Irene Vallejo

Invitado de Honor

(Zaragoza, 1979), drawn by the legends of Greece and Rome from a young age, studied Classical Philology and received her European Doctorate from the Universities of Zaragoza and Florence. The libraries of Florence gave birth to her book Papyrus: the invention of books in the ancient world (2019), which has garnered extraordinary acclaim from critics and readers, has surpassed 60 editions in Spain, has been translated into 40 languages and been published in almost 70 countries. In addition to international awards such as the Livre de Poche Prix in France, the Wenjin Prize of the National Library of China, finalist in the British Academy Prize and the Henríquez Ureña Award of the Mexican Academy, she has been recognized in Spain with the Premio Nacional de Ensayo, the Ojo Crítico de Narrativa Award, the Gremio de Librerías Award, the Líder Humanista Award, the Antonio de Sancha de los Editores Award, the Artes y Letra Award, the 2021 Aragón Award, and others.

She collaborates with media such as El País and Cadena Ser in Spain, Milenio in Mexico, Corriere della Sera in Italy, Página 12 in Argentina, La Tercera in Chile and El espectador in Colombia.

She has published the anthologies of articles Alguien habló de nosotros (2017) and El futuro recordado (2020), and short essays such as the Manifiesto por la lectura (2020). Her fiction works include La luz sepultada (2011) and El silbido del arquero (2015). She has published two illustrated albums: El inventor de viajes (2014), with artist José Luis Cano, and La leyenda de las mareas mansas (2023), with painter Lina Vila, and also the graphic adaptation of Papyrus: the invention of books in the ancient world to a comic (2024) in collaboration with illustrator Tyto Alba.

She also collaborates with social projects such as “Érase una voz”, “Motete“ in Chocó (Colombia) and ”Leer“ in Salta (Argentina).

Tyto Alba

Invitado de Honor

(Badalona, 1975) took his first professional steps as a painter by exhibiting in several galleries in Barcelona. During a stay in Mexico City, he began his career as a cartoonist, creating his comic book Black River Together (1999, Ediciones del Castor).

Upon returning, he worked for years illustrating opinion articles in El Periódico de Catalunya and developed the PDA project (Small Animated Designs), which produces short cartoons in collaboration with children.

He co-wrote the text Santo Cristo (2009, Glénat), drawn by Mexican Pablo Hernández, and El hijo (2009, Glénat), this time with text by Mario Torrecillas. He adapted the comic Sudd (2011, Glénat), together with Gabi Martínez, author of the novel of the same name. These last two works earned him the Junceda Prize in the comic book category. He illustrated Robert Louis Stevenson's book Un regalo de Navidad (2012, Peripheral), and collaborated again with Gabi Martínez to adapt to the comic Sólo para gigantes (2012, Astiberri). With text by Katrin Bacher, he illustrated Tante Wussi (2015, Astiberri), which received the Ciutat de Palma Award.

And by himself, he created: Dos espíritus (2013, Astiberri); La casa azul (2014, Astiberri), a tribute to Frida Kahlo and Chavela Vargas; La Vida (2016, Astiberri), on the relationship between Carles Casagemas and Pablo Picasso; Fellini en Roma; Balthus y el conde de Rola (2019, Astiberri), commissioned by the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, and Whitman (2021, Astiberri).

He published the comic book adaptation of Héctor Abad Faciolince's novel El olvido que seremos (2021, Salamandra graphic), which won the Santa Cruz Award for best graphic novel of the year. Rara avis (2022, Norma), with text by Raúl Deamo, is a biography of Catalan zoologist Jordi Sabater Pi. His book, El infinito en un junco (2024, Debate), is a comic book adaptation of the popular essay by Irene Vallejo.

Raquel Castro

(Mexico City, 1976) is a writer, screenwriter, journalist and cultural promoter. In 2012, she won the Premio de Novela Juvenil Gran Angular with her first novel, Ojos llenos de sombra, and in 2022 she received a special mention in the Cuatrogatos Foundation Awards for her short story collection El ataque de los zombis (parte mil quinientos), published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in its first young adult literature series, Hilo de Aracne.

