The Sevillian municipality hosts the literary festival Centroamérica Cuenta for the second consecutive year, bringing together ten authors at the Hacienda Santa Cruz with free entry until full capacity.
The Hacienda Santa Cruz in La Rinconada has once again become the venue for the Centroamérica Cuenta festival, a cultural event that lands for the second time in the Sevillian municipality and this edition gathers ten authors to discuss literature, journalism, music, and creativity.
The festival, founded in 2013 by Nicaraguan writer and Cervantes Prize winner Sergio Ramírez, who was recognised in 2024 by the City Council of La Rinconada with the Premio Factoría Creativa de las Letras Iberoamericanas, is held simultaneously in Madrid and Barcelona, in addition to La Rinconada, and aims to strengthen the cultural and literary bond between Ibero-America and various regions of Spain.
The programme, which started this Friday, has literature as its starting point but opens up to other genres such as journalism. All activities take place at the Hacienda Santa Cruz, a space with free access until full capacity, designed for readers, students, professionals, and culture lovers.
The First Deputy Mayor and municipal head of Culture, Raquel Vega, has highlighted the council's commitment to such events. In her words, "to reclaim La Rinconada as a true City of Books is to strengthen a cutting-edge public policy that places literature and creation at the neuralgic heart of municipal development."
For his part, writer, journalist, and member of the Council of Letters of La Rinconada, Fernando Iwasaki, has emphasised the municipality's consolidation in the literary landscape: "La Rinconada consolidates its presence on the map of major events in contemporary Spanish literature. This year we will dedicate three sessions to discuss language and irony, music and poetry, and justice and journalism."
The inaugural day included the panel 'Literature, Irony, and Language: A Grammar of the World', featuring Lola Pons (Spain), a historian of the language and professor at the University of Seville, and Daniel Quirós (Costa Rica), a PhD in literature from University of California San Diego. The meeting was moderated by Fernando Iwasaki.
Following this, the meeting 'Rhythm and Word: Crossroads Between Poetry and Music' took place, a conversation among voices traversing different paths: poetry learns to sing and music learns to write. Participants included Lena Carrilero (Spain), singer-songwriter, poet, and PhD in Language and Literature Didactics; Josué Monroy (Nicaragua), singer-songwriter and composer; and Ceshia Ubau (Nicaragua), singer-songwriter and psychologist. The panel was moderated by Claudia Neira Bermúdez, festival director since 2015.
For today's session, 'Journalism, Justice, and Power in Central America' is scheduled, featuring César Fagoada (El Salvador), journalist and director of Revista Factum; Claudia Paz y Paz (Guatemala), director of the Mexico and Central America Program at the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL); and Juan Luis Font (Guatemala), director of elPeriódico for 17 years.
With this second edition, La Rinconada reinforces its position as the host of an event that celebrates its twelfth edition this year and turns the municipality into a meeting point between Ibero-American literary creation and readers from the province of Seville. Entry to all activities is free until full capacity, and the programme extends over several days at the Hacienda Santa Cruz.
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