LéaLA is Los Angeles’s annual Spanish-language book fair. It kicked off Thursday at La Plaza De Cultura y Artes in Downtown L.A. and runs through this Sunday.
The literary festival is organized by the University of Guadalajara Foundation USA. It’s been held in Los Angeles since 2011. This year’s theme is Building Peace Together.
The festival celebrates not only books, but Hispanic Heritage month as well, with an emphasis on passing down the traditions, language and culture of the Latinx community.
Among those here Thursday morning was Diana Matamoros, chaperoning her daughter’s elementary school class on a field trip.
“I think it’s very important for them to kind of learn a little bit of, you know, what the Universidad de Guadalajara has to bring and everything,” Matamoros said, “and kind of ... look at the different resources that they have available, so all the different books, but definitely the Spanish and, you know, the way that we know...being bilingual is very important.”
Miliza Rosas was there organizing arts and crafts and reading books to the children.
“It is a great opportunity to invite them to find in the books all the information they need to grow, and become better people,” Rosas said in Spanish.
Notable participants at LéaLA this year include writers Rosa Beltrán, Évolet Aceves, Benito Taibo, Élmer Mendoza and Pulitzer winner Cristina Rivera Garza. The festival will host dozens of exhibitors and more than 30 authors.
“They are very well known writers in Mexico and in the Spanish world,” said Marisol Schultz, the festival’s general director. “So they will speak about different topics, everything around the literature and the culture, Mexican culture, Latino culture.”
Culture, language, and a love of literature is what bookseller Santiago Sepulveda, one of the festival’s many exhibitors, hopes to pass along to young readers.
“It’s a way into their imagination, to their minds and their curiosity, because from this point forward they will by themselves fall in love with books,” Sepulveda said in Spanish.
Admission to the festival is free.