‘Reading Opens Borders’: Ángels Barceló and Martínez de Pisón launch the 36th Fuerteventura Island Book Fair

The square outside Fuerteventura’s Palace of Training and Congresses hosted the official opening of the 36th Fuerteventura Island Book Fair on Thursday 15 October. The programme runs until Sunday 18 October, with more than twenty authors and around fifteen bookshops, publishers and other organisations taking part.

Lola García, president of the Fuerteventura Island Council, said: “Once again, we are launching this fair, the Island’s foremost gathering for culture and literature. It brings together writers from across the region and, as always, gives plenty of space to authors from our Island.”

Puerto del Rosario Mayor David de Vera thanked the Island Council “for establishing an event that fosters cultural diversity through bookshops, readers and writers, with strong demand for literature centred on this Book Fair in Puerto del Rosario”.

Culture Councillor Rayco León said: “More than a thousand schoolchildren have already taken part in the activities held this morning ahead of the fair. Now we are opening an event where bookshops, publishers and authors meet the public, with the aim of encouraging reading. There is also a parallel programme of music, theatre, circus and dance, all inspired by books.”

The opening began with ‘Tenet’, a contemporary circus performance by Catalan company Eunoia Colektiva. The Josefina Plá Tent then hosted ‘Reading Opens Borders’, a conversation between journalist Àngels Barceló and writer Ignacio Martínez de Pisón. Journalist Nicolás Castellano of Cadena SER, an expert on migration and human rights, moderated the discussion.

The conversation brought together two voices from journalism and literature to reflect on current issues, including the need to protect democracy from extremist messages, and to explore how books can broaden perspectives, connect different realities and bring readers closer to other experiences.

Barceló said this was the first time she had taken part in a book fair as a guest. “Making my debut at a book fair here in Fuerteventura is incredible for me,” she said. The journalist stressed the importance of championing books as a way to open minds and develop critical thinking. “Books are indispensable. We need to know what has happened in this country; if we think of the mind as a border, reading is essential to fight hoaxes, lies and disinformation,” she said.

Martínez de Pisón said he returns to Fuerteventura whenever he can, where he feels “very warmly welcomed”. The writer also spoke about Margarita Yakovenko’s place in the fair’s programme and reflected on Spain’s transformation into a more plural, mixed and diverse society, very different from the one he knew as a child.

Martínez de Pisón also lamented the influence of social media on the polarisation of ideological discourse and called for recognition of the progress made by Spanish society. “The message we need to get across is that Spain has never been as well off as it is now. Those of us here have not known war, and yet we complain,” he said. The writer added that younger generations have not known the Spain in which their predecessors grew up and, as a result, lack the optimistic outlook on the future that, he said, accompanied earlier generations.

The discussion was followed by a presentation of *Años Luz* by Jacobo García, winner of the Anagrama Prize for Chronicle, and the musical show *Raíces Strad & Cía*.

Earlier today, school performances were also held by Canarian companies Ali Wakhanda and Clapso, as well as by oral storyteller Margarita del Mazo.

The Book Fair is organised by the Island Library Centre, which is part of the Fuerteventura Island Council’s Department of Culture, with support from the Canary Islands Government’s Canary Islands Institute of Cultural Development. The regional government’s Deputy Ministry for Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Family also takes part.