Babylon Magazine | Nubia Macías, entre libros

ACCORDING TO MEXICAN WRITER JUAN VILLORO, THE BOOK FAIR in Frankfurt is like a Persian market and the one in Madrid like a flea market, while only the international book fair in Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, really lives up to its name. Nubia Macías is the journalist, now enjoying a period of rest, who has run the Mexican festival since 2003. She is for the most part the one responsible for converting this meeting place into the most important Spanish speaking book event in the world, not that she would ever admit it.  Nubia is like that. A third humility, which is why she always talks in the plural; a third work and effort. The rest is magic professional realism, all that she knows (without knowing it) and will never confess to a journalist.

BM: Why do you think Juan Villoro said that?

NM: I don’t know, but I’m grateful to him for saying something so wonderful about us. The others can protest about what he said about their fairs (she says laughing). The Guadalajara fair is really good because it looks after everybody…

BM: What is the secret of making Guadalajara into one of the international capitals of books?

NM: I don’t think there’s a secret, I think it’s hard work and the result of effort. The fair in Guadalajara is organized without economic interests, and that gives it a social nuance. It’s also fundamental to know what the public wants. I have always thought that book fairs should be fiestas for readers, and that’s what we work on.

BM: The words of the writers in Guadalajara always spread. They always say important things there…

NM: Perhaps it is because at other fairs this debate doesn’t take place. Book fairs are the most important free space that we have created as citizens. All citizens are interested in learning and listening to brilliant things. We try to make writers feel very happy and able to express themselves with all the tranquillity that can be gained in a free world.

BM: Do you think there is more passion for literature in Latin America than there is in Europe?

NM: It’s different. In countries that have suffered tremendous events literature starts to be a window through which people can breathe and show themselves, and that makes it more accessible. Immediate culture, the one you are living, the one you are enjoying, the feeling of belonging to a community, makes you write and read through different windows.

BM: Is it possible that the literature market in Spanish is going through a movement so strong that it could be seen as a boom?

NM: Literature in Spanish is enjoying a very good period. Some marvellous generations of writers are emerging. They are very creative, with different aesthetics, with daring, valuable and diverse propositions. Some follow the route traced by the monsters of literature, those in the boom, while others are opening up their own routes or going for other aesthetic forms. But at the moment literature in Spanish, Latin American literature, is starting  a very interesting new game.