The local cathedral is also one of only two Magistral Cathedrals in Europe (Cathedrals where the priests are required to be PhD's in theology).
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Conociendo a Alcalá de Henares
Alcala de Henares is the name of the town where I'm living. I'm living with an older couple named Luisa and Francisco. She's from Alcala, and he's from Andalucia.
The city is SO beautiful! I had no idea it was such a cultural gem either. Apparently this is the city where Miguel de Cervantes was born, lived, and died. If the name sounds unfamiliar, he wrote Don Quijote, among many other works, and is as influential in Spanish culture and writing as Shakespeare is in English. As a result, there's tons of museums and everything about him, and just as importantly, The annual Cervantes literature award is given here at the university. This literature award is given to authors in the Spanish language, and is as highly esteemed and recognized within the Spanish speaking world as the Nobel Prize for literature.
The local cathedral is also one of only two Magistral Cathedrals in Europe (Cathedrals where the priests are required to be PhD's in theology).
I'm really excited to get to know my home for these next three months, and cannot wait to do some serious exploring and get to know more and more of the city.
The local cathedral is also one of only two Magistral Cathedrals in Europe (Cathedrals where the priests are required to be PhD's in theology).
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Wow! It looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI hope the Cervantes prize is more comparable to the Pulitzer or Newbery. I'm revealing my ignorance, but my first thought was, "There's a Nobel Prize for literature?" Quick scan of the list of 112 winners shows I've only heard of 15 of them, and of those have read maybe 5. On the other hand, I've only heard of 1 of the Cervantes award winners, and that was from you.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an amazing place to be living! I'm very jealous.
I think that's actually a really good point. The Cervantes award is probably much more comparable to the Pultizer prize. The Cervantes award is interesting since every year the award alternates between an author from Spain and one from Latin America. Also interesting is that the Cervantes prize is not given for an individual work like a book but to an author. So for example, Jorge Luis Borges was a highly influential author from Argentina. As far as I know he doesn't have any one defining work or book that everybody just loves. However, because of his influence over the course of a career, he got the award. I think of the 41 winners, I've read about 8 so far.
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