Renata Salecl in conversation with José Luis Ramos Salinas
Cohabitation, not competition
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Colegio de Arquitectos
In a system that glorifies individualism and the cult of the self, it is hardly surprising that bad manners and rudeness are gaining ground across the social spectrum. One need only observe the outbursts of those who govern us or read the thousands of messages flooding social media. The sociologist and philosopher Renata Salecl (Slovenia) observes how neoliberalism has colonised our emotions, our decisions, and even our forms of empathy. She sets this out in Maleducados, where she also offers an alternative: kindness. Not as naive behaviour, but as a form of resistance. If the system wants competition, let us respond with coexistence. In conversation wtihJosé Luis Ramos Salinas.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
Liliana Blum, Sophie Demange and Nerea Pallares in conversation with Zoila Vega Salvatierra
Resistance by women
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Teatro Arequepay
There are places where nothing ever seems to change, until a breaking point is reached. Like when the women of a coastal village in Galicia rebel against the selfishness of the absent men and take a drastic decision in Punto de araña, the debut novel by Nerea Pallares (Spain). There are also places marked by events that change the lives of their inhabitants. Such as a middle-class neighbourhood in Rouen where three female butchers, victims of sexual abuse, take the law into their own hands in Las carniceras by Sophie Demange (France). Or the Second World War, during which Hannie Schaft went from being a university student to an icon of the Dutch resistance against the Nazi occupation, in Ráfaga roja by Liliana Blum (Mexico). These three writers will speak with Zoila Vega Salvatierra about how women have resisted and challenged the place that history seemed to have reserved for them.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E and the French Embassy
Gerald Bronner and Farid Kahhat in conversation with Benjamín Carrasco
Truth, propaganda and democracy in the digital era
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Casa Gibson - Universidad Católica Santa María
The information we receive depends increasingly on algorithms, social media and communities that share their own versions of reality. The abundance of information does not necessarily make us better informed: it also encourages the circulation of fake news and narratives designed to confirm what we already believe. The French sociologist Gerald Bronner, one of the leading researchers into the effects of the digital environment on the way we obtain information, and the international analyst Farid Kahhat (Peru) will discuss with Benjamín Carrasco how the truths that reach the public sphere are constructed today, what role propaganda plays, and what consequences all this has for democracy.
Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available
Carlos Caamaño, Rossana Díaz Costa and Greta García
Hay Festival en español podcast: another place to talk about art
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Casa del Moral
Stories change depending on who tells them and from whose perspective. Some stories only emerge when we shift our perspective, and it is our viewpoint that shapes the narrative. Come and see how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast in Spanish is recorded live, and listen to the reflections of Carlos Caamaño, Rossana Díaz Costa and Greta Garcíaon how photography, film and dance engage with the world.
En 1959 Alex Olmedo se convirtió en el primer tenista peruano en ganar el prestigioso torneo de Wimbledon. Una hazaña que ningún compatriota ha repetido desde entonces. Ese mismo año se había alzado con el Abierto de Australia. El periodista Luis Carlos Arias Schreiber(Perú) ha publicado Alejandro Olmedo, biografía en la que reconstruye el ascenso a la gloria de un muchacho arequipeño de origen humilde. Sus años en Estados Unidos, su compleja relación con la identidad, la nacionalidad y la competencia, y en cómo se convirtió en entrenador de celebridades como Katharine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas y John Wayne.
Juan Esteban Constain and Santiago Roncagliolo in conversation with Raúl Tola
Magnificent humanity: Leo XIV’s encyclical
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Teatro Municipal
“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together”Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, invites us to reflect on human dignity in the face of the impact of Artificial Intelligence. Beyond the Catholic faith, it is a document that highlights the importance of humanism in an increasingly fragmented world. Juan Esteban Constaín (Colombia), author of El Hijo del Hombre, and Santiago Roncagliolo(Peru), who has recently published El pastor y los lobos, discuss the spiritual and intellectual significance of the encyclical. The discussion is moderated by the writer Raúl Tola (Peru).
Fietta Jarque and Alonso Ruiz Rosas in conversation with Dante Trujillo
Blanca Varela, naked poetry
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Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
2026 marks the centenary of the birth of Blanca Varela, one of the essential voices of 20th-century Latin American poetry. With a style refined to its very essence, she continues to reveal herself to new readers. To mark this anniversary, the journalist and writer Fietta Jarque, author of the biography La vértebra perdida, and the poetAlonso Ruiz Rosas will be in conversation with Dante Trujillo about the woman who wrote those poems. An exploration of her life and work, based on the conviction that a biography cannot encompass all the facets of an author’s life, but can shed light on the reading of her poems.
