PRESS RELEASE · MIAMI BOOK FAIR 2026
Gloria Álvarez to discuss digital harassment and freedom of expression at Miami Book Fair 2026
On Saturday, November 21, the Guatemalan author will discuss her fourth book, take audience questions and sign copies.
MIAMI — October 8, 2026
Guatemalan political scientist, author and international speaker Gloria Álvarez will participate in Miami Book Fair 2026 on Saturday, November 21. Her appearance will feature a conversation about her latest book, Cómo defender la libertad y no suicidarte en el intento, followed by questions and answers with the audience and a book signing. The presentation is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Miami time in Room 8525, Building 8, fifth floor, at 145 NE Fifth St., Miami, FL 33132.
The book is rooted in a question Álvarez has encountered repeatedly during years of public life: how does someone continue to defend ideas in public while absorbing the constant hostility of social media? In this fourth work, she turns from the ideological exchanges of her previous books toward the personal and social consequences of digital exposure. She examines cyberbullying, online harassment, polarization and cancel culture alongside anxiety, loneliness and the exhaustion that can come from a public conversation that never seems to end.
Her approach joins personal experience with political and cultural reflection. Álvarez does not treat online hostility as a problem confined to well-known personalities. The pressures she describes also affect journalists, students, teachers, creators and anyone whose work or opinions circulate online. The book asks how people can remain engaged in public debate without accepting harassment as its inevitable price, and how freedom of expression can be defended alongside care for emotional well-being.
As Álvarez puts it in a statement included in a previous press release: “This book brings to the table uncomfortable but urgent questions about how we will face a world of emotional crises caused by digital violence and addiction, from a perspective of individual freedom and personal experience, when politicians are not doing so.” [English translation of the author’s Spanish statement.] The formulation reflects a central tension in the book: digital platforms have expanded the ability to speak and organize, while also making attacks, misinformation and demands for constant visibility part of everyday life. Her response emphasizes individual freedom, personal responsibility and resilience rather than withdrawing from debate.
The volume includes comments from Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona and journalist Jorge Ramos, as documented in the materials supplied by Álvarez’s team. Their contributions place the book in a wider cultural and journalistic conversation about the costs of speaking publicly. A prior presentation of the work took place at Gandhi Lomas in Mexico City on September 26, after appearances associated with the Guadalajara International Book Fair, events in Brazil and Bolivia, and the Guatemala International Book Fair.
Álvarez graduated with honors in International Relations and Political Science from Universidad Francisco Marroquín. Her team’s press materials report more than 3,000 talks across four continents. She coauthored El engaño populista with Axel Kaiser and wrote Cómo hablar con un progre and Cómo hablar con un conservador. Her public work also includes participation in Guatemala’s political debate and a presidential proposal built around 15 measures. At Miami Book Fair, the focus is her work as an author and the urgent questions raised by her new book.
The book also asks readers to consider the conditions under which young people first encounter public hostility. The materials supplied by the author connect digital addiction, misinformation and the effects of online aggression on adolescents with a broader discussion of emotional health. Álvarez approaches these issues through personal responsibility and the protection of individual freedom; the book is neither a clinical study nor a claim that every person experiences digital spaces in the same way. That distinction makes room for a conversation about what platforms, families and users can each do when criticism turns into relentless abuse.
The Miami event offers editors and producers several possible conversations: the boundary between criticism and harassment; the effects of social platforms on public discourse; the relationship between free expression and mental health; and what years of political visibility have taught Álvarez about sustaining disagreement without losing sight of the person behind the screen. Interviews in advance of the fair may be requested through her press contact below. Further event details should be confirmed with Miami Book Fair’s program before publication.
About the book
Cómo defender la libertad y no suicidarte en el intento is Álvarez’s fourth book. Its Spanish print edition is listed in the supplied editorial catalog with ISBN 978-607-2612-74-7. It combines personal narrative with political and cultural analysis of cyberbullying, digital hostility and emotional resilience.
About Gloria Álvarez
Gloria Álvarez is a Guatemalan political scientist, author, communicator and international speaker whose work addresses individual freedom, liberal democracy and public debate. She is a graduate with honors of Universidad Francisco Marroquín and author or coauthor of four books.
Miami Book Fair information
Saturday, November 21, 2026 · Book conversation, audience Q&A and signing · 1:30 p.m. Miami time · Room 8525, Building 8, fifth floor · 145 NE Fifth St., Miami, FL 33132.