Letter from the Chairman

The Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) is considered today the most important venue in the Spanish-language book world. Over 1600 publishers from forty countries and more than 15,000 book professionals—editors, literary agents, distributors, booksellers, librarians, translators, authors and promoters of reading—take part in FIL. Every year more than half a million people visit our fair to hear the 350 authors who come from all over the world.

The presence of so many literary writers has made FIL one of the most important and varied festivals of the word in the Spanish-language world. Famous as well as little known writers discover that FIL is fertile ground to promote their work; they also come to realize that FIL is the optimum venue to converse directly with fellow writers and readers. This aspect of FIL is the one that has seen the greatest growth, especially as we incorporate writers from other languages. Each year the number of writers from around the world increases dramatically, thus allowing them to present in a venue which permits the building of bridges with Spanish-language readers.

Each edition of FIL is an opportunity to attest to the unavoidable need for and the clear advantage of the international exchange of books, ideas and cultures. Year after year we become even more convinced that this exchange is indispensable for the understanding of this increasingly complex world in which we live. We are extremely proud to be the venue that both authors and the general public have chosen for this meeting of the minds.

Raúl Padilla López
Chairman