In a city full of beautiful bookstores, the one named after the writer Elena Garro stands out for its splendid architecture. A glass wall covers the front of the two floors with giant book shelves, where literary classics such as a beautiful edition of the tragic novel by Elena Garro await to be handled and, with luck, taken home. Anna Karenina, to publishing news. The bookstore, which is located in the Coyoacán neighborhood —south of Mexico City— full of beautiful and surprising corners, also has a nice, fresh garden where Henoc de Santiago Dulché, director of the Monterrey Book Fair, welcomes EL PAÍS. Santiago Dulché (Mexico City, 57 years old) greets with enthusiasm and always smiles. Before beginning the conversation he explains that he acquired the mansion that occupied this enormous space when he was director of Educal, the state agency created to strengthen book distribution. His management has left as a legacy an intensive program of opening bookstores nationwide. When he left office in 2009, Educal had 95 bookstores throughout Mexico. And he continues smiling when he sees that the one we are in this afternoon remains imposing and vibrant in the middle of this capital neighborhood that is a nest of writers and artists, but he regrets that in Mexico the state policy of promoting books has weakened.
The Monterrey International Book Fair (FIL) aims to make its way into the top literary festivals in Mexico, with the one in Guadalajara standing out. The Monterrey authorities want to present this northern city, Mexico’s industrial epicentre, as something more than a city of factories and businesses. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MARCO) already stands out as one of the most vibrant cultural centres in northern Mexico, and the FIL is opening up a large space, with 300,000 visitors.
Its organizers now want to give it a greater international projection. In this edition, the second directed by Santiago Dulché, the spaces of the fair will be shared by two Pulitzer Prize winners: the Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza and the American poet Anne Boyer. The opening speech of the fair will be given by the Mexican writer David Toscana, winner of the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize, for his work The weight of living on Earth. The Argentine Agustina Bazterrica, a publishing success whose works have been translated into more than 20 languages, is also part of the program, along with the Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda. From Spain, the writer Jon Bilbao, who is also very fashionable, the poet María Sánchez and the author of children’s and young adult books Jordi Sierra arrive. Santiago Dulché proudly lists the guests who will share space from September 28 in the industrial city. This conversation is about literature, the health of the book and its fair.
Ask. What does this fair represent for a city like Monterrey? Why is there an idea that culture is centered in Mexico City?
Answer. It was said that where the grilled meat begins, the culture ends, but the situation has changed a lot in Monterrey. Since the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art, there are great exhibitions. Music is also coming to Monterrey. But the book fair has a very important place in the hearts of the people of Monterrey. When you talk about the Book Fair, everyone’s face lights up, because it is like the great cultural event. It is the event that brings together the most people from all over the north of the country, more than the Pa’l Norte music festival, because we bring almost 300,000 people. For the society of Monterrey and the north, it symbolizes a much-loved, long-awaited event, an event where people wait to buy books. We have the ticket highest book sales in the country.
P. How many books do they sell?
R. The people surveyed who buy books have reported an average spending of 800 pesos (approximately 40 dollars). This makes us the fair where the most books are sold. It sells very well and that is why publishers go. The book stands for the fair were quickly exhausted.
P. How many books did you sell last year?
R. We have surveys on consumer habits that show us sales figures per person. That makes us a highly anticipated and much-loved event. The reading community in Monterrey, which does exist and is quite large, has this event as its initiation rite. We ask people who read: ‘Hey, where did your reading habit come from?’ And they answer that it came from when they were taken to the Book Fair as children.
P. What significance does this fair have for Mexico’s publishing industry, which is still suffering from the ravages of the pandemic?
R. It has a positive impact. The big ones stands They had been occupied by the big publishing houses, which sell a lot of books, but it is also a relief for the small publishers, because although it is expensive to go to Monterrey, send the books, etc., we try to make it a business for them. The publishers do not go to the fairs, except for the one in Guadalajara, because everyone has to go there, otherwise they are not profitable.
