Aday of books and roses
Instituto Cervantes bridges cultures, promotes reading with Dia del Libro
Bibliophiles opportunity got to immerseanother themselves in books and culture as Instituto Cervantes brought back its much-awaited Dia del Libro event last April 22. The Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati was the setting for various exciting activities such as a book fair, with major bookstores and publishing houses offering their reading materials at a 20-percent discount. Following tradition, every book purchase was accompanied by a free longstemmed rose. There were likewise hundreds of books that were given for free, along with a book exchange opportunity provided by mobile library The Book Stop at the venue. One of the main features of the day was the exhibit The Prado Museum in Manila, presented by the Embassy of Spain, Instituto Cervantes and the Prado Museum. It displayed more than 50 life-size reproductions of masterpieces from The Prado Museum in Madrid, including Juan Luna’s Cleopatra, a silver medalist in the 1881 Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Exposition of Fine Arts) in Madrid. guests The a event chance alsoto “writegave 500 history,” with an activity area where they jotted down a few lines from Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.” The writingchain began at 11 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m.; all participants received a rose for their Quixotic efforts. The final hand-written book was deposited in the Instituto Cervantes library. Dia del Libro also offered special activities for children, such as storytelling in both English and Spanish, painting workshops, and games. Grownups, on the other hand, had the opportunity to widen their literary horizons by browsing through the displays mounted by the Embassy of Panama on their country’s literature, and the Embassy of Chile’s exhibit on Chilean writer Gonzalo Rojas (1916-201), one of the renowned Latin American poets of the 20th century. Ramón Perelló, editor and executive director of Peninsula (Grupo Planeta, the 10th biggest publishing firm in the world), gave his talk “Confessions of a publisher” at the Library Miguel Hernández of Instituto Cervantes. On the local front, EUNIC and Anvil also launched the short story compilation “Layag: European Classics in Filipino,” a compilation of European short stories, while author Juan José Morales presented his book, “The Silver Way,” which discusses the Manila Galleon trade’s role in the history of the world. Vibal Foundation also unveiled its colorful research on “Flora de Filipinas.” The Spanish Cultural Center provided free entertainment for an entire evening of leisure and activities, including a feast of Spanish food, games, jazz music, a poetry recital, and free Spanish-language classes. The celebrations ended in the evening with a free concert by the Manila Symphony Orchestra titled “Clásicos en el Parque,” which featured classical pieces from its Spanish and Filipino repertoire. The tradition of Día del Libro, which began in Barcelona, Spain was first introduced in Manila by Instituto Cervantes in 2006. For more information of Instituto Cervantes de Manila, visit http://manila.cervantes.es or www.facebook.com/Instituto CervantesManila.