Noticias
The 35th edition of the International Children and Youth Book Fair opens, with France as guest of honor
November 09, 2015The Feria Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil (FILIJ) - The International Children and Youth Book Fair, reaches maturity as the main platform of its kind on the continent to spread the editorial offering for the reading public in training, something that in Mexico has become a tradition over 35 years.
Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, head of the National Council for Culture and Arts (CONACULTA), highlighted at the FILIJ opening, the cultural presence of France as guest of honor.
The FILIJ will gather from November 6 to 16, 374 publishing houses, over 40,000 titles on display, and will offer 180 presentations of books and over 100 sessions of workshops for children as well as 200 activities for babies; it will also have 320 national and international artists, all in a space of 35,000 square meters
The ceremony was also attended by Maryse Bossière, Ambassador of France in Mexico; José Ignacio Echeverría, president of the Caniem; José Carreno, director of the Economic Culture Fund; Jean-Paul Rebaud, Minister of Cooperation and Cultural Action of the French Embassy; Jorge Flores Suari, president of the National Association of Booksellers; Gerardo Jaramillo, CEO of Educal; Raphael Meltz, cultural attache of France in Mexico; Marina Nuñez Bespalova, managing director of Publications; Ricardo Calderon, director general of Cenart, and Paola Moran, director of the FILIJ.
Rafael Tovar y de Teresa celebrated that France, a country with one of the largest publishing industries in the world, is the first international guest of this event that shares the richness of its culture and its authors.
The head of Conaculta said that the Survey of Reading in Mexico and the National Reading Program will be released shortly and this FILIJ edition will have over 2,500 activities related to the promotion of books and reading that starts as an habit at home and in Mexico is very strong, considering the large number of visitors to this event every year.
On her behalf, Ambassador Maryse Bossiere pointed out that this fair with its annual 400,000 visitors is an event of the same importance as the Salon du Livre in France, with an offer of titles, workshops, performances and cultural offer committed with the spread of reading like an open window to the world and the collective imagination where all social barriers are broken down.
Therefore, she said, the French delegation has prepared for Mexico one of its most important programs of cultural and publishing promotion aimed at children.
Among the attractions of this year, the FILIJ offers an approach to expressions of France with French initiation classes for children and youth, a sample in third dimension of Mathias Picard, an introduction to the graphic novel by cartoonist Simon Roussin, and a movie-concert presented by Abel and Paul Grimault around the film La table tournante.
Meanwhile, Marina Nuñez, Managing Director of Publications, said that there is also a large program of dissemination of science, an organization of talks with specialists, a tent that invites to know the phenomenon of light through experiments on the decomposition of the luminescence and a Night of the Stars (Friday November 13) with more than 100 telescopes available to the public.
On his behalf, Jorge Flores Suari commented that it will continue this year the tradition of giving a commemorative book to all who purchase a book, which will be El fin de la esperanza (The end of hope) by Rafael Bernal, in order to be reunited with this key author of our letters.
José Ignacio Echeverría, president of the Caniem celebrated that this fair has matured so much over the years, becoming the great fun tradition of our city and where you can confirm the strength of the publishing industry in our country.
Mexico,Distrito Federal
