Isaac S�nchez y Beatriz Berrocal ganan Premios Mandarache y Hache 2025

Isaac S�nchez for his work ‘Ba�os Pleamar’ (Dolmen Editorial, 2021) has been the winner of the Mandarache Award 2025, and Beatriz Berrocal for ‘La danza de los estorninos’ (Edeb�, 2022) the winner of the Hache Award 2025. A group of students from Colegio Santa Joaquina de Vedruna, representing the more than 1,300 reading committees that have participated in this twentieth edition of the project, accompanied by the Mayor of Cartagena, Noelia Arroyo, have announced the result of the world’s largest literary jury, nearly 8,000 young people from Spain and Latin America.

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This year, in the Mandarache category, a total of 4,944 young people participated, of which 4,743 voted, representing a 96.05% voter turnout. In the Hache category, 2,646 people exercised their right to vote out of the 2,940 registered, achieving a 90% participation rate. These voting percentages once again place Mandarache as one of the strongest youth participation projects in the country.

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The Mayor of Cartagena, Noelia Arroyo, has emphasized that «in Cartagena, for twenty years we have been demonstrating that books can be a powerful tool to ask questions, grow as individuals, and build a more critical society better prepared to understand its environment. Mandarache is not just reading, it is much more,» which has earned her, among other awards, the National Reading Promotion Award.

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Arroyo has announced that the international expansion of the project, with the creation of Orillas Mandarache in Colombia and Chile in 2017, «has led the Ministry of Culture to commission us to create a methodological guide to facilitate the transfer of the model to other cities.» She announced that the guide, titled ‘Mandarache: reading and youth participation,’ has been developed by reading and youth expert Freddy Gon�alves and will be presented next week at the Bogot� International Book Fair, adding, «It is a pride that from Cartagena we are setting the path in youth cultural policies for the entire country and also for Spanish-speaking countries.»

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Furthermore, the Mandarache model has recently been recognized by the European Commission as a URBACT Good Practice and has been presented by the Cartagena City Council at the City Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, one of the most relevant events in the field of European urban policies. This recognition positions Mandarache as a replicable example at the European level, thanks to its ability to unite reading, youth participation, and social transformation in the urban environment. The interest of other European cities in adopting this model demonstrates the international impact that the Cartagena project has achieved in its twenty years of existence.

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In this regard, she emphasized that «Mandarache is a project that transforms those who participate, that connects generations, territories, and ways of reading. Reading together, choosing together, and reflecting together from culture.»

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Participation Data

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In this 2025 edition, the Mandarache Award, in which young people between 15 and 30 years old participate, included comics, poetry, and theater as finalists: ‘Ba�os Pleamar’ by Isaac S�nchez, who won with 2,504 votes, ‘Invocaci�n a las mayor�as silenciosas’ by Paloma Chen, which received 1,185 votes, and ‘Los p�lidos’ by Luc�a Carballal, which garnered 1,054 votes.

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On the other hand, in the Hache Award category, judged by teenagers between 12 and 14 years old, the finalists were the young adult novels: ‘La danza de los estorninos’ by Beatriz Berrocal, who won with 1,117 votes, ‘Los desconectados’ by David Nel�lo with 865 votes, and ‘N�a’ by Patricia Reim�ndez with 664 votes.

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The voting period took place from March 31 to April 9 through the project’s website. The high participation was made possible thanks to the work of more than 30 educational centers, libraries, and reading clubs that join the project every year and turn it into a great network of collective thinking around reading.

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The Mandarache project, organized by the Cartagena City Council’s Youth Department and supported by the Ministry of Culture, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year as a national and international reference in youth reading programs.

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The Mandarache Awards have a cash prize of 5,000 euros and the reproduction of a sculpture by artist �ngel Haro, made by the PROLAM-ASTUS Special Employment Center. The winning authors will return to Cartagena for the awards ceremony on May 16 at the El Batel Auditorium, where more than 1,400 students will gather to celebrate this special edition.

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