La Xunta de Galicia will install an exhibitor at the most important Ibero-American book fair, Guadalajara, Mexico. But the organization of the institutional presence of Galician literature at the meeting, carried out with the back of the main associations of the sector, generated unease in the literary and publishing world. The absence of dialogue, the opacity of the criteria for choosing members of the delegation, strategic errors or the over-representation of Spanish-speaking authors are some of the criticisms addressed to the department’s action. This, in response to questions from elDiario.es, defends itself: “Every year the department schedules participation in high-level cultural events in which it participates with its own exhibitor and the participation of professionals selected for their relevance and quality .”
Starting this Saturday, five authors will travel to Guadalajara. Eva Mejuto, specialized in children’s and youth literature, and the best-seller Pedro Feijóo, her latest novel, Nobody will tell the truth (2023), is a thriller on political corruption – they work in Galician. Manel Loureiro, whose work oscillates between the fantastic and the blackand José María Paz Gago, his latest book is about Galician stew but he is above all a poet, they usually do it in Spanish. They will be accompanied by the designer Manel Cráneo. “They will participate in different activities such as presentations, conferences and activities,” specifies, without going into further details, the press release published this week by the Ministry of Culture. “Five authors who are present to show the quality of Galician literary creation,” he adds in a communication with this newspaper.
In this same press release, the department headed by José López Campos reports that the exhibitor of the Galician government in Guadalajara “will exhibit a selection of the most relevant titles of recent times, coming from the main Galician publishers”. These are the historic Galaxia and four others: Hércules, Bululú, Demo, El Patito, Medulia and Between Clouds and Stories. In addition, the text adds, “thanks to the help of the Xunta, nine beneficiaries of the grant will also travel to Mexico, including publishers, illustrators and writers.” Does not give details. The opening of the fair will take place in the presence of the Director General of Culture, Anxo Lorenzo.
“Bad strategy”
“The Xunta’s strategy of internationalization of Galician books is useless, totally wrong,” says Henrique Alvarellos, president of the Galician Association of Publishers (AGE), which brings together 46 companies, or 90% of the Galician book trade according to own data. “But it’s an old problem that has failed.” We cannot make the department understand that it is necessary to change methods,” he says in conversation with elDiario.es. The problem, he explains, is that the Galician government considers book fairs as promotional events for the administration itself and not as professional meetings where publishing business takes place, where rights are purchased and sold and where translations are approved. “The objective of the Xunta,” says the department itself, “is to obtain the best projection of the Galician book in the main international fairs.”
The union’s historic demand is that the Xunta copies the model of other administrations “in Euskadi, Catalonia, France or Germany, everywhere”. In other words, explains Alvarellos, “the sector manages the content” of the stay of the Galician book, “with the support and presence of the Government, of course”. But the bridges of dialogue are broken, he says. The ministry does not see things that way: “We maintain a constant dialogue with the sector and we are open to finding a model that satisfies all stakeholders. » And he mentions the annual agreement he has with the association, endowed with 15,000 euros.
Anyway, since 2016 and given its disagreement with the methods of the Galician government, AGE has created its own space in international book fairs. In Guadalajara this will be done under the aegis of the Federation of Editors’ Corporations of Spain and the delegation will include Alvarellos Editora, Kalandraka, Hércules de Ediciones, Cumio, Triqueta Verde, Ediciones del Viento, Creotz Ediciones and Arnoia Distribuidora. In addition to the work agendas of each label, AGE will celebrate the century since the beginning of modern Galician publishing – in November 1924 Leandro Carré and Ánxel Casal founded the publishing house Lar – with a lecture by Alvarellos and will participate in the Forum Edita. on the challenges of the sector.
No recognized writer
La Xunta also did not seek advice or opinions from the Lingua Galega Writers’ Association, which brings together 550 members. “They have always tried to delegitimize us as a representation of authors,” resigns its president, the poet Cesáreo Sánchez Iglesias, “despite our forty years of history.” However, he expresses his opinion on the institutional expedition to Guadalajara. “There are the international awards for Galician literature, which should be reflected in the delegation,” he says. This year alone, the Ministry of Culture awarded the National Literature Prize to Manuel Rivas, the Poetry Prize to Chus Pato and the Comics Prize to Beatriz Lema. Invited precisely by the ministry, the poet and narrator Ismael Ramos -National Prize for Young Poetry 2022-, the novelist Ledicia Costas -one of the best known internationally in Galician literature- and the publishing house Apiario -specialized in poetry- will be present in Guadalajara. .
Sánchez Iglesias, who calls on the administration to encourage the presence of poets or playwrights in international fairs – “non-majority genres” – also regrets the over-representation of Spanish-speaking authors. “It is not a problem with the authors who go there, but the Spanish government already has specific subsidies for this,” he assures, before recounting what happened to the positions of the Popular Party, which governs the Galicia since 2009, on Galician: “We must let the world denounce it, because the language extinction program is going very well for them.”
