For the second time, The Central America Festivalca accounts performs in Guatemalan territory, and its programming, which ends on Saturday, May 24, It includes seven book presentations, in which the authors themselves have shared not only the spirit with which their stories were born, but also personal anecdotes and details of their creative processes.
Headquarters such as the National Palace of Culture, the Sophos, Catafixia and the Punto D Contemporary Gallery, in the Historic Center of Guatemala, have witnessed the passage of almost 90 guests. Most are writers, creators and journalists who have not only presented their works, but have sown in the public the desire to reread or discover them for the first time. Among the most prominent names are that of the festival creator, Sergio Ramírezas well as Horacio Castellanos Moya, Nona Fernández, Ariel Florencia Richards, María Ospina Pizano, Carol Zardetto and Denise Phé Funchal, among others.
One of the most significant moments of the festival has been the evocation of the Guatemalan Nobel Miguel Ángel Asturias, whose works have inspired deep reflections during literary meetings.
The lasting impact of reading through figures such as Mario Vargas Llosa, With mentions of titles such as RECIOUS TIMES, The city and dogs and Conversation in the cathedral. In addition, Mario Benedetti’s poetic influence was addressed in Joan Manuel Serrat’s songs and the creations of the Salvadoran Roque Dalton.
1. “A silence full of murmurs”, by Gioconda Belli
The Nicaraguan writer, appointed distinguished visitor in Guatemala Last Thursday, May 22 He presented this proposal in the country. The book speaks of the history of Valeria who made great sacrifices as an active protagonist of the political changes of her country, Nicaragua. After his death in Madrid, in full solitude, he corresponds to his daughter Penelope to travel to Spain and take care of his material goods. Surrounded by the belongings of a mother who always felt absent, Penelope will resolve unexpected unknowns and discover the exciting life of a woman marked by triumphs and defeats, the hiding and vicissitudes of love.
2. “Shout towards Rome”, a poem by Federico García Lorca in original languages
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM and the Cervantes Institute, with this proposal, pay tribute to the poet Federico García Lorca. Indigenous poets of various regions participate. A dozen poems is translated into 12 native languages from Mexico and 15 from other countries, among which Guatemala stands out, with a Kaqchikel language version .. The translation in the latter was in charge of Raxche ‘Rodríguez.
3. “Shoes and shipwrecks”, by Luis García Montero
This Spanish book Luis García Montero It is a poetic anthology. García Montero has been director of the Cervantes Institute since 2018 and Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Granada, where he has held various positions, including the Directorate of the Secretariat of University Extension.
The work was edited by catafixia and the cover is a design by the Guatemalan artist Sergio Valencia Salazar and the design of the cover of Ana Paula Alvarado .. It is part of the Tz’aqol collection, which brings together the voices that the publisher considers fundamental in Hispanic American poetry.
4. “Leonera”, by Fernando León de Aranoa
A collection of short pieces of a great observer of reality and the contradictions implicit in the human soul: Fernando León de Aranoa. Screenwriter, director and documentaryist, has written and directed The good pattern (2021), winner of Six Goya Awards of the Film Academy, including Best Film, Best Address and Best Screenplay, in addition to the EFA Prize for Best Comedy of the European Cinema Academy and the Ariel of the Mexican Film Academy for Best Ibero -American Film.
He has also written and directed the feature films Mondays in the sun (2002), Neighborhood (1998), Family (1996), Princesses (2006), To Perfect Day (2015), Amador (2010) and Loving Pablo (2017).
5. “The invention of all things, a story of fiction”, by Jorge Volpi
A story about how, every day, we build and rebuild reality through imagination. “We spend our lives between fictions, without just realizing that we are too,” says the author. It shows that human beings are what we tell.
Jorge Volpi is the winner of the Alfaguara novel award, the Brief Library and José Donoso.
6. ”The boys of the Apocalypse”, by Jorge Galán
The writer, winner of the XV Casa de América Award of American Poetry, presents the characters in this novel that inhabit a marginal neighborhood of the Central American City of San Salvador, El Salvador. They are governed by their own codes and seem to live outside of everything, in another universe.
It is a sordid world, in which neither the author nor the protagonists let themselves catch. In The boys of the ApocalypseJorge Galán manages to describe the events that lead human beings to commit atrocious acts, even against their own will.
7. “The people against the dictatorship”, by Mónica Baltodano
The historian Mónica Baltodano presents sterelate about the Nicaraguan struggle against the Somocista regime between 1978 and 1979. The book reconstructs popular mobilization, offensives, negotiations and facts that marked the end of the dictatorship.
