinario viaje de Carlos y Alvin, tells the story of Carlos and Alvin, who, despite being born in different countries, by luck met and discovered that they had parallel lives: they were both premature babies and became blind as the result of the same medical error. Both were self-taught musicians, live alone in Canada and are refugees with restrictions on visiting their own countries, despite which they decided to visit the country of the other. Díaz Cardona will talk to José Carlos Cueto, also a BBC Mundo journalist.

What started as a project among a group of friends at the University of Antioquia has become a band that in 2025 celebrated 50 years, and has had three generations of musicians among its members. For five decades, Grupo Suramérica has been taking music to Antioquia, Colombia and Latin America. Taking as inspiration nueva trova cubana, nuevo cancionero argentino and nuevo canto uruguayo, from the beginning they have promoted spaces for social exchange with a clear goal: in the face of rifles, they have used guitars; in the face of war, poetry. They have been turning memories into songs for 50 years, and here in Jerico we celebrate life and music through their shared path.

Código PULEP YBU668