The Guadalajara FIL regains strength after the pandemic hit

The human tide that filled the halls of the Guadalajara International Book Fair for nine days has left a sense of relief among the organizers.

Statistics show that the largest Spanish-speaking literary and editorial gathering is regaining strength after the severe blow of the covid-19 pandemic.

This year, according to official data, 806,000 people visited the FIL, a much higher statistic than last year, when only 251,000 visitors attended due to the restrictions imposed by the covid.

The data, however, is somewhat lower than that of 2019, when the fair received 828,266 visitors.

“We can assure that this edition has been a success.

We have returned to normality”, Raúl Padilla, president of the fair, stated this Sunday morning.

Attendees at the Guadalajara International Book Fair shop and walk the aisles on the last day of the fair.

Nayeli Cruz

The pandemic had also left the FIL accounts in the red.

Padilla has reported that in 2020, when the fair was held virtually, they registered a deficit of 26 million pesos, which led them to reduce expenses, although, he has stated, they decided not to make layoffs.

The fair is now carrying a deficit of 16 million, but Padilla was happy with this year's income, which exceeded 101 million pesos, although the figure is still lower than 2019, when they registered entries for 125 million.

"We hope to clean up the accounts with next year's edition", said the director of the FIL.

These amounts do not include book sales by publishers during the nine days of the fair, a fact that the FIL authorities do not provide.

"When they ask me how many books are sold, I answer that it is data that we do not have, because businesses are closed at the FIL, but they continue throughout the year", explained Marisol Schulz, general director of the event, who mentioned as an example the participation of 200 booksellers from the United States who have reached agreements to purchase books from the FIL of Guadalajara.

The statistics are also positive in terms of the participation of the publishing industry, to the point that this thirty-sixth edition exceeded the statistics of 2019. The organizers have reported that this year 2,417 publishers from 49 countries participated, while last year there were 1,223 houses editors.

The figure for 2019, prior to the pandemic, is 2,173.

And hand in hand with the publishers, 775 writers from 45 countries arrived in Guadalajara.

“It has been an overflowing energy, a success”, stated Schulz.

The FIL remained as the great book party in Spanish and left behind the face masks, temperature controls, antibacterial gel and disinfectant sprays that had marked the previous edition.

Among the guests this year were the Spanish Irene Vallejo, who was received as a rock star by readers

or Elvira Sastre, who raised eternal ranks;

the Syrian poet Adonis, who spoke "completely with the Iranian women's struggle for their liberation";

Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, Nicaraguan exile writers;

the Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña and inevitable faces of the FIL such as Rosa Montero or Leonardo Padura.

In addition, the winners: Mircea Cărtărescu won the FIL Prize for Literature and Daniela Tarazona the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

There were also gastronomic, theatrical and musical activities.

This has been the 36th edition of the fair:

The moment of the narrators and the new voices of FIL

Portrait of Aura García-Junco at this year's FIL.

Roberto Antillon

Melanie Jösch, editorial director in Chile of Penguin Random House, said during the fair that in Latin America "there is a great moment for literature written by women."

“There is a discovery, and there is also great writing,” she noted.

There are the examples of Marina Enríquez, Fernanda Trías, Cristina Rivera Garza, Fernanda Melchor, Nona Fernández... But also those of the voices that appear strongly in the literary panorama, such as that of Aura García-Junco, who presented her work at FIL novel

, or Sue Zurita, who is part of the club of young writers who began to publish on the Internet and were signed by the big publishers – a similar case is that of the Mallorcan Joana Marcús, who triumphed, above all, on Wattpad.

The attention women writers arouse serves to explain, to a large extent, the growing interest in Latin American literature in Spain, where a new generation of writers is making its way.

To the boom of the narrators is added the presence in Madrid or Barcelona of small Mexican and Argentine stamps that have opened up new spaces in the Spanish literary market and the commitment, also, of multinationals.

A FIL marked by protests

Demonstration outside the International Book Fair in Guadalajara. Roberto Antillon

The fair started with protests at the door.

Hundreds of protesters blocked the main entrance to the event on the first day to support Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro, who is at odds with the fair's president, Raúl Padilla.

Inside the venue, on the other hand, cheers of support for the organizers of the literary meeting were heard: "You are not alone!"

The claim for the authorities' indifference to the murders of women also reached the halls of the largest book fair in Spanish.

Lorena Gutiérrez, the mother of two victims of violence, made herself heard to claim the State for the femicide of her daughter Fátima, 12, and the murder of her son Daniel Emilio.

Victims of vicarious violence also demonstrated inside the compound, that is,

the one exercised by a parent against their children to harm the mother.

"30 days without my son", she read on one of the banners written with purple spray.

books and balls

Fans of the Argentine national team celebrate the victory against the Australian national team in one of the corridors of FIL.Roberto Antillón

The nine days of the fair passed while the soccer World Cup was being played in Qatar, which ends on December 18.

The inaugural act of the FIL, in which the Prize for Literature in Romance Languages ​​was awarded to the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu, had as its toughest rival the match between Mexico and Argentina.

Publishers took advantage of the pull of the World Cup to show soccer news in their stalls.

The Elephanta publishing house presented

, a collection of 50 texts written by pens from the world of music.

is a book by the Cal y Arena publishing house about Mexico's passage through the World Cups.

Planet launched

, a comic about how social networks and the pandemic have changed the way of watching football, and

, in which the illustrator Alberto Montt and the journalist Alejandro Varsky deliver their own version of the history of the World Cups. World.

Penguin Random House also brought

, by Alberto Lati.

The Sharjah Pavilion

Sharjah Pavilion at FIL.Nayeli Cruz

A man takes a young man by the hand to guide him to a series of texts in Arabic calligraphy that adorn the Sharjah pavilion at the International Book Fair.

“Look”, he tells her, pointing to one of the symbols of Arabic calligraphy.

"That's the equivalent of our q."

The boy, dazzled, followed the explanation, while to one side a group of artists painted on cardboard the names in Arabic of the people who lined up for hours to take away such a beautiful memory.

Sharjah was this year's guest of honor at FIL and during the nine days of the event they received more than 450,000 visitors, according to the fair's statistics, who were able to immerse themselves in their culture thanks to the 27 activities organized in the pavilion, including presentations of Arabic literature books, discussion tables,

traditional dances and concerts.

Also the screening of a historical film written by Sultan Muhammad al-Qasimi.

"Books and culture help foster stronger relationships," said Khoula Al Mjaini, Director of Fairs and Festivals at the Sharjah Book Authority, on Sunday.

Farewell, Sharjah;

hello, European Union

The violinist Olga Šroubková during the ceremony of change of post of the Sharjah Delegation to the European Union as guest of honor at the FIL Guadalajara 2023. Nayeli Cruz

The Guadalajara International Book Fair announced in 2019 that the guest of honor in 2020 would be Sharjah, a hereditary monarchy with totalitarian features that hosts the largest editorial meeting in the Arab world.

But the pandemic delayed the plans until 2022. Now it is the turn of the European Union.

The organizers of the event pointed out during the announcement, in October, that the Twenty-seven will have a "great literary and cultural display."

The journalist from EL PAÍS Javier Rodríguez Marcos pointed out a few days ago that “one year remains to find out if European literature exists, with 27 countries and a myriad of official languages”.

Of the 36 editions run by FIL, nine European territories have been guests of honor: Spain (2000), Catalan culture (2004), Andalusia (2006), Italy (2008), Castilla y León (2010), Germany (2011). ),

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