:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/Z7ISP6NO2JBCTL3GNQQOAMXJWE.jpg "Velia Vidal talks about her work promoting reading in the Colombian Pacific")
After being selected by the BBC as one of the 100 Inspirational Women of 2022, Colombian writer, activist and cultural leader, Velia Vidalis at the forefront, once again, of the Chocó Reading and Writing Festival (FLECHO), in the Colombian Pacific.
The cultural event, which has been taking place since 2018 in Quibdó and Bahía Solano, is an initiative that aims to promote and celebrate the pleasure of reading, writing, arts and culture in the department of Chocó, in order to to offer the community a space to recognize each other and the diversity of others, to meet in public and to build bridges that contribute to the improvement of society.
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For the organizers, reading is the tool that allows them to talk about what is happening in the world and reflect on the present of the community. It is from reading that one understands the dynamics of daily life.
At FLECHO, the important thing is not only to read books, but also to read people; read music, dance and even skin color. And learning to read is learning to recognize and value experiences, one’s own life and that of others.
Promoted by the cultural corporation our motet, produced by Vidal, this edition of FLECHO, the sixth, has as its main theme the question of migration and all the dynamics that arise around it. From March 15 to 19 it will be present in Quibdó and from March 22 to 24 in Bahía Solano.
“This year’s main theme is absolutely relevant. We are living in a crisis and we want to talk about it. Migrations are not only about borders, but also about what happens inside a territory, urban and rural displacements, and confinements, which are very complex and particular phenomena. We are also interested in what has to do with the biological aspect, the denials, in economic terms, and the migrations vis-à-vis the body. These are issues that we think we all have to deal with,” said the author of “estuarine waters”.
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In conversation with GlobeLiveMedia Leamos, Velia Vidal He spoke about the present of the event and the projections for the following years. In addition, she reflected on her role as cultural manager in the department of Chocó.
— What are the most difficult obstacles you have had to overcome since the creation of FLECHO?
— The most difficult obstacle is always what has to do with finances. At FLECHO, however, we wanted to put it in the background and simply adapt to what we have. We are receiving more and more support, more funding, but all these resources are still limited.
One of the most constant challenges is to maintain a good relationship with the institutions. Your support is needed to do the work we do. Space is also an obstacle. Here we don’t have so many parks or good places to hold a fair like this. And the rain, no question. We’re in one of the rainiest places in the world, and rain and books don’t have a good relationship.
The greatest of all these obstacles, however, has to do with how we deal with historical dynamics, cultural practices and events, in a place where none of this has been a priority. The right to read, like so many others, has been denied to communities. We must do a work of conquest which requires a lot of energy. All of this excites us a lot. We enjoyed it all and managed to get it all out.
— How has the influence of the fair manifested itself, for example in relation to the increase in reading rates of the community?
— Measuring the increase in read rates requires specific machinery that we have not yet integrated. We do know, however, that we have been able to reach communities where there are no public libraries or reading promotion programs. Last year, for example, around 13,000 people took part in FLECHO. Over time, people have learned to appreciate this space and now they are waiting for us.
There are many boys and girls who read in advance the books of authors who will come to FLECHO at some point. I think it’s very powerful. The experience becomes something memorable for each of them.
— At FLECHO, the promotion of reading takes precedence and not so much marketing. What is the reach of the fair in terms of arrival in other areas of Chocó and the Pacific Coast?
— For us, the encounter prevails and the book is a pretext to do so. We are growing more and more in cultural programming, we have a very beautiful library, full of meaning. The most important thing is to win over readers, in any way possible.
The event started in Quibdó. Then we also started going to Bahía Solano. Now we have the possibility to also reach Istmina. We are already in three very important regions of Chocó: Atrato, San Juan and Costa Pacífica. And people from different places come to these places, from Nuquí, from Condoto. We generate a dynamic of very interesting cultural exchanges in our department.
We are not planning to go to the South Pacific, but to Urabá and the Caribbean. Probably in a community in the center of the country, with a significant Afro presence. For now, however, our reach is focused on these sites, where we plan to stay and continue to grow, taking reading into unconventional spaces, strengthening the roots and depth of the content we work on.
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— Collegiality in all of this is vital. How was the reception from the community? And what about support from publishers, writers and booksellers?
— Local institutions remain fragile. This year we have the support of the office of the mayor of Istmina, and we have had the support of the office of the mayor of Bahía Solano for four years. On the other hand, it was not easy to get the support of the Quibdó government.
On the other hand, the commitment of the publishing sector has been essential for us. We have a network of book events with the Ministry of Culture and the Colombian Book Chamber, we support each other between the different regional fairs; we have the support of the Colombian subsidiaries of the Planeta group and Penguin Random House; We have had authors of the stature of Pilar Quintana, Antonio García Ángel, Sara Jaramillo Klinkert or Tomás González, editors such as Juan David Correa and Pilar Gutiérrez, who have been totally invested in our work.
We also have the participation of labels such as Laguna Libros, Lazo Libros or Himpar Editores, and the support of journalists like Ana Cristina Restrepo and various national media that support us in spreading what we do. In fact, the support has been overwhelming.
— On a personal level, what does it mean for you to carry out a project like that of FLECHO?
– This is a difficult question. I will answer it with an anecdote. We recently had a dance performance and then a conversation between two guests. There were two girls in the audience, 9 or 10 years old. One of them wore her hair like I wore it when I was a kid. At that moment, I thought, as I have done so many times, that this girl is what I was at that age, that it is because of her that I do this, because I would have loved to experience these things in the same environment in which I experienced it.
It may sound selfish, but the truth is that it fills my life with meaning. When I see people dancing, talking, having fun, buying a book. For me it means a lot, the possibility of serving myself and all these people.
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