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The Story of a Modern Woman*

In 1946, a journalist asked Professor Antonio Pastor about his favourite books. The Professor, who had recently been named Director of the Spanish Institute, answered with a great sense of humour, “My father’s chequebook and my mother’s recipe book”.

 The (pre)history of our library could start like this: in 1946 Franco’s Government, still ignored by the other foreign powers, decided to set up the Spanish Institute to thwart the influence of the Spanish Institute in London, directed by Pablo de Azcárate. Until the end of the Civil War, Pablo de Azcárate held the position of Spanish Ambassador to the UK in London. Once victory had been recognised by the British Government, it would then go on to be held by the Duke of Alba. 

Despite this recognition, in mid-May 1946 the opening of the Institute was coldly received by the British press. Professor Antonio Pastor, who stressed the nature of the Institute was cultural and non political, declared in the News Chronicle: “… this Institute will have the best Spanish library outside of Spain, with more than 8,000 books”. However, five days later the Daily Worker published a devastating cartoon in which the cultural activity of the Institute and the tragic bombing of Guernica were connected. In the picture, several youngsters introduced coffins inside “Franco’s Cultural Centre”. The caption was: “They are just a few historical records of Guernica”.

Since then, 64 years have passed. Today the library houses more than 30,000 items which are constantly being updated and which at the same time pay homage to all those who passed through here, contributing to our history. For example, Leopoldo Panero, cousin of Pablo de Azcárate, whose books and memoir can be found in our catalogue, was here as an Assistant Director.  Pablo Luis Cernuda, a good friend of the above, has also spent time here as has Salvador Madariaga, who have both left behind them not only a deep mark on London, but also their great work, which is magnificently represented in our collection. Anonymous donors also helped shape an important collection of books by British travellers in Spain, from the XVIII Century to the beginning of the XX Century, and also the librarians who have worked here, who have meticulously put together an interesting collection of documents about the Civil War. These few lines are also a great tribute to all of them. 

It is not surprising, due to its history and collections, in which it is important to highlight those that involve the history between Spain and Great Britain, that many researchers outside of the UK have contacted us for particular items. The majority of our users, however, are students and teachers of Spanish looking for manuals, grammar books, good literature, music, and of course Spanish and Latin American films. 

That project, which started in 1946, became the library of the Instituto Cervantes in London in 1991. Today the library is completely integrated into the city thanks, fundamentally, to its collaboration with ACLAIIR (Advisory Council on Latin American and Iberian Information Resources), and also with EUROLIS (group of librarians and members of the cultural institutes of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, and members of CILIP in London) with which the Library of the Instituto Cervantes of London organises and takes part in seminars, exhibitions and working meetings.

So in conclusion, maybe our library is not yet “the best Spanish library abroad”, but we are working on it. Maybe what we need is a good chequebook, or maybe just some good recipe books.

Happy birthday, Mrs. Library!

Text in Spanish (.pdf)

*The Story of a Modern Woman is also a novel written by English author Ella Hepworth Dixon. The novel was first published in 1894. The novel is an example of the «New Woman» genre of late-Victorian England  (From Wikipedia)

We would like to thank the Associated Newspapers Limited for their kindly having allowed us to publish the article from the News Chronicle which we reproduce (in the image) above.
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How the British media views Spain

ICLL Podcast series: New Episode (in English)

Is British media coverage of Spain still dominated
by the old stereotypes? Or do the newspapers, TV
and radio now reflect more accurately the reality
of Spain as a modern European nation?

With social and commercial links between our two countries
stronger and more important than ever, this debate
will examine how Spain is perceived by Britain´s
media, and ask how Spain might improve its image
here.

Participants

Walter Oppenheimer
Jimmy Burns
Anna Bosch
Peter Preston
Jonathan Smith

Collaborating Organisation

El País (Madrid)

Embajada de España (Reino Unido)

Oficina de Información y Prensa (Londres)

Televisión Española (TVE)

TVE (Londres)

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El español que nos une y nos diferencia

El español que nos une y nos diferenciaICLL Podcast series: New Episode (in Spanish)

El español que nos une y nos diferencia
Globalisation, human migration and the use of the Internet have reinforced Spanish as a language of international communication. At the same time, there are marked cultural differences among Spanish-speaking countries that influence the Spanish language and that, on occasion, distort communication.

What are the main differences between Peninsular Spanish and Latin American Spanish? On what linguistic level are they manifest? How do they affect communication and usage? On the 200th anniversary of Latin American Independence we have brought together two leading experts so that we can discuss our extensive common language that both unites and separates us.

In
Bicentenario de las indepencias en Hispanoamérica. series of talks

Participants
Francisco Moreno
Rosina Márquez-Reiter

Collaborating Organisation
Asociación de Consejeros Culturales de América Latina, España y Portugal / Association of Cultural Attaches of Latin America, Spain & Portugal (Londres)

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Don Quixote competition

Yes! We have finally published all the 80 short stories received for our “Don Quixote competition”

To find yours, just type your forename in the searching box of the blog.

Thank you very much again for participating and thank you very much to all the teachers that encouraged their pupils to write about Don Quijote. You all made a very good job.

