Memory, Desire and Dissent: The Queer Culture Festival in Spanish Turns London into a Map of Resistances
11 de noviembre de 2025
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Sara
Torres, Daniel Saldaña París, Laura Hojman, Ángelo Néstore, Ana Garriga and
Carmen Urbita (Las Hijas de Felipe), among others, will headline the 2025
edition with their new projects.
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The legacy
of Francoism, the lives of nuns, and the reexamination of the works of Agustín
Gómez Arcos and Mario Bellatin are some of the key themes to be explored from
November 19 to 25.
➜
The
festival dedicates its fifth edition to the memory of artist and poet Perla
Zuñiga, featuring an exclusive posthumous presentation of her poetic work.
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The program
combines literature, film, theatre, music and talks centred on the queer
experience in Spanish, filling cultural venues across London with its events
and performances.
➜
Tickets
available via Outsavvy
A
Cultural Landmark for Queer Expression in Spanish. The fifth edition of the Queer
Culture Festival in Spanish will take place in London from November 19 to 25,
reaffirming its status as a key event for Spanish-language queer literature,
film and music.
“The festival builds community and connects thousands of Spanish speakers in
the UK with queer literature from Spain and Latin America, while offering a
space for reflection on history, memory and the politics of our dissidences,”
explains its director, Jorge Gárriz, highlighting the event’s growing
importance. In 2025, the festival pays tribute to artist and poet
Perla Zuñiga, presenting an exclusive video of her poetry reading during the
inaugural edition in 2021, now available on the website: https://www.romancerobooks-store.co.uk/v-lfqsc-fcqel-2025
The program
intertwines cultural activities with debates on historical memory and the
political legacies that continue to affect LGBTQ+ communities. Featured
guests include Sara Torres, Daniel Saldaña París, Laura Hojman, Ángelo Néstore,
Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita (Las Hijas de Felipe), and Ana Quiroga.
Themes explored will include the lives and works of Agustín Gómez Arcos, Mario
Bellatin, and Francis Bacon’s Madrid in the 1990s, as well as the lives of
16th- and 17th-century nuns, the legacies of Francoism for LGBTQ+ people, and a
stage performance inspired by Anne Dufourmantelle’s reimagined concept of
gentleness.
“After five
years, we can say the event has grown especially by embracing artistic
disciplines connected to Spanish literature, its authors and history. It goes
beyond the written word or the act of reading—each edition is an opportunity to
revisit unresolved issues, recover overlooked voices, and reflect on queer
matters in the Spanish-speaking world,” adds Garriz.
THE
PROGRAM
A Map of
Encounters in Subcultural London
The
festival will open on Wednesday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. with an inaugural
talk at the Spanish Embassy. Writer Sara Torres will present
her new book X is Where I Am, translated into English by Maureen
Shaughnessy and published by Charco Press, in conversation with Professor
Nuria Capdevil-Argüelles (University of Exeter). This English-language
event will discuss queer love, family relationships, and “how to build a life
around the only constant: loss.” Admission by invitation only.
On Thursday,
November 20 at 6:30 p.m., at October Gallery, Daniel
Saldaña París will present his novel The Dance and the Fire in
conversation with festival director Jorge Gárriz. The work follows
three friends reunited in Cuernavaca, Mexico, as they face past loves, family
ties, and the impact of wildfires—while ecstatic dance becomes a means to
channel anxiety and creativity. The book will be published in the UK this
November by Charco Press, translated by Christina MacSweeney.
On Friday,
November 21 at 7:00 p.m., at Hundred Years Gallery, poet Ángelo
Néstore will present Leche Cruda (Raw Milk),
their debut novel, in conversation with Gárriz. The book questions the limits
of communication, queer imagination, and whether love is possible beyond a
shared language. “Could crossing the borders between the human and the animal
help bridge the gap that separates us?” asks its synopsis.
The evening
will also feature the screening of seven short films by queer Spanish and Latin
American filmmakers, curated by the collective Cinema Mentiré,
under the title Fables, Chronicles and Love Letters. The
selection includes: Carta a Lady (Ariel Nahon, Argentina
2019), Pytagua/Extranjere (Sara J. Quintana, Paraguay
2023), Calypso (Annalisa D. Quagliata, Mexico 2016), El
mundo es afuera (Pablo Roldán Fernández, Colombia 2024), El
sueño de Ana (José Luis Torres Leiva, Chile 2017), La noche
del minotauro (Juliana Zuluaga Montoya, Colombia 2023), and 11
de septiembre (Cristina Peri Rossi, Uruguay/Spain). The evening will conclude with an exclusive
live listening of Ana Quiroga’s new album FILE COPY.
On Saturday,
November 22 at 4:00 p.m., Rio Cinema will screen Un
hombre libre, a documentary directed by Laura Hojman about
the life of exiled Spanish writer Agustín Gómez Arcos. The film,
which portrays his life as a celebrated yet censored author, invites reflection
on memory, silence and identity in Spain’s recent history.
