Under the Covers

The secret charm of the Miami Book Fair
might have something to do with what
gets read and said in Spanish.
By: Victor Cruz-Lugo

The Miami Book Fair International turns 22 this year. During its long-running span, it has grown into one of the premier book confabs in the nation. Little surprise that part of its appeal stems from its cache as a literary nexus where you can hear and interact with not only the most compelling North American writers of our time—including the leading Latino artists—but you can also engage the work of some of Latin America’s, and Spain’s, most refined voices. And you can do so, should you choose to, in Spanish.
That’s because the Ibero-American Authors component of the Miami Book Fair has been growing steadily with the English-language thrust of the event. Of the approximately 300-plus writers to be featured at the
November 12-19 gathering at the Miami-Dade College Wolfson campus, 62 will be participating in the Ibero-American element of the fair, and over a dozen Latino writers will present in English. And this is not to mention offerings like Washington Post reporter David Maraniss’ reading from his biography of Puerto Rican baseball legend Roberto Clemente.
While attendants are catching up with headliners like novelist Jonathan Franzen, political pundit Arianna Huffington, or the great American writer Richard Ford, or perhaps following, once again, the satirically comic quasi-celebrity charm of South Florida staples like Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen, Hispanics and other interested parties, can also enjoy the Spanish-language readings and presentations of personalities like Maria Kodama (Jorge Luis Borges’ second wife), Chilean mega-poet Gonzalo Rojas, and rising star Cuban sci-fi writer Daína Chaviano, to name just a few of the attractions.
“We pride ourselves in having brought Nobel Prize winners in the past like Octavio Paz and Camilo José Cela, and all kinds of winners of the [Miguel de] Cervantes Prize, as well,” explains Alina Interian, executive director of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts, the MDC entity which is the fair’s parent organization. Interian, who previously served for 12 years as the fair’s executive director, has helped guide the growth of Ibero-American and Latino offerings over the years.
“The quality has always been there, but with a very great sensitivity to those who are not as well known ... to give them a platform where they can get their work in the hands and ears of our fairgoers,” she says.
And then there are the panels. In an effort to respond to current trends in publishing, the fair is featuring sessions on subjects which include the phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code, immigration, and the impact of Cuban independent booksellers. “We try to keep a finger on the pulse, both on the community here, and internationally, and with what feed
back we get, and try to accommodate those themes,” Interian says.
In this translation-mad, crossover-crazed, and hyper-politicized world, fair-goers are bound to encounter not a few surprises, linguistic and otherwise. Isabel Allende, the Latin American literary phenom, for example, will be reading from her latest work in English. This, of course, should not preclude the fairgoer who prefers to intellectualize in Spanish from posing one’s questions en espanol.
This year, the fair will conclude with a panel on the future of Cuba. While there are no Cuban writers slated to attend who actually live on that island, the subject of Cuba and its politics tends to inspire heated emotion. With panelists like Miami Herald columnist and author Andrés Oppenheimer weighing in, attendants are bound to hear and give some strong opinions. When Cuban writer José Antonio Ponte attended the fair in 1997, for example, one fairgoer came prepared with a song which she had composed for the occasion, then sang it a cappella. “We’ve never had issues of people getting out of control,” Interian says, “but passionate, yes, we get very passionate.”

REVIEWS

Nueva York:
The Complete Guide to Latino Life
in the Five Boroughs
By Carolina Gonzalez and Seth Kugel
St. Martin’s Griffin
www.stmartins.com $14.95
It’s here: the first insider’s look and appraisal of all things Latin in New York City; or maybe—at 216 pages with a 10-page small print index—a manual for only the best things the Big Apple offers con sabor. Two New York journalists cover everything from the most likely restaurant to find a Yankee or a Met dining, to the best place to show off your salsa steps. But this guide won’t steer you toward the usual tourist traps. It reaches deep into the city, directing you to choice destinations where Latinos actually do their most joyful living.

Lola Alvarez Bravo
By Elizabeth Ferrer
Aperture/Center for Creative Photography
www.aperture.org $50.00

After learning technique from her husband, Lola Alvarez Bravo would ultimately develop her own life, and her own aesthetic, fashioning a six-decade career as a photojournalist, commercial photographer, portraitist, gallery owner and teacher. Beginning with her first photograph in 1926, she would blaze her own trail and do so remarkably well, creating not only a wide range of beautiful photographs, but also serving as an inspiration to artists like her friend Frida Kahlo, often the focus of her portraits.
This is the first English-language book to encompass the full range of Alvarez Bravo’s work, including never before published images and rarely seen photomontages. It is also the first major representation of the artist’s work in over decade. This publication coincides with a recent Alvarez Bravo exhibition at the Aperture Gallery in New York City.

Transactions:
Contemporary Latin American Art and Latino Art
Museum of Contemporary Art
San Diego
www.mcasd.org
$39.95
Featuring works by 48 artists from the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), TRANSactions showcases key works that demonstrate the “diversity and hybridity” of contemporary Latin American art. With a focus on artists who work across media and disciplines, the book, which forms the visual record of the touring exhibition of the same name, highlights the intersection between Latin American and Latino art.