MEXICO CITY (apro).- Looking ahead to the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) and with the European Union as the guest of honor in this edition, the Italian Institute of Culture (IIC) presented its program that will open with Dacia Maraini .
This morning a press conference was held in the center of Coyoacán with the presence of Luigi De Chiara, Italian ambassador to Mexico; Olga Gravela, director of the ITA Trade Agency; Gianni Vinciguerra, director of the IIC, and Dacia Maraini, in addition to remote videos by Innocenzo Cipolleta, president of the Italian Association of Editors, and the writer Giorgio Ballari. Subscribing to this year’s FIL motto: “Building a union of cultures,” the institute announced its activities at the fair.
A large part of them will be held in its own pavilion – stand HH7, which will be located in the International Area of Expo Guadalajara – and will feature talks by authors, debate and the exhibition: “Mosaic. Italian Code of a Timeless Art” to open on November 23 at the Cabañas Museum (which will travel to the National Center of the Arts in CDMX next March). There will also be film and music screenings such as the “Adriatic-Balkan Festival”.
The inauguration of the program will take place in the “Carlos Fuentes Literary Hall” of the FIL and will be led by the author Dacia Maraini, a reference in the literature of her country, who will share a table with the writer and national intellectual Guadalupe Nettel, in a dialogue that is expected to be enriching.
During the presentation, the author, one of the most recognized contemporaries, stated that, in the midst of violence, the path to peace has always been culture.
Novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and film scriptwriter, Maraini is also a figure of European culture, and was present at this morning’s conference.
In the middle of a cool morning in Coyoacán, the author answered various questions from the press, stating that she was aware of Latin American literature, in part because of the affection that her grandmother of Chilean origin instilled in her.
He spoke about his admiration for authors such as Laura Esquivel and Elena Poniatowska, with whom he has shared talks, also about a play he wrote based on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, whom he considered one of the great poets of all time, and more recently, the discovery that the work of Guadalupe Nettel, author of volumes such as “The Guest” and “The Only Daughter”, has brought her.
To the express question of Processspecifically about how he views the panorama of Mexican literature today, expressed:
“Nettel’s work interests me a lot, the treatment of motherhood is a universal and important topic, I think there is a very good panorama, I am in it, reading, rereading.”
Mairani has among her volumes the book “The Stolen Woman” (2012), based on eight stories about “the condition of women,” “violence” and a “world of divisions,” as noted on the back cover.
In this regard, he was asked what he thinks of Mexico, where violence is constant, and despite this, the FIL is held, one of the most important fairs in Latin America, to which he responded:
“I have read the Mexican chronicle and it is terrifying, femicides are on the rise, it is a phenomenon that is everywhere and growing, but it is also a cultural issue, there is a theorist called Edna Giannini Veloti, author of ‘On the part of the girls’, who states that all these equalities and differences between boys and girls, feminine and masculine roles imposed from the games, are socio-cultural issues, since he affirms that up to three years of age, boys and girls have practically similar behaviors, they are It is the ‘role games’ of society that mark these differences and make them grow to unsuspected magnitudes.
And he added that the dialogue he will have with Guadalupe Nettel will be very rich in diversity of ideas.
The complete activities of the Italian Institute of Culture at the FIL Guadalajara can be consulted at https://bit.ly/ItaliaenlaFIL.
Mexico, the publishing path to Latin America
In terms of numbers, the ITA reported that the publishing sector is the first cultural industry in Italy, with a turnover of 3.4 billion euros in 2022, increasing compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic period) but stagnant compared to 2021, a figure that includes the commercial market, educational, university and professional publishing, the sale of rights, the sale of libraries, among others.
“The Italian publishing industry is the fourth in Europe by sales value in its national market. There are more than 5 thousand active Italian publishers. The value of the commercial market is made up of 47.7% of ‘other publishers’, that is, small, medium and large independent publishers, and 52.3% of large publishing groups.
“In terms of production, in 2022, 83,950 printed titles were published, with 113 million copies sold and a turnover of 1.7 billion euros. On the other hand, 37,177 e-books were produced, with an estimated 10 million downloads. The combined value of e-books and audiobooks is around 100 million euros. The total commerce market (print titles plus e-books and audiobooks) reached a turnover value of 1.77 billion euros in 2022.”
In addition to announcing that Spanish represents 13% of Italian publishing works, the ITA stated that “in terms of sales, the publishing sector in Mexico is showing signs of recovery, after a sharp decline in 2020 due to the situation. health emergency.”
For Italy, the publishing sector represents a cultural force, which goes hand in hand with trade with Mexico, a country that they view as the “gateway to the Latin American market.”
