It was our pleasure to host His Excellency Víctor Hugo Morales Meléndez, Mexican Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, at The Writers Centre on Monday 13 October 2025.
Ambassador Morales Meléndez presented Marina Salandy-Brown, Founder and President of the Bocas Lit Fest, with a copy of ‘ArchipiéLAgo. Revista Cultural de Nuestra América’, the latest issue of which features an article she wrote, titled ‘Las fronteras son imaginarias’.
Co-published by the Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CIALC) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), ‘ArchipiéLAgo’ is a cultural magazine dedicated to promoting literary, artistic, and intellectual expressions of our region. With more than 33 years of continuous publication, ‘ArchipiéLAgo’ aims to contribute to the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, including its migrants in other countries.
Nicholas Laughlin, Bocas Lit Fest Festival and Programme Director, presented the ambassador with seven chapbooks written by 2024 Bocas Breakthrough Fellows Heather Barker of Barbados, Stephanie Koathes and Rhea Manley of Jamaica, June Aming and Amílcar Sanatan of Trinidad and Tobago, and 2022 Bocas Emerging Writers Fellows Jannine Horsford and Rajiv Ramkhalawan from Trinidad and Tobago — all published by Peekash Press.
Moments like these remind us of the power of literature to bridge cultures and foster meaningful connections across our region and beyond. We look forward to future collaborations with Mexico and Latin America.
https://revistas.unam.mx/index.php/archipielago/article/view/92672
Zelle meets Gabito!
Zelle, the Bocas children’s mascot was a popular guest in Colombia at the San Andrés book festival (FILSAI) to which she was invited to lead children’s reading and writing workshops. It’s part of the Bocas Lit Fest mission to spread our literature throughout the region and create opportunities for our anglophone writers in the vast Spanish language market.
Inspired by the childhood of Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, the puppet Gabito invites us to rediscover the world through the eyes of a child who learned to fly with imagination.
Colourful, poetic, and full of tenderness, Gabito is a tribute to Caribbean childhood and the magic of simple storytelling.
