Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín

 No doubt you are well aware of the rudiments of flamenco, of how to dance a tango, and you will almost certainly have heard of the advantages of a Mediterranean diet.

Perhaps you might also have heard of the human towers in Catalonia, or the Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico, and perhaps even the quirky displays of Barranquilla’s Carnival, in Colombia.

But, do you know what Majorca’s Chant of the Sybil is, or what it sounds like? Or the Whistled language of the island of La Gomera (one of the Canary Islands)? How about the Scissors Dance in Peru?

Each of these cultural practices has something in common: they are all part of UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

If you would like to find out more about any of these cultural phenomena, the following is a full list of those taking place in Spanish-speaking countries around the world:

BANTRY publisher Clem Cairns, who has been successfully running literary competitions for the past 15 years, is now set to capitalise on a strong link he has established with Spain by setting up the first joint literary festival between Ireland and Spain.

He has been spending time each winter in Granada, while continuing to administer the literary competitions that are run by his company, Fish Publishing, and has made some contacts in the Spanish literary scene in the past few years.

Read more… The Southern Star

Cava Restaurant

Cava is a really good Spanish restaurant in Galway serving a large selection of Tapas, starters and main dishes. They have a very good Spanish wine list and if, like me, you love Spanish food when in Spain, then Cava is a slice of Iberia at home.

Read full review…

Cava is Galway’s first Spanish Restaurant and Tapas Bar devoted exclusively to Spanish food, wine and beer. Situated on Dominick Street in Galway, the city’s up and coming left bank, Cava aims to provide Galway with the ambiance and regional aromas of all parts of Spain.

Cava Spanish Restaurant website

Last Monday, the 2011 longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award  was announced.

The IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the largest and most international prize of its kind. It involves libraries from all corners of the globe, and is open to books written in any language.

The Award, an initiative of Dublin City Council, is a partnership between Dublin City Council, the Municipal Government of Dublin City, and IMPAC, a productivity improvement company which operates in over 50 countries. The Award is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries.

 The nomination process for the Award is unique as nominations are made by libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world. Participating libraries can nominate up to three novels each year for the Award. Libraries interested in participating should contact the organisers for details.

This year, there are 6 novels written originally in Spanish that have been selected for this Award:

• Infinity in the Palm of her Hand by Gioconda Belli 
• Your Face Tomorrow: Poison, Shadow and Farewell by Javier Marías 
• Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Piñeiro 
• Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo 
• Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi      
• The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón 

Which one is your favourite?

During the Franco years, the survival of independent cinema in Spain was thanks to the “Three Bs” — Luis Buñuel, Juan Antonio Bardem and Luis García Berlanga. The last of these irreverent, original film-makers, who has died aged 89, Berlanga was pivotal in reviving the Spanish film industry after the end of the civil war, despite his many tussles with Franco’s censors.

In 1953 he established himself with ¡Bienvenido, Mister Marshall! (Welcome, Mr Marshall!), a masterful comedy about the hopes of Spanish villagers that the Marshall Plan will make them rich.

Nick Caistor

Read more… The Guardian.co.uk

 Commute Chronicles – Foodgame

A new coffee shop and gourmet grocery called Foodgame recently opened up near Ringsend in Dublin.

I’ve been in a few times now (in fact, I’m currently the mayor on Foursquare) and the owner is so friendly and enthusiastic about his business that I’m really rooting for him to succeed.

Read more… Sidewalksafari.com

Foto: Xavier Torres Bacchetta

Kumar, born in “Mantilla” (Havana, Cuba), is a young artist who has developed his career very soon not only in the hiphop scene, also in the world music circuit.

His approach to music is inspired by Cuban hip hop.

Coming from the Cuban musical underground, he is known for his work and his collaborations with many Cuban musicians from the experimental jazz area, alternative and traditional.

He also participated in the soundtrack for the movie “Habana Blues” by Benito Zambrano (Goya Award for the best soundtrack).

In 2007 he moved to Barcelona to complete his album. In the last two years he has performed in the major jazz, world music and Latin music festivals in Europe. His music is based on the research into the roots of Cuban music and its African cultural heritage.

Today, 13/11/2010 (20:00 h) at Grand Social Club.
Lower Liffey Street.
1 Dublín

Some of the skeletons are intact but others, say those who find them, are headless (…)

The macabre findings appear to lend weight to a local legend that the beach marks the spot where the English, including Sir Walter Raleigh and the poet Edmund Spenser, massacred an army of Italians, Spaniards and Irish, together with the women and children who had taken shelter with them in 1580. (…)

In a letter to the Queen on November 12, 1580, Grey recorded how his men, despite apparently offering to spare their captives’ lives, had butchered them.

