This weekend, within the framework of the commemorations for World Book Day, the city of Guadalajara officially assumed the title as the twenty-second World Book Capital designated by UNESCO and, with it, the global epicenter of an ecosystem that orbits that ancestral device capable of evolving but without losing its essence as a refuge and a pretext for the enrichment of ideas that for a year, until April 22, 2023, will have a home in the city of Jalisco and an opportunity to enrich readers.
It all started last Friday at El Colegio de Jalisco, with the symbolic act of changing the post office from the outgoing capital, Tbilisi, in the European country of Georgia, to the capital of Jalisco. This post took the form of a copy translated into Spanish of the most famous work of Georgian literature, the epic The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin, written by the poet Shota Rustaveli between 1205 and 1207, whose special edition was the product of the collaboration between the University of Malaga and El Colegio de Jalisco. The event was led by the Georgian ambassador to Mexico, Zaza Gabunia; the municipal president of the new host city, Pablo Lemus Navarro; and Roberto Arias de la Mora, president of El Colegio de Jalisco, among other officials and representatives of Georgia.
On Saturday morning, in commemoration of World Book Day, Raúl Padilla and Marisol Schulz, president and director respectively of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, as well as Ian Denison, director of the World Book Capital program, and Vera Michalski-Hoffmann, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, appeared at the Paseo Alcalde, in the center of the city, for the start of the traditional reading marathon, this time with the famous novel Essay on Blindness, by the Nobel Prize for Literature 1998, José Saramago, on the centenary of his birth. The activity was incorporated this year as the starting point of the public program of the capital, which will irrigate streets, squares and public and university campuses in Guadalajara and other surrounding towns as part of an extended vision of this great book festival.
lukewarm federal presence
That same day at night, Hospicio Cabañas witnessed the protocol ceremony for the start of activities as World Book Capital. Among the presidium were authorities from Tbilisi, the outgoing city, and from Accra, the capital of Ghana and a city that will take over in 2023, as well as representatives of UNESCO and FIL Guadalajara.
The ceremony was not attended by any head of the federal cabinet or the state governor, Enrique Alfaro. In the case of the Ministry of Culture, in the absence of its head, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, who was on a trip to Cuba leading the presence of Mexico as Guest of Honor at the Havana International Book Fair, the representation fell to Rodrigo Borja Torres, general director of Libraries, and in the case of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the person in charge was the general director of Political Coordination, Ximena Escobedo Juárez. The general director of the INAH, Diego Prieto Hernández, was present among the public of the ceremony.
Pablo Lemus, Mayor of Guadalajara, said: “The last two years have put us all to the test, a pandemic that has sadly taken family and loved ones, and a war that has brought pain and hopelessness to the whole world. But it is a good occasion to put a point and aside, to reinvent ourselves through a new culture of peace”, he declared to send a fraternal greeting to the beaten country of Ukraine.
The Guadalajara official stressed that the capital of the book will have an important space for feminist literature, with a specialized forum, although this will be launched next year within the framework of International Women’s Day, and stressed that native languages will have a transcendental role throughout the year of celebrations.
Finally, he assured: “this is the moment to position Guadalajara as the cultural capital of Latin America” and declared the program of activities inaugurated.
In this way, Guadalajara became the first city in Mexico, the third in Latin America and the fourth Spanish-speaking city to obtain the distinction since UNESCO made it its capital in 2001. It will be so until the 23rd of April 2023 hand over responsibility to Accra, Ghana.
Guadalajara, World Book Capital
- From April 23 to April 22, 2023
- 2,000 activities will make up the annual program
Some initial program activities:
Exhibition: The Prado Museum in Guadalajara
- More than 50 photographic reproductions of masterpieces from the Spanish museum
- Literary Walk Fray Antonio Alcalde. Starting April 23
Exhibition: Untranslatable
- Tribute to speakers of indigenous languages in Mexico
- Blue Water Park. Starting April 29
Dialogue with Hugo Hiriart at ITESO
- As part of the Host Schools program
- ITESO. April 26
Expanded Literature. future rituals
- Lecture by the artist Guyphytsy Aldalai
- June 22nd. Library Secretariat of Culture of Jalisco
Check other details of the program.
Agreements with UNESCO and the next capital
In the context of the start of the World Book Capital, the mayor of Guadalajara, Pablo Lemus Navarro, and the UNESCO representative in Mexico, Frédéric Vacheron Oriol, signed a collaboration agreement in educational, cultural and scientific matters.
Andrea Blanco Calderón, coordinator of Guadalajara Community Construction, shared that this document seeks to achieve joint work that goes beyond being the capital, in order to “focus on projects that have to do with promoting literature and culture. in the different public spaces, fight violence through the arts and bring books and literature to the different neighborhoods through our System of Public Libraries and Cultural Centers”, among other commitments.
Later, Lemus Navarro met with the mayor of Accra, Ghana, Elizabeth Naa Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey, and her team, to start the joint work between both cities as World Book Capitals, a title that the African city will receive from Guadalajara in 2023 .