Book Fair caught between crisis and Milei controversy
Feria del Libro which runs until May 13, caught between economic crisis and controversy over President Javier Milei’s cancelled appearance.
Acting as something of a cultural thermometer, this year’s edition of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair is caught between crisis and controversy – the former as result of the nation’s economic decline and the latter because of a cancelled appearance by outspoken President Javier Milei.
Argentina’s iconic publishing industry is suffering in the wake of a severe economic adjustment by President Milei, who took office last December. He needs to tackle runaway inflation of nearly 290 percent and lift up a nation where more than half of the population is living below the poverty line.
“In January, bookshops spoke of a 20-percent yearto-year decline of sales, in February it was already 25 percent, and in March nearly 40 percent,” said Juan Pampín, president of the Cámara Argentina del Libro and director of publishing house Corregidor.
Federico Giménez, from fellow-publisher Ciccus, explained that the peso’s 50-percent devaluation – a move made by Milei swiftly after taking office last December – has made the price of paper more expensive, effectively dollarising it. The market is handled by only two companies, which also contributed to the price increase.
In the retail sector, the outlook is similar and traders dance between increases as they attempt to keep their clientele, even in the most expensive neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires.
“Sales have dropped a lot, there are customers who used to come more often. Now they ask questions but they don’t buy,” said Santiago Martínez, who owns the El Gato y la Luna bookshop in the affluent
Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Núñez.
Books cost nearly US$20 a pop, as against a minimum wage of some 200,000 pesos (US$225).
In addition to the slump in sales, the organisers of this year’s Book Fair have accused the government of attacking culture and withdrawing funds from the 48th edition of this huge annual gathering.
Alejandro Vaccaro, the president of Fundación El Libro, which organises the Fair, criticised “the ruthless attack on culture” by Milei’s government in his opening speech on April 25. At the same inauguration, acclaimed author Liliana Heker asked those gathering if it “made sense to have this Book Fair in a country where poverty and destitution are growing on a daily basis?”
One of planned highlights this year was to be the presentation of Milei’s latest book, reportedly his 18th, entitled Capitalismo, socialismo y la trampa neoclásica (“Capitalism, socialism and the neoclassic trap”) at a massive event with giant screens.
Yet the President cancelled the show scheduled for May 12 last Wednesday. He accused the organisers of “hostility” and blamed “attempts at sabotage.”
In response, Vaccaro said on the radio last Thursday that the cancellation was actually due to the impossibility of meeting the President’s demands: “They asked for 5,000 free tickets”
The President’s Office denies the claim. One ruling party deputy even called the fair a hotbed of “cultural Marxism.”
The tension between the fair’s authorities and the government started when the latter decided not to set up the usual stand for the Culture secretariat at the event, citing cutbacks as the cause.
Milei has now moved his book presentation to May 22 at the Luna Park arena, which has a capacity of some 8,000 people.
There were also grumblings about security and cost. Ezequiel Martínez, director general of Fundación El Libro, stated that organisers are not in a position “to assume the security and everything involved in a presidential visit.”
“It was the first time a sitting president would come to present a book,” said Martínez.
However, “the fair doesn’t depend on Milei coming to present his book,” added the organiser of the event attended by 1,500 sellers from 40 countries.
The Buenos Aires International Book Fair, or ‘Feria del Libro’ as it’s known locally, runs until May 13 and is one of the biggest book-selling events in the Spanish-speaking cultural world.
“The Argentine industry was the first one in Latin America to start to make translations, which led, for instance, to the end of neutral Spanish in editions and the addition of more Latin American terms,” specified Pampín, who stressed the regional importance of the sector.
“This was then copied, in the best sense of the word, and kudos to Chile, Mexico and Colombia, among other countries,” Pampín continued.
“Argentina has, by far, the largest number of bookshops per inhabitant in Latin America,” the bookseller claimed, by estimating that in Buenos Aires there are between 1,000 and 1,200.