The University of Guadalajara, through a project created by the Environmental Sciences Museum as part of the University’s Cultural Center, and with the support of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, has established the José Emilio Pacheco City and Nature Award. The prize, which will be given for the first time this year, will be dedicated to poetry. The winning author, who must write in Spanish and have at least ten unpublished poems or poems published in the last five years that are related to nature, urban sustainability, socio-ecological harmony and environmental conservation, will be given a purse of US $10,000. The award is dedicated to poet José Emilio Pacheco, whose work explores the duality between cities and nature.
Important:
The call closed the past June 2nd
Created by the University of Guadalajara, and with the collaboration of the National Institute for Indigenous Languages, the Culture Ministry, the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Cultures and Jalisco’s Department of Education, the American Indigenous Literature Award is granted to enrich, protect and promote the legacy and richness of Mexico’s indigenous peoples through literature in all its forms, and to and acknowledge and further develop the careers and works of indigenous authors. The award, which carries a purse of US $25,000, will be given for the fourth time at the 2016 FIL Guadalajara.
The SM Ibero-American Award for Literature for Children and Young People was implemented in 2005, the year of Ibero-American literature, with the goal of promoting literature for children and young people throughout Ibero-America. The award is given out each year during the Guadalajara International Book Fair to recognize writers of literature for children and young people and carries a purse of US $30,000.
With the goal of creating a network that helps to encourage the work of illustrators of books for children and young people in Ibero-America, the SM Foundation and the FIL Guadalajara invites illustrators to submit their work to be included in the Annual Ibero-American Illustration Catalog. The 45 works selected will be displayed in an exposition at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. In addition, illustrators will have the opportunity to work on an illustrated book with Ediciones SM and the winner will be given US $5,000. You can find more information at: www.iberoamericailustra.com
Guadalajara, Jalisco, July 10, 2025
"Culture is the swan of journalism": Yolanda Zamora
With 50 years of experience, the communicator, writer and teacher will receive, on December 7 at the Juan Rulfo Auditorium, the Fernando Benítez National Tribute of Cultural Journalism of the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2025
When it was announced that this year she would receive the Fernando Benítez National Tribute for Cultural Journalism, which the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) has been awarding since 1992, Yolanda Zamora was “speechless”. Something difficult to imagine for one of the most recognized voices of Mexican radio, a great conversationalist who for fifty years has brought to Jalisco and the nation the reflections of great artists, such as Alicia Alonso, Juan Rulfo, Juan José Arreola, Ravi Shankar, Joan Manuel Serrat, Elena Poniatowska, Victoria de los Ángeles, Isaac Hernández or Gilda Cruz-Romo, among many other cultural personalities. The recognition —granted by a committee composed of five personalities honored in previous years— will be given on December 7, 2025 at the Juan Rulfo Auditorium of the FIL.
“She is a journalist with undeniable merits and an important career in the field of culture. In her five decades of work as a communicator, Yolanda Zamora has practiced her craft from Guadalajara —beyond the notoriety given by the geographical location of Mexico City—, and has taken to readers, radio listeners and television viewers from all over the country, her magnificent interviews, the voices and visions of many of the great figures of art, literature and thought, in emblematic programs such as Panorama cultural, A las nueve con usted, Perfiles and, recently, La Passarola", highlighted the committee that awarded her the 2025 Fernando Benítez National Tribute for Cultural Journalism.
Born in Mazatlan, Sinaloa (1949), Yolanda calls herself “Jalisciense, even jalisquilla”. Her house is a living museum of culture: books, musical instruments and works of art greet from all corners, while the recognitions are proof of her path in journalism: Journalist of the Year, the Pluma de Plata, the Ixca Farías Award, El Despertador Americano, the Ocelote Medal, the American Press International Award and the Jalisco Radio and Television System Tribute (for a life dedicated to culture), among others. Member of the board of directors of the Mexican Culture Seminar, she is the author of the interview books Daguerrotipos and A la fronda del recuerdo, the novel La última llovizna and the short story collections Cada agosto la Pila Moderna, A la hora de las brujas, la luna and Desde lo alto, in addition to the "Corrido de Pedro Páramo", set to music by Pancho Madrigal.
This 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of your first radio show. You who were a dancer and a great reader, how was the calling to cultural journalism?
