The Ramon Llull Institute presents a ambitious program academic, literary and artistic in the International Book Fair of Guadalajara 2025, in which Barcelona is an honored guest city. This is a unique opportunity to introduce Catalan literature and culture to Latin American readers: open new markets, promote the publication of translations and strengthen 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 literary editors and agents, and music and performing arts performances.
From the 1st to the 4th of December, the Translation Seminar for the different variants of Spanish will take place, an initiative aimed at professional translators and students from the Mexican universities of the Llull Network – the University of Guadalajara and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (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 will have the participation of 15 students and 10 translators.
The Seminar’s 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 Catalan as a working language.
In collaboration with Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises (ICEC) and with the FIL GuadalajaraCatalan agents and editors will participate in 7 7-minute meetings with independent Mexican and Latin American fiction editors. About thirty professionals are expected to participate in the meeting. The objective is to promote new translations from Catalan to Spanish. Chilaquiles (a traditional Mexican dish made from corn tortillas) will be offered to the participants. It will be on Tuesday, December 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Salón de los Ilustratores de la FIL, as part of the Meeting of Independent Editors.
The Institute has had a table in the Rights Hall of the fair since 2017, where it holds professional meetings with Mexican and Latin American publishing houses to publicize its support and promote the translation of Catalan literature. To achieve this purpose, and since two years ago, the IRL has been presenting the notebook to Latin American editors New Catalan literature to discovera selection of works with potential to be translated and published in the Latin American market.
Thanks to the increase in funding for translation assistance, in recent years Mexican publishing houses have published the following works:
– raft: The intruderof Irene Pujadasand Barcelona stingofAdrià Pujol.
– Sixth Floor: I was a boyof Fer Rivas, The conformistofAlba Dedeu, The great replacementofAlbert Pijuan y lightofElizabeth Riera.
– University of Veracruz: The skin of the worldof Xavier Mas Craviottoand Against nostalgiaof Maria Canelles.
– Cayuco editorial: special neighborsofArturo Padilla y Rubén Montanyá.
– The other publisherl: Anthology of Catalan poetry in charge of Jordi Virallonga.
– Poetry circle: Collected poetryofAntoni Marí, oratoryby Jbarley Valls y 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 grants for the promotion and mobility of authors. A dozen authors, like Bel Olid, Núria Cadenes, Dolors Udina, Lourdes Toledo, Xavier Bosch, Núria Pradas and Martí Gironell, they 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 other activities both in Guadalajara and in other cities in the country such as Mexico City, Veracruz or Monterrey.
The literary program is complemented by Espejo FIL, a program of relevant cultural activities 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 exhibit that could be seen in Barcelona now arrives, expanded, in Mexico. The catalog is presented at the FIL on Sunday 30 November at 12 pm, in Hall A, Área Internacional. It will be through a round table Anna Saurí (manager of the Tàpies Museum), Maria Lladó (Director of the IRL Creation Area), Ekaterina Alvarez (deputy director of Communication of the MUAC), Anna Ribera Carbon (UNAM) and Vanessa Lopez (head of UNAM publications).
As for music, the IRL has created a specific support line to facilitate tours of Catalan groups scheduled in Guadalajara to extend their performances in Mexico City. It is the case of Maria Arnal, Rigoberta Bandini, Joan Garriga & El Mariatxi Galactic, Mrs. Tomassa, Tarta Relena, Roger Mas and Cobla Sant Jordi, and Queralt Lahoz. In the performing arts section, La Veronal and Roberto G. Alonsoin addition to performing in the FIL, they will also do it in Mexico City with representations of sonoma (December 9 at the Bosque Cultural Center) and I transvestite (December 6 in the Jardín Escénico INBAL).
With all this programming, the Ramon Llull Institute reinforces the international presence of Catalan literature and culture, and takes advantage of the exceptional showcase provided by FIL Guadalajara to expand the network of partnerships between Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Latin America.
