Hay Festival Querétaro 2021

Naief Yehya (Mexico) is an industrial engineer, fiction writer, essayist and cultural critic. The author a various novels and works of non-fiction, his work has been translated into Italian, English, Arabic and French. He contributes regularly to the Mexican newspaper La Razón. El planeta de los hongos is a cultural and social history of mushrooms, particularly hallucinogenics, and LSD. His approach is not only scientific, but also based on experience and literary non-fiction. Not quite a manual for consumption or a guide for collectors, this is an exploration of the relationship between “magic” mushrooms and humanity, and their potential to open the mind. In conversation with the academic, podcaster and writer Andrés Cota Hiriart.

Book fairs are important spaces for promoting books, but also for building relationships in the publishing industry, and meeting readers. Three Mexican publishers Daniel Flores, Mauricio Sánchez and Isabel Zapata, talk to Felipe Rosete about why they take part in the La Otra Feria initiative.

Dinero y escritura is a very personal book of fiction by the award-winning author Olivia Teroba (Mexico), which looks at matters related to the profession of writing and the conditions that make it possible in hyper-capitalist societies. In this series of texts, written in the first person, Teroba shares the ins and outs of her fragile relationship with writing, and with the world itself, framed by family and bodily demands that she expresses in a style that is both lucid and intimate. In conversation with Margarita Aguilar Urbán.

Frida Cartas (Mexico), from Mazatlán, describes herself as a housewife and part-time writer. A former presenter at the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio with the programme Altersexual (a sexual anthropology programme) on Radio Ciudadana, she contributes to digital media outlets and gives workshops on sexual and reproductive rights for young people, with a class and gender perspective. She is also the author of the extraordinary novel Transporte a la infancia, which, using honest, colloquial language, recalls the scenes from her childhood in which she discovered and affirmed her identity, creating an essential testimony for the recognition of trans childhoods, bringing to light the urgency of guaranteeing respect, protection and freedom for trans children. In conversation with Imanol Martínez.

The writer and journalist Leila Guerriero (Argentina), presents her latest book, La llamada, a work of fiction that knits together a series of interviews with Silvia Labayru, the Argentinean member of the Montoneros guerrilla group who, in 1976, was abducted, tortured and raped at the notorious Escuela de Mecánica la Armada, to which thousands of people were taken and killed, and from where she makes it out alive. Guerriero started interviewing Labayru in 2021, while awaiting the sentence of the first trial for sexual violence committed against abducted women during the dictatorship, at which Labayru was an accuser. In conversation with Jan Martínez Ahrens.

Nimmi Gowrinathan (Sri Lanka/United States) is a thinker, academic and activist, and author of Radicalizing Her. Why Women Choose Violence, a fascinating study of women active in guerrilla movements, including the FARC (Colombia), the Tamil Tigers (Sri Lanka), the Syrians who have fought against the Asad government, the EZLN in Mexico and the PLO in Palestine. The book dismantles beliefs about gender and analyses the many reasons that lead these women to armed struggle. Gowrinathwan is a professor at City College in New York, where she has founded the Politics of Sexual Violence initiative, and works regularly with media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera and the BBC. In conversation with the BBC Mundo journalist, Andrea Díaz Cardona.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Three festival guests offer space to non-hegemonic narratives through their artistic and intellectual work, and ask why these ways of seeing the world can be the path to a better future as societies. With Garry Gottfriedson (Canada) and Josefa Sánchez Contreras (Mexico), in conversation with the writer Mikel Ruiz (Mexico).

Are podcasts about stories and books a complement to the work of publishing, or are they a parallel universe that is connected with books, but is a different kind of space? Three Mexican podcast presenters linked to literature, Gina Jaramillo (Cháchara Literaria), Romina Sacre (Sensibles y chingonas) y Magali Torres (Nenamonstruo) talk to Silvia Viñas (Uruguay), the Executive Producer of El Hilo podcast. An event about the love of books, and about telling stories through a format that is enjoying great success with the public today.

The Latin American current affairs podcast El Hilo en Directo, produced by Radio Ambulante Estudios, brings a live episode with the Mexican-American composer and artist Lila Downs, winner of six Grammys and whose songs form part of the living culture of Mexico and Latin America, and who has worked with artists including Totó La Momposina, Niña Pastori, Celso Piña and Kevin Johansen. This is a very special episode of El Hilo, and on this occasion the public can attend in person. Lila will be n conversation with Eliezer Budasoff and Silvia Viñas.

