About this Event
The modern world was shaped by stories of exploration, conquest, migration, trade and cultural exchange. Many of those stories survive in one extraordinary place: the Archive of the Indies in Seville.
Created in 1785 and recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage archive, it houses more than 40,000 documents recording over three centuries of Spain's relationship with the Americas and the Philippines. From the journals of explorers and Indigenous petitions to merchants' accounts, maps, letters and royal decrees, the archive preserves millions of pages that reveal how ideas, people, languages, goods and power crossed oceans to create the interconnected world we inhabit today.
As part of the work Hay Festival Global does in Latin America it presents Unveiling Stories: Writers in the general Archive of Indies, an ambitious literary project that asks a simple question: what happens when contemporary writers read these documents not as historians, but as storytellers?
Ten of the most exciting writers from Latin America and Spain were invited to delve into the archive and create new works of fiction or literary non-fiction inspired by its collections. Their stories uncover forgotten lives, question official narratives and reveal how the legacies of empire continue to shape contemporary debates around identity, migration, memory, justice and belonging.
Published in English by Charco Press in September 2026, the anthology invites readers to rediscover one of the world's richest historical collections through the lens of literature,.
Joining the conversation are Karina Pacheco, one of Peru's most celebrated contemporary novelists and winner of the country's National Prize for Literature, whose work explores memory, landscape and the enduring legacies of violence and colonialism, and Carlos Fonseca, the Costa Rican novelist and Cambridge academic whose internationally acclaimed fiction has been translated into more than a dozen languages and whose novels, including Natural History and Austral, probe the relationship between archives, art and power. Together with editor Erna von der Walde, they discuss how writers can transform historical documents into compelling fiction, revealing new perspectives on a past that continues to shape our present. Because archives preserve history, but literature brings it back to life.
- Karina Pacheco: https://www.hayfestival.com/artist.aspx?artistid=8827
- Carlos Fonesca: https://www.hayfestival.com/artist.aspx?artistid=9048
- Erna von der Walde: https://www.hayfestival.com/artist.aspx?artistid=11605
- Gaby Wood: https://www.hayfestival.com/artist.aspx?artistid=3520
This event is organised by Hay Festival Global, Charco Press and Instituto Cervantes.
Event in English.
Event venue & nearby stays
Instituto Cervantes London, 15-19 Devereux Ct, London, United Kingdom
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