Festival 42

Historically, fantasy has been a key genre for speaking out against political and social injustice. Activism continues to be a cornerstone of Latin American literature, and some authors manage to blend it seamlessly with fantasy elements such as witches and spiritualism. Santiago Roncagliolo and Maielis González have put this approach into practice in their latest books. In El año en que nació el demonio (Seix Barral), Roncagliolo travels back to the 17th century, during the Spanish Inquisition, and explores the figure of witches and their relationship with the fears and oppressions of the time. The multi-award-winning Peruvian author uses horror and historical reflection to analyse society, establish links between the past and the present, and show how certain social and political dynamics persist today. Maielis González, meanwhile, takes us to 19th-century Cuba with Palenque (Cuatro Lunas) and introduces us to people who had escaped enslavement. In this case, she combines elements of magic, Gothic fiction and steampunk to explore issues such as cultural fusions and the resulting tensions, colonialism and the construction of Afro-descendant identities. All of these reflections will be present in the conversation between the two authors, led by the Mexican writer Liliana López León.