When leaving the Book Fair, which closes its doors this Monday until next year, a crowd of young people lived to the shouts: "Javi! Javi!". We approached the fence guarded by a couple of burly men, in addition to the security of the property, and just the explosion occurred.
The audience, made up of young people between 20 and 30 years old, cheered: "Pre-si-dente! Pre-si-dente!" Mixed among the fans of Javier Milei we glimpsed the beaten hair of the presidential candidate of Libertad Avanza, his expression of ecstasy, his hand waving in slow motion, which came down to sign an autograph, enjoying the moment.
An hour and a half earlier, Milei – who perceives himself as "anarcho-liberal" – had arrived in an impressive dark van, always guarded, and entered the José Hernández Room – the largest in the Fair – which was overflowing with people.
The act was musicalized and the pre-candidate for the presidency made his performance of stirring the emotions of his followers in the rockstar style, with a suit and shirt out of his pants. Outside the room, which in all its extension can gather more than a thousand people, there had been an enormous number of people. From there he went to the firmódromo. But we couldn't stop by to find out if he signed books or just autographs.
Javier Milei, the great attraction of the Book Fair. Photo Rolando Andrade Stracuzzi
Provisional phenomenon or not – the polls will say – Milei became one of the highlights of the end of the Fair, just with the bookfluencers. Just two days ago, the formidable Spanish writer Irene Vallejo marked an unforgettable and key moment.
It was presented to a full house on two occasions: in a dialogue and at the closing of the International Congress for the Promotion of Books and Reading. And he signed copies of The Infinite in a Reed and The Archer's Whistle for six hours in two days.
It was touching to watch people wait for his signature in the cold on one of the days. The writer, with her sweet and approachable personality, apologized to those she could not please. Her husband Kike Mora, who accompanies her on this South American tour, watched in amazement the fervor of the readers.
To the rescue of the forgotten
Two events were noteworthy on the penultimate day of the Fair. Curiously, they are two rescues from oblivion. One was the tribute to the recently deceased Chilean intellectual Jorge Edwards, by the writer Josefina Delgado, and the presentation of the book Las olvidadas, by Cristina Mucci, accompanied by the editor Genaro Press, the director Oscar Barney Finn, and the writers Hinde Pomeraniec, Claudio Zeiger and Valeria Castelló Joubert.
It was a very pleasant meeting, during which three names of Argentine literature, buried for decades in the forgetfulness of the canon, were valued: Beatriz Guido, Silvina Bullrich and Marta Lynch.
From Edwards to an indelible trio Josefina Delgado, who was a close friend of the Edwards, recalled: "I met him at his house in Santiago. Then came his trip to Cuba as an envoy of the government of Salvador Allende and his great book Persona non grata, where he detailed how life was lived in the intellectual environment of the island. We returned and met many times: Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Paris, Puerto Rico and the Language Congress, other times in Chile. It was with him that I traveled to Calaceite, in Bajo Aragón, to the house where our mutual friend José Donoso had lived. And I was able to accompany him to the house of Borges, whom I did not know, and where both recited poems by forgotten Argentines and Chileans. His work is enormous; Dostoevsky's House, Farewell Poet, The Dream of History, and especially The Last Sister and Oh, Evil. His anecdotes with Pablo Neruda were unforgettable."
In the presentation of this joint reissue of the three biographies that Cristina Mucci had published separately, the Press editor stressed that "it was their lives (those of Guido, Bullrich and Lynch), their Karatec languages and quick responses, the look between the lines, the provocation, the rebellion and a feminism perhaps avant la lettre, the ones that struck me when I read Cristina's books more than twenty years ago. These three biographies became cult objects."
Barney Finn spoke above all of his extensive and endearing friendship with Beatriz Guido – in 2022 the centenary of her birth was celebrated – and of the value of "Las olvidadas", a book in which the author achieves "a process of integration between the three writers in an increasingly broken society; and establishes a union between that past and our present." The director participated last year in a remarkable tribute to Guido in Rosario.
Hinde Pomeraniec highlighted "the breadth of the concept of ideology that led to the fact that at one time, all three were very successful and then ceased to be so." She spoke of ideology in a multiple sense: because they are women and also because they are anti-Peronists. "They were very popular at a time when women's thinking in terms of feminism was important. Let us remember that writers were oracles. Then they were forgotten and it is no coincidence that just now they are rescued again. I think we also need to take into account the gender bias that existed."
"Las olvidadas", by Cristina Mucci (South American, $6,199 paper; $2,527 ebook).
Zeiger eloquently joked that when he named Silvina Bullrich he feared being confused with presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich, and highlighted the enormous popularity that the three writers enjoyed in their time, with sidereal sales of their books in a country with half the population that it does today, but then that were frozen in time.
"Surely, as Cristina says in the prologue, that was more for ideological than literary reasons." She spoke about the declining success of the three authors, whose professional lives ran parallel to the Latin American boom (which does not integrate any women).
Castelló Joubert then had a very accurate reflection: "It is extremely curious that a society trapped in the past has crossed out with a thick stroke part of the most vital of itself, in the form of the absolute oblivion of three admirable voices that, each in their own style, had much to say about their reality. Reading them allows us to understand each other much more today."
Cristina Mucci stressed that Guido, Lynch and Bullrich were very popular until their deaths. And although their literature declined in impact, they preserved that incidence especially in the cultural environment of Buenos Aires. With elegance, as highlighted in the talk, Mucci manages to rescue in an integral way the biographies of three women who, with successes and errors, were remarkable in their time.
In figures
The Book Fair concludes with encouraging public figures, a decrease in sales, and an edition rowed with professionalism at a critical moment in Argentina.
During its 19 days, almost 1,245,000 people visited it. There were 486 exhibitors and 2,137 cultural events. More than 200 authors visited it and the professional conferences, prior to the opening to the public, had 12 thousand representatives of the book industry.
However, according to the talks of Clarín Cultura with unobjectionable sources allows to infer that there were fewer stands and less bibliodiversity. There are no conspiracies that count: user behavior changed after the pandemic.
Paper is sold in large quantities to packaging manufacturers – for delivery – and arrives in smaller quantities to book printing. But, worth the question: if more books were printed would there be more readers with purchasing power to buy them?
Several librarians who, with the help of Conabip, arrive with their carts and their listings to take novelties at better prices, left with long faces because much of the offer they sought was not available.
In spite of everything, the Fair remains the most important cultural event in the country. With the added value of the guest city that attracts every year for the originality of its editorial and cultural offer. In 2024 Lisbon will take the baton from Santiago de Chile.
PC
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