Guadalajara, Jalisco, September 24, 2025
EULAC will receive the FIL Publishing Merit Award
With this distinction, the Guadalajara International Book Fair recognizes the contribution of university presses to bibliodiversity of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as their role as transformative agents in the industry of our countries
For its enormous work in the dissemination of academic thought, fostering the spirit of integration of university presses and promoting the professionalization of the guild for almost four decades of sustained work, the Association of University Presses of Latin America and the Caribbean (EULAC) will receive, on December 1st, the Publishing Merit Award of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). The award will be presented to Lía Castillo Meneses, the current president, while Juan Felipe Córdoba-Restrepo and Sayri Karp Mitastein, former presidents of EULAC and members of its Advisory Board, will also be recognized during the ceremony.
EULAC was founded on August 26th, 1987 in Lima, Peru, by Pedro Visconti Clava, under the motto “Uniting is a necessity, achieving it is our task”, and with the mission of opening communication channels between the university presses of the continent and promoting the circulation of their publications. It currently brings together more than 400 publishers belonging to eleven national associations and networks from the different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the aim of giving dissemination and visibility to Latin American academic thought, in addition to promoting the recognition of bibliodiversity and multilingualism in science.
The Publishing Merit Award was instituted by FIL in 1993 as part of its professional programs, in honor of the Argentinian editor, Arnaldo Orfila, with the intention of highlighting the vision and craft of this fundamental figure in the world of books. The verdict is the responsibility of a committee composed of editors recognized in previous years and personalities of the contemporary publishing world. Neus Espresate, Beatriz de Moura, Antoine Gallimard, Inge Feltrinelli, Anne Marie Métailié, Daniel Divinsky and Kuki Miller, Peggy Espinosa, Juan Casamayor and Patricia van Rhijn among other great figures of the publishing world have been recognized with this distinction.
This will be the first time that the Publishing Merit Award will be awarded to an association. With this distinction, the Guadalajara International Book Fair recognizes the importance that university presses have today in the dissemination of knowledge and in the promotion of bibliodiversity, in addition to their role as transformative agents for the publishing industry ecosystem in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The ceremony, which will be held on December 1 at 13:00, will feature the participation of Lía Castillo Meneses, Sayri Karp Mitastein, Juan Felipe Córdoba-Restrepo and authorities of the Guadalajara FIL.
Lía Castillo Meneses (Peru)
President of the Association of University Presses of Latin America and the Caribbean (EULAC) since 2023. Business administrator with postgraduate studies in marketing. Since 2007, she has been coordinating the Marketing and Sales deartments at the UPC Publishing House of the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences. Founder of the university presses and research or documentation centers in Peru (EUPerú) and president during the first two periods of this commission.
Sayri Karp Mitastein (Mexico)
Director of the Publishing House of the University of Guadalajara, where she has been working since 2002, when she was invited to create it. Cofounder of the Altexto Network of University and Academic Publishers of Mexico and a member of its board of directors. She was president of EULAC from 2015 to 2023. In 2018, she was awarded University Press Merit Award by the University Book Fair of the Autonomous University of Hidalgo, and the Recognition to the University Editor Rubén Bonifaz Nuño granted by the UNAM at the International University Book Fair (Filuni).
Juan Felipe Córdoba-Restrepo (Colombia)
Historian and editor. Publishing Director of Universidad del Rosario. He is a consultant in Colombia of the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, an autonomous agency of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He was president of the Association of University Presses of Colombia (ASEUC) and, from 2009 to 2015, of the Association of University Presses of Latin America and the Caribbean (EULAC), he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Colombian Book Chamber. In 2019, he received the Rubén Bonifaz Nuño University Editor Award granted by UNAM at the International Book Fair for University Students (Filuni).
Publishing Merit Award
Monday, December 1st
13:00 to 13:50
Hall 6, ground floor, Expo Guadalajara
For further information contact:
Press Office and Publicity General coordinator, Mariño González at the phone number (+52) 33 3810 0331, ext. 952