Cervantes Festival in Balboa Park

This year 2019 marks the sixth anniversary of the San Diego/Alcalá Sister Cities Society and the House of Spain celebrating in conjunction with our sister city, Alcalá de Henares, and its beloved son, Miguel de
Cervantes, the reading in public of his immortal novel Don Quixote de la Mancha.

On April 13 in Balboa Park, several members of the public participated in the reading, more than 127 students from the 5th grade to university level in the function of readers, artists, and volunteers. Students from Longfellow School, High Tech High International, El Capitan High School, San Diego High School, Cuyamaca College, Southwestern College and Mesa College participated.

To emphasize the universality of Don Quixote , the students read the novel in Slovak, Chinese, Mixtec, Russian, Arabic, English, Tagalog, and French. Twenty-two students and two teachers of Alcalá de Henares joined us and they took the microphone to interpret to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the language of Cervantes. It was an exceptional day for all.

Thanks in particular to students who read, promoted the event in the park, mounted and dismantled tables, chairs, cleaned paella pans and those that contributed drawings for the promotional poster. As customary, a delicious paella complemented the reading prepared and served by our friends in the House of Spain and we loved the music by Carlos Velasco and Eduardo Reyes.

The wonderful dancing in the company of Juanita Franco, Olé Flamenco, with the Spanish guitar and flamenco singing finishing the celebration. Thanks to everyone for making Spain shine in Balboa Park, the Day of the Cervantes Festival.