More than 40 authors, dialogues about literature, journalism, graphics and cinema, poetry and children’s workshops.

With the theme “The Border and its Metaphors,” and with the intention of reaffirming pride in the Spanish language, LéaLA, the most ambitious program of dissemination and promotion of books and reading in Spanish in the United States, returns this fall to Los Angeles in a Literary Festival format.  The three-day festival will feature more than 40 leading Ibero-American authors and creators, a series of free activities that include dialogues about literature, journalism, graphic humor and cinema, as well as academic meetings, poetry readings and children’s workshops. The festival, organized by the University of Guadalajara Foundation USA, will be held Friday, October 4th to Sunday, October 6th, at LA Plaza de la Cultura y las Artes, in downtown Los Angeles.

“We’re going to celebrate Spanish as a way of claiming our culture. So that people do not feel sorry to speak it, but quite the opposite: proud of a language spoken by more than 500 million people in the world, a language with enormous potential,” says Marisol Schulz Manaut, General Director of LéaLA.  “In the previous editions of LéaLA, which had the format of a book fair, many people approached me to thank us, commenting that due to this event, their children had an interest in Spanish again,” she shared.

On Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, October 6th, ten roundtable discussions are planned with the participation, among other prominent authors and creators, of Ana Clavel, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Carmen Boullosa, Jorge F. Hernández, Margarita de Orellana, Benito Taibo, Rosa Beltrán, Francisco Hinojosa, Myriam Moscona, Sergio Arau, Mónica Lavín, Bernardo Fernández BEF, Magali Tercero, Alberto Chimal, Giovanna Pollarolo, Sergio Aragonés, Mayra Montero and Diego Enrique Osorno. The musical performance of Cada Quien su Frida, (To Each His Own Frida) will be showcased with the leading actress Ofelia Medina.

LéaLA Literary Festival 2019, is organized by the University of Guadalajara Foundation USA, with the support of the Grodman Legacy and the collaboration of Mario Vargas Llosa Chair, the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, the Alumni Association of the University of Guadalajara in Los Angeles, as well as several public and private institutions on both sides of the border.