Read more… The Sunday Times

Shades of happiness

Jordi Forniés, born in Huesca in 1971 is a Catalan artist based in Dublin (Ireland).

A chemist by training, Jordi knows a thing or two about pigments and paint.  

His experience in this area combined with a very strong interest in the mineral world has lead Jordi to reinvent or re-interpret the complex yet beautiful landscapes within and without, mixing traditional and cutting edge design techniques.

Sculpting external material into the canvas before blending colours as time would in rock formations, the artist invites us on a journey through the inner self, exploring the geology of the mind, the meandering of distant memories, the erosion of emotions, the passing of love. 

Opening on Wednesday November 17 at 7 pm
Smock Alley Theatre.
Girls School.
Essex Street West.
Temple Bar. Dublin 8

Read more… Olliart.com

“I’ve always felt the balance between the two (cultures), I’ve never felt more Spanish than I did Irish and I’ve never felt more Irish than I did Spanish,” he told AFP following a news conference in the Galician capital of Santiago de Compostela, where is attending the Spanish premiere of “The Way”.

“I love both countries, and both cultures had a profound effect on me.”

Read more… Expatica.com

Andrés Trapiello

Café Literario will be a setting for a special evening with the writer Andrés Trapiello. We will go through different layers and aspects of his versatile literary creation.

Andrés Trapiello. Born in Manzaneda de Torío (León) in 1953 and based in Madrid since 1975. Currently he works as a writer and freelance journalist collaborating with numerous publications.

As a poet he published Junto al agua (1980), Las tradiciones (1982), La vida fácil (1985), El mismo libro (1989), and complete poetry works entitled Las tradiciones (1991) and Acaso una verdad (1993) .

His novels are La tinta simpática (1988), El buque fantasma (1992), La malandanza (1996), Días y noches (2000) and Los amigos del crimen perfecto (2003), which received the Nadal Prize, Al morir don Quijote (2004) and Los confines (2009).

He published sixteen tomes of diaries entitled Salón de los pasos perdidos (Salon of lost steps).

10/11, 6pm. Café Literario, Instituto Cervantes Dublín
Moderación: Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa (Queen’s University Belfast)
En español con traducción al inglés disponible. | In Spanish with interpreting into English available.

Read more…

Becas Argo

La biblioteca del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín ha abierto dos convocatorias en en el programa de becas Argo para titulados en biblioteconomía y documentación. Los interesados pueden inscribirse en www.becasargo.es

La biblioteca del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín también está interesada en recibir estudiantes y titulados en biblioteconomía y documentación a través del programa Erasmus Prácticas y de Becas Universa (Universidad de Zaragoza).

El Instituto Cervantes de Dublín prevé extender su programa de prácticas a otras áreas del centro próximamente. 

The latest additions to the library catalogue can be consulted on-line as usual.

Click ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES, then select “Dublin”, and choose the time period, for example, the past 15 days, the past month, or the past 3 months.

This is our selection for November 2010

Specially for teachers of spanish as a foreign language and for their students:

		Editorial DIFUSIÓN The complete catalogue with the latest publications is now available at our library

Books

		Blind sunflowers Alberto Méndez Arcadia Books, 2008

		Descortesía del suicida Carlos Vitale Candaya, 2008

		Sólo un muerto más Ramiro Pinilla Tusquets, 2009

		El animal piadoso Luis Mateo Díez Círculo de Lectores, 2009

		El informe San Marcos Fermín Bocos Martínez Roca, 2009

		La fe ciega Gustavo Nielsen Páginas de Espuma, 2008

Cinema

		Al final del camino dir. Roberto Santiago Warner B. España, 2008

		Un poco de chocolate dir. Aitzol Aramaio Aurum, 2008

Music

		Music from Christian and Jewish Spain Jordi Savall Virgin, 1999

		Soulería Pitingo Universal Music, 2009

Prince of Asturias Awards Ceremony

October was the month of awards. On the 7^th October, the Swedish Academy awarded Mario Vargas Llosa the Nobel Prize for Literature.

On the 15^th October, Eduardo Mendoza received the Planeta Prize, the literary award with the highest financial pay-out in Spain, and on the 22^nd October, the prize-giving ceremony for the Prince of Asturias Awards took place in Oviedo.

The Prince of Asturias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Prince of Asturias Foundation to individuals, entities and organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, or public affairs.

In November, we would like to invite our readers to get to know the work of some the Spanish and Latin American authors awarded Prince of Asturias Awards for Literature, whose work is perhaps less well-known in the public domain.

Read more…