Speech read by President Lula at the opening of the 36th Bogotá International Book Fair

It gives me great pleasure to address you all today at the opening of the prestigious Bogotá International Book Fair, FILBO, one of the most important in Latin America.

Brazil is deeply honored to be the country honored once again, after our participation in 1995 and 2012.

We will repay the kindness by honoring Colombia at the São Paulo Book Biennial in September this year.

In many people's imaginations, Brazil is synonymous of nature.

Perhaps this is why Brazilian literature frequently portrays the country's various biomes as more than just scenery.

The Caatinga and the Pampas were not only backdrops, but central components of national epics such as Euclides da Cunha's "Os Sertões" and Érico Veríssimo's "O Tempo e o Vento".

This trait persists in contemporary authors, such as Paulliny Tort, a member of the delegation accompanying me, who has made the Cerrado his character.

The year 2024 marks the centenary of the publication of "A Voragem", a seminal work by Colombian José Eustaquio Rivera in which the Amazon plays a central role.

This biome shared by Brazil and Colombia has been the theater of common experiences, inscribed in our cultures.

The marks left by the rubber cycle and denounced by Rivera are paralleled in the work of Brazilian authors.

In Milton Hatoum's book "Orfãos do Eldorado," Rivera depicts a world of poverty and brutality, reflecting the greed of those who have enriched themselves at the expense of the forest and its inhabitants.

Eldorado, the mythical city of gold whose search left a trail of desolation, is possibly the word that best evokes the insanity of the exploitation of which not only our nature but also our people have been victims.

Twenty-eight years ago today, on April 17, 19 rural workers were killed in the town of Eldorado dos Carajás, in the Amazonian state of Pará, while marching for their right to land.

Hatoum asks in his poem "The Coming End": "Which Brazil hides behind Amazonian humanity?"

The Brazil we want is not one of destruction and violence.

We want to replace devastation with sustainable development and transform exclusion into citizenship.

We want to build a country where caring the environment and caring for people are not mutually exclusive goals.

The motto of this edition of FILBO - Reading Nature - exposes the folly of the Western dichotomy between the world of men and the world of nature, which is leading us towards a climate catastrophe.

This is the warning made by our dear Aílton Krenak, who is here and taking part in this fair and is the first indigenous person in over 125 years to occupy a seat in the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

In the literature that is emerging in Brazil today, those who have always been marginalized are taking the forefront to narrate their experiences in the first person.

The Brazilian delegation includes authors such as Luciany Aparecida, who we have just heard, Daniel Munduruku, Daiara Tukano, Eliane Potiguara, Eliane Marques, Geovane Martins and Jefferson Costa, giving voice to the indigenous and Afro-descendant identity shared by our two countries.

This is the meaning of the return to ancestry that Ana Maria Gonçalves proposes in her magnificent novel "Um defeito de cor".

Literature knows no borders. Books have the extraordinary power to transport us to other realities, broaden our horizons and put us in the other person's shoes, as the biographies of comrade Fernando Morais, present here, invite us to do.

The master Antonio Candido, Brazilian literary critic and sociologist, taught us that literature is a human right because it is an indispensable asset for our humanization.

To read is to be free, even when they physically try to isolate and imprison us, because the struggle for a fairer country, a dignified life and a united Latin America persists despite those who seek to obstruct the progress of our region.

We need more books and less guns. More knowledge, education, science and innovation.

The resumption of cultural policies has been one of the highlights of my government, with the re-creation of the Ministry of Culture, under the brilliant leadership of our dear Margareth Menezes, an exponent of Brazilian culture.

Today we have signed a cultural cooperation agreement that will multiply the bridges between our countries.

I would like to invite you to travel with us through the Brazilian pavilion. Our exhibition area has a bookstore with books for adults, young people and children and a gastronomic area with typical Brazilian food.

We will offer a diverse artistic and academic program, with samba, capoeira, cinema and Portuguese classes, showcasing the best that Brazil has to offer.

We look forward with great enthusiasm to the opportunities for exchange, learning and collaboration that will arise from this fair.