The Ramon Llull Institute presents an ambitious program academic, literary and artistic at the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2025, in which Barcelona is a guest city of honor. This is a unique opportunity to make Catalan literature and culture known to readers in Latin America: opening new markets, promoting the publication of translations and strengthening the circulation of Catalan authors and artists on the continent. In this way, a translation seminar will be held in the different variants of Spanish, a meeting between Catalan and Latin American publishers and literary agents, and music and performing arts performances.
A seminar to enhance translation into Spanish variants
From the 1st to the 4th of December, the Translation Seminar in the different variants of Spanish will take place, an initiative aimed at professional translators and students of the Mexican universities of the Llull Network – the Universidad de Guadalajara and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) – who have Spanish as their first language. The program combines theoretical training, practical workshops, meetings with authors and debate sessions on literary reception, Romance intercomprehension and Latin American linguistic specificities. It also includes sessions on copyright, overviews of the Mexican publishing sector and two round tables open to the public.
The Seminar has been developed in collaboration with AMETLI (Mexican Association of Literary Translators), and 15 students and 10 translators will participate.
The main objectives are to promote the debate on the translation of Catalan literature into the Latin American variants of Spanish; attract new translators to the field of Catalan literature; promote contact between translators and publishers in Latin America and deepen the theoretical and practical mastery of the Catalan language as a working language.
Chilaquiles 7×7 meeting with Catalan and Latin American editors and agents
In collaboration with theCatalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises (ICEC) and with the FIL GuadalajaraCatalan agents and publishers will participate in 7 7-minute meetings with independent Mexican and Latin American fiction publishers. Thirty professionals are expected to participate. The aim is to promote new translations from Catalan to Spanish. Chilaquiles (a traditional Mexican dish made from corn tortillas) will be offered to participants. It will be on Tuesday, December 2, from 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. at the Salón de los Ilustratores de la FIL, as part of the Encuentro de Editores Independientes.
New publications of works of Catalan literature in Spanish
The Institute has had a table in the Salón de Derechos of the fair since 2017, where it holds professional meetings with Mexican and Latin American publishers in order to publicize their aid and promote the translation of Catalan literature. To achieve this purpose, and for two years now, the IRL has been presenting the notebook to Latin American publishers New Catalan literature to discovera selection of Catalan works with the potential to be translated and published in the Latin American market.
Thanks to the efforts of recent years and the increase in funding for translation aid, in recent years Mexican publishing houses have published the following works:
– raft: The intruderofIrene Pujadasi Barcelona stingofAdrià Pujol.
– Sixth Floor: I was a boyof Fer Rivas, The conformistofAlba Dedeu, The great replacementofAlbert Pijuan i lightofElizabeth Riera.
– University of Veracruz: The skin of the worldof Xavier Mas Craviottoi Against nostalgiaof Maria Canelles.
– Cayuco editorial: special neighborsofArturo Padilla i Rubén Montanyá.
– The other publisherl: Anthology of Catalan poetry curated by Jordi Virallonga.
– Poetry Circle: Collected poetryofAntoni Marí, oratoryby Jbarley Valls i Short Catalan Songbook.
– Mantis Editores: Of a single branchof Susanna Rafart.
Apart from the directly organized activities, the Ramon Llull Institute plans to support one thirty literary activities through the promotion and mobility grants for authors. A dozen authors like Beautiful Olid, Núria Chains, Doloros Udina, Lourdes Toledo, Xavier Bosch, Núria Pradas and Martí Gironell will travel to the FIL with the support of the Institute, and others like Gemma Ruíz, Mercè Ibarz, Fer Rivas, Irene Pujadas, Jaume Copons, Maria Canelles and Anna Gual they will carry out activities both in Guadalajara and in other cities in the country such as Mexico City, Veracruz or Monterrey.
Transversal cultural programming: visual arts, music and performing arts
The literary program is complemented by Mirror FILa program of cultural activities of relevance in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Puebla. In this sense, he emphasizes that the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) in Mexico City hosts, from November 15, 2025 to May 3, 2026, the exhibition My ways are earthlythe first major international retrospective of the exiled Catalan artist Marta Palau. With the collaboration of the IRL, the Tàpies Museum exhibition that was seen in Barcelona is now coming, expanded, to Mexico. The catalog is presented at the FIL on Sunday, November 30 at 12 p.m., in Hall A, Área Internacional). It will be through a round table with Anna Saurí (Tàpies Museum manager), Maria Lladó (director of the IRL Creation Area), Ekaterina Alvarez (deputy director of Communication MUAC), Anna Ribera Carbon (UNAM), i Vanessa Lopez (head of UNAM publications).
In terms of music, the IRL has created a specific support line to facilitate tours of Catalan groups scheduled in Guadalajara to expand their performances in Mexico City. It is the case of Maria Arnal, Rigoberta Bandini, Joan Garriga & The Galactic Mariatxi, Ms. Thomas, Relena cake, Roger Mas and Cobla Sant Jordi, i Queralt Lahoz. In performing arts, The Veronal i Roberto G. Alonsoin addition to performing at the FIL, will perform in Mexico City with representations of sonoma (December 9 at the Centro Cultural del Bosque) i I transvestite (December 6 at the Jardín Escénico INBAL).
With all this programming, the Ramon Llull Institute strengthens the international presence of Catalan literature and culture, and takes advantage of the exceptional showcase that FIL Guadalajara represents to expand the network of partnerships with Latin America.
