The Diplomat
Paradores de Turismo, the Instituto Cervantes and Radio Nacional de España have joined forces to promote culture at the local Spanish level and to promote authors, preferably young, with regional projection and links due to their origin or the subject matter of their work.
That is the objective of the collaboration agreement and work plan signed last Thursday by the president of Paradores, Pedro Saura; the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero; and the director of Education, Culture and International of Radio Televisión Española, Ignacio Elguero, within the framework of the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) held last week in Madrid.
The plan calls for a program of literary cultural activities to be held at various Paradores throughout 2022 under the name Veladas Literarias en Paradores (Literary Evenings at Paradores). They may be held in different establishments of the network, among which are expected to be those of Granada, Santiago de Compostela, Sigüenza (Guadalajara) and Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).
The Instituto Cervantes will propose a series of writers to be the protagonists of these evenings, in which they will converse with a communications professional from Radio Nacional de España. The meetings will be part of the public radio station’s programming.
Paradores, which manages 97 hotels distributed throughout Spain, will lend its unique spaces (located in historic buildings and natural sites) to host these activities to promote culture and literature, and will provide the technical means to carry them out. It will also offer its customers the evenings as part of a comprehensive experience that complements the stay and gastronomic enjoyment with literary activities, in addition to other complementary resources already available, such as guided tours.
For the president of Paradores, Pedro Saura, “the Literary Evenings are intended to become a great event in which attendees have a different and comprehensive cultural experience with the authors in a more relaxed and close environment, within the framework of our Paradores and the historical burden that they treasure. We believe that it can be an opportunity to enjoy a new and enriching cultural stay”.
García Montero stressed that Paradores “is a benchmark of public effort to publicize our country and its culture” and added that organizing these evenings fulfills the mission of “combining literature and hospitality in places and historic buildings of our geography”. In addition, doing it with Radio Nacional de España “will give a dimension and a diffusion that will bring these evenings closer to all citizens”.
