With all the tents already full of books, this Thursday morning a new edition of the long-awaited La Laguna Book Fair began. On this occasion, and for the first time, the literary event is included in the Plaza del Cristo in La Lagunaan environment that is slightly removed from the most commercial areas, but which continues to be one of the most visited points, which is why booksellers have started the fair with expectation and the hope that the economic boost that the event represents will be maintained.
Book signings, workshops, talks and even a meeting of literary festivals will take place from this Thursday until October 13 in the square, where there will also be music, video games, augmented reality, debates and activities for the little ones. Among the big events this year is the presence of the authors René Merino, José Zoilo, Daniela Martín Hidalgo, Juan Torres López, Sabina Urraca, Carla Antonelli, Eugenia Tenenbaum, Amaia Arrazola, Tomás García Azkonobieta y Santiago Diaz, who will sign their books and participate in talks about their latest publications.
In total, they are 50 bookstores and publishers those participating in this edition of the fair, which has a program of more than 100 activities concentrated in four days. All the literary activity will be distributed in the Espacio Ángel Guerra, Espacio Rincón Isleño and Zona Cero, and the activity of the performing arts, music, new technologies and children’s, school and family activities are planned in the La Lapa Zone, divided into turn into Espacio a la Mar and Espacio Viento del Sur. There is even a dining area and a stage.
The fair with the most volume
As noted during the presentation of the event by the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Horacio Umpiérrezthis is “the most important fair held in the Canary Islands by numbers, volume, visits and actions.” He wanted to emphasize that the book continues to be an object that is in the economic framework, in relation to the fact that the fair is focused on the sale of books, although he highlighted that it also helps to energize the rest of the actions carried out around it. to the fair.
Given all this, the deputy minister has highlighted that today is a “good day” for a subsector that constitutes almost 60% of the culture sector. Already within the most purely political aspect, he has announced that they are working on reviewing the fact that books, libraries and reading are included in the same law “as if they were exactly the same”, to which he has pointed out that “creation is not the “the same as the promotion of reading” and that “libraries are services that must contemplate something else.”
Institutional support
Also within the purely political sphere, the Minister of Culture of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Jose Carlos Achahas pointed out that the insular institution “for a long time was outside of this support”, to which he pointed out that “this mandate we have once again supported the book fair and we have once again pushed aid to publishers and booksellers, with new bases that are more in line with current reality.”
For his part, the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrezpointed out that the idea they have from the city council is that the fair rotates annually throughout the municipality, “especially in environments like this that can be transit areas for neighbors.” Likewise, and with respect to future editions of the fair, he announced that “as the fair ends, we will commit from the city council to listen to the notes that these booksellers and book authors want to send us.”