The International Book Fair in Guatemala (Filgua) It will take place from July 1 to 13, 2025. Within the framework of this activity, various cultural events will be held, including the presentation of the book Miguel Ángel Asturias in 31 anecdotes and 48 photographsof the authorship of Roberto Cifuentes Escobar.
The presentation It will be held on July 8 at 5:00 p.m. in Forum Majadas in the Miguel Ángel Asturias room. According to information from the organizers of the event, it will participate Lucrecia Méndez de Penedo as a commentator and presenter of the work.
The activity moderator will be José Carlos Cabrera. It will be a presentation to which those who wish to explore other facets of Asturiasone of the most notable figures of the Guatemalan letters and Latin American, author of works as Mr. President, Mulata de Tal, Corn men, The Lida Sal, Strong wind, Legends of Guatemalaamong others.
According to its author, Roberto Cifuentes, entering this work is similar to assembling a puzzle that allows the reader to better know Asturias as a human being.
What is it about Miguel Ángel Asturias in 31 anecdotes and 48 photographs?
Méndez de Penedo describes in the prologue that This book recovers and selects small stories of voices close to the Nobel Prizewhich navigate between the biography and, sometimes, the autobiographical universe.
“Public profile features of the Guatemalan writer are emerging – but above all revealing the intimate – through the memories of friends of childhood and of a lifetime, the second wife, the critic, the son and even of the Asturias himself. To the colloquial record, characteristic of the anecdote, alternate others, forming a collage of different narrative textures,” adds Méndez of Peneto in said prologue.
The initiative to document the life and trajectory of Miguel Ángel Asturias
Cifuentes states that the initiative arises within the framework of the commemoration of the 125 years of the birth of Asturias (October 19, 1899) and the 50 years of its death (June 9, 1974).
In that sense, the General Directorate of University Extension, the “César Brañas” Library, the Museum of the University of San Carlos (Musac) and the University Editorial, joined efforts to promote the reading of the Nobel Prize work through some anecdotes of Asturias.
“At that time, I talked to the teacher José Luis Perdomo Orellana and we concluded that it was necessary Youth, ”adds Cifuentes.
One of the biographical data that many do not know is that Asturias lived in Salamá, Baja Verapaz. In that place, The Nobel Prize met Lola Reyes, an indigenous young woman who told stories about her people.
Therefore, the compilation will show another facet of the trajectory of Asturias, narrated in voices of friends, writers, journalists and his second wife, Blanca Mora and Araujo de Asturias. Cifuentes clarifies that these anecdotes have been disclosed in other works, but are forgotten between books, magazines or commemorative editions, some of them exhausted or difficult to achieve.
“For all the above, the idea of making the compilation that can now be acquired in the university bookstore was born,” says the author.
According to Cifuentes, among the novel details that the reader will find about the life of Asturias are some experiences, such as the children’s processions of Holy Week that organized or the celebration with pine aroma and paper chains of China for the university graduation party, as well as other anecdotes that will bring readers of different generations towards A human being who deeply loved Guatemala.