San Miguel PEN’s very own, Lucina Kathmann, Vice-President of PEN International, and our Treasurer, was among the 857,315 ebullient people who attended the 37th Feria Internacional del Libro in Guadalajara, the second-largest book fair in the world this year.
In this 36th version of the Feria, the featured guest was the European Union. From November 25 through December 3, the Feria hosted the general public plus 17,400 professionals presenting books and 504 journalists reporting on what was happening. All the attendees worked and played in the most collegial atmosphere from 9 am to 10 or 11 at night, every day!
On November 27th one of the millions of activities she attended was the bestowal of the Raúl Aceves prize to a Guadalajara PEN member, Jorge Orendáin. San Miguel PEN's Víctor Sahuatoba, recipient of the Aceves prize last year, appeared in support of his successor.
Lucina’s represented us beautifully, meeting and greeting all comers, exchanging news of the Americas, and spending convivial time at the PEN Puerto Rico stand, number HH36 in the international section, which she reports was a lot of fun. 16 writers from Puerto Rican PEN had traveled to the FIL, most of them for the first time. They had a presence there the whole time.
Puerto Rican PEN had done a number of fundraising activities to make it possible to attend and have a stand—which costs 2800 US dollars. They even sold hamburgers from the street outside their office.
Lucina’s ably represented San Miguel PEN at the Centre’s meeting on Wednesday the 29th along
with many writers from Guadalajara PEN and Puerto Rican PEN.
As ever, she represented our Centre and the issues facing Mexico faithfully and skillfully, then returned to San Miguel where, as we all know, we have many activities planned.