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Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
From neither here nor there? Or Andalusian and Chinese at the same time? As the daughter of immigrants born in Spain, Quan Zhouhas often found herself on both sides of the fence, caught between questioning her own identity and being the target of racist discrimination. These life experiences have been covered by her with intelligence and humour, in autobiographical works such as the comics Gazpacho agridulce and Andaluchinas por el mundo, as well as the graphic essay Gente de aquí, gente de allí. She is also the creator of the documentary podcast Mi familia española, which uncovers an invisible chapter in the recent history of Spain: the experiences of migrant mothers, their children, and the Spanish nannies who looked after them in the 1980s and 1990s, when racial diversity was virtually non-existent.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E and the PUCP
Karina Pacheco and Mayra Santos-Febres in conversation with Cristina Fuentes La Roche
Other stories from the Archivo de Indias: loss and memory
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Teatro Arequepay
Otras Historias del Archivo de Indias is a research project and an artistic initiative in which leading writers from the region engage with the documents held at the Archivo General de Indias. This project, organised by the Hay Festival and CAF, aims to bring the archive’s vast collection of documents to the general public and to offer a critical and diverse perspective on the multitude of stories that record and challenge the colonial memory of the Americas. These texts have been collected in the anthology Otras historias del Archivo de Indias, published by Anagrama. Karina Pacheco (Peru) and Mayra Santos-Febres(Puerto Rico), who have contributed the texts Memorial de la serpiente and La negra del hospital respectively, are in conversation with the the International Director of the Hay Festival, Cristina Fuentes La Roche (Spain).
Sophie Demange and Melanie Pérez Arias in conversation with Ximena López Bustamante
Sorority: both weapon and support
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Alianza Francesa de Arequipa
The feminine is not always rosy, cheerful and optimistic. The three protagonists of the feminist thriller Las carniceras by Sophie Demange (France) are victims of sexual abuse, whilst a woman who, as she begins to lose her hair, sees her identity falter is portrayed by Melanie Pérez Arias (Venezuela) in her debut novel, Un animal que se deja caer. But if life is not all roses, then let it at least be died a sisterly shade of purple. What is fragile, once broken, becomes a sharp weapon, and Demange’s three butchers begin to take justice into their own hands—and knives—, taking revenge on the men who harass the women in their neighbourhood. Sharp on one side, tender on the other. Faced with a body falling apart, Pérez Arias builds a refuge: a network of three women who support the protagonist whilst her body and inner self undergo transformation.
Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available
PUCP Reading Workshop run by María Gracia Ríos and Rosario Yori
'Oráculo' by Álvaro Bisama
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Plaza San Francisco
At this event, participants will discuss some passages from the novel Oráculo, the most important themes and Álvaro Bisama’s particular style. The workshop is aimed at Hispanic Literature students at PUCP, accompanied and guided by course lecturers: María Gracia Ríosand Rosario Yori.
Liliana Blum, Giovanna Pollarolo and Patricio Pron
Hay Festival en español podcast: another way to talk about literature
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Casa del Moral
Stories change depending on who tells them and from whose perspective. Some stories only emerge when we shift our perspective, and it is our viewpoint that shapes the narrative. Come and see how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast in Spanish is recorded live, and listen to the reflections of Liliana Blum, Giovanna Polarollo and Patricio Pron on what is being written and read today.
La Carpa Librera book tent is a welcoming space for reading and listening to stories, where children, young people and adults can explore books and discover all that they have to offer. This is a place where the pages come to life. For this experience, we will be joined by the reading facilitator Elena de Yta.
Juan Esteban Constain in conversation with Carlos Granés
Greece, Rome and Israel: where Christianity began
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Teatro Municipal
El Hijo del Hombre, by Juan Esteban Constaín, is a historical and literary essay in which the author delves, in his unmistakable style, into the history of the origins of Christianity and the intersection between Judaism and Greco-Roman paganism. The author will be in conversation with the Colombian essayist Carlos Granés about this book, which explores classical antiquity and how Christianity eventually became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Accesibility: interpretation into Peruvian Sign Language (LSP) available
Karin Elmore, Valerie Miles, Miguel Rubio and Erna von der Walde in conversation with a Santiago Rojas
Innovating in culture
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Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
At times they may seem like just another drop in the ocean, or a grain of sand in the desert; but just as a snowflake grows larger and larger as it rolls down a hillside, there are cultural projects that help to change our perspective on society and enrich it through a critical lens. Karin Elmore (Peru) is a choreographer, researcher and cultural manager, Valerie Miles (United States) is one of those tireless figures who build from every conceivable angle — editing, translation, research, writing, co-founder of Granta en español… ; Miguel Rubio (Peru) is the director of the Yuyachkani Cultural Group; and Erna von der Walde (Colombia) has co-edited the ‘cosmographic edition’ of La vorágine, which, on the centenary of its publication, remains a fundamental novel for understanding Colombia both past and present. The three cultural leaders will discuss, alongside Santiago Rojas from CAF, how to make an impact and innovate through culture.