Since I was a child I liked to tell anecdotes, stories. During recess at school, I would make up my inventions and suddenly say: “My family is running away and we have the crown hidden in the garden.” I've always liked the word, orality. And so, when I took up the vocation I had a very great desire. I am fortunate to have grown up in a family that privileged art. My father played the piano, the guitar, the accordion. My mother used to write, she would come in dancing from the kitchen with the food. I've been dancing since I was a little girl, wearing a red tutu that was made for me in kindergarten. All my life I grew up in the midst of artistic expression. And I was very happy. So, I had this longing. I said, if I was so happy with art and culture, the premise for my vocation will be “art and culture within everyone's reach.” Little by little this was weaving with reality. I had only one moment of dilemma, because at the same time I was studying at UNIVA, I was dancing in the Fine Arts Group of Jalisco. I had to decide: stay in dance or stay in radio. Sometimes I tell my high school students: vocation has three moments for you to choose. First, what do you like to do? Second, what are you good at? And number three: What does your reality tell you? I was good with words, chatty, but art and culture have always been with me. I started doing my social service at XEJB and the press director asked me to do the news program Panorama Cultural, because he had the intuition that I could do it right. He was doing Panorama Cultura fifteen minutes three times a day. That's when I decided to stay on the radio, which was for me a magical medium, incomparable with another.
You say "to put art and culture within everyone's reach”. What do you think is the importance of cultural journalism for a country like ours?
Cultural journalism is a specialty, just like journalism in economics, politics, and sports. But far from being the ugly duckling, I always say that, it is the swan of journalism. It is a specialty that requires talent, intelligence and sensitivity. That sensitivity that puts you in touch with the people and their expressions, just as you might appreciate a Bolshoi Ballet or a classical concert —everything that falls within the realm of art, understood as the symbolic recreation of the world. Wherein lies the wonder of art? Art moves. And where does it move? Towards what's human. Then every work that exists, every work that we see, enriches the human panorama. Cultural journalism requires that those who practice it have that sensitivity, that pleasure, that practice to understand that it is not only what, how, when and where. Where the what-how-when-where ends, cultural journalism starts, because it works with what's transcendent. First of all, cultural journalism is the ability to feel the soul of your people, of your community, and share it like Prometheus, who steals the fire —let's think of it is art— and delivers it to human beings. The cultural journalist must be able to identify this fire and pass it on to people —listeners, readers, viewers— with the conviction that each person will find his or her own interpretation. The principle for art is freedom, for those who make it and for those who receive it.
How do you see contemporary cultural journalism from the new communication platforms, with many and many young people who are imbued with reading and culture and who communicate not only in traditional media anymore?
It is undeniable that the scenario changed. Before, you would run to the press room for the written report, the bulletin, or you would run to the phone and even take off the receiver to send your note. The scenario has changed, but it offers a thousand possibilities for realization and creativity. I really admire the use of everything digital, which means enormous wealth. On the other hand, you have to think that now, with more demand, it is a must to professionalize your work. Anyone can send notes, and it's a good thing that they do and multiply, but that's where you're going to demonstrate your training, your commitment, your criteria. A las nueve con usted had a section that was called "La voz de los jóvenes". Almost 25 young people would go on the radio and now they have programs in Jalisco or Colima. I like that, but the credit is not mine. The contagion is from cultural journalism, which defends itself and radiates when you do it with happiness. There are many cultural journalists who are emerging today, like flowers after the rain. Practicing cultural journalism requires that love of culture, that need to turn your article into a piece of art with a creative idea.
The interview is one of the genres that require this vision. A las nueve con usted is a leader in the communication of culture. You have diversified your journalistic work in different formats and media, but what did A las nueve con usted mean for you?
The extraordinary opportunity to be congruent with that idea of art and culture for everyone. It was the perfect place to be able to give and share daily for forty years. There was a movement and practically all the people representing culture in our environment went through the show, as collaborators or as interviewees. The show would not have been what it was without a team of collaborators who made my proposal and my desire their own. From each interviewee I can tell a story. I remember when, for example, I was sent to cover the Jalisco Award for Juan Rulfo. I arrived at the Degollado Theater and Don Tito, who was making the sets, said to me, “You're not going to be able to interview him, dear, but hide behind the curtains here and when he comes out, you can ask him.” I had a big square tape recorder. I sat down, patient, and the ceremony passed, the politics. I thought“ "If he comes out this way I have to interview him.” So I jumped out from behind the curtain, surprising him, and fired a string of questions at him. He answered me in monosyllables and the interview didn't last a minute: the bodyguards pushed me aside. I grabbed the recorder thinking: "I have Rulfo's voice!”. My little note, although brief, entered the national network via Notisistema. I was able to interview Rulfo a second time and he spoke like never before. But that's the subject of another story.
Photographs of Yolanda Zamora at this link.
Previous winners of the Fernando Benítez National Tribute for Cultural Journalism.
For further information contact:
Press Office and Publicity General coordinator, Mariño González at the phone number (+52) 33 3810 0331, ext. 952