 We really enjoyed reading the texts received and we are very sorry we just could give four prizes for two winners in the two different categories.

category 7-11 y. o.

 1st prize   Alex Vicar “The Quijote in my life”

 2nd prize category 7-11 y. o. Nikki Moxhag-Baker “Lampposts in the city”

category 12-19 y. o.

 1st prize: Anthony James “Don Quijote”

 2nd prize: Sara Aveni “Giulio, mi quijote”

We hope you enjoyed as much as we did practising your Spanish and maybe discovering something new about our culture and about Don Quijote. In fact, this was the main purpose of our competition.

We hope you will celebrate with us the International Book Day next year again.

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«Travels in Portugal… and Spain» by H. F. Link

Following his interest in botany, entomology and ornithology, Henry Frederick Link visited Spain with the Count of Hoffmannfegg, in 1798. The origin of this journey was initially to do a research focused in Portugal, as Link himself underlines in the introduction of the book “to collect materials for Fauna and Flora Lusitaniae”.

However, his exploration spread out to Spain and France and he went beyond his scientific purpose and decided to write a travel book about these three countries.

 

“At the time we had no idea of publishing and account of our travels as such; our chief attention was directed to investigating the works of nature, especially the botanical riches of the country”

Nevertheless on his return, after reading numerous accounts of travels in Portugal, Link discovered so many inaccuracies that he decided to “seize the pen to defend my friends the Portugueze” and wrote Travels in Portugal and through France and Spain. With a dissertation on the literature of Portugal, and the Spanish and Portugueze Languages.

Written in 1801 and translated from the German by John Hincley the copy available in our library was published that year by Nichols and Son Printers, in London. The information related to Spain is gathered in six chapters of the book (VII-XI), from Biscay to Extremadura, through Castile and Madrid.

 

USEFUL LINKS

About the author:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Heinrich_Friedrich_Link

About the book:

(pdf – page 18)

http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/fichero_articulo?codigo=2857118&orden=0

Online book:

http://books.google.es/books?id=Y38EAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA296&lpg=RA2-PA296&dq=henry+frederic+link+travels+in+portugal+and+through+france&source=bl&ots=qnpL23fuGw&sig=UtI5pakQXOWwLEB6mDHR8_dLhB0&hl=es&ei=RxVPS9COEJaUjAfyw6GWCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CC0Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=henry%20frederic%20link%20travels%20in%20portugal%20and%20through%20france&f=false

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Laughing over lemons

Chris StewartWE DON’T do stand-up comedy at the Instituto Cervantes, we don’t even do sit-down comedy very often, but last night’s audience with Chris ‘Driving Over Lemons’ Stewart was the funniest evening LondonSpanish has had for some time.

Chris proved he is just as witty a speaker as he is a writer, and another packed house was soon laughing along as he recounted his latest adventures and embarrassments in the Alpujarras. Like the rest of Andalusia, the area has seen rainfall of epic proportions in the past few months, and Chris told how a flood swept away one of its many ham-curing houses.

Locals gathered downstream hoping to salvage some of the contents as they were washed up – only to find the meat had been smashed away by the torrent and just bones remained. As Chris would later point out, mountain people are a little, um, different.

(Read more…)

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“Tourist in Spain» (1837) by Thomas Roscoe

Alcazar at SegoviaThomas Roscoe (Liverpool, 1791) was a British journalist and travel-writer. The account of his journeys was published by Mr. Jennings within the collection Landscape Annual. Although Mr. Roscoe wrote four volumes on Spain –which can be found in our library–, Tourist in Spain: Biscay and the Castile’s is his most representative piece of travel writing. He also wrote works on France, Italy and Morocco and The Life and Writings of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

In Tourist in Spain (1837) the author relates the events that took place throughout his travels around Spain, starting in the autumn of 1935. Bayonne is the starting point of the peninsular tour, through the Pyrenees, visiting then Vitoria, Burgos, Segovia, Madrid and ending in Toledo. Within the first half of the volume, Mr. Roscoe stresses the events related to the conflict that is taking place during that period, the First Carlist War, and its “barbarous excesses committed on both sides throughout this lamentable war”.

Besides Roscoe’s personal adventures, the author relates stories from other people that he met during his journey. With regard to the Spaniards, the journalist states that “they do not govern themselves here by the laws of ethics, but by custom, or according to the rules they can suck out of the pith of old proverbs, mostly antediluvian, and just suited to the world as it existed before the flood”.

Street of Alcalá, MadridThe engravings by David Roberts that illustrate the book are one of the most remarkable features of this volume. According to Spectator, “The engravings are so uniformly excellent, that we cannot, without doing injustice to the other, name any one in particular. They are, for the most part, perfect”.

