MEXICO CITY (EFE).— Paco Ignatius Taibo IIdirector of the Economic Culture Fund (FCE), showed his disagreement with including books by women for “fees” in a popular collection, which sparked a strong controversy on social networks due to the statement that was described as misogynistic.
“Because if we start from the quota, you say well, a collection of poems written by a woman is horribly disgusting and bad, because it is written by a woman, it does not deserve to be sent to a community room in the middle of Guanajuato. Why do we have to punish them with that book of poetry?” Taibo II declared at the Thursday morning press conference of the President Claudia Sheinbaum.
After the commentSheinbaum intervened and announced that a version will be made with books written by women.
“We are going to make a women’s collection,” said the president.
Paco Ignacio Taibo II announced the launch of the campaign “25 for 25”, in which they will be given 2.5 million books to promote reading in Latin American countries, whose authors are representatives of the literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s, which were mostly carried out by men.
After being questioned about the absence of more titles written by women, such as Elena Garro, Paco Ignacio Taibo II made the aforementioned comment, although he clarified that in the collection “the number of authors is large” and among them are Noa Fernandez, Elena Poniatowska, Adela Fernandez and Guadalupe Dueñas.
When talking about a plan to promote reading in Latin America, the director of the @FCEMexicoPaco Ignacio Taibo II, made this unfortunate comment when responding to why female authors are not made visible.
Sheinbaum tried to compose him…
— Pamela Cerdeira (@PamCerdeira) October 23, 2025
The collection includes, among other authors, Juan Gelman, Julio Cortázar, Manuel Rojas, Raúl Zurita and Gabriel García Márquez.
Taibo II said that Uruguay and Honduras and all FCE bookstores in Latin America will be added to the distribution, reaching 14 countries, while acknowledging that there were problems in Peru and Ecuador, countries with which Mexico does not have good relations.
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