Lila Downs will participate in this event digitally.

Menchaca, Mujeres Independientes, and San José El Alto, in the Delegación de Epigmenio González, are neighborhoods in the Municipio de Querétaro that shelter the life stories of four young people from there. This documentary delves into the reality of José María González Flores Chema, from the gang Los PQ’s (Los Pequeños) de SanJo, a rapper and ex-convict; David Miranda Hernández DMH, leader of the DH (Dejando Historia) gang; Everardo Mata Paredes, tattoo artist and artist belonging to ILCK (Ilícitos Criminales), known as Peluzín; and Abigail León Pérez La Macho, from the gang LPRM (La Princi Rompiendo Madres), who has been away from her parents since she was 15 and dreams of turning her screen-printing talent into a way of life. Let’s look through the window and learn what moves and what stops the neighborhood, the street, and those who live there.

A production of the Municipio de Querétaro. Director: Omar González Bustos. Original idea: Dante Aguilar. Executive production: Municipio de Querétaro, Dante Aguilar. Producer: Martha Zamora.

Duration: 120 min

What do you have to do to win an Olympic medal or play at a football World Cup? In her book Súper-deportistas mexicanos, Frida Martínez portrays 24 high-achieving Mexican sportspeople. Her book reveals the hard work, discipline and dedication of her chosen protagonists, who train in karate, gymnastics, athletics, baseball and more, until they reach the top of their sport. Frida Martínez shares these stories, which show how high we can fly as long as we have imagination, consistency and effort. In conversation with Tere Alcántara.

This activity is accessible to neurodivergente and disabled people.

Andrés Cota Hiriart is a biologist, zoologist and writer. He has written books including Cabeza ajena (2017), Faunologías (2015), El ajolote. Biología del anfibio más sobresaliente del mundo (2016) and Fieras familiares (2022), and has come close to all kinds of animals in their natural habitats, travelling to some amazing places around the world, like the Galapagos, Borneo, Sulawesi and the island of Guadalupe. At this event, Cota will focus on a wonderful creature from his native Mexico: he will start out with the iconic axolotl and move onto the ajolote of Queretaro state, which is not so commonly mentioned. During the event, he will share images and excepts from his books.

Raúl Zurita (Chile) is one of Latin America's most celebrated poets. He suffered during the repression of the Pinochet dictatorship and in 1979 founded, together with other artists, the Acciones de Arte collective, which undertook grassroots public art actions against the dictatorship, and in 1993, using excavators, wrote the words "NI PENA NI MIEDO" (“NO REGRET NO FEAR”) in the Atacama Desert. Zurita has received Guggenheim and DAAD (Germany) fellowships, and awards including the 2000 Chilean National Literature Prize, the 2016 Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Prize, and the 2020 Reina Sofía Ibero-American Poetry Prize. He will talk to Jan Martínez Ahrens, the Director of El País América, and the event will conclude with a poetry reading.

Angela Saini is a British scientific journalist and radio presenter, as well as a writer whose work has been acclaimed and translated into 14 languages. Her penultimate book, Superior: The Return of Race Science, was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and named Book of the Year by Nature, the Financial Times and the NPR programme Science Friday. On this occasion she presents The Patriarchs, an audacious, radical book that unearths the roots and history of how this system of domination arose for the first time in societies and spread around the world, from the prehistory to the present. Saini offers a hopeful narrative bringing to bear the many possible human agreements that question the old stories of inevitable male supremacy, and reveals that it is an element that is constantly changing within systems of control. In conversation with Javier García del Moral.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The writer Anthony Passeron (France) will talk to the writer Gabriela Jauregui about Les enfants endormis, a book about the heroine and HIV epidemic in France, which links up the personal history of the author and his family, with the story of scientific advances, achieved working against the clock to control the virus. This moving book has been received in France as one of the best debuts of the year. Les enfants endormis has won a number of major awards, including the Prix Wepler-Fondation La Post and the Prix Première Plume. Passeron teaches Humanities, History and Geography at a higher education institute.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Gina Jaramillo is an art historian, General Manager of Radio Chilango, has worked as a children’s activist through the Colectivo Niñeces Presentes initiative, and now brings her talents to children’s literature. In her new book El guardián de los quesos she tells us the story of Tigre, a cat that visits various homes in the neighbourhood, which inspires Bibi and Mon to explore the different ways of seeing and forming a family. Jaramillo highlights the importance of love, empathy and respect, and she uses inclusive language to reflect the evolution of communication and family structures and relationships in today’s society.

