The Mexican publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), with its new subsidiary manager in Colombia, Alvaro Velarco, strengthen the Mexico-Colombia cultural agenda, which is one of the most dynamic in Latin America.
“One of the intentions of the publishing house is to revitalize its subsidiary in Colombia and in particular the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Center (CCGGM) within the cultural theme. Mexico grows closer to Colombia, and Colombia to Mexico, through the Fondo de Cultura Económica,” said Velarco.
Photo: Notimex/Edelmiro Franco.
The new manager of FCE-Filia Colombia, who replaced Colombian Juan Camilo Sierra, is designing the entire strategic plan for the coming years for the Mexican publishing house and cultural center.
Velarco argued that the FCE’s cultural agenda comes with “great enthusiasm” and will be more aggressive about maintaining the binational approach towards the Mexico-Colombia relationship.
In this context, he added, the FCE will maintain its line of promoting and disseminating new titles by authors and allies, and will seek to include more programming in the areas of visual arts, photography, music, and folkloric expressions.
Velarco considered that the subsidiary in Colombia needs to strengthen its editorial line because “without fear of contradiction, it’s the most important cultural embassy that Mexico has abroad.”
In his opinion, “the editorial production is relatively low compared with other subsidiaries. We would like to reinforce this part, to the best of our ability. We will try to increase the three or four titles published a year to 10 or 15 titles.”
“We will not only be a great bookstore and distributor, but our own publishing operation as well,” Velarco said to raise awareness of the management challenges ahead in Colombia.
He insisted that the cultural production “will be very oriented towards strengthening the cultural bond between the two countries. We will have much emphasis on things that preserve both cultures. We want the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Center to become a true benchmark of the Colombian-Mexican cultural exchange.”
In this new stage, the FCE will uses spaces such as the International Book Fair in Bogotá, and event held now for five years to fuse the cultures of Mexico and Colombia, to guarantee its quality.
In financial terms, the new manager states that “there are a number of liabilities that must be settled soon, and every day the goal is to make the library more attractive to the type of audience we want to reach.”
