Hay Festival Forum Panamá 2024

In 2022, the writer, cultural manager and reading promotor Velia Vidal (Colombia) was named as one of the world’s 100 most influential women by the BBC. She is the founder and Director of the Motete Cultural and Educational Corporation which works to promote reading and culture in her region (Chocó). With her first book, Aguas de estuario, the author tells of her personal return to her homeland to dedicate her life to offering reading support and cultural management, how the tensions between the centre and the periphery in a country like Colombia define much of this journey, and her struggle to dissolve these divisions. Her most recent publication, Para vernos mejor, is a reflection on representation in children’s literature, which questions a system that continues to privilege hegemonic discourses. In conversation with Elisa Guerra.

Daniel Mordzinski (Argentina), known as the photographer of writers, has created a body of work and an aesthetic closely linked to literature and its mystique: from his first photos of Jorge Luis Borges in 1978, to the hundreds of writers who have posed for his camera, and with over 15 years linked to the Hay Festivals. His most recent work is Hotel Chile, in which he remembers the great Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda with some of his texts and, of course, photos. He will talk to Carlos Wynter Melo.

The sociologist and researcher, Josefa Sánchez Contreras, belongs to the Zoque people of Chimalapas, in Mexico. As a researcher, she writes about territorial defence, indigenous rights and the history of rebellions and colonialisms; she is the co-author of the book Colonialismo energético. As an activist, she is part of the Matza Collective, made up of young Zoques, which supports the defence of the rivers of the Chimalapas forest against open-cast mining megaprojects. Duiren Wagua is an indigenous filmmaker and producer of the Gunadule Nation of Panama, and has nine years of experience in the world of national cinema. He is the co-founder of Wagua Films, an organisation that works with production companies wishing to film in indigenous territories within Panama; he has created and given workshops for Colombian and Central American participants. They will talk to Emma Gómez Guerra.

Wade Davis is one of the most intrepid explorers of our times. He was Explorer-in-Residence with the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013. He is an ethnographer, photographer, filmmaker and Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of 23 books, including Magdalena (about his journey along the great Colombian river) and One River. His expeditions have taken him to some of the most remote regions of the planet, from Tibet to Polynesia, from the Arctic Circle to the Amazon, and from the heart of Australia to the Isthmus of Darien. In conversation with Ligia Castro.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Héctor Abad Faciolince (Colombia) is one of Colombia’s most acclaimed and loved voices, author of the contemporary classic Oblivion. A Memoir. Winner of various prizes for fiction and for journalism (including the Simón Bolívar Prize), his works have been translated into 15 languages. In 2016 he founded the Colombian independent publishing company Angosta. His latest novel, Salvo mi corazón, todo está bien, is based on true events and tells the story of a priest who is waiting for a heart transplant. The writer, lawyer and philanthropist, Juan David Morgan (Panama), is the author of the recent Fugitivos del paisaje, a fascinating story set in rural Chiriquí, where the Thomas-Calero family settles; through this family we are offered a saga that tells of the deceptions, triumphs, romances and tragedies of three generations in a magnificent historical setting. In conversation with Emma Gómez Guerra.

The historian Andrea Wulf (Germany/UK), winner of the 2013 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award, is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling biography of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), The Invention of Nature (2016). The visionary German naturalist and explorer was an audacious adventurer who helped to create the way we understand nature today. He was the most famous scientist of his times and predicted human-caused climate change. In her book, Wulf follows his footsteps up Andean volcanoes and along the River Orinoco. She also traces his ideas, which revolutionised and moulded science, conservation, nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. She will talk to Sergio Dahbar.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

What is Panama’s role in the global context? How prepared is the country to face its greatest challenges? Panama knows well about two of the 21st-century’s most urgent problems: migratory crises and the climate emergency. Three experts will talk about these matters in the Panamanian context, tackling the protection of the territory’s biodiversity and the social and geopolitical challenges of the forests of Darien. With the journalist Jon Lee Anderson (United States), the ethnologist and explorer Wade Davis (Canada), climate change expert Ligia Castro, and the economist and administrator of the Panama Canal, Ricaurte Vásquez. They will be in conversation with Lina Vega.

Three women will talk to Alina Torrero about different initiatives and views in the struggle for social equality, based on gender equity, and aiming at the end of racial and cultural discrimination. With Miroslava Herrera (Panama), a member of the musical duo Afrodisiaco, social communicator and cultural manager; Josefa Sánchez Contreras (Mexico), sociologist, researcher and activist in favour of territorial defence and indigenous rights, interested in the history of rebellions and colonialisms and co-author of the book Colonialismo energético; and with Indhira Serrano (Colombia), who since 2015 has been giving the ‘Reconstruyendo imaginarios’ series of lectures and workshops in which she reflects on the relationships we have with money, education, our partners and power.

