The oldest publishing fair in the country is back. This Thursday morning, from a distance, the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Enrique Graue Wiechers, gave the starting signal for the 43rd edition of the Palacio de Minería International Book Fair (FILPM) which, for the second year in a row, was held virtually, via which they will participate almost 80 publishing labels and a program of more than 100 activities that will be carried out through the different routes of the fair until April 3 will be launched.
At the opening ceremony, the rector of the highest house of studies explained that the edition, like the previous one, will take place virtually, “because, despite the fact that our activities are already in person, the advance indications and the formats of the complex organization that a fair of this nature implies forced us to program it in this modality”, he explained.
For this launch, Graue Wiechers was accompanied by the Secretary of Public Education, Delfina Gómez Álvarez; the Undersecretary of Federal Cultural Development, Marina Núñez Bespalova; the Secretary of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Mexico City, Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez; the president of the National Chamber of the Mexican Publishing Industry (Caniem), Juan Luis Arzoz Arbide, and the director of the UNAM Faculty of Engineering, Carlos Agustín Escalante Sandoval.
The Secretary of Public Education He pointed out that in all its formats, whether on paper or through a screen, in braille or audio, the book continues to be a privileged space for thought and imagination. He recognized the work of those who make up Caniem and urged support for the work of authors, editors, style correctors, designers, distributors, booksellers and reading mediators who make up the book production network.
“Reading is a right of girls and boys, the youth of Mexico and the world. For this reason, it is our obligation, as adult generations, to guarantee that this vocation to read continues to be deepened (…) promoting the exercise of reading in Mexico is a goal that we must achieve together, government and civil society,” concluded the official.
At the event, Marina Núñez, representing the Federal Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, stated: “in times as complex as those we have experienced in recent years, we resume full cultural life. Books have been our personal artistic company. No other activity could be as close as reading nor could it be as intimate. Books have shown again, like music perhaps, that they are always there when they are most needed; they are primary companies.”
Núñez Bespalova affirmed that since the Ministry of Culture there is conviction of the role that reading plays in our society and he referred that it “transversely accompanies all our programs and actions”.
Arzoz Arbide, for his part, stressed that the Fil Minería is an obligatory reference when talking about book fairs in the country’s capital, “but it is also an emblem of the cultural promotion of UNAM itself and the Faculty of Engineering” . Likewise, the president of Caniem, who leaves office this Thursday, launched a call “to the authorities linked to culture to work on our coincidences and fight in favor of the cultural industries, on which thousands of families depend. Work in favor of the book, the cultural industry and the bookstores it means working in favor of knowledge and opportunities for Mexico to become a country of readers and, therefore, at the forefront in the social, humanistic, scientific and technological spheres”.
For her part, Rosaura Ruiz highlighted the role of the inaugurated fair as one of those that most contribute to the strengthening of the publishing industry and its crucial role in the crystallization of intellectual and artistic work in publications, but above all “a space of social mission where heterogeneous identities come together and where the feeling of sovereignty is elaborated in a creative way”.
He added that the FILPM it is a melting pot in which the sciences, the humanities and the arts come together to discuss the great concerns regarding the realities and challenges that the country presents.
It is possible to attend the programming of the FILPM through the following link: http://filmineria.unam.mx/