I have been back from the Feria Internacional del Libro for almost two weeks, but it is still quite fresh in my mind. It was my first time at the fair (and also, oddly enough, the first time I’d been to Mexico) and it is an amazing event. Besides the obvious enormous selection of books available, I was also impressed by the incredible amount of author events available, and also the simple fact that it was open to the public most days, or at least part of the day. Yes, there were times it was overrun with schoolkids, but what an important and fun event for them. I’m sure a few of them will write books that I will probably buy someday at a future FIL!
I chiefly focused on selecting new titles from academic publishers. In recent years, has become increasingly easy to buy titles in the United States from the major Spanish-language publishers, but in most cases, academic-press titles are still not as easy to obtain. It is also simply too much to focus on everything (it is really that big…at least five or six American football fields), so I went for titles that would be both useful and less than easy to get in the United States. I selected titles especially from Colombia, Chile, Spain, Mexico, and Brazil, in a wide variety of fields of study. The Central American countries had a good-sized stand, but it was fairly picked over by the time I arrived (my flight to there was delayed and I lost a day of work.) I hope in the future that the Caribbean countries have a greater presence, and also that there are more independent presses. Next year I plan on arriving at least a day earlier, and taking more time to explore Mexico!
I will write more about a small press I visited in Guadalajara in Part II of this post, but I also wanted to add that Guadalajara is a wonderful city, and if you haven’t visited, it is worth the trip, especially if you can make it to the Feria!