Her other works include the young adult novels Exiliados (2013), Lejos de casa (2013), Dark Doll (2014), Un beso en tu futuro (2017) and El método infalible para ligarte a quien tú quieras (2021); the essay Cambiamos para ser más como somos (2017), and the storybooks ¡Pirañas del mundo, uníos! (2017) and Playlist (2023). With Alberto Chimal she co-wrote the writing manual Cómo escribir tu propia historia (2018) and the novel El club de las niñas fantasma (2021).

In 2024, she wrote the fiction podcast El corazón de la Vía Láctea, produced by Loqueleo and available on Spotify. She runs a YouTube channel dedicated to literature and outreach (www.youtube.com/AlbertoyRaquelMx) and her own literary blog at www.raxxie.com.

Other activities involving the participant:

I want to see you again
Science fiction written by women

Angelina Muñiz-Huberman

(Hyères, 1936) is a poet, narrator, essayist and translator.

She is a national emeritus creator, has a PhD in Literature and has taught for 54 years at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

She belongs to the second generation of Spanish writers in exile, called Hispanomexicanos or Generación Neptantla.

She has received national and international awards and distinctions: National Science and Arts Award; Fellow of the Mexican Academy of Language and corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Language; Doctorate Honoris Causa from the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Order of Isabel la Católica; Woman of Valor Award; in addition to the Magda Donato, Xavier Villaurrutia, Fuentes Mares, Manuel Levinsky, and other awards.

She was the first recipient of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz International Novel Prize at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in 1993 for Enchanted Dulcinea.

Her favorite themes include Sephardic mysticism and the Spanish exile of 1939. Her works have been translated into several languages and included in numerous anthologies.

Her style is a ground-breaking in terms of genres, punctuation, blank spaces and other oddities. It is not free from irony and humor.

She created the genre of pseudomemories with her works Castillos en la tierra, Molinos sin viento and Hacia Malinalco.

She has published over 60 books, including: Morada interior, considered the first novel in neohistoric Mexican literature; A Mystical Journey; La lengua florida, antología sefardí; La guerra del unicornio; Areúsa en los conciertos; La burladora de Toledo; Rompeolas, poesía reunida; El siglo del desencanto; Los esperandos. Piratas judeoportugueses... y yo; Arrhythmias; El último faro; Las vestiduras del palacio; Cartas a una ardilla y otros especímenes.

Her works have been published by Fondo de Cultura Económica, Joaquín Mortiz, Tusquets, Bonilla y Artigas, Renacimiento (Seville), Sefarad (Madrid), Ménades (Madrid), Huerga y Fierro (Madrid), and other publishers.

María Teresa Álvarez Aub

Invitado de Honor

Descendant of Spanish refugees from San Sebastián and Valencia, I was born in Mexico City when both families settled here, where my parents formed our family.

I completed my early schooling at the Lycée Français, near our house and my grandparents Max and Peua’s house. I finished my studies in Havana, where I started high school. There, my father, Federico Alvarez Arregui, was hired by the Universidad de La Habana.

My parents had always considered the idea of returning to Spain, and they made the move while the dictator was still alive.

In Madrid, I finished high school and studied Photography.

My parents and my brother returned to Mexico in the early 80s. I stayed in Madrid, where I worked as a photographer and proofreader until I joined the Fondo de Cultura Económica as a production department assistant. Years later, with Arturo Azuela, I also took on the role of executive secretary.

In recent years, I have held administrative positions in Valencia, where I currently live, and since 2013, I have continued the important work that my mother, Elena Aub, started at the helm of what would become the Max Aub Foundation, which I currently preside over.

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano

(Mexico City, 1934) studied civil engineering at UNAM. Between 1959 and 1976, he coordinated studies on the Balsas River Basin, served as the resident engineer for the construction of the "José María Morelos" dam (La Villita) on the Balsas River, was the deputy director of the Lázaro Cárdenas-Las Truchas steelworks, and managed the Lázaro Cárdenas City Trust. In 1976, he was elected senator representing Michoacán for the 1976-1982 term.

