Soco Aguilar
TE2, TE6 | SCREENWRITING
Soco Aguilar is an independent writer, film and animation producer, and screenwriter working from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City, and Austin. She is an award-winning Mexican filmmaker who writes and produces live-action and documentary feature films.
Soco’s experience includes producing documentary content for PBS, BBC, and Discovery Channel, as well as other independent projects. In 2008, she won the Ariel (the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Animated Production for La leyenda de la Nahuala (2007), which has become a classic on Netflix. The film influenced a series acquired by Disney in 2021. Universal Pictures distributed two other feature films: a live-action film, Todo Incluido / All Inclusive (2009), and a 2D animated film, Nikté (2009).
The first documentary Soco produced solo, No Turning Back (1994), was filmed in Chiapas, Mexico, and focused on the genesis of the Zapatista movement. In 2020, The New Yorker named El diablo nunca duerme (1995) by Lourdes Portillo as one of the 62 films that have shaped the art of documentary. Lourdes was her mentor, and this was the first film she helped produce.Today, Soco is marketing her latest project: Si quieres que te amen, ama, a live-action feature film she wrote and will produce, created to appeal to a broad, intercultural audience. Soco is also an adjunct professor of film and an advisor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
Verónica Flores, VF Literary Agency
TE2, TI2 | PUBLISHING
Verónica Flores began her professional career as a reporter, editor, and director of various cultural media outlets. She is the author of the book Eduardo Mata a varias voces (2005). During her journalistic career, she interviewed notable figures such as Octavio Paz, E.M. Cioran, Rufino Tamayo, Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Goytisolo, Juan Soriano, Salvador Elizondo, and Esther Seligson, among others.
For 16 years, she served as the editorial director of Tusquets Editores México, where she edited emblematic collections for contemporary literature such as Andanzas, Tiempo de Memoria, La Sonrisa Vertical, Ensayo, Metatemas, Comic, and MAXI.
In 2015, she founded VF Literary Agency, the only agency of its kind in Mexico, representing over 60 authors. She teaches literary workshops and has been invited to give talks, keynote lectures, and diplomas on editing and the trade of copyright in renowned institutions.
Daniel Guitiérrez
TI1 | SONGWRITING
Daniel Gutiérrez is a musician, composer, and vocalist of the rock band La Gusana Ciega. Passionate about music, especially rock, he started playing guitar at the age of 15 and realized it was his passion, leading him to enter the music scene in a cover band. At 18, he decided to form his own rock band, which is now internationally recognized. Currently, Daniel is also the creative director of the publishing house Soy Hit Publishing, co-founder of the recording studio Naranjada Records, and director of Pasión y Futuro A. C., an organization that helps young bands establish themselves as small businesses. Daniel has composed music for films such as El Cielo en tu mirada, A la mala, and Abolición de la propiedad. La Gusana Ciega was formed in the late ’80s and has since had a long history of recognition, tours, and productions, maintaining it as a reference in Spanish rock. In 1996, they recorded their first album, Merlina. Their discography includes more than eleven studio albums, with Latin Grammy nominations in 2015 and 2022 for Best Rock Album. The band consists of Daniel Gutiérrez (vocals), Germán Arroyo (drums), and Luis Ernesto Martínez Novelo (guitar).
Magali T. Ortega @nenamounstro
TE7 | PLEASURES OF READING
Magali T. Ortega is the creator of “Chismecitos Literarios” on TikTok, where she has nearly half a million followers. She has been using social media for six years to promote reading through book clubs, some of which focus exclusively on female authors and/or feminist books. She also coordinates the Master Classes, another format of book clubs dedicated to reading challenging books like Rayuela, Ulysses, The Iliad and The Odyssey, Detectives Salvajes, The Second Sex, The Aleph, and others, featuring literature teachers for greater impact on understanding these books.
Magali has featured contemporary authors in live book clubs: Irene Vallejo, Cristina Rivera Garza, Agustina Bazterrica, Piedad Bonett, Eduardo Sacheri, Alberto Montt, Jazmín Barrera, and many others. She has also presented authors like Mariana Enríquez, Juan Villoro, Ali Hazelwood, Dot Hutchison, Xavier Velazco, and many more. Her journey as a book influencer led her to become the author of the book Chismecito Literario Volumen 1 and Volumen 2.
Camila Sánchez
TE, TE5 | MEMOIR
Born in Mexico City in 1990, Camila Sánchez holds a degree in journalism, with diplomas in journalism and human rights from the Tecnológico de Monterrey and Harvard. She has a master’s degree in creativity and literary appreciation. She began her professional career as part of the editorial team at Foro Tv. She was a broadcaster for the news program Hipervínculo on MVS Noticias and the director of cultural content at Ibero 90.9. From 2018 to 2022, she hosted the program Inspiria on Ibero 90.9, promoting the country’s emerging cultural scene.
For years, she has written reports and articles on topics related to feminism, gender violence, the decriminalization of marijuana, and the preservation of indigenous cultures. Since 2022, she has been the editorial director of Newsweek en Español, with monthly distribution in Mexico, and oversees the editorial content for associated countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Argentina. She currently hosts the podcast Busca el Cómo, about creativity, available on streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcast.
In 2022, she opened the bookstore Una boutique de libros in San Miguel de Allende, aiming to create a haven for the reading community through a curation focused on literary works by Latin American women writers. In 2023, she published her first novel, Oídos de palo, which focuses on the central theme of child sexual abuse and its inevitable terrible aftermath. In 2024, she is set to publish her non-fiction book Busca el Cómo, about creative consciousness, aiming to encourage creativity in everyone and to demystify creativity as something exclusive to artistic careers.
Rafael Segovia
TE4, TI3 | POETRY, TRANSLATION
Rafael Segovia is a Mexican poet, writer, and translator with extensive experience in teaching, cultural management, social activism, and the practice of arts, including writing and stage directing. As a cultural manager, he has held positions such as the director of Casa del Lago at UNAM, cultural attaché in Montreal, Canada, director of Teatro Ocampo in Cuernavaca, and State Coordinator of Performing Arts in the State of Morelos. He has been an active teacher in literature, languages and translation, history of ideas, communication, film and audiovisual, photography, and theater at universities, colleges, and cultural dissemination institutions.
He has received several awards, including the National Independent Theater Prize, a Research Grant from the Institute of Philological Research at UNAM, a Literary Translation Grant from FONCA, and a Cultural Co-investment Grant from FONCA, and he has been selected for the International Seminar on Literary Translation at IFAL, translation and writing residencies at ECLA Aquitaine, France, translation residencies at CNL/CITL in France, the First Inter-American Prize for Literary Translation from the University of Veracruz/Aquelarre Publishing, and a Residency Grant from Uberschätzen Looren, Switzerland.
His works include Travesía de la noche (1979/2023), Doble espejo (poetry, unpublished), El retablo de los poetas (theater, 1986), La belleza que matamos (novel, unpublished, 2023), and theatrical productions such as Diálogos con dioses olvidados (1984), Cábala poética (1985), La importancia de llamarse Ernesto (1986), Pascua (1987), and Excepto las nubes (1992).
Rafael has published texts including literary and theatrical criticism, poetry, essays, cultural analysis, and cultural policy. His writings can be found in magazines such as Plural, Revista de la Universidad, Semanario Cultural de Novedades, Revista de Bellas Artes, Les Cahiers du Chemin (Gallimard), La Orquesta, Escénica, Revista Palos, Tópala, Letras Libres, Gaceta UNESCO, Media International Australia, IDC de Sao Paulo, Brazil, among others.