By Kevin DiCamillo

Entrance to the Guadalajara Book Fair 2012 (Photo: FIL Guadalajara / Natalia Fregoso)

According to David Unger, the International Representative to the Guadalajara International Book Fair: “We are expecting the attendance of 140 American Library Association librarians who will be coming to the Guadalajara Book Fair to buy Spanish- and Portuguese-language books for their libraries.”

Further “130 literary agents and scouts have booked tables in our Rights Center, and another sixty-five to seventy are expected to be walking the aisles and attending one of the 450 book presentations concurrent with the fair.”

Argentina is the Guest of Honor of this year’s fair, the 28th consecutive year the Fair has been held. The Fair is co-hosted by the University of Guadalajara. (See our related article: Guadalajara Book Fair to Honor Argentine Literary Greats.)

Unger notes that this is “The largest Spanish-language book fair in the world. About 20,000 professionals attend as well as 750,000 members of the general public. It’s very much both a public and profession fair, and both fairs operate seamlessly.”

“Latin-American literacy is low, so part of the Fair’s mission is building literacy—the Fair runs a full nine days.”