Xabier Díaz de Cerio and Rosa Vásquez Espinoza in conversation with Jorge Malpartida Tabuchi
Looking at the Amazon, listening and telling its story
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Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
There are many books on the climate crisis, just as there are many people who talk to us about it. However, there are not so many who offer new perspectives when it comes to trying to catalyse a social response to a reality that is already upon us. Está que se quema by Xabier Díaz de Cerio offers a journalistic perspective that ranges from the scientific origins of global warming to the critical challenges facing the region, in order to shed light on the issue. The explorer and chemical biologist Rosa Vásquez Espinoza was recognised by the BBC as one of the 100 most influential women in the world for her work on Amazonian conservation and the study of stingless bees. A conversation with Jorge Malpartida Tabuchi on the importance of listening to nature and telling these stories so that we may live with greater climate awareness.
How do we tell the truth when democracy, freedom of the press and reality itself are under pressure? Democracy is facing one of its most uncertain periods in recent decades: polarisation, the rise of authoritarianism, disinformation, armed conflicts and growing competition between major powers are redefining the international balance of power. Journalist Branko Soban (Slovenia) has practiced the profession for over fifty years, covering global events in Europe, the Middle East and Russia. He will analyse how these challenges are transforming global politics and testing the resilience of democracies. A conversation with El Pais journalist Camila Osorio, to understand a world where the boundaries between domestic and international politics are becoming increasingly difficult to define.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
Serge Barbet and Carlos Rivadeneyra in conversation with Omar Zevallos
Listening before thinking: a podcast against disinformation
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Teatro Arequepay
At a time when artificial intelligence, algorithms and fake news are transforming our relationship with the truth, audio is emerging as one of the most intimate and reflective formats. Can the podcast become a tool for strengthening critical thinking and informed citizenship? Drawing on CLEMI’s experience in media literacy and pioneering research into the history of podcasting in Peru, Serge Barbet and Carlos Rivadeneyra—joined by Omar Zevallos— will explore how to educate new audiences to listen better, verify sources and participate more consciously in democratic life.
Consecutive interpretation from French to Spanish available
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
Sponsored by the University of Lima and with the support of the French Embassy
Elisa Arca and Rose Lowder in conversation with Edward de Ybarra
Filmic gardens
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Alianza Francesa de Arequipa
The Peruvian-British filmmaker Rose Lowder is one of the most distinctive voices in global experimental cinema. In her first public appearance in Arequipa, she will discuss her life’s work —dedicated to exploring new ways of seeing the world— with Elisa Arca and Edward de Ybarra. Through a cinematic language developed with patience and rigour, she has built a body of work that holds particular relevance today. In an era defined by the ceaseless proliferation of digital images, her work invites us to pause, observe and rediscover the richness of visual experience. She transforms gardens, orchards and cultivated landscapes into complex visual compositions where perception, time and ecology converge.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
Book and mediation event with Micaela Chirif, Jessica Rodríguez and Carla Galdós Pretto
In the form of words
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Plaza San Francisco
Words, words and more words. Mario lives in a world made of words. Some are as powerful as thunder, whilst others are so light and playful that they can tickle his thoughts. There are words to shout out without fear, words that hide in the darkness, and words as vast as the sea. En forma de palabras, written by Micaela Chirif and illustrated by Fabiola Anchorena, invites us to dive into words and explore the treasure they hold. Reading and discussion led by Chirif, the book’s publisher, Jessica Rodríguez, and Carla Galdós Pretto.
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Biblioteca Personal de Mario Vargas Llosa (San Francisco 306) - Auditorio Amelia Díaz
Arequipa is one of the cities with the highest rates of mental health issues in Peru. Estefanía San Miguel, director and co-founder of EIC Educa.Impacta.Crece — a Peruvian NGO with over 13 years’ experience in promoting the social and emotional wellbeing of children and teenagers — is a psychologist with a decade of experience in community intervention. She will speak to the audience about mental health and emotional wellbeing among young people.
