This Sunday the cultural meeting came to an end at the Julio Le Parc Cultural Space and which had its federal stage in San Rafael, Tupungato, Lavalle and Rivadavia, with the accompaniment of the people of Mendoza.
After 11 unforgettable days, with more than 300 scheduled activities, the presence of numerous outstanding authors and having received thousands of visitors both at the Julio Le Parc Cultural Space and in San Rafael, Tupungato, Lavalle and Rivadavia, it came to an end a new edition of the Book Fair Cuyo lyrics.
Just over 140 thousand people were able to share in person book presentations, talks, special guests, concerts, inclusion spaces and tributes with free admission in a place that was always active.
Visitors came to tour and enjoy the 50 exhibition spaces between stands of bookstores, classrooms and rooms for talks with guests, workshops, artistic projects and book presentations.
The Book Fair of our province was federal and the public thanked that action with their presence. San Rafael, Tupungato, Lavalle and Rivadavia hosted – simultaneously and in that order – their respective exhibitions that were highly visited and enjoyed by guests such as Rocambole, El Soldado and Felipe Pigna in San Rafael; Juan Palomino and Chanti in Tupungato; María Rosa Lojo and Fabián Vena in Lavalle, and Lorena Pronsky and the actor Fabián Vena in Rivadavia, who performed to a full house.
Exhibitors highlighted that this year book sales increased compared to last year. Both booksellers and the public highlighted the comfort of the Julio Le Parc Cultural Space for holding this cultural meeting, with a large parking lot, comfortable rooms and ideal signage to know what was happening at all times.
Gareca’s word
The Undersecretary of Culture, Diego Gareca, made his analysis of the Book Fair: “We closed the Book Fair with a very positive balance and with a relevant look at literature in Mendoza, about producing this event that we consider one of the most important that generates the culture of Mendoza in the year along with the National Harvest Festival. Furthermore, with the need to understand that we were facing a very unfavorable economic context, especially for the publishing industry, that the costs of editing books continue to be high precisely because of the inputs that editing books takes and so we were faced precisely with this Book Fair to this reality.”
“The result has been very important, and the expectations have been met,” added Gareca. “A very good sales average in the stands from the different bookstores and independent publishers that were also present at the fair. We have had approximately just over 140,000 visits to the Book Fairs, understanding what the Le Parc Cultural Center is, the departments of San Rafael, Tupungato, Rivadavia and Lavalle, where we highlight precisely the federal perspective. There was the presence of different national authors, writers and thinkers,” he indicated.
“It is a great joy to be able to share this summary of the Book Fair with very high peaks. The opening with Mariana Enríquez, the proposal by Fernando Cabrera with Hugo Fattoruso, Marico Carmona, Chanti, Pronsky, Liliana Heker, the presence of Felipe Pigna, Rocambole, Hernán Casciari and Luciano Lamberti, among others, along with music and theater” , stated the official.
Finally, Gareca added that “it is necessary to thank the presentations. We have had more than 300 activities scheduled at the Book Fair with Mendoza authors, writers, poets who had the opportunity to show and sell their work. We always seek for the Book Fair to have this possibility of understanding that we generate culture to generate work in Mendoza.”
Enjoy the last day of the fair
On an afternoon packed with people, the cartoonist Chanti presented his work Drawn talks. Santiago González Riga, illustrator and cartoonist, invited us to discover his fantastic world and his most endearing characters. This series of talks allows you to maintain contact with your audience and dialogue with your youngest admirers. “I am very happy, because I have been touring the province. I have been to San Rafael and Tupungato and to Le Parc and I always experience it as a party, let’s say, a nice meeting because they are always very warm, they are very affectionate, the kids are very participatory. They actively participate, so that’s very good for a talk. Because if not everyone is quiet and here the kids fight to go read, for example. And that’s really nice, to see that the kids have so much desire to read and be present,” said the one most anticipated by the kids at the Book Fair.
Also, Caterina Gostisa presented How to write. Tips on writing. This book helps readers find texts that address everything from technical problems when creating characters, establishing a point of view, imagining a scene or a dialogue, to those that approach writing in spiritual terms, inquiring about its meaning or the tools to address different genres and reflections on literature in general and how each author is affected by it. This volume includes advice, reflections, maxims, decalogues and short essays on literature by 18 contemporary authors. Gostisa expressed: “I come to propose the editor’s vision, from my place as editor. I come to talk a little about these books that I published in the collection of writing essays, such as the volume on how to write 1 and 2, to be a writer, which within my catalog is a collection that interests me a lot, which is a literary genre in itself, that of writing advice, of maximum catalogues. So I want to offer my point of view as an editor, more than anything.”
And he added: “These meeting spaces, which are book fairs, are very healthy for small publishers, for editors, for those of us who are behind all this work of bringing books closer to readers, because they generate those spaces of meeting, being able to connect, being able to draw bridges and suddenly put together projects, associate. So these spaces are super important.”
Eliana Drajer, winner of the Vendimia 2023 Literary Contest in the Poetry category, presented her book Ana does not sleep. The author of the poems Shocking doll y The word nothing (winner of the San Juan poetry prize, in 2018), expressed: “I present this book that was published very excited. It addresses a story behind motherhood and the encounter or disagreement of one as a woman and as a mother. It is an intimate story but one that any mother or father could have gone through.”
The meeting of letters ended with Luciano Lamberti, on the last day of the Book Fair. The author presented To charm a hunterClarín novel award 2023. Lamberti is one of the most prominent references in horror literature in Argentina, perhaps the most successful genre in recent times.
Lamberti commented: “It is a novel that has a bit of rawness because it works with the background of the dictatorship and because it is a horror novel, with terrifying scenes, especially body terror and those kinds of things that have to do with the fear of something happening to you physically. I have been visiting many places in Argentina and it happens to me that with many people it is the first time that they read me, so it is like recruiting little Lambertis throughout the Argentine geography and it is great to have that contact that otherwise I would not get to have ”.