Raúl Robin Morales is the creator of the animated short film El tigre sin rayas and of the illustrated book of the same name. In the story, we meet a little tiger from the savannah who, until the others, has no stripes. The young feline undertakes a journey to seek them, and finds other things on the way. At this event, we will watch the short film and discover the book that tells this beautiful story.

Elisa Guerra (Mexico) holds a Master’s in Education at Harvard University. In 2015 she was named Best Educator in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Inter-American Development Bank, and was a member of the UNESCO Futures of Education’s International Commission. At this event, she will talk about her latest book, Las voces de los árboles, a work that takes readers to a parallel world in which trees of different species around the world tell us their story and let us reflect on the harm we are doing to the planet.

Adriana and Ana Grimaldo offer a workshop on the subject of architecture, aimed at children. Using the spaces, forms and colours found in the buildings of the Mexican architect, Luis Barragán, we will be able to discover the artistic details that are hidden in Mexican sweets, toys and traditions. The construction of a model inspired by one of the spaces in Barragán’s house will be the starting point for a reflection on how to turn our own history into original creations.

Montse Bizarro (Spain) is a Journalism graduate with a Master’s in Literary Creation. She is also an activist who raises awareness about, and works against, discrimination linked to mental health, autism and gender. Her novel Mañana ya no hablaremos de nada explores these matters through the lives of Mar and Lorena, who have a relationship permeated by psychological and emotional instability, the result of living in a hostile context, with the city of Barcelona as the backdrop. A very contemporary reflection on the structures of our relationships and mental health. In conversation with Daniel Montes Pimentel.

This event promises to be a magical experience full of stories and laughter. We present an exciting puppet kamishibai of Mi abuelo se comió un reloj, a story by the puppeteer Raúl Ángeles, illustrated by Arturo Trejo Delgado and published by the Queretaro Municipality Department of Culture. This is an adventure where imagination and fun come together to make for an unforgettable performance. The author will guide us through the pages of his story, while the characters come alive before our eyes, becoming enchanting puppet figures.

Emiliano Monge (Mexico, 1978), formerly a lecturer in Politics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is a publisher and journalist. He debuted as an author with Arrastrar esa sombra (2018), shortlisted for the Antonin Artaud Prize. He has won a number of other awards, including the 28th Jaen Novel Prize and the 5th Otras Voces, Otros Ámbitos Prize, for El cielo árido (2012); and the Elena Poniatowska Prize for his novel Las tierras arrasadas (2015). He was also recognised in the book México20 and the Bogotá39 list (2017) as one of the best writers aged under 40 in Mexico and Latin America. His new book, Los vivos, tells the story of Hincapié and Vestigia, a couple in crisis, devastated by terrible experiences that bring on a fear of losing each other, and problems of lack of communication. In a working environment characterised by migration and constant disappearances, Vestigia seeks answers by interacting with other characters who shed light on the vacuum left by the disappeared, and the profound impact on those who wait for them. The book finds new perspectives on presence, absence and reappearance, not only physical aspects, but also ones related to language, feelings and the past. Emiliano will be in conversation with Javier Lafuente.

Actress and director Claudia Sainte-Luce will be reading fragments of Monge's novel.

The Spanish sociologist and writer César Rendueles, a CSIC scientist and outstanding thinker, known for his many cultural projects and essays such as Sociofobia (2013), Capitalismo canalla (2015) and Contra la igualdad de oportunidades (2020), presents Comuntopía. Comunes, postcapitalismo y transición ecosocial (2023). This book proposes a global “politics of the commons” as a crucial opportunity for the social forces that advocate democratic, progressive and emancipatory strategies in the context of the new post-capitalism; framed in a context of ecological, political and technological emergencies. This is where the struggle for our "common goods" happens. In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa.

