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The Buenos Aires Book Fair opens with criticism of the economic situation and the publishing sector

2022-04-29T15:47:20.513Z


The Argentine writer Guillermo Sacccomanno opens the cultural event with a harsh speech of denunciation. "Some are not going to like it," he warned at the start


A woman reads the back cover of a book during the first day of the 46th edition of the Buenos Aires Book Fair, on April 28, 2022.Juan Ignacio Roncoroni (EFE)

With a long and emotional applause, the Buenos Aires Book Fair started this Thursday after two years of absence due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The politicians who took the stage, despite being of different political persuasion, agreed on the importance of once again celebrating the largest literary event in Argentina and, unlike other editions, there were no protests inside or outside the room where the event took place. celebrated the opening.

But the festive atmosphere that prevailed during the first two hours disappeared when the main speaker of the night, the writer Guillermo Saccomanno, began his speech.

“Don't get ahead of yourself.

Some are not going to like it, ”he warned in his first words when he was applauded.

This writer, cartoonist and screenwriter born in Buenos Aires in 1948, shot at some of the foundations of the Book Fair, such as its location, or its relevance as a cultural beacon in the South American country.

"Is it a paradox or does it respond to the logic of the system that this fair is held in La Rural?" Saccomanno questioned before recalling that the entity to which the space is rented, the Rural Society, was linked to the last military regime ( 1976-1983).

“The Fair has always generated tension in me and not only because one comes across an insulting Martínez de Hoz pavilion, which pays homage to the slaver and looter of indigenous lands, ancestor of the infamous economist of the last dictatorship, but also because the tension arises because saying Fair implies to say trade.

This is a Fair of the industry and not of the culture,

"Despite the frenzy and euphoria of the organization and its billing expectations, our present is not very festive," highlighted the writer, who echoed the difficulties in promoting reading in a country where half of the children live below the poverty line.

“It is appropriate to ask whether a hungry boy is in a position to assimilate knowledge if he has not assimilated food”, denounced the author of

Cámara Gessell

.

The speaker also launched harsh criticism towards the publishing industry, especially against the owners of the paper mills.

In his opinion, they benefit from external conditions such as the war in Ukraine or the pandemic to set high prices without any type of state regulation and thus complicate the survival of small and medium-sized publishers.

“The lack of paper is due to the lower production of the two companies that produce paper to make books.

One is Ledesma, owned by the Blaquier/Arrieta family, one of the richest in the country, surnames linked to the last dictatorship in crimes against humanity, as well as related to the Rural Society, the scenario in which we are today.

The other company is Celulosa Argentina.

Its director is the landowner and member of the Industrial Union José Urtubey, connected with the cause

Panama Papers

,” Saccomanno said.

paid speech

The writer Guillermo Saccomanno, this Thursday at the Buenos Aires Book Fair. Cleo Bouza (Buenos Aires Book Fair)

The writer titled his conference “A land trade” and celebrated being the first in 46 years to have been paid for the work of opening the Book Fair.

“I don't think mentioning money at a business celebration is in bad taste.

Is there perhaps an outside of the culture of surplus value?”, he launched into the air.

"I imagined myself in the supermarket trying to convince the Chinese that he was going to pay for the purchase with prestige," he stated when defending the payment of fees.

The Argentine author closed an act in which the editor Ariel Granica had spoken before as the new president of the Fundación El Libro;

Cuban Tatiana Vera Hernández representing Havana, guest city of this edition;

the Minister of Culture of the city of Buenos Aires, Enrique Avogadro, and the head of the National Culture portfolio, Tristán Bauer.

Granica also emphasized the difficult moment in the publishing industry —with a drop in production of more than 60 percentage points since 2016— and asked for state collaboration to keep it afloat.

At the opening, a small tribute was paid to authors who had died in the last two years, such as Quino, Horacio González, Juan Forn, Ángelica Gorodischer, Tamara Kamenszain and Carlos Busqued, among others, who will also be remembered by their respective publishers throughout this 46th edition.

The Buenos Aires Book Fair will last until May 16, with more than 1,500 scheduled activities, including the participation of the Peruvian Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa, and other international guests such as the Spanish Javier Cercas, the Chilean Diamela Eltit and the Colombian Carolina Sanín.

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Source: elparis

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