In 1976, he was appointed Undersecretary for Forests and Wildlife, a position he held until 1980. He served as governor of Michoacán from 1980 to 1986. Later that year, he joined Democratic Current, an internal dissident group within the PRI, and in 1988, he ran for president, representing the coalition of political parties and organizations known as the National Democratic Front. In 1989, he co-founded the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which he chaired until 1993, and he was the party's presidential candidate in 1994 and 2000. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the Head of Government of Mexico City, the first to be elected by popular vote. He resigned from the PRD in 2014. He currently  presides over the Lázaro Cárdenas and Amalia Solórzano Center, A.C.

 He has written, among other books, Nuestra lucha apenas comienza (1988), El proyecto nacional de la Revolución Mexicana (1990), La esperanza en marcha. Ideario político (1998), Palabras de Cárdenas (1999, Grijalbo), Sobre mis pasos (2010, Aguilar), Cárdenas por Cárdenas (2016, Debate) and Por una democracia progresista. Debatir el presente para un mejor futuro (2021, Penguin Random House).

Jordi Soler

Born in 1963 in La Portuguesa, a community of Catalan Republican exiles who founded a coffee plantation in the jungle of Veracruz, Mexico. La Portuguesa, a primitive enclave in the jungle, where the forces of nature devour each other, is the literary territory where a substantial part of its work is based.

He has written 14 novels, translated into several languages: Bocafloja (1994), La corsaria (1996), Nueve Aquitania (1999), La mujer que tenía los pies feos (2001), Los rojos de ultramar (2004), La última hora del último día (2007), La fiesta del oso (2009), Diles que son cadáveres (2011), Restos humanos (2013), Ese príncipe que fui (2015), El cuerpo eléctrico (2017), Usos rudimentarios de la selva (2018), Los hijos del volcán (2022), En el reino del toro sagrado (2024).

His novels have garnered various distinction, including the Prix Littéraire des Jeunes Européens (2012) and the Prix Jean-Morer (2020), in France; the Iberoamericano AsiCom-University of Oviedo Award (2014) in Spain, and the Poeta de América Carlos Pellicer Cámara Award (2021) in Mexico.

He is also the author of two poetry books and four non-fiction books: Ensayos bárbaros (2015), Mapa secreto del bosque (2019), La orilla celeste del agua (2021) and La resquebrajadura (2023).

Between 2000 and 2003, he was the cultural attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Dublin. He writes for the Mexican newspaper Milenio and the Spanish newspaper El País. He lives in Barcelona, the city his family left after the Spanish Civil War, and he is a Knight of the Irish Order of Finnegans.

Other activities involving the participant:

Once upon a time was love
Journeys. Silent time. Tribute to Luis Martín-Santos

Marisol Schulz Manaut

Marisol Schulz Manaut es editora, comentarista, ponente, periodista cultural y experta en el mundo literario y editorial. Ha recibido múltiples reconocimientos por su trayectoria de promoción de la lectura, así como por apostar por el futuro de los libros y el español. 

Desde hace once años dirige la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, considerada la más importante en español y una de las más relevantes del mundo. Durante su gestión, la FIL Guadalajara ha recibido diversos reconocimientos como el prestigiado Premio Princesa de Asturias en el área de Comunicación y Humanidades, conjuntamente con el Hay Festival; la condecoración con la Orden de Rio Branco, de Brasil, y recientemente la Presea Sor Juana, galardón que otorga la Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, en México.

También dirige la Feria del Libro en Español y Festival Literario de Los Ángeles, un ambicioso programa de difusión y fomento del libro y la lectura en español en Estados Unidos, fundado en 2011.  

Durante más de cuatro décadas Marisol Schulz se ha enfocado en las labores vinculadas al libro y la lectura, estando al frente de las áreas editoriales en diferentes entidades públicas y privadas, como la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y el Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social. Fue directora editorial de Plaza y Janés México y durante 17 años trabajó en Grupo Santillana, primero como editora ejecutiva y posteriormente como directora en México de los sellos Taurus y Alfaguara. Tuvo a su cargo la edición de grandes escritores iberoamericanos como Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, José Saramago, Arturo Pérez Reverte, Elena Poniatowska, Augusto Monterroso, Sergio Ramírez, Carmen Boullosa, Alberto Ruy Sánchez y Xavier Velasco, por mencionar algunos. 

