Big LeaLA Spanish-language book fair in LA this weekend

Organizers of the prestigious Guadalajara International Book Fair raise their tent at the Los Angeles Convention Center tomorrow through Sunday for the first time. The book fair will feature author talks and booths filled with novels, children’s books and self-help titles from the Spanish-speaking world’s biggest publishers.

One hundred publishers in a 17,000-square-foot exhibit hall will promote their wares during the LeaLA Spanish-language book fair.

This is a small event compared to the annual 10-day Guadalajara book fair. The L.A. fair’s director, Marisol Schulz, says the Mexican nonprofit that’s spending over a million dollars on this event wants to have a lasting effect in the Southland, by "being part of the community, taking part in many of the activities of the community, regarding reading promotion in Spanish. This will be an annual festivity for us – it’s a festival of books, it’s more than a book fair. It’s a book fair but it’s a cultural project, too," she said.

Schulz says the book fair will maintain a year-round office in L.A. to promote the event and Spanish-language literature. The LeaLA Spanish-language book fair is free and open to the public through Sunday at the L.A. Convention Center.