This Friday, at Plazuela Machado, a press conference was held to publicize the details of the Mazatlan Book Festival 2020, the great literary event organized by the Instituto de Cultura, Turismo y Arte and the City of Mazatlan, which will be held on Wednesday, the 8th to Sunday, January 12th.
The event was led by Luis Guillermo Benitez Torres, the Mayor of Mazatlan; José Ángel Tostado, Head of the Office of the Instituto de Cultura; by Guadalupe Aguilar, Director of the Commission for Social and Cultural Action; and by Alonso Guerra, Karina Castillo and María Félix Raygoza, Members of the Organizing Committee of the FELIM 2020.
With the support of the Fund of Economic Culture and the Brigades to Read in Freedom, the Centro Historico of Mazatlan and the local public libraries will have an intense program in which the organization of round tables, workshops, book presentations, theatrical performances stand out , literary talks, poetic slams, mural paintings, concerts and many activities that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
José Ángel Tostado highlighted the large number of spaces that will serve as venues for the events starring writers from Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, United States and Canada: Casa Haas, the Kiosk of Plazuela Machado, the Angela Peralta Gallery, the Monument to Venadito and the Bibliobús.
In addition to highlighting that FELIM 2020 will feature the presence of 120 editorial stamps and 30 stands for booksellers and promoters, Alonso Guerra mentioned some of the personalities that will shine at this festival are: famous flute player Horacio Franco, political writer Tatiana Clouthier, writers Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Óscar de la Borbolla, Bernardo Fernández BEF, Armando Batra, Yeikol Polenski (President and General Secretary of the National Regeneration Movement political party) and singer Tania Libertad, who will offer the closing concert at the monument of El Venadito.
Karina Castillo highlighted that there will be other activities such as the Literary Walk (Callejoneada), in which the public will be able see the houses in which important literary characters such as Ignacio Ramírez “El Nigromante”, Amado Nervo or Gilberto Owen lived.
Mayor Benitez Torres stressed that he is confident that this will be a first level event and thanked the Organizing Committee for its vision and delivery for the first edition of this event that will promote culture. In addition, he said that from the completion of FELIM 2020 Mazatlan, he will intensify the literary activities with the delivery of the Mazatlan Literature Prize 2020 and the awards of the Clemencia Isaura National Prize for Poetry 2020, two events that are part of the great artistic tradition of Carnaval Internacional de Mazatlan.
In this regard, City Council member Guadalupe Aguilar took the opportunity to invite Mazatlecos and tourists to stay in the city for the dates of FELIM 2020.
Finally, María Félix Raygoza stressed that the fundamental axes of FELIM 2020 will be the strengthening of the reading community, access books and book promotion activities, all essential for new audiences and giving life to the theme of this festival “Leer para la Paz” (Read for Peace)
All activities of the Mazatlan Book Festival 2020 will be free.