< strong > MiCultura continues to promote interest in national literature < / strong >

At the International Book Fair (FIL), the Ministry of Culture (MiCultura) organized several activities to please thousands of visitors with the aim of familiarize them with the great literary wealth offered by Panamanian writers.

From MiCultura's pavilion, about 113 national writers had an opportunity during their five-day fair to get close to readers to promote and talk with them about their literary jobs and more so to market their books.

Under this concept, the space "Living Libraries" was developed and through the networks of MiCultura the public was able to meet different writers, who vividly put their motiums and inspiration about their jobs through a conversation with a great exchange of ideas and experiences.

Following with the dialogues within the framework of the fair, the 17th International Seminar on Copyright was held with the theme "The Copyright with respect to challenges of artificial intelligence," where panelists from Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and Panama participated and exchanged knowledge and initiatives about regulating artificial intelligence.

The opening activities of FIL 23 and they could highlight the Ricardo Miró with the winners of version 2022 of this literary contest, the most important at the national level. It was an ameno convocation where moderators and writers explain some of the contents of these winning works in the genres novelas, theater, poetry, tale and essay, as well as an official presentation of the books that will be available at the Casa del Writer Panamanian.

A tribute was also paid to the poets Roberto Luzcando and Demetrio Fábrega where Danae Brugiatti, Javier Alvarado, Janeth Miller and Reginaldo Andia shared with their audience fragments of the works of both artists of the letters.

The opportunity was good for families of Roberto Luzcando and Demetrio Fábrega to receive in memory of this great writer, journalist and poet Panamanian, highlighting his contributions in different disciplines.

Also presented was an opportunity to give to Mariel Alejandra Fuentes, Kenneth Jafet Contreras and Simja Mariscal the scrolls that recognize them as the winners of the first version of the Rosa María Britton National Youth Countdown contest, which is one of the innovations in literary competitions that MiCultura created with the aim of promoting creativity and imagination through letters, especially in the gender tale, intended for students from 7 to 12 degrees that study at public or private schools in the country.

At this party of the letters was given the presentation of the title winners of the 2022 version of the contest Carlos Francisco Changmarín and Gustavo Batista, Eyra Harbar and Elpidio González, respectively, who held a talk to present their books, "Bus Esperanza" is the work of Harbar, while the poemary "Tremor and fall" is of the authority of González.

A second of MiCultura's initiatives for FIL Panama's 19th version was the "Minicute Confessional" session at which more than ten writers simultaneously reported little stories of their authorship to the public leading to an interesting interaction and that participants in a circular game could listen to all the stories.

Following with moments of cultural exchange, children from the Children's and Youth Circle of Oral Narration Héctor Collado, a cultural collective that works with the National Library to strengthen the social value of the word and reading, did the same by telling stories from Ngäbe, Embera, Wounaan and Guna dedicated to our native peoples.

Moreover, this year FIL put under the motto "Identity and Origin" as a tribute to the seven original groups, so MiCultura, designed a space where representatives of these groups gave teaching about their customs, traditions, artisan work, body painting and other information.

To this end, through the Coordination of Intangible Cultural Heritage, one with the participation of representatives of native peoples was scheduled: convertiums of cosmovision, languages, ancestral games, body painting, traditional dances, storytellers, book presentations, meetings of oral tradition, among others.

Also concepts What's Culture?, its symbolic dimension, interculturality, cultural heritage, cultural identity, cultural rights and so forth were addressed at an interesting conference by Enrique Noel, director of cultural rights and citizenship at MiCultura.

That year MiCultura brought as a guest Venezuelan writer, Ileanna Simancas, who is also an actress and motir, who as well as presenting and giving his book "Fears and Apples," also held a youth motivation workshop and a session of "Yoga nidra" at the Chat Arco, these last were held at the Casco Antiguo of Panama City with the support of the Casco Antiguo office (OCA).

"Be sure that the Ministry of Culture has been and will always be an ally of this fair activity, because it's a responsibility to contribute to our country's cultural development and to invest in our nation's main asset, made up of every Panamanian who with his personal collection, with his family culture and with his roots will form the identity of our nation," stated Cultural incumbent Giselle González Villarrué at the opening of this fair event.