The Hay Festival Forum is back, and this year it’s taking over the Bishop Arts District like never before! The second weekend of October, expect three incredible days of big ideas, unforgettable stories, and electrifying performances. Deep Vellum is a proud sponsor of the Hay Festival Forum.
Join us for a compelling evening as Yásnaya Elena Aguilar, a leading Mixe linguist and cultural advocate, moderates a conversation with two of Mexico’s most prominent indigenous voices, Natalia Toledo and Florentino Solano. This discussion will focus on the profound importance of indigenous languages and cultures, and their enduring influence on both traditional and contemporary Mexican society.
In this conversation, Toledo, a celebrated Zapotec poet and translator (and Deep Vellum author), will share her insights into how language shapes cultural expression and identity, drawing from her rich heritage to create poetry that resonates on both a personal and communal level. Solano, a Tlapanec writer and translator, will delve into the role of storytelling in preserving and transmitting the knowledge and traditions of his people, emphasizing the power of indigenous narratives in the broader literary landscape.
Moderated by Aguilar, the discussion will highlight the urgent need to preserve indigenous languages as living, evolving entities that carry the histories, philosophies, and worldviews of their communities. This event underscores the significance of these languages not only for those who speak them but for the cultural diversity and richness they contribute to the world.
Simultaneous interpretation from Spanish to English available
Natalia Toledo was born in Juchitán, Oaxaca. Her bilingual poetry (Zapotec-Spanish) has been included in numerous journals and anthologies, and translated into languages as varied as Nahuatl, Italian, and Punjabi. She has received support from the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) and the Oaxaca State Fund for Culture and the Arts (FOESCA). Since 2019, she has served as Mexico’s Under Secretary of Cultural Diversity and Literacy.
In Carapace Dancer, Natalia Toledo revisits some themes from her award-winning collection The Black Flower and Other Zapotec Poems (tr. Clare Sullivan, Phoneme, 2015).