Immigration was one of the key topics at this year's National Book Festival held in Washington, D.C. by the Library of Congress.

The annual event was moderated by award-winning journalist, author, and Al Jazeera news network anchor Ray Suárez, NBC News reported. The event, which saw more than 200,000 attendees and over 170 authors in attendance, attracted a lot of Latino audiences.

A panel discussion at the festival focused on National Public Radio correspondent Tom Gjelten's new book titled "A Nation of Nations: The Great American Immigration Story," which highlights how immigration changed in the last 50 years. Also in the panel was Erika Lee, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota and the author of a new book, "The Making of Asian America: A History," NBC News noted.

Lee said that a century ago, her grandparents had to take on a fake identity to get into the U.S. Now, the immigration discussions have changed gears and is only focused on the country's southern border, the news outlet added.

Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar was also at the festival to talk about his book about the Chilean miners who were trapped underground when a mine collapsed in August 2010, NBC News further reported. His novel was adapted on the big screen, titled "The 33," starring Antonio Banderas and is slated for a Nov. 13 release date.

Other renowned names present at the National Book Festival are Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, cartoonist and illustrator Lalo Alcaraz, and Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza, NBC News listed. Spanish-language literature was one of the main feats in the event, with speakers coming from as far as Peru, Chile, and Mexico.

"It's very important to have Spanish-language literature at the National Book Festival. It's a language that is very much alive and well, and its literature every day gains more readers," Rivera Garza said, as quoted by Fox News Latino. "It's more difficult to publish in Spanish (in the United States) than in English, but the more we have these types of gatherings, the more we will see more potential for Spanish-language literature in the United States."

Book Truck Promotes Spanish Reading

A project called Book Truck, a bookstore on wheels, is set to tour across the U.S. to promote reading in Spanish tos children.

Some of the cities the mobile bookstore will visit are San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York, and Laredo, Texas, Fox News Latino listed. These regions have big Hispanic populations.

Mexican publisher FCE initiated the idea of the traveling bookstore, which aims to help children with Hispanic ancestry preserve their culture through reading in Spanish, Fox News Latino added.