La Jornada: Indigenous Poetry Festival inaugurated today in La Bota

Today, Hostería La Bota will celebrate the first edition of its Indigenous Poetry Festival.

Five authors from indigenous peoples will share their work in their own languages ​​and then translate it into Spanish, with the intention of opening a permanent forum for contemporary literature that still has few spaces for dissemination.

“I want to found a place where this can be done periodically, in order to have a communication network with poets in native languages,” said cultural manager Adrián Calera-Grobet, responsible for the venue, in an interview with The Day.

“The languages ​​of indigenous peoples are a living part of our culture. If it is already difficult to find settings for poetry in Spanish, it is even more complicated for those who write in those languages.”

With that idea he shaped the initiative at Hostería La Bota, a space that for 21 years has combined the restaurant with a constant artistic program.

The meeting will be financed with resources from the establishment itself, without public support, which will even cover the travel expenses of the participants who will travel from outside Mexico City.

“The project also seeks to recognize writing in native languages ​​as a professional job. It is unfortunate that now poets have to go anywhere for free to read and that the centers do not do their part to promote it. The genre must be professionalized; it is not just that they come and leave empty-handed, but that this is understood as a profession,” said Calera-Grobet.

The reading will bring together Natalia Toledo and Rocío de Paz, from Juchitán, Oaxaca; Fernanda Kooguiló’o, from Metlatónoc, Guerrero; Mayahuel Xuany, from Copalillo, Guerrero, and Margarita León, from Santiago de Anaya, Hidalgo. Toledo was awarded the Fine Arts Medal and León obtained the Nezahualcóyotl Prize for Literature in Mexican Languages ​​2024.

Attendees will be able to read the printed poems. “Imagine how beautiful it is to see the written word. Not only to hear the language, but to see it. That brings the listener and the reader closer to a dimension unknown to us,” said Calera-Grobet.

The readings will address human rights, the defense of territory, gender violence, love and death.

Epicenter of the arts

The story of La Bota also has a family origin. For more than two decades, the poet and editor Antonio Calera-Grobet made this place a meeting point for poetry, music, visual arts and thought. After his death, in August 2025, his brother Adrián assumed coordination with the intention of keeping that cultural vocation alive.

“Antonio did many very beautiful things and I was able to learn a lot from them. My mother was a cultural manager. This runs in the family. Understanding each other, with the hug, with the smile, has always given us happiness.”

Although self-management is often associated with resistance, Calera-Grobet understands it differently.

“We have never liked that word. Resistance has to do with enduring, with enduring. We prefer to be ahead. The important thing is to take the step forward and make this place an example for other cultural centers.

“Among the plans for this new stage is also to expand the programming and open more space to new generations of creators. I want to make this place a monster with 28 heads. It is much more interesting than just one.”

The first edition of the Indigenous Poetry Festival will be held today at 8 p.m. at the Hostería La Bota, located at San Jerónimo 40, Historic Center of Mexico City. Admission will be free with capacity limited to 70 attendees.