The power of a book fair

The Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) lowered the curtain on Sunday with a sense of relief and contained satisfaction for the momentum recovered after the ravages of the pandemic.

The most important literary and editorial meeting in Spanish returned to numbers more typical of normality, with more than 800,000 visitors that give an idea of ​​the energy, often latent, of the sector.

But beyond the statistics, the important thing is the qualitative balance and that has to do with the place that the fair can occupy in the future.

A role that represents an opportunity as a vehicle for culture and reflection both to structure Latin America and to strengthen the conversation between the two shores of the Atlantic.

After 36 editions, the FIL shows that it can be a space that helps, for example, to restore the bridges between Mexico, the rest of the continent and Spain.

It is already happening thanks to a new generation of authors and authors.

That is, ultimately, the primary function of a book fair: to welcome a reality and become its catalyst, in this case building or rebuilding a harmony.

And if literature is a spigot to start that path, the next step is a dialogue that covers all aspects of cultural coexistence.

Exploring that territory, however, is not easy.

In the first place, the economic crisis, inflation and production costs make the objective difficult.

A direct consequence is the obstacles to the circulation of books in Latin America, which are greater today despite the vital work being done by small stamps in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Chile or Argentina.

The historical disconnection or lack of communication between the readers of each of the countries and the works has managed to be mitigated, but the international flow of books and authors is far from normalized.

The rethinking of balances within the publishing industry also leads to rethinking the hierarchy in some way so that there are alternatives to Barcelona or Madrid as the main dissemination platforms:

Secondly, the political tensions that have accompanied this edition of the Guadalajara Book Fair cannot be ignored.

The international dimension of the meeting and its professional scope should set aside conflicts such as the one between the governor of the State of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro, and the president of the FIL, Raúl Padilla, and the disputes between both over budgets.

The commitment of public powers, local, national and even regional, should be greater.

Next year could be an optimal test bed to measure both that commitment and the fair's abilities to act as a promoter.

The European Union will be the guest (and Spain will be in 2024), which means a round trip challenge to find out the projection of the publishing market in Spanish and the future of the book.