P. And is this fair good business?
R. I am convinced that book fairs must have a good financial backing, that they must be financially sustainable projects over time, and even more so in this era, when many fairs that depend on government support have suffered major budget cuts or are making great efforts to stay afloat. For three years we have been trying to involve the entire Monterrey business sector to support this event. They see a great social impact at the fair, but they also see great exposure of their brand, especially for the public and for consumers in the north of the country, which is the one that is growing the most. We involve them, we are obtaining resources and that is helping it to be a fair, with the budgetary limitations that we have, that can grow and bring better authors.
P. Do you have any federal government assistance?
R. No. The Monterrey Book Fair has four sources of funding. One is the Monterrey Institute of Technology, the sponsors, the publishers, who are also very important, and the State Government.
P. Don’t you resent the lack of federal funding? Do you think it should be important for the government to fund this type of cultural activities?
R. I think so. It is a state policy to promote a healthy ecosystem for promoting reading and the marketing of books. There must be a cultural policy at the federal level that permeates the states, that supports independent publishers above all, through direct funds or through co-editions; that supports booksellers, so that they survive or for the establishment of new bookstores. The promotion of reading is basic to make Mexico a country of readers. Years ago there was a project to support bookstores that was coordinated by the General Directorate of Publications of the then Conaculta, which supported logistics, which was a great support to the states to hold their book fair. Yes, there must be support. In our case, it would not hurt us, but we have come out ahead without any federal help.
P. How do you see the health of books in Mexico?
R. There used to be a very balanced policy, which I don’t see now. With the disappearance of the General Directorate of Publications and the transfer of many of its functions to the Fondo de Cultura Económica, I imagine that there have been good initiatives, but I think that other things have been abandoned. I don’t know what has happened with the project of classroom libraries and school libraries, because it is essential for children to learn to read that there are books, that there are more and more books in schools, so that they have them in front of their eyes every day. It was also a relief for the publishers who sold millions of books under a very fair production scheme. The Ministry of Education bought the books practically at the production price and there was a profit for the publishers. Now, as far as I know, that has completely stopped.
P. Isn’t enough being done to promote reading in Mexico?
R. I don’t think so, at least I don’t hear it. The Fund is doing a good job, it maintains bookstores, it keeps opening them, it is making very low-cost editions, but more is needed, because the Fund is an institution within that enormous machinery that is the federal government. There is a lack of a very articulated policy to support books, there is a lack of a general direction of books at the federal level that coordinates all the initiatives for promotion, for training readers, the drive for the productive chain of books. I feel that the policy is very disconnected and that everyone is working on their own.
P. Statistics from Inegi show that three out of 10 people have not read a book in a year, reading has plummeted: in 2016 almost 82% of people over 18 years old read regularly, but that figure has fallen to 68%. It is a brutal fall. What do you think is the reason?
R. If we don’t have very aggressive policies to promote books and reading, there are other competitors who are winning the race. There are many sectors that are suffering the onslaught of young people’s time consumption, with the distractions of the phone, social networks, platforms, etc. It is very strange, because we see book fairs as very vibrant, sometimes some are selling more, that is to say, there is a public that is demanding, but perhaps it is because the population is growing a lot and, therefore, there is another part that is not consuming reading.
P. Will the fact that the book is expensive in Mexico have an influence?
R. I don’t know if it’s really expensive, because if you look for books, you can find them for 20 or 40 pesos (one or two dollars, approximately). Indeed, there are books for 300 or 400 pesos (15 or 20 dollars), but we’ll have to see what happens, because there’s a large percentage of the population that spends that amount or more on some other kind of things. Everyone has very expensive phones and one wonders what’s going on. I think that public publishers should have a program to promote reading and there should be a very important promotion of low-cost books.
P. What other public initiatives should be created to create new readers?
R. A policy that starts with the youngest children. We must have a policy to encourage teachers to read, because if teachers do not read, it is very difficult for them to transmit to children the love of reading. We must have a mass production of books that go to schools. Reinforce the programs to promote reading through reading circles that work very well, because when people get hooked on a reading circle it can be a circle of coexistence with people who have common interests. We must make books fashionable through massive promotional campaigns, that reading is cool. These are initiatives that can only come from the Government through public channels and public broadcasters.
P. Reading promotion has been neglected.
R. I think so. Or at least I don’t see it.
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