MANILA, Philippines – Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the cultural arm of the Embassy of Spain, is looking for participants in a poetry recital of Jose Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios.”
The participants will recite one line each from Rizal’s famous poem. Originally written in Spanish, the hero wrote it on the eve of his execution on December 30, 1896.
Each recitation will be recorded and edited together for a video that will be shown on Instituto Cervantes Manila’s website and social media pages. Volunteers will get a rose for their participation, following Spanish tradition where books and roses are exchanged on World Book Day. They also get a chance to win a free Spanish course at Instituto Cervantes.
Poetry recital participants will take turns reading their lines from 10 am to 10 pm on April 27, as part of Dia del Libro, Insituto Cervantes’ annual celebration of World Book Day. As in previous years, this year’s event will be held at the Ayala Triangle Gardens.
There will also be a rewriting of Don Quijote, the novel by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, who is the institute’s namesake. Volunteers will have two minutes to copy a few sentences from the novel by hand, and the final handwritten book will be kept in Instituto Cervantes’ library. The writing chain will begin at 4 pm and finish at 11 pm.
Of course, aside from the community projects, there will also be a book fair, where people will receive a rose along with every book purchased, following a Spanish tradition where books and roses are exchanged on the day. Bookstores and publishing houses will sell books at a 20% discount.
There will also be book signing sessions with select authors (including Jessica Zafra), the launch of Budjette Tan’s latest volume of Trese (soon to be a Netflix series), free Spanish classes, book presentations, street art, music, and even football games.
Admission to Dia del Libro 2019 is free.
World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day, or International Day of the Book is actually on April 23, as declared by UNESCO in 1995. The day is significant for being the date of death of both Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, who coincidentally both died in 1616. – Rappler.com
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