More than 30 exhibitors participate in the 21st edition of FILVEN in Zulia

Published at: 24/10/2025 08:02 AM

With a call for the defense of national identity, the 21st edition of the Venezuelan International Book Fair (FILVEN) was inaugurated at the Zulia María Calcaño Public Library, under the slogan Reading humanizes, with the participation of 39 exhibitors, and will run until Saturday, October 25.

The event was led by the Minister of Popular Power for Culture, Ernesto Villegas, accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Development for the Cultural Economy and president of the National Book Center, Raúl Cazal; the Deputy Minister of Audiovisual Culture, Sergio Arrias; the governor of Zulia, Luis Caldera, the director of the State Cabinet of Culture of Zulia, Keyla González, and the honored regional writers Adelfa Giovanni and Neida Atencio, among others authorities and regional guests.

Minister Villegas emphasized that FILVEN is like an exercise of cultural sovereignty in a “sacred land” such as Zulia, which he considers “the first line of defense of national sovereignty from a territorial point of view”.

Villegas opened the debate on the origin of the name Venezuela, raising the need to vindicate the version of “big water province”, in reference to Lake Maracaibo, as opposed to the traditional version of “little Venice”. “I can't reach a conclusion, but I can demand that we claim the existence of another version,” he said.

For his part, Deputy Minister Raúl Cazal supported this idea, stating that events such as FILVEN promote reading and critical thinking, essential tools for understanding and national defense.

Meanwhile, Governor Luis Caldera stated that this literary festival is “the effort of dreamers and dreamers who do not give up, who always keep their conviction intact to place the human being at the center of life, who do not allow themselves to be intimidated in these times of threat, in this time of systemic crisis of so many things”.

In addition to this, Caldera added that “here are the women and men of Santa Rosa, here are the men and women of Colón with their canoes, there are the men and women of La Guajira, there are the men and women of Machiques, there are the men and women of bagpipes, of writing, of dance and of everything that is Zulia Grande”.

VTV/Mazo News Team