Instituto Cervantes opens a new extension at the University of Havana

Eduardo González The Instituto Cervantes and the University of Havana have reached an agreement for the creation of a Cervantes Chair in this institution, created in 1728 and which has delivered to the Caja de las Letras of the Institute in Madrid, among other legacies, the application for admission of the novelist Alejo Carpentier in 1922. The meeting took place this past Wednesday at the headquarters of the Institute in Madrid, with the participation of the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero; the rector of the University of Havana, Miriam Nicado; the vice-rector and new Cervantes professor, José Antonio Baujín; the ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in Spain, Marcelino Medina; and the general secretary of the Instituto Cervantes, Carmen Noguero. During the meeting, both institutions signed an agreement to launch a new Cervantes Chair, held by the vice-rector of the University of Havana, José Antonio Baujín, and whose appointment will be for four years. Among its functions will be to facilitate collaboration between different academic cultural centers in Cuba and the Institute, as well as to promote and disseminate the Cervantes program in the Ibero-American country. This chair is added to other recently created ones such as that of the University of Puerto Rico, directed by the Puerto Rican writer Luis Rafael Sánchez, or the one inaugurated in May 2023 in Edinburgh, occupied by the Hispanist and professor Alexis Grohmann. In addition to this extension, the agreement includes measures for the training of teachers of Spanish as a foreign language (such as professional development courses or courses on Hispanic culture) for university teachers, as well as the creation of a Espacio Cervantes, to which funds from the Institute's library will be allocated on a temporary basis, among other provisions, according to the Instituto Cervantes in a press release. Alejo Carpentier After the signing of the agreement, the ceremony was held to hand over the legacy of the University of Havana to the Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes. The legacy includes the application for admission to the University of Alejo Carpentier, the author of the novels 'El siglo de las luces' or 'El reino de este mundo', who, in 1922 and at the age of 17, presented his student record to enter the School of Engineers. Accepted by the University, he had to abandon his studies very early due to family circumstances and it was in the sixties when he returned to this institution as a professor of History, having already become one of the most important novelistic voices in the Spanish language. Carpentier was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 1977. The legacy also includes the student records of the Cuban poets José María Heredia, from the 19th century, and Roberto Fernández Retamar, whose documents correspond to the period between 1947 and 1954. The University of Havana was founded in 1728 by Dominican friars and over the course of almost three centuries it has managed to extend its studies and faculties until it became one of the most important universities in Latin America. With this legacy, it joins other contributions of Cuban culture to the Caja de las Letras such as those of the dancer Alicia Alonso and the writers Severo Sarduy, Nancy Morejón and Leonardo Padura. During the event, García Montero stated that the University of Havana is a “historical reference” in the relations between Spain and Cuba and highlighted its “fundamental work” in humanistic and scientific studies. “The Cervantes University wants to collaborate closely in the links between Cuba and Spain and in all possible common projects, as well as recognize the historical and present importance of the University of Havana,” he added. For her part, Miriam Nicado stated that the Carpentiers, Heredias and Fernández Retamars “are three indispensable intellectuals of Ibero-American culture, associated with three key periods of the construction of the Cuban nation: each one a child of his time and at the same time of all our times.”

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