We are delighted to share that Mexican journalist and author Lydia Cacho has joined the Pontas Agency. Hailed by many as one of Mexico’s most prominent human rights activists, Lydia Cacho is also a journalist, writer, lecturer, screenwriter and documentarian. She has reported widely about international sex trafficking rings and child pornography in Mexico and around the globe, always investigating and denouncing the systems of power that simply sit and watch how women and young girls are abused and disposed of. Being kidnapped and tortured herself, she was forced to flee her home country and she is currently based in Spain as a European citizen.
Lydia Cacho has received 68 international awards, including the Unesco/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the Harold Pinter Prize for Memorias de una infamia (Infamy), and the Nelson Mandela Award for her humanitarian work. She is the author of 20 books, including Los demonios del Edén (The Demons of Eden), Cartas de amor y rebeldía (Letters of Love and Rebellion), Ellos Hablan (They Speak), and Esclavas del poder (Slavery, Inc). Her non-fiction investigations and children's stories have been published in more than 25 countries and translated into several languages.
All translation and audiovisual rights are currently available for two of her newest books.
First of all, Letters of Love and Rebellion (Cartas de amor y rebeldía) which was published by Debate/PRH in 2022 and is the author’s most intimate book yet; a heart-wrenching memoir built on years of letters, journals, and memorabilia that she has kept safe as if she knew she would become a pioneer of feminist journalism in Mexico.
It is six in the afternoon on a day in 1975 when Lydia Cacho hides in a corner of the room she shares with her two sisters, takes a small notebook her mother gave her, and writes about her first encounter with death in the form of a letter to her friend Carlos. In handwritten letters, her first diary reveals a Mexico governed by the PRI, the description of student disappearances, police checking children's backpacks outside Colegio Madrid. The contradictions and oddities of a country gradually getting used to violence and misinformation are narrated from the perspective of a rebellious middle-class girl who escapes from her home because she refuses to accept her destiny, decreed by sexist systems of discrimination.
In The Day They Invaded My Planet (El día que invadieron mi planeta), forthcoming with Alfaguara México/PRH on July 15th 2024, the author delves into the current Russian invasion of Ukraine through the eyes of a child. This MG/crossover novel is set on the fictional planet of Ukrai, where a war provoked by Brutus Planetstealer shakes the lives of Sofia, Andrei, Grandma Babu, Cora the dog, and all the inhabitants of the small planet. This book will also be of great interest to parents and teachers interesting in broaching difficult themes at home and in school.
Lydia Cacho offers a touching story born from the interactions she shared with local children her first trip to Ukraine, just a few weeks into the Russian invasion, which glistens with hope for a better future. The book is a tribute to the girls and boys who dream that one day, not very far away, missiles will stop falling, and they will be able to return to a peaceful and tranquil life alongside their loved ones.
Welcome, Lydia!
For more information about the above titles and Lydia Cacho’s work in general, please contact Anna Soler-Pont (anna@pontas-agency.com).