Cervantes Festival

Cervantes Festival at the University of Panama

Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare were contemporaries, and occupy similar positions in the literary traditions of their respective languages. But while Shakespeare enjoyed royal patronage toward the end of his career and went down in history as the glove maker's son who became a star of the cultural establishment, Cervantes was the surgeon's son who was imprisoned at least three times in his life and is best known for an outrageous satire that ridiculed the value system of Spain's ruling elite, Don Quixote.

In recent years there has been a great Cervantes revival throughout the Spanish-speaking world, including Panama. Thus on October 22 and 23 the University of Panama's Humanities Faculty put on its Fifth Cervantes Festival, with lectures about Cervantes and his times and music from that period. Above we see Humanities Faculty dean Carmen Guadalupe Cordova offering her introductory remarks, and below we see guitarist Rafael Serallet (a Spanish professor), accompanied by the Central American Youth Orchestra and Chorus.

Photos by José F. Ponce

Also in this section:
Painting, Al Sprague
Photography, José Ponce's urban scenes
Painting, George Scribner
Sparky The Wonder Dog
Cool Internet sites
Literature & Music: Cervantes Festival at the University of Panama
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