Jon Lee Anderson (United States) is one of the most lucid, prolific and knowledgeable journalists covering international geopolitics, with particular emphasis on Latin America. He specializes in politics, conflicts and wars. On the Middle East he has written The Fall of Baghdad; on Africa, La herencia colonial y otras maldiciones. He has also written a biography of Ernesto Guevara, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, and, together with José Hernández, the three volumes of the graphic novel Che. Una vida revolucionaria. His most recent publication is the collection of reports on Latin America, Los años de la espiral, which offers a full X-ray of the continent’s most important social, political and cultural events, from the rise of the left, to the return of the right, populism, natural disasters and the social uprisings of recent years. He will talk to Amalia Aguilar.

The award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia), hardly needs an introduction. He bibliography contains 17 books including novels, short stories, essays and poetry published in 30 languages, and he is one of his country’s most prolific and renowned writers. In his most recent book, La traducción del mundo, Vásquez presents the talks he gave at Oxford University in 2022, when he was invited to give the prestigious Weidenfeld Lectures, a series that has previously featured speakers such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Umberto Eco and Javier Cercas. With his habitual erudition, Vásquez gives his vision of literature, particularly fiction, as the highest tool we have for investigating the vastness and essence of human experience. He will talk to Olga de Obaldía about this book and his previous one, Volver la vista atrás.

Within the framework of the first Hay Forum Panama, we begin a series of events on cultural management that will take place at different Hay festivals around the world, supported by CAF. At this inaugural event, the participants will talk to the International Director of the Hay Festival, Cristina Fuentes La Roche, about their internationally renowned and innovative projects in the industry. With Orit Btesh (Panama) of the bookshop El hombre de la Mancha and the Panama Book Fair; Keyes (KC) Hardin (United States) of the La Manzana project; and Velia Vidal (Colombia), founder and creator of Motete.

How do we make progress in the direction of more plural social and political representation in our societies? How do we generate more inclusive health and education systems in order to guarantee equality of opportunity in each country? How do we balance social progress and development with sustainability and caring for nature? Latin America is facing serious challenges in the social and civic spheres in its quest for fairer realities. Talking to Laura Puertas about the problems that lie ahead for Latin America, as well as the possibilities, will be the journalist Jon Lee Anderson (Estados Unidos), the ethnologist and explorer Wade Davis (Canadá), the writer and jurist Jorge Eduardo Ritter (Panama), and the sociologist and activist Josefa Sánchez Contreras (México).

The family forms us and is one of the aspects that all societies have in common. In The World: A Family History, the famous historian Simon Sebag Montefiore (UK) in conversation with Guillermina De Gracia, shows us the history of humanity through some of its most important family dynasties. Starting with the fossils of the footprints of a family who walked along a beach 950,000 years ago, the author will talk about some of the families that have given shape to our world: from the Medici and the Rothschilds to the Churchills, the Kennedys, the Kims and many more.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Three women from different areas of the world of culture and the arts will talk about how we imagine society, especially with regard to historically racialized and discriminated communities. With the writer, cultural manager and reading promoter, Velia Vidal (Colombia), who was named in 2022 as one of the world’s 100 most influential women by the BBC. Miroslava Herrera (Panama) is an artist, journalist, social communicator, cultural manager, and co-founder, together with Tatiana Ríos, of the musical duo Afrodisiaco, which received a nomination for a Latin Grammy for Best Folk Group. Indhira Serrano (Colombia) is an actor and model who, since 2001 has been involved in around 30 television productions, mainly in Colombia. Since 2015 she has been giving the‘Reconstruyendo imaginarios’ series of lectures and workshops in which she reflects on the relationships we have with money, education, our partners and power. In conversation with Humberto Vélez.

The celebrated Spanish author Javier Moro will talk to Juan David Morgan about his most recent books. Moro, one of the bestselling Spanish-language writers, is also a journalist and has worked as a screenwriter and film producer in Hollywood. His books include Senderos de libertad (1992), El pie de Jaipur (1995), Las montañas de Buda (1997), a work written together with Dominique Lapierre: Five Past Midnight In Bhopal (2001), Passion India, The Red Sari, El imperio eres tú (2011 Planeta Prize) and, more recently Nos quieren muertos, which the author will talk about at this event. This book, which is both an exciting read and a rigorous study, is about a key figure for understanding contemporary Venezuela: Leopoldo López. Upon being jailed in 2014, after leading massive protests against the Maduro government, López became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in the country.