Cartagena: Iglesia de San Pedro

It has been a good start to the Hay Festival in Cartagena. The old colonial city centre has never looked more beautiful: glorious, dilapidated colonial houses; blazing sunshine; and full of Colombian coastal life, with voluptuous fruit-sellers balancing plates of watermelon, papaya and pineapple on their heads; vallenato, the Colombian coastal music at which Gabriel Garcia Marquez excels, streaming out of bars at every street corner; and cars, cyclists and pedestrians breezing through the narrow streets.

Three events of note today: first, the official opening of the Festival, carried out in the handsome 17th-century Teatro Heredia, by the Latin American pop icon, Juanes, and his musical partner and muse, the Spaniard Miguel Bosé. Interviewed by the editor of the main Colombian broadsheet, El Tiempo, both celebrities spoke with endearing modesty and genuine conviction about their charitable activities, their commitment to peace in Latin America, and their perceptions of their role as committed musicians contributing to public life (most famously, in Juanes’ concert in mid-2008 on the Colombia-Venezuela border following the build-up of tensions between both countries).

Juanes is indeed an important figure here: his recent endorsement of the former mayor of Medellín, Sergio Fajardo, for Colombia´s presidency in 2010, has made all the news, and contributed more to derailing the ever-popular Alvaro Uribe´s aspirations to be re-elected for a third term than any of Colombia’s recent political vicissitudes (of which there have been many).

Then a very engaging hour with Mexican author, critic and public intellectual Carlos Monsiváis, who spoke about contemporary political developments in Mexico, not least, the much-reported and worrying sense that the international drug trade is now decimating the country (in terms of homicides, corruption and lawlessness) in the same way that it did in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s: the Colombianization of Mexico, as it is often referred to. Monsiváis also spoke about being homosexual in Latin America´s still overwhelmingly machista culture, and about the continuing importance of Catholic religion in Latin American society.

A final event of the day of interest too: Alberto Ruy Sanchez (Mexican) and Luis Fayad (Colombian) both spoke of their Middle Eastern heritage (from 19th century Lebanese and other settlers in Latin America) and how it has been incorporated into their novels. Sanchez made a resounding, amusing call for Latin Americans to accept and rejoice in their mixed race, a form of assimilation and mestizaje across the continent which is key to their identity.

Jon Snow has arrived (see his blog for more details) and Amis, Rushdie et al are in transit too. The only disappointment is that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not in town: your faithful blogger went along to his house today, but the maid sadly had to report that “no han llegado.” But the author of a magnificent new biography of the author, Gerald Martin, is here, and speaks tomorrow about the experience of writing it, so please expect more on this tomorrow.