They say Miguel de Cervantes and everyone knows the second name, think of the portrait which is in the RAE and which was not made of his real face, but of the description that he himself gave, and of course we are talking about Don Quixote and even the wound on his left hand in the battle of Lepanto. What else? Who thinks of his plays, his verses, his desire to settle in India or to enjoy some position at Court?
Great writers and specialists will talk about the life and work of the author of the masterpiece of Spanish literature from today to tomorrow in Castro del Rioa place associated with his life because it was there that he first encountered prison. Writers will direct participants Arturo Pérez-ReverteJuan Eslava Galán and Andrés Trapiello, as well as teachers like Lola Pons.
“We want to teach a Cervantes who can reach and interest those who have not read him and those who have read him. That’s why we will talk about aspects of Cervantes that can interest everyone, like the soldier who was in Lepanto,” said the journalist. Jesus Vigorrawho is responsible for organizing these Cervantes Days, during which the Cajasol Foundationthe Castro del Río City Hall and the Cajasol Foundation, and which were born from the desire to stay and celebrate new editions in a city that recently joined the network of Cervantes cities.
The event opens at 7 p.m. this Friday and ten minutes later the first of the lectures will take place, which will be given by the writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Under the title “Soldier Cervantes”, he will tell how the man who later wrote “Don Quixote de la Mancha” was present at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
He was always proud of it and he already wrote that the injury which cost him his motor skills left hand It was not in a tavern brawl, but “on the highest occasion which past ages have seen, and present ages, neither do they hope to see those to come.” The author of “The Table of Flanders” will tell how Cervantes achieved glory in this naval battle that stopped the Turks in the Mediterranean.
He will be followed, at 8:00 p.m., by the writer, also Juan Eslava Galánwith a lecture entitled “The Cervantas, women of this era”, the author knows the life of this era well and will reflect the life of the writer’s sisters. In this window you will be able to follow the Friday conferences.
The two authors will then participate in a conference and in the evening exposure ‘Cervantes. A journey from Castro to Parnassus, visible at the Municipal Library and which will show the author’s influence on the universal literature of the following centuries.
Sessions will resume this Saturday with Andres Trapiellowho will hold a conference at noon entitled “The Translation of Don Quixote”. A shipyard affair. “He dared to make a contemporary Don Quixote,” summarized Vigorra, explaining how he brought Cervantes’ work into a more current language, arguing that many expressions were incomprehensible to Spanish readers of later centuries. At 1:00 p.m., the writer will speak Espido Freirewhich will be dedicated to “Cervantes’ Women, much more than muses” and how they appear captured, with their own personality, in the writer’s pages.
He speaks
In the afternoon, at 6:00 p.m., he will speak Lola Ponsprofessor of Spanish language at the University of Seville, who will offer a lecture entitled “What Cervantes says is said”. The language of Don Quixote. It will approach, as Vigorra said, the form of talk this can be seen in the characters that run through the work featuring the Knight of La Manche. Saturday lectures can be followed in this window.
The last conference, at 8:00 p.m., will be given by Alphonse Guerraformer vice-president of the government, “who confessed to consulting Don Quixote on several occasions and resorting to his numerous teachings”. “Readings from Don Quixote” will be a journey through the way the work was undertaken, beyond the decalogue of good government that appears when Sancho Panza takes charge of the island of Barataria. The Cervantes Conference will end at 8:45 p.m. with a reading of fragments of the writer performed by the actors Juan Echanove and Lucía Quintana.
In addition to the conferences, there will be an exhibition and a reading of texts by Juan Echanove and Lucía Quintana.
For the coming years there will be a lot to study, as journalist Jesús Vigorra said, and there will be time to shed light on other aspects. For example, poetry. “Grace did not want to give me paradise,” Cervantes said of his desire for poetry, which did not come to fruition. “He wrote more verses than Saint John of the Cross or Garcilaso,” said Jesús Vigorra.
He also tried to devote himself to the theater, and indeed “many of his works are still unpublished, and even the best known are rarely seen. In his time Lope de Vega “He was the most successful author on stage and he won everything.” “Cervantes wrote the first modern novel, but he probably died without knowing the importance of what he had written,” Vigorra insisted.