That
evening at 7:30 p.m. in The Divine, the play Pulsión
de dulzura (Drive of Sweetness), written and performed by Sara
Torres, Carmen Rojas, Karelis Zabrano, and Malena
Casado, will reinterpret Anne Dufourmantelle’s essay and explore how
gentleness can dismantle dualistic structures of body, desire and language,
“challenging the philosophical tradition that distrusts emotion.” The night
will close with the official fifth-anniversary party at Stokey
Hall from 10:00 p.m., featuring DJ Selbor and Larga
DJ, in collaboration with Lady Olé, celebrating queer music and
Spanish culture in London, and aiming to connect the Spanish LGBTQIA+ community
with a broader pan-European audience—“becoming a benchmark event for Eurovision
fans,” say the organizers.
On Sunday,
November 23 at 7:00 p.m., at The Divine, Ana Garriga and Carmen
Urbita, creators of the acclaimed podcast Las Hijas de Felipe,
will present Convent Wisdom, an essay recovering the lives of 16th-
and 17th-century nuns whose independence and rebelliousness offer inspiration
for facing today’s chaos. “These nuns were clever, defiant and surprisingly
modern—their lives hold astonishing lessons for our times,” the authors note.
On Tuesday,
November 25 from 6:30 p.m., the Cervantes Institute London will
host the panel The Legacies of Francoism for the LGBTQ+ Community,
focusing on topics such as the persecution of lesbians in religious spaces,
gender-dissident archives, and reeducation centres for homosexuals. Speakers
include Moisés Fernández Cano, Daniela Ferrández Pérez,
and Víctor M. Ramírez, all specialists in historical memory and
queer studies.
Revisions:
Queer Podcasts ad hoc
Online
activities will include special podcast editions revisiting key figures and
moments connected to the festival’s themes. Juanra San and Bernardo
Pajares will present a live edition of Arte Compacto,
dedicated to Francis Bacon in 1990s Madrid, based on their
book Pasiones creativas, exploring the artist’s love life and how
it fed his unsettling paintings. (The Divine, November 23, 5:30 p.m.)
Three
exclusive podcasts will also be available online from November 19–30: Las
chicas del Volcán will explore ephebophobia and gay
literary archetypes through writers like Álvaro Pombo, Jesús Alviz, Luis
Antonio de Villena, and Manuel Mujica Lainez; Pequeños Bastardos,
hosted by Luis Romeri, will feature Gonzalo Valdés Medellín and Erik
Meneses, discussing their inspirations, reading habits, and reflections on
the contested label “gay literature.”; and Niños Gratis, that
will feature historian Nacho Moreno Segarra and
writer-editor Sabina Urraca, focusing on Mario Bellatin,
the celebrated and controversial Mexican queer author known for his
experimental novels and international acclaim.
Tickets for
all events are now available on Outsavvy: https://www.romancerobooks-store.co.uk/v-lfqsc-fcqel-2025
Looking
South: Studying Queer Experience
The
fifth Festival of Queer Culture in Spanish reaffirms its
commitment to visibility, diversity, artistic innovation and historical memory,
becoming a cultural landmark for the LGBTQ+ community in London. Over the
years, it has evolved beyond a mere festival to become a safe and reflective
space amplifying the voices of artists and writers exploring queer experiences
across the Spanish-speaking world. Past participants include Camila
Sosa, Eva Baltasar, Luisgé Martín, Pol Guasch, Christo Casas, Ariel Florencia
Richards, Paco Bezerra, Elizabeth Duval, Paco y Manolo, Carlos Barea, Eddi
Circa, and Fernando López Rodríguez.
Romancero
Books, an online
bookstore and cultural platform based in London and directed by Jorge
Gárriz, offers literature from Spain and Latin America, focusing especially
on works by women authors. The store collaborates with both major and
independent publishers and curates a diverse catalogue covering figures like
Lorca, the Generation of ’27, writers in exile and diaspora, and emerging
LGBTQ+ voices.
The event
is sponsored by the Spanish Embassy in the UK, Spain Culture & Science UK,
Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through its PICE program for internationalizing
Spanish culture, the Cervantes Institute London, Hackney Council and its
Hackney PRIDE 365 program, the Mexican Embassy in the UK, and Diversitas
Institute. It also receives support from Latin American House, CLAUK: Coalition
of Latin Americans in the UK, SRUK/CERU: Spanish Researchers in the UK, SpainU,
Lady Olé, Gay’s The Word, Cinema Mentiré, The Poetry Translation Centre, and
venues The Divine, Hundred Years Gallery, Rio Cinema, and October Gallery.
LOCATIONS:
Spanish
Embassy in the UK (39 Chesham Place, London SW1X 8SB)
October
Gallery (24 Old Gloucester St, London WC1N 3AL)
Hundred
Years Gallery (13 Pearson St, London E2 8JD)
Rio Cinema
(107 Kingsland High St, London E8 2PB)
The Divine
(33-35 Stoke Newington Rd, London N16 8BJ)
Instituto
Cervantes Londres (15–19 Devereux Ct, Temple, London WC2R 3JJ)
Stokey Hall
(10 Northwold Rd, London N16 7HR)
PRESS for FLQEL.