Noticias
Closing with over 463,000 visitors
Colombia and Chile next 2018 FILIJ Guests of Honor
November 21, 2017In 2018, Colombia and Chile will be the Guests of Honor of the International Children's and Young People's Book Fair (FILIJ, for its acronym in Spanish) which this year closed with over 463,000 visitors, the highest number of attendees in its history.
Marina Núñez, General Director of Publications, said that this book festival has been a resounding success in its 37th edition and that the Department of Culture will begin to prepare shortly a very rich and deeply Latin American FILIJ.
When closing the 2017 FILIJ, which was held for the second time at the Parque Bicentenario from November 10th to November 20th, Núñez Bespalova stressed that Chile’s and Colombia’s election as invited countries is an act of justice, since they are two nations with great children and young people editorial production and interesting programs to promote reading.
In addition, they will seek to strengthen the book trade in the region and build bridges to show the great potential of Latin America in the production of this type of literature for the next FILIJ that will be held from November 9th to November 19th2018, she said.
In this sense, Claudia Barattini, Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of Chile in Mexico, pointed out that her country is honored to have been invited, along with Colombia, to participate in the 38th edition of the FILIJ, an extraordinary fair and a real "jewel", since there is no similar initiative anywhere else in Latin America.
A fair like this one is not only for the book sale, but rather to build a Latin American circuit for publishing production, in a region where there is still much to do to bring the population closer to books and reading, she reminded.
In terms of numbers, the FILIJ already had 463,590 visitors at the end of this Monday, November 20, at 16:00 hours, more than 422,000 attendees in 2016. This year there were over 2,600 artistic and cultural activities, while last year there were 1,635, and the presence of publishers went from 449 in 2016 to 1,068 in 2017.
At the closing ceremony, illustrator Cecilia Rébora’s appointment was formalized as 2018 FILIJ Ambassador, a title that the writer María Baranda held in 2017. Cecilia Rébora greeted the baton with joy and indicated that she will serve as an "ambassador of hope", since books are objects of hope, which give freedom and incite the imagination.
In the presence of the president of the National Chamber of the Mexican Publishing Industry (CANIEM, for its acronym in Spanish), Carlos Anaya, the director of the FILIJ, Paola Morán gave the awards to the winners of the XXVIII National Poster Contest Invitamos a Leer, whose first place went to Andrés López for his work Descubrir and the XXVI Catalogue of Illustrators of Children's and Young people Publications that went to María Julia Día for fer work, ¿Adónde vas?
Prior to the FILIJ closing ceremony, the Promotion Award for Reading and Writing 2017 was given in its eight categories.
The prize for Salas de Lectura (Reading Rooms) went to María Félix Raygoza from Sonora for the project Unas gotitas de lectura para los niños del centro de rehabilitación; in the category of Public Libraries, María de Jesús Olivo from San Luis Potosí was recognized and in the category of Public Libraries, Delmy Patricia Loría from Yucatán was awarded for her Caravanas Literarias.
The Promotion of Reading and Writing in Other Educational Spaces Award was given to Beatriz del Carmen Arcila from Campeche for the project Liber-Arte that she carries out with people in prison, while the Public Schools of Basic Education category recognized the Liberóptero program that Claudia Ostria carries out in Technical Secondary School 99 of Mexico City.
The Indigenous Languages Prize was awarded to Juan Clímaco Gutiérrez for the initiative of Exercise of writing and collective reading of the Ayuujk-mixe language in Oaxaca and in the category of Bookshops, a category that was integrated in this edition, Cristina García from the State of Mexico was recognized by the project Librarte, while in the category Empresas the prize was awarded to Bienestar y Comunicación Elektra from Grupo Salinas.
Marina Núñez pointed out that these awards contribute to give visibility to the wide variety of initiatives that are carried out throughout the country to promote reading, by promoters who are passionate readers above all.
Mexico,Distrito Federal