Reading Workshop PUCP with María Gracia Ríos and Rosario Yori
'Un animal que se deja caer' by Melanie Pérez Arias
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Plaza San Francisco
At this event, participants will discuss some passages from the novel Un animal que se deja caer, the most important themes and Melanie Pérez Arias’ particular style. The workshop is aimed at Hispanic Literature students at PUCP with the support and guidance of the professors from the program, María Gracia Ríos and Rosario Yori.
Santiago Roncagliolo in conversation with Patricia del Río
The unexpected rise of Leo XIV
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Teatro Municipal
El pastor y los lobos by Santiago Roncagliolo (Peru) is the true story of Pope Leo XIV and the darkness. The story: a narrative investigation into Robert Prevost’s rise to the papacy. The darkness: the internal struggles, contradictions and challenges facing the Catholic Church. Two factions, one reformist and the other fundamentalist; two ways of understanding the Church, and one had to choose the successor to Francis I. It was here that the discreet figure of Prevost, far removed from the media spotlight, emerged. Roncagliolo traces the clergyman’s path, from his ecclesiastical and social work in Chiclayo to his pivotal role in investigating the Curia’s most murky cases. He also weaves a personal narrative in which he confronts values such as hypocrisy and faith, as well as corruption and justice. He will talk to the journalist and writer Patricia del Río.
Miguel Almeyda Morales, Doris Guillén Delgado, Greta García and Morella Petrozzi in conversation with Santiago Rojas
Theatre, dance and cultural management to show the way to another society
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Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
Theatre, contemporary dance and cultural management have quietly helped to transform the way Peru perceives itself. However, their social impact remains little known and under-valued. Can they help us to understand a form of violence that statistics fail to explain? To express that for which there are as yet no words? Theatre directorMiguel Almeyda Morales and the dancers and creators Greta García and Morella Petrozzi, whose careers have combined artistic creation with the promotion of cultural policies and institutions; and the Arequipa-based artist Doris Guillén Delgado, will engage in a dialogue with Santiago Rojas, from CAF, on the role of the performing arts as tools for memory, imagination and social transformation.
The premise of Peruvian science communicator Aldo Bartra, known for his YouTube channel El Robot de Platón, is clear: science is for everyone. That is why he uses accessible language suitable for all ages when explaining complex topics such as quantum mechanics or the expansion of the universe. In Preguntas que no te dejan dormir, he explores unusual questions with clarity, humour, curiosity and references to pop culture. Readers will learn things such as whether any animals can live without oxygen, or what would happen to our DNA if our head were transplanted onto another body. Bartra demonstrates that science can be popular if approached in the right way.
There are books that are best understood through the author’s life story. The singer, writer and content creator Elisa Tokeshi Peru) has borderline personality disorder (BPD); just like Julieta, the protagonist of Borderline sagrada, her first novel. Literature serves as a form of catharsis here, as Tokeshi began writing it on the very weekend she overcame her addictions. But whilst it draws on some personal experiences, it remains a work of fiction. The story recounts the day-to-day life of a young woman with BPD – a sort of chaos, with its emotional highs and lows. A self-destructive cycle, with failed attempts at healing, broken promises and wounds; and, also, a testimony to recovery.
Cristina Bendek, Álvaro Bisama and Edmundo Paz Soldán in conversation with Enrique Planas
Maps to orient us
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Casa Tristán del Pozo - Fundación BBVA
Maps are never neutral. They define borders, reflect power relations, record conflicts and reveal the ways in which societies imagine and organise the world. At a time of profound geopolitical change, characterised by territorial disputes, migration, climate crises and new configurations of global power, cartography takes on renewed significance. Cristina Bendek(Colombia),Álvaro Bisama (Chile) and Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia) will share different ways of interpreting and narrating the world. Each will choose their own physical, cultural, linguistic or emotional map and discuss how these shape our understanding of identity, memory, territory and a sense of belonging.
