Philly’s Latin American Book Fair celebrates authors, culture and community

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

A steady hum of laughing, conversations and music filled the Kimmel Center on Saturday at Philadelphia’s eighth annual Latin American Book Fair.

More than 30 Latino and Latin American authors, writing in a range of genres and in Spanish, English and Spanglish, shared their stories and met potential readers in the performing arts center’s large gathering space. Children enjoyed face paintings and activities while panelists, musicians and dancers all took to the stage for a broader celebration of Latinos in the arts.

Ana Omana, the fair’s creative director, said the event has come a long way since she, Leity Rodríguez-Largo and Edgar Ramírez launched the initiative nearly a decade ago.

Back in 2019, Omana, a children’s book author, was looking for a place in Philadelphia to showcase her work, but couldn’t find any publishers dedicated to promoting books by Latino authors.

“We started with $300, no venue, no sponsorships, just an idea, literally just an idea, and we ran into the right people at the time,” she said.

The book fair, which Omana estimated draws hundreds of people from the tristate area and beyond, returned to the Kimmel Center for the second year in a row.

Andrea Garcia, vice president of communications for The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, the organization that stewards the Kimmel Center, said the partnership fuels the original purpose of the space.

“When it was built 25 years ago, the concept behind this building was not only that it would be a home for the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, but also that it would serve as a place for community to gather and to celebrate cultures and music and artistic expression,” she said. “And so this is really that in action … Doors are open. Anyone can come on in and experience all of the energy that’s in the space today.”

Garcia said it was especially significant to attend this year’s book fair, which focused on Colombian culture and traditions, because her mother is from Colombia. As a part of the event, Garcia also hosted a conversation with Sara Aldana, the newly appointed assistant conductor at the Orchestra, who was born in the South American country.

Seeing a Colombian-born Latina conduct a major orchestra gives children the kind of representation the fair aims to provide, Omana said.

“We want the children to feel that everything is possible,” she said. “I can do this. My heritage counts … Rather than see it as a problem, we want to see it as not only a solution, but we want them to feel proud, especially in the climate that we are currently living [in].”

In the context of increased immigration enforcement throughout the country and negative rhetoric about immigrants, Omana said it is “important to remind everyone that we’re here.”

“We read, we write, we tell stories,” she said. “We have a lot of stories to tell, and what better way than through reading?”

‘Both languages are perfect to know’

Of the 35 authors who attended this year’s book fair, 15 were children’s book authors — the highest number the event has had, Omana said.

The fair’s organizing committee hopes to work together with schools in the city to promote literacy and early reading in English and Spanish.

“We do have a huge population in Philadelphia that is able to read in both languages, and we want the children to feel proud of [their] heritage,” she said.

Some of those young, bilingual or, in some cases, even trilingual readers were part of the crowd on Saturday. Kimberly Mendoza-Díaz brought her 3-year-old daughter from North Jersey to peruse the offerings.

She said her daughter speaks Spanish, English and Jamaican Patois. At 6 months old, she “could never put books down,” Mendoza-Díaz said. And Saturday was no different. She had already bought four or five books for her daughter.

“It’s great to come out to an event like this and actually see bilingual authors and see all the different types of stories and things that they bring to not only the table but to the culture,” Mendoza-Díaz said. That representation helps bilingual kids who speak Spanish and English “know that both languages are perfect to know,” she added.

Having her daughter meet the authors in person was an unexpected bonus, Mendoza-Díaz said.

“It’s kind of cool to get their autographs and kind of have them either take a picture with my daughter or have something nice and written inside the books that we bought,” she said. “It’s beautiful, and that’s something I will forever cherish.”

A thriving Spanish-language and bilingual literary community in Philadelphia

The fair also highlighted the growing strength and diversity of Philadelphia’s bilingual and Spanish-language literary community.

David Acosta and Johann Sarmiento were on hand at the fair to officially launch doslenguas Press — a new, Philadelphia-based independent literary publisher that seeks to showcase and share literature from the Americas.

The press seeks to connect people in the Latin American diaspora in the United States who might not speak Spanish with works of authors from the region, Acosta said, while also sharing those writers’ work with people who primarily speak Spanish.

On Saturday, the press celebrated its first release, a bilingual collection of poetry from Colombian author Anabel Torres, titled “Amar — To Have and Not Hold.”

Sarmiento said the goal is to deepen and expand the kind of connections among artists and readers that the Latin American Book Fair provides.

“There’s a lot more that needs to happen for a book to find its readers and for authors to find that confidence that their book deserves to be out there and deserves to be a beautiful edition, and it deserves to be loved by people. And that’s what we’re about now,” Sarmiento said.

Anny Caba, a self-published author, attended the fair to promote her novel and memoir and connect with readers.

“My novel is actually written in Spanglish, so it’s made for a Latin American audience primarily. And so it’s really important for me to share my work with other people who speak Spanglish and read in Spanglish, and share space and community with other writers that are also writing in this style.”

Author Adriana E. Ramírez drove from Pittsburgh to promote her book, “The Violence: My Family’s Colombian War,” a nonfiction memoir exploring her grandmother’s life in Colombia from the 1940s through the ’90s.

She said she has been exploring how to build a book collection for her two children, aged 6 and 8, that reflects their identities.

“It’s not just bilingual books,” Ramírez said. “It’s books about their history, books about where they come from, understanding how we are like 30 countries that all speak the same language with different accents. So I think it means a lot to understand how we’re all connected and how we can all work together to build something in this country.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Andrea Garcia’s title as vice president of communications for The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts.