One of the ways in which Bolivia shows itself to the world in the area of literature and culture is through international fairs; However, in the last three years, and so far in 2023, the national government has only led state publishers to these activities abroad, leaving private publishers aside, which translates into partial exposure. and inclined to the governmental political sphere.
“It is a partial sample of what is produced, without mentioning that, many times, what is reflected must comply with a line requested by the State, for example, there is a State publishing house and it would be good if it published to all or that It is a type of curatorship, but without it having to do with politics, I believe that culture is above politics,” said the president of the La Paz Departmental Book Chamber, David Pérez.
From April 20 to 30 of the past administration, the International Book Fair of Havana, in Cuba, was held, which was attended only by state publishers and was not coordinated with the Book Chamber.
But what is shown at these fairs when only government publishers attend?
“Personally, I have shared a book fair in Cusco, in 2019, and the Government brought many books that were very well received and showed and talked a lot about the process of change, there were biographies of Evo Morales, books, historical texts, some classics, An important production of the Ministry of Labor, then, are books that show a political tendency that has to do with the Government and that is part of the Bolivian production, but it is only a part”, Pérez said.
Likewise, he reflected that in order to have a total idea of what is produced in Bolivia in terms of literature, it should be coordinated with the private part, that is, the book chambers.
For his part, the representative of Editorial El Cuervo, Fernando Barrientos, agreed that if only the public sector is brought to international fairs, the vision of Bolivia’s reality is halfway. “Without the private entity, the sample is not complete,” he said.
Likewise, he regretted that despite the public promise of President Luis Arce to support the La Paz Departmental Book Chamber to participate in the Buenos Aires fair, to date it has not been fulfilled and now Bolivia could hardly attend, worse still if the Ministry of Culture does not respond to any of the letters sent during the last seven months.
“It is not a good sign that they have gone to the fair in Havana and have not planned to go to the one in Buenos Aires, where it is clearly more interesting there because of the number of Bolivians who live in Buenos Aires, because of the receptivity of the public Buenos Aires towards Bolivian production and because precisely there there was already an experience of participation as a country,” Barrientos said at the time to explain that in past efforts before 2019, Bolivian publishers participated continuously.
“I don’t understand why we can’t replicate those successful experiences and even worse after the president’s promise at our 2022 book fair to be present at international fairs, we were excited about that promise from the President and we thought we were going to attend to the Buenos Aires fair, but we are less than 40 days from the fair and it is very difficult for us to be there”, he said.
The president of the La Paz Departmental Book Chamber, David Pérez, indicated that the participation of private publishers in foreign fairs is important for two reasons:
1. The books they produce are sought after, such is the case of the work of Teresa Gisbert de Mesa, who worked and researched in Cusco for many years and made a “great production on the viceroyalty and colonial art” of that region;
2. because it is necessary to democratize the support to the sectors, since thus, there will be a varied access to books and therefore to information.
“It seems to me that there is unequal treatment, there is support for the state publishing house, there is support for the Center for Social Research, for the central bank foundation, but not for the private part,” he said.
Once again, Pérez asked Arce to fulfill his public promise made last year at FIL 2022 and which said that he would support the Departmental Book Chamber to participate in the fair in Buenos Aires.