Claudia Apablaza, Cal Flyn and Frank Steinhofer in conversation with Xabier Díaz de Cerio
Nature and us
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Alianza Francesa de Arequipa
When we talk about the climate emergency, we tend to do so from an anthropocentric perspective, in which nature is relegated to a backdrop that humans transform. Yet perhaps change also means learning to view it from a different perspective. Claudia Apablaza (Chile), Cal Flyn (United Kingdom) and Frank Steinhofer (Germany) explore, through fiction and non-fiction, different ways of narrating our relationship with the land. Together with the environmental journalist Xabier Díaz de Cerio, they will reflect on how changing our point of view may be the first step towards transforming our relationship with the environment.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the support of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lima and the British Council
Espacio de juego que promueve la aproximación y el aprendizaje sobre los elementos iconográficos y símbolos de las culturas precolombinas. Utilizando los hallazgos e investigaciones arqueológicas de las culturas Chancay e Ychsma/Lima en los valles de los ríos: Chancay, Chillón, Rímac y Lurín incluyendo a Pachacamac, se ha generado un juego de mesa que servirá como herramienta para difundir este conocimiento.
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Biblioteca Personal de Mario Vargas Llosa (San Francisco 306) - Galería Casa Verde
When sound becomes a space for encounter, resonance and imagination, ‘Sound Massages’ emerge: a realm of listening and inner perception. It is a sound experience situated between performance and deep listening. Everyday objects will create delicate soundscapes; a microscopic and unexpected universe. An invitation to slow down, focus your attention and experience sound as a physical, sensory and imaginative space. Developed by the sound artists and improvisers Pascal Battus and Thierry Madiot.
There will be 80 individual 15-minute ‘sound massages’.
Free admission until full capacity
With the support of the Goethe-Institut Peru and the Crippled Symmetries project
La Carpa Librera book tent is a welcoming space for reading and listening to stories, where children, young people and adults can explore books and discover all that they have to offer. This is a place where the pages come to life. For this experience, we will be joined by the reading facilitatorYsabel Rodríguez.
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Biblioteca Personal de Mario Vargas Llosa (San Francisco 306) - Auditorio Amelia Díaz
Los Destacados 2026 is an initiative by Cedili IBBY Peru to celebrate excellence in Peruvian children’s and young adult literature through the first Cedili Prize. The competition will recognise works published between 2024 and 2026 in more than twenty categories, including novels, poetry, picture books, graphic novels, translations and indigenous languages, amongst others. Taking part in the award presentation are children’s literature author Micaela Chirif, illustrator Fernando Arce,Leonardo Dolores, director of the Department of Books and Reading at the Ministry of Culture, Jessica Rodríguez, president of Cedili IBBY Peru, and Milagros Saldarriaga, a representative of the jury.
Alma Delia Murillo, Nerea Pallares and Alessandra Pinasco
Hay Festival en español podcast: memory has no borders
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Casa del Moral
Stories change depending on who tells them and from whose perspective. Some stories only emerge when we shift our perspective and it is our viewpoint that shapes the narrative. Come and see how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast in Spanish is recorded live, and listen to Alma Delia Murillo, Nerea Pallares and Alessandra Pinascoreflect on how memory travels across generations, territories and lives to shape the stories that define us.
Reading Club with Patricio Pron and Jorge Malpartida Tabuchi
En todo hay una grieta y por ella entra la luz
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Instituto Cultural Peruano Alemán
The Hay Festival Reading Club comes to Arequipa with Jorge Malpartida Tabuchi presenting Patricio Pron(Argentina) and his novel En todo hay una grieta y por ella entra la luz, which begins as a biography of Benjamin Fondane, but soon becomes a tale of a fractured world, a snapshot of the dizzying pace of New York, with pain at the heart of the narrative, all woven together through footnotes.
Book to be read before attending
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
SURA Invites, with the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E
Granta en español: passion, dialogue and debate in the Spanish-speaking world
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Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
The New York-based editor —as well as translator, writer and researcher— Valerie Miles is a key figure in contemporary Spanish-language literature. Of particular note is her role as co-founder and editor of Granta en español, a magazine that has showcased the work of several generations of Latin American writers.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation AECID and Librerías Cálamo
Farid Kahhat and Alberto Vergara in conversation with Camila Osorio
El País lecture: What is happening in the region?
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Teatro Municipal
Peru is experiencing a period of particular political disillusionment: weakened institutions, a sense of insecurity, and a citizenry distanced from its representatives. At the same time, Latin America also seems to be shifting its priorities, veering to the right, with security as a key electoral priority for its presidential candidates. What does the Peruvian case tell us about this trend? Is this change in the political landscape due to a cyclical ideological shift in the region, or is there something deeper behind it? Farid Kahhat and Alberto Vergara will discuss the reasons for this disenchantment with politics in Peru, the new forms of leadership emerging in the region, and where all of this might lead us.