USEFUL LINKS

About the author:

http://www.hanesybont.co.uk/earlytourists/roscoe.htm

Online book:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3VINAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Thomas+Roscoe%22+%2Btourist+in+spain&source=bl&ots=9gpwJosvP-&sig=4Ju-fR97F-oWOfUr3Itxe2sUO2o&hl=es&ei=5AdjS8esDJ280gSYwJ3LBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Other works on Spain by Roscoe:

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/bibliotecavirtualandalucia/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=10256

 http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/bibliotecavirtualandalucia/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=10251

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The Silent Revolution

ICLL Podcast series: New Episode (in Spanish)

The Silent Revolution

Graphic design between 1920 and 1950 constituted a means of distribution for aesthetic and political avant-garde ideas. In contrast with the Muralist movement, its presence was rather more modest but its scope was wider.

While the muralists were painting their masterpieces on official buildings, graphic art was being distributed through educational channels and channels for literacy campaigns all over the country. Some of the best artists participated in this work: Leopoldo Méndez, Alvarado Lang, Jean Charlot, Emilio Amero.

Small print production cooperatives such as Escuelas al Aire Libre, Taller de la Gráfica Popular (TGP) and artistic movements such as Los Estridentistas emerged.

Participants
José Manuel Springer

Collaborating Organisation
Embajada de México (Reino Unido)

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“Spain and its People” by Eugène Poitou

Spain and its people

First published in France in 1869, Spain and its People. A record of Recent Travel with historical and topographical notes, was translated by William Henry Davenport Adams, an English writer and journalist (whose biography is available in Wikipedia) in 1872. 

The copy accessible in our library contains numerous engravings by V. Foulquier portraying scenes of the everyday life in Spain, its landscapes, traditions and main episodes of its History. 

As Davenport points out in the preface, 

if Poitou´s pages pretend to no great depth of reflection, they sketch the present condition of Spain, – they delineate its landscapes, they cull the choicest episodes of its history, and touch upon the more conspicuous features of the Spanish character,- with unfailing good sense, quick discrimination, and considerable facility. 

Spanish people and their manners are the object of a lot of criticism made by Poitou through this book, staying such things as They have no taste or Spain, nevertheless, is very good! But, I must own, the Spaniards have somewhat spoiled it; and thanks to them, I return more persuaded that ever of the truth of the adage, that we always learn something by travelling, if it be only to love better our own country”

Don Quixote

Don Quixote

Starting from the northern cities bordering on France and heading southwards, the author takes particular interest in describing the Cathedral of Toledo, Museo del Prado in Madrid or Zaragoza, which the author believes to be “the most interesting city of Spain”. At the beginning of every chapter a poem of renowned author is included, verses by Byron, Southey and Jorge Manrique, among others. 

USEFUL LINKS 

About the author: 

http://www.fernandoiwasaki.com/articulos_archivos/Poitou.pdf 

About the book: 

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B02E2DE173BEF34BC4B53DFB766838F669FDE&scp=1&sq=new+publications+spain+an+its+people&st=p 

Online book: 

http://www.archive.org/details/voyageenespagne01poitgoog  

 

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Ediciones EL CIPRÉS: Brand New Spanish Publishing House

Ediciones El Ciprés was born in León, Spain, just a few weeks ago. They are publishing fiction and poetry and Antino, a novel by Mercedes Unzeta Gullón, is the first title in their catalogue. Good luck!

Fear, love, lack of affection/indifference, greed, life and death are the protagonists of this moving true story led by the character of Antino, a young, attractive and lively thirty-seven-year-old man who, at the happiest and most joyful time of his existence learns that his future is coming to an end, and his life is tagged with an expiry date: a few years, although it will be a lot less.

The story, taking place between a Mediterranean island and the city of Madrid, narrates the existential changes that will occur in the life of Antino and those around him. Changes that make the foreseeable turn into the unexpected, and the unthinkable become something usual.

It is essential to take into consideration how the disease is approached in the story.

It used only a sinister and painful excuse to take the reader down a path in which all human grandeurs and miseries are revealed. AIDS is the slap in the face that the characters get, to wake them up to the realities of life and death; knowing how to approach these realities (which we tend to ignore in our day to day lives) with love and courage is one of life’s greatest difficulties. They are the main issues of the human being, its constants: love, life, doubt, death; the difference is on the approach we use.

The story could lead to self-compassion, be torn apart, to an open heart…

Keeping the courage and at the same time building a tender, accepting atmosphere, making bonds that would be impossible in other circumstances, is an achievement that, to anyone who has ever endured (and who hasn’t?) an intense sentiment of any kind must draw an interest.

The reader is first introduced to the situation as an observer, from the outside, with initial surprise. Then he will become a participant, mainly in the love, but also in the pain, the anguish, the contempt, and the astonishment towards the meanness some fellow men are able to display. And will end up seated by Enriqueta and Cristina’s side, feeling the strong presence of Antino, and laughing with their complicity to the dismayed expression of a young funerary.

A strong optimism, full of hope and joy, floods the environment that nurtures/nourishes the details of the story. Love and humour, in equal quantities, are shared out with generosity in its essential lines.

Some novels turn those who approach them into observers, critics, contributors, masters, pupils,… but to achieve all at the same time is a rarity. This novel is one of those rare pieces.

Elena Miranda Alas. Ediciones El Ciprés (“El Ciprés Publishing House”)

COMPRAR EL LIBRO

info(at)edicioneselcipres.com

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