The successful development of the Recoleta FIL

With public success and more than 40 presentations, the first weekend of the II Recoleta International Book Fair took place. More than 10 thousand people attended the presentations by Soledad Barruti, Darío Sztajnszrajber, Hernán Rivera Letelier, Gabriel Salazar, Inna Afigenova, Miguel Urban, Atilio Borón, Sergio Grez, Nadia Fink, Diamela Eltit, Constanza Michelson, Albo Lectura, Gonzalo Frías and Josefa Barraza, among many others.

Santiago. 8/4/2024. With a packed plaza, crowded publishing halls and very long lines with people waiting to have their books signed, the first weekend of the second version of the Recoleta International Book Fair (FIL) was a complete success.

One of the most attended events was “Recital de Mitos”, with the Argentinians Darío Sztajnszrajber and Soledad Barruti, followed by Hernán Rivera Letelier, who presented his latest published book, “Vida occulta de un Writer”, followed by a book signing by almost two hours.

The conversations about feminisms, women and free childhoods filled their capacity, with a satisfied audience from the workshops and conversations. One of them was Rita Segato’s workshop on Saturday, with “Scenes of an uncomfortable thought.” Gender, violence and culture in a decolonial perspective, with a packed Juliet Kirkwood Room.

However, this Monday continues with the stellar presentations. One of them is that of Pablo Simonetti, the other of the outstanding Rita Segato, this time with “Feminist Dialogue”, in which she will share with exponents of the paradigm of our country. Both performances on the main stage.

In addition, a discussion on the commemoration of the 100 years of Lenin’s death stands out, where the General Secretariat of the Communist Party, Bárbara Figueroa, the academic Marco Álvarez and the Argentine economist Claudio Katz participated.

During the coming days the debate table “Crisis of Chilean public education?” with the participation of Adrián Medina Gómez, academic and coordinator of the Department of Education of Recoleta, Gabriela Bustamante Acuña of the College of Teachers and Juan Carlos Gómez Leyton, historian, Doctor in Political Science, academic and postgraduate coordinator at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Central University.

There will also be the launch of the books “Contribution to the history of the MIR”, by Luis Vitale from Ediciones Escaparate and “Haydée Santa María. Revolution and culture” from Editorial Universidad Nacional General de Sarmiento (UNGS) – Argentina written by the Argentine academic Alexia Massholder.

“Recabarren is the only organic intellectual we have had”: Gabriel Salazar

The prominent historian, philosopher, sociologist, Doctor in Political Economy from the University of Hull and National History Prize 2006, Gabriel Salazar, had a stellar presentation at the Recoleta International Book and Social Sciences Fair with the book “Recabarren. Political drama: deliberation, sovereignty and tragedy” together with Nela Muray, actress and theater director, co-creator of the book.

According to Nela herself, who has worked with Salazar for around ten years, it is a book written in dramaturgy, “a dramatic text to give life to the characters”, since according to the playwright, the figure of Luis Emilio Recabarren is a character treated in a cursory way, “being that it should be treated more deeply.”

Then, the historian mentioned Hannah Arendt and the idea of ​​fraternity, as an introduction to the life and work of Recabarren: “Fraternity must be the driving force of society, from which comes deliberation, reflection and the search for a solution to our problems by ourselves. Our possible sovereignty depends on us looking each other in the eyes and having a dialogue.”

He rudely mentions on the main stage of the second version of the Recoleta International Book and Social Sciences Fair that “the more capitalism deepened, the more we became isolated subjects. That is why the idea of ​​union, friendship, as Aristotle said, is important.”

Next, he answered the question that the entire audience was asking: “Why Recabarren?”

“Because his political preaching consisted of uniting workers, men and women, old, young and children. Formation of communities, joint ventures, mutual societies. He worked to unite the people and converse with himself. “This way we will have power and we will not repeat history,” Salazar said.

Along the same lines, he mentioned that “the panopticon has stolen our sovereignty, because we do not know our real history, we do not investigate ourselves,” emphasizing the importance of knowing history, with the idea that it is not repeated.

Gabriel Salazar highlighted in his presentation that “there is a neoliberal eye. The masterpiece of the Concertación political parties was to make us believe and internalize the neoliberal system.” And that “Recabarren is the only organic intellectual we have had.”

“A government that calls itself left-wing must be required to be anti-Zionist”: Spanish MEP Miguel Urban.

The journalist and editor of Canal Red, directed by the founder of Podemos Pablo Iglesias, Inna Afinogenova, together with MEP Miguel Urban, had a long, critical, sharp and emotional conversation with Mayor Daniel Jadue, about her book “Palestina, chronicle of a siege.”

To begin, Daniel Jadue thanked the speakers for their presence and pointed out that “some think that the problem is Palestine. I am not one of those. Palestine is the symbol of the global struggle against the north. The blockade of Gaza is no different from the blockade of Cuba, for example, this is a symptom of something else.”

The prominent Russian journalist stated that for her what is happening in Gaza “is a genocide that was described as such by the UN, in a report that only has 25 pages and is devastating.”

In that same sense, he referred not only to the conflict in Gaza, but to more war conflicts that exist in the world today: “Beyond talking about genocide, what is at stake is the resistance of the peoples of the global south, not only of Palestine, but what is happening in Sudan, for example, which has led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people and which no one cares about.”

Regarding the territory from which she comes, she declared: “Where nationalism is, evil is. Ukraine has nothing to do with Palestine. Ukraine is being supported by the entire NATO industrial complex. The goal is to wear down Russia. Palestine is alone and is arming itself with stones against the military-industrial military complex that is stalking it.”

MEP Miguel Urban pointed out the supremasism of the Israeli state, expressing that “Israel is a Zionist, racist, colonialist and supremasist project, and has nothing to do with the entire Jewish people and cannot speak on its behalf,” giving his opinion. opinion regarding listening to and supporting the demonstrations that have taken place around the world in this regard.

Regarding the same and during the conversation, Inna Afinogenova said that “when supremasism passes, which does not happen only because of (Benjamin) Netanyahu, maybe we will be able to talk,” referring to the conflict and how it is presented to the rest of the world.

Along the same lines, Urban referred to the impunity with which Israel has acted in the face of the genocide it is committing, and is categorical in saying, from his place as an inhabitant of the European Union, that “The impunity of the state of Israel is based in a political role as a European colony in the East built by the United Kingdom, we would not be able to understand otherwise why the European Union looks the other way in the face of a genocide as palpable as the one that is happening in Gaza.

Finally, the European deputy said, categorically and in terms of a positioning of the States, that “a Government that calls itself left-wing must be required to be anti-Zionist, otherwise it is not left-wing, whether it is from Chile or from Spain.”