Hay Festival. Support to Culture, one of Cerrejón’s Objectives
Albania, La Guajira
08 February 2010
On February 1, 2010 and for the third consecutive year, Riohacha, the capital city of La Guajira, was a scenario of diversity and culture. Sponsored by Cerrejón, the Anas Mai auditorium opened its doors for the public to share the universal and proper literary expressions of the Guajiran Peninsula with local, national and international writers.
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The event started with two simultaneous activities: An infantile program directed by Jordi Sierra I Fabra - a Spanish writer known by his infantile and juvenile literature works – who conversed with 80 youngsters about his most recent book “La nueva tierra” (The New Earth), where he explores the arrival of Spaniards to the New World and the contradictions of that period. In addition, Yolanda Reyes, licentiate in Education Sciences, specialized in Literature at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, who took a journey of her works and narrative strategies with 50 children of early ages.
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The event was opened by León Teicher, President of Cerrejón, who once again, emphasized the interest of the company in continuing to support and sharing with La Guajira this type of cultural events recognized worldwide. Likewise, the Director General of the Hay Festival, Cristina Fuentes La Roche, expressed her complacency for the festival to continue to extend to a large number of places in the world, just as it occurred in La Guajira.
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The program for adults was enriched by the creativity, experience and humor of great writers such as John Lee Anderson, Juan Gabriel Vásquez and the journalist Héctor Abad Faciolince, who commented their experiences and emotions surrounding the art of writing. Also, we had the presence of Ernesto McCausland, a Colombian journalist, writer and filmmaker, and Jaime Abello Banfi, Director of Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, who debated about the lyrics of “vallenato”, a form of cultural expression and of formation of the own identity of Guajiran people.
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In the afternoon, the subject that gathered the attendees was the significance of the celebration of the Bicentennial of Independence for the State/Department of La Guajira, which was the responsibility of the Guajiran historian, Vladimir Daza; the President’s Advisor for the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of Independence, María Cecilia Donado – a business administrator and Vice Minister of Culture during the period 2006 – 2008, and the anthropologist and writer, Weildler Guerra.
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Literary expressions finished with an intercultural dialogue with members of the Wiwa indigenous community. After telling their experiences, and sharing a bit their vision of cosmos and relationship with nature, they finished the third consecutive version of the Hay Festival with verses, songs, and dances of their ethnicity, and a musical piece specially devoted to the Hay Festival of Riohacha.
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Further, the Festival in La Guajira was the propitious space for the award ceremony of the second contest of tales “Grandes Escritores Cerrejón” (Great Writers Cerrejón), which seeks to stimulate the narrative activity in Company employees’ children. This year, 150 tales written by youngsters between 8 and 16, were presented. The jury included three Guajiran humanists: Betsy Yaneth Barros Núñez, a poetess, narrator, essayist, and cultural manager; Estercilia Simanca Pushaina, a native-Wayuu cultural researcher, lawyer and writer; and Abel Medina Sierra, licentiate in Modern Tongues with specialization in Information Technology and a Diploma in Literary Creation.
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Once again, Guajiran children and youngsters, encouraged by their parents made their talents and imagination known in each story narrating the dreamed-of stories amongst games, smiles and the adventures lived in their everyday lives.
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The qualifying jury, who had a difficult task, selected 11 tales, between winners and special mentions to form the second edition of the book “Grandes Escritores Cerrejón”. The winning stories were: Category 8-12, the excess of creativity motivated to declare a tie in the first place between Ángel Damián Fragoso Barreto with his story, “La vaca que quería hablar” (The Cow that wanted to talk) and Alejandra Bustos Cervantes, with “El diario de una niña judía” (The Diary of a Jew Girl). In the category 13-16, Mariana Domínguez Morón wan the prize with her work “Nia casi ama a poa ka’i” (Nia almost loves Poa ka’i).
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