La Jornada: The National School will be the guest of honor of the FIL of Monterrey

With a program headed by the writer Cristina Rivera Garza and the composer Gabriela Ortiz and at least eight other members of El Colegio Nacional, it will participate as guest of honor in the 34th edition of the Monterrey International Book Fair (Filmty), from October 10 to 18.

The institution announced at a conference that its proposal of activities will include social scientists, artists and writers such as the narrator Juan Villoro, the archaeologists Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and Leonardo López Luján, the historian Javier Garciadiego and the architect Felipe Leal, as well as the presentation of editorial news and some conversation tables.

At the editorial meeting Rivera Garza, collaborator of The Day and winner of one of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes, will present her most recent text, The broken precedes the whole, and a new edition of The Little Princeby Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, as a prologue by Juan Villoro, the Spanish translation of the philosopher Luis Villoro and illustrations by Amanda Mijangos.

Other activities of the highest chair in Mexico will be the discussion around the subject book Kindergartenby the members Vicente Rojo (1932-2021) and José Emilio Pacheco (1939-2014), and the presentation of the work Water and life in the basin of Mexico: 15th to 21st centuriesby Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and Leonardo López Luján.

There will also be concerts, a graphic exhibition, the screening and launch of filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu’s entrance speech to El Colegio Nacional and tributes for the birth centenaries of the architect Teodoro González de León (1926-2016) and the historian Miguel León-Portilla.

The historian Claudio Lomnitz recalled that the institution he directs has been dedicated since its foundation in 1943 to the dissemination and dissemination of knowledge in all branches, from the arts to the exact sciences and the humanities.

The work of the institution has an important aspect in the publishing field, with its seal that has existed for many years, which in 2025 published 18 literary novelties and published 25 titles by former members. “The National School has also modernized and we are committed to electronic book and download formats.”

For his part, Henoc de Santiago, director of Filmty, emphasized the magnificent opportunity that collaborating with El Colegio Nacional means for the fair, since both entities share the conviction that “knowledge takes on true meaning when it dialogues with society, finds new audiences and awakens new questions.”

He announced that this year the fair will grow 12 percent in surface area, covering 21 thousand square meters, which implies an increase in exhibitors and publishers. He reported that the book meeting is the second in the country in terms of size and number of visitors in a closed venue (which amounted to almost 360 thousand people last year).

De Santiago explained that this year Filmty will have nearly 800 guests and 600 activities, with participants from about 15 countries.

Judith Ruiz-Godoy, from Tecnológico de Monterrey, highlighted that they identified three synergies that they hope will be strengthened from the participation of El Colegio Nacional as a guest at the fair. The first is about the importance of giving meaning to thought at a time when the problem is discerning and interpreting the overabundance of information.

The other lines are about the need to talk again between disciplines to resolve the problems that go beyond our specialization and that reading continues to be one of the most profound ways of participating in public life.