With Mexican sign language interpretation

Two writers from each side of the Atlantic will talk to the journalist Diana González. With Mohamed El Morabet (Morocco), who in El invierno de los jilgueros, his second novel, tells the story of Brahim, a man wounded by death, illness and war. And with Ana Sofía González (Mexico), an architect and teacher who presents her literary debut, No matarás, a novel about violence in the domestic sphere and class tensions, with complex women characters who are looking to escape from extreme situations.

The Mexican artist Paulina Suárez studied Illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California, where she lived between 2008 and 2013. She is currently based in Mexico, where she works as a freelance artist and art educator. Her illustrations have appeared in work for different publications and publishers, including Editions FLBLB, Cacciani, FCAS, Esto es un libro, Revista Marvin, Cartelera CCUT Tlatelolco, Far Faria, as well as for the Coco Lab, Llamarada and Los Hijos de Jack animation studios. At this workshop, participants will have the chance to use stickers to create their own monsters, and then to colour and decorate them.

Ernesto Galán has degrees in Performing Arts and Law. He is the Artistic Director of the Miscelánea Teatro company and has written and directed a range of plays. He is also the manager of a reading space for child workers, and creator of the La Bodega forum and the La Miscelánea theatre festival. At this activity, those attending will be invited to participate in writing and group rewriting in order to stimulate creativity, fantasy, observation and memory. Participants will use and reappropriate sentences taken from the public digital space and the tangible public space. These will mix with other words, images, feelings and contexts, and so create a collective writing of “stories of a thread”.

Amalia Andrade, the Colombian author of works such as Uno siempre cambia al amor de su vida (Por otro amor o por otra vida), Cosas que piensas cuando te muerdes las uñas and Tarot magicomístico de estrellas, has sold over a million books and is a social media phenomenon. In her most recent book, No sé cómo mostrar dónde me duele, Andrade returns to the theme of mental health and the body-mind relationship, writing about matters such as poetry, music and the cultivation of good habits to work on our emotional education and balance the internal world of the feelings. In conversation with Yuriria Sierra.

With Mexican sign language interpretation

At this event, which is part of the Equities series, co-organized with the British Council, two academics and writers will talk about the racial bias for the construction of historical narratives and how, with an intersectional reading, we can see how history has traditionally been written by the colonisers. With Baruc Martínez Díaz (Mexico) and Angela Saini (United Kingdom), in conversation with Diego Rabasa.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

What happens when an intervention is made in a public space by an artist or an architect? How can interventions make use of and improve communal spaces for the enjoyment of citizens? We talk to three artists and architects whose work tends in this direction, and to whom we will talk about matters such as public space, accessibility, aesthetics and community. With the academic and thinker Ester Bautista Botello (Mexico) the Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas and Tamikuã Txihi (Brazilian artist of the Pataxó people), in conversation with writer and editor Eduardo Rabasa.

Simultaneous interpretation from Portuguese to Spanish available

Divided into five sections, with an opening and an ending in the anime tradition, the poems of Paola Llamas Dinero explore the sensations that occur when fiction forms an essential part of our lives. Through language based on words, images and signs, characteristic of the street, television and Internet, the author examines our relationship with the world of fiction through anime, manga and the social media. She will ask how imaginary worlds determine many of our feelings and identities. She also wonders, if we are constantly relating to characters who do not exist, watching a series or scrolling through stories on Instagram, whether we can really form links with other people. In conversation with Yudi Martínez.

The guest at this event is a pioneer with great achievements. She was the first Peruvian woman to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), and to climb the six highest peaks on the other continents She is also the first openly LGTBI+ person to reach the seven summits. Silvia Vásquez-Lavado tells her story in the book In the Shadow of the Mountain, winner of the Stanford Travel Book of the Year. In it, the author tells of these milestones, as well as a past of trauma and excess, of alcoholism and promiscuous sex, and before this, childhood abuse. Vásquez-Lavado reveals how an ayahuasca ceremony helped her to connect to the mountains. It is part of her story that she undertakes her expeditions together with other victims of sexual abuse, as part of the Courageous Girls project, founded in 2014. She will talk to Isabel Posadas about her activism, her memories and about the film that is currently being made.