Culture and diplomacy: Italy guest of honor at the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2026

Italy will be the guest country of honor at the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2026, one of the most prestigious publishing events in the world. The official announcement will be made by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, underlining the strong cultural bond between Italy and Mexico and the importance of Italian publishing in the Latin American market.

Il Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will open the event to announce Italy's participation tomorrow at the Farnesina as Guest Country of Honor at the 2026 Guadalajara International Book Fair.

"Last year Italy and Mexico celebrated 150 years of diplomatic relations: participation in the Guadalajara Book Fair is therefore a confirmation of the solid bilateral relations and constitutes a very important showcase for Italian publishing in the strategic Latin American market." has commented Tajani, who highlighted the Government's action in support of the internationalization of Italian publishing, one of the axes of growth diplomacy.

La Guadalajara Book Fair, with over 900.000 visitors and more than 2700 publishers from 64 countries present at the 2024 edition, is one of the most important publishing fair events globally., as well as the main one in the Spanish-speaking world. The presence of our country as guest of honor, for the second time after the 2008 edition, will allow us to place theItaly at the center of a market that counts over 300 million potential readers, whose interest in Italian publishing is growing rapidly.

L'Italian publishing, the leading national cultural industry with approximately 3,5 billion euros and 70.000 employees, is the fourth in Europe and the sixth in the world. Over the last five years, theThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs has provided approximately 1.600 incentives for the translation of Italian works into foreign languages, of which over 170 into Spanish.

 At the presentation Also speaking will be the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, the President and Director of the Guadalajara Book Fair, Trinidad Padilla and Marisol Schulz, the President of ICE – Agency, Matteo Zoppas, the Ambassador of Mexico to Italy, Carlos Garcia de Alba, and the President of the Italian Publishers Association, Innocenzo Cipolletta.