En 2013 la edición mexicana de la revista Forbes la reconoció como una de las 50 mujeres más poderosas de México. En 2016 y 2020 la revista Quién la nombró una de las “50 personas que mueven a México”. Asimismo, en 2021 recibió el Premio Nacional Juan Pablos al Mérito Editorial, un reconocimiento que otorga anualmente la Cámara Nacional de la Industria Editorial Mexicana.

Other activities involving the participant:

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz award ceremony
Tribute
Tribute to Iñaki Ábalos
Opening Ceremony

Juan Luis Bonilla

Invitado de Honor

Bookseller and editor. He has worked mainly on marketing and publishing university textbooks. He has developed several academic library projects for institutions like UNAM, Tec in Monterrey and the Universidad de las Américas, and he has set up his own points of sale.

Since 2008, he has directed the editorial project Bonilla Artigas Editores, dedicated to publishing knowledge created in Mexico and which has over six hundred titles in its catalog. In 2015, he opened the Bon Art firm for literary books. Since April 2023, he has been the Chairman of the Ateneo Español in Mexico.

Rodrigo Cuevas

Invitado de Honor

Nominado a cuatro candidaturas a los Premios de la Música 2024, entre ellas a mejor gira, Rodrigo Cuevas (Oviedo, 1985) es el flamante premio nacional de las músicas actuales de 2023 que concede el Ministerio de Cultura español, así como premio Arcoíris 2022 del Ministerio de Igualdad; premio Ojo Crítico de RNE de 2021, a las músicas modernas; premio MIN 2020, al artista revelación y al mejor álbum de fusión y músicas del mundo; remiu Camaretá 2020, al meyor cantar por su composición e himno Rambalín. Rodrigo Cuevas es un fenómeno de las artes escénicas, lo mismo que de la comunicación en su más vasto sentido; un artista total, en proceso constante de crecimiento sostenible.

La Romería se nutre de las canciones que conforman Manual de Romería, aunque por su repertorio discurren algunos de los temazos de su trabajo anterior tales como Arboleda bien plantada o Rambalín, auténtico estandarte que hace justicia poética a la LGTBIQ, donde la justicia real quedó ausente.

La Romería está alimentada por el humor, la crítica social, la ironía, la denuncia inteligente y la sensualidad, marca de la casa por el uso naturalizado del asturiano y del español como lenguas vehiculares, y aderezado con una puesta en escena elegante y contemporánea que rompe con la imaginería precedente en el escenario, tanto como en el vestuario.

Nos vamos, por tanto, con La Romería, un espacio para la celebración y para la comunión; un lugar para sentirnos libres de prejuicios, para latir soberanos y amantes, libertinos y buenos en el más amplio sentido de la palabra bueno. Un show que se manifiesta extrovertido, caliente, ambicioso, alegre, bailable e incluso épico.
 

Ruper Ordorika

Invitado de Honor

Presenta su trabajo Amour eta toujours. Un disco muy especial que grabó en clave cubana con músicos experimentados de distintas procedencias, tanto en sus letras como en el sonido, nos conducen a un territorio desconocido en la carrera de Ruper, pero al mismo tiempo fiel a su esencia.
Este disco nos llega por sorpresa, con canciones y ambientes inusuales en una de las voces más reconocidas de la música vasca. Basado en sus vivencias en la isla de Cuba, el álbum se titula Amour eta toujours.
La relación de Ruper Ordorika con La Habana y el mundo cubano no ha caído en saco roto. Su proyecto lo deja claro, son canciones que están en sintonía con la clave musical afrocubana e inspirada en aquel mundo.

Para su presentación contará en el escenario con su banda: Arkaitz Miner (guitarra, violín y mandolina), Lutxo Neira (contrabajo) Hasier Oleaga (batería), y además Eduardo Lazaga (percusiones) y Nando de La Casa (percusiones y teclados).

Ordorika no es un músico a definir con dos palabras... Es un referente indiscutible de la canción en lengua vasca. En sus composiciones siempre ha logrado a partes iguales belleza y profundidad anímica, lo que sólo se consigue a través de una búsqueda incesante de sonidos y textos. El resultado: canciones de una personalidad atemporal.