Around the 23rd of April for a number of years now, hundreds of people invade the grounds of the Casino Espanol-Filipino, which has hosted the Instituto Cervantes cultural agency. These book lovers have discovered El Dia del Libro, the International Day of Books.
The celebration began as a custom begun by book publishers in Barcelona to celebrate the city’s patron saint, Sant Jordi (known to the rest of the world as St George).
“[Barcelona] was a center of the publishing industry at that time,” said Jose Maria Fons, cultural affairs officer for Instituto Cervantes, “and it became a tradition that people would exchange books and roses.” In other words, buy a book and get a rose. (The coincidental deaths of Cervantes and Shakespeare are also marked on or around 23 April.)
This year, Instituto Cervantes decided to try a new place for its annual celebration of books and culture.
Bonifacio High Street played host to the seventh-ever Manila staging of El Dia del Libro last Saturday, 20 April 2013. Unlike its earlier editions, it started in the early afternoon and picked up toward the evening, with guest appearances by, among others, F. Sionil Jose, whose Solidaridad bookstore in the Malate area has been a perennial participant.
As with past years, the celebration has not just been about books and literature. In the afternoon, poets from the local literary scene and representatives of European embassies read poetry from here and abroad. Two contemporary dancers from Spain, Entomo, did periodic dance numbers underneath one of High Street’s public art pieces, and a flamenco guitarist played in the heat of the early afternoon.
There was also a public art installation, “Jungle of Books (Bosque del Libros),” a temporary display showing books hanging from the roof of a walkway while a recorded voice read excerpts from Spanish literature.
Fons told Coconuts Manila, “We thought it would be a very good idea to bring that [celebration] to the Philippines. It is a very big deal in Spain, but now we celebrate it [not only] in Spain but in many other countries.”
Instituto Cervantes started the celebrations in 2006, and it has become a part of their annual cultural calendar. Asked why they wanted to do it outside their T.M. Kalaw headquarters, Fons said, “For the seventh staging, we thought, why don’t we do it in another city in Metro Manila?”
The choice of Bonifacio High Street, in the former military base turned business center, was a good one, Fons added, because it was a fast-growing area. And what impressed him was that even before the event’s official start time, there were already clients already perusing—and buying—books!
Fons assured Coconuts Manila that this event would be a moveable feast from this point on, but he also had a wish: “What I would like to see is that Dia del Libro, the International Book Day, would not only be an [activity] done by Instituto Cervantes but also by different institutions, and that it becomes a part of the Manila cultural scene.” He hopes that it would be an event to be enjoyed by everyone.
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Ren Aguila is a contributing writer on arts and cultural affairs for a number of online publications. This is his first article for Coconuts Manila.
