'Centroamérica Cuenta' vindicates freedoms in a region devastated by authoritarianism

The literary festival 'Centroamérica Cuenta' lands this Thursday, May 26, in Guatemala at a time when democracy in the region is experiencing low hours.

The meeting —created by the writer and Cervantes Prize winner, Sergio Ramírez— aims to be an oasis in which narrators, journalists, filmmakers and intellectuals from the region discuss the health of Central American democracy, runaway violence and the importance of literary creation and the role of journalism, virulently attacked by regimes allergic to oversight.

This year, the contest is dedicated to the writer Almudena Grandes, recently deceased, a great friend of Ramírez and who had participated in previous editions of 'Centroamérica Cuenta'.

“We are very happy to meet again, and even more so in Guatemala, a country with enormous cultural richness and the cradle of great writers, including the only Central American Nobel laureate in literature, Miguel Ángel Asturias.

We consider it very important to meet for this tribute to Almudena, one of the transcendental writers of our language”, said the writer Sergio Ramírez, president of Centroamérica Cuenta and Cervantes Prize 2017.

The event will bring together more than 30 narrators and creators, most of them Spanish-speaking, including the Chilean writer and journalist Cristian Alarcón, winner of the 2022 Alfaguara Prize;

the journalist Francisco Goldman;

the Uruguayan writer Fernanda Trías, winner of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award 2021;

the Spanish poet Luis García Montero, widower of Almudena Grandes;

the Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza;

the Spanish Elizabeth Duval and Aroa Moreno;

the Colombian Laura Restrepo;

Nicaraguans Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli;

Chilean Nona Fernández;

the Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui;

the historian and former president of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís;

the Costa Rican writer and poet Luis Chaves and the filmmakers Abner Benaim and Jayro Bustamante, from Panama and Guatemala respectively, among others.

“For Centroamérica Cuenta, it is essential to maintain this space for exchange between the most representative voices of Ibero-American thought and literature from Central America.

For this reason, in this edition we will address issues related to literature, cinema, music, culture, modernity, memory, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, journalism, censorship, democracy, science, human rights, among many others”, added Ramírez.

What is expected to be one of the most exciting moments of the event is the tribute to Almudena Grandes, who died at the end of November at the age of 61 due to cancer.

“We are going to honor her with a table about her work, in which Laura Restrepo Sergio Ramírez and her widower, Luis García Montero, will participate.

We want her voice to stay alive, because it is very important for lyrics in Spanish and above all because of the issue of memory, because Almudena has been building a fairly important historical heritage through her books”, explains Claudia Neira, director of the festival, in an interview by video call.

In that act, García Montero will read some of the poems that he has dedicated to Grandes.

This is the eighth edition of the literary meeting, after he had to go into exile due to Daniel Ortega's violent repression against critical voices in Nicaragua.

'Centroamérica Cuenta' was born in Managua with the idea of ​​becoming a free space for the discussion of ideas, the problems of the region and the visibility of Central American literary creation.

One of the issues that has always been present is that of journalism and this time it will analyze the situation of the profession in the face of the attacks of authoritarian governments, such as the Ortega dictatorship or the autocracy of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador.

“It is a responsibility to include the theme of freedom, human rights, democracy and governability in the festival.

These are themes inherent in literature.

'Centroamérica Cuenta' is a festival that is always with its windows open and this includes seeing everything that happens around it.

We believe that it is important to give its place to the political in a cultural festival, because they are relevant issues for creation and for freedom, because you cannot create in captivity”, says Neira.

The Festival will be held in Guatemala City from May 26 to 29 and, in addition to talks, will include journalism workshops, a reporting project for the creation of chronicles that tell about life in the Guatemalan capital, a film series and, as every year, the presentation of the Central American Short Story Cover Award.

Those who are not in Guatemala will be able to follow the festival from www.centroamericacuenta.com, a site where virtual conversations with Ibero-American creators are also announced every month.

But the appointment in Guatemala is not the only one in 2022: Claudia Neira explains that in the fall there will be a meeting in Madrid and next year the venue will be in Panama.

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