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Elma Correa and Karina Pacheco in conversation with María Emilia Ladrón de Guevara

South to North conversations: Reservoirs of memory, cracks of violence

Arequipa 2026, 

Whether setting El bosque de tu nombre in the Guatemalan armed conflict or portraying border life in Mexicali in Donde termina el verano —winner of the 2026 Biblioteca Breve Prize— both Karina Pacheco (Peru) and Elma Correa (Mexico) find inspiration in reality for their fictional settings. Rather than depicting specific events, they sketch territories where various forms of violence coexist, guided by the leitmotif that memory is everything: memory to avoid forgetting, to give voice to what the official narrative conceals, to reconcile and remember. These two authors will speak to María Emilia Ladrón de Guevara about what Mexicali and the Guatemalan jungle have in common, and about the literary vision they share.

Elma Correa and Karina Pacheco in conversation with María Emilia Ladrón de Guevara