English
Walking down Alcalá street is like walking into the heart of Madrid. It is like a rule – anybody visiting the city has to take a stroll down one of the most beautiful, iconic and oldest roads in Madrid, born in the Puerta del Sol.
In the 1940s, it was a tradition for anybody who visited Madrid to be photographed on this street, as symbol of having truly arrived in the city. And even today, it´s hard not to be taken in by the atmosphere of the place. For madrileños and other Spaniards, it is the place of all those films in the 1960s, with the Seat 600 cars zooming down Puerta de Alcalá. People visiting for the first time are not only surprised by the beauty of the buildings and monuments (the Post Office building, the Linares Palace, etc), but also its well-preserved, lined with trees and flowers.
At number 49 of the street, by the metro station Banco de España, is the central headquarters of the Cervantes Institute. The public institute was founded in 1991 for the promotion and teaching of the Spanish language, and the Spanish and Hispanic-American cultures. As well as the other headquarters in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), birthplace of writer Miguel de Cervantes, there Institutes in all five continents.
One of the Cervantes Institute´s objectives is to organise activities of cultural involvement with other Spanish organisations – such the collaboration with charity group Médicos sin Fronteras (“Doctors without borders“) and newspaper El País for the photographic exhibition “Testigos del olvido”. The testimonies of eight great writers are told, in Spanish, about different conflicts round the world, also captured on celluloid by photographer Juan Carlos Tomasi.
From October 2008, until May 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Ramírez, Laura Restrepo, Juan José Millás, John Carlin, Laura Esquivel, Manuel Vicent and Leila Guerriero took themselves off to different places of conflict round the world, such as the Congo, Haiti, Yemen, Cachemira, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Guatemala, Columbia and Zimbabwe – to be able to write their own testimonies on the the horrors of today´s humanity.
These writer-reporters have attempted to make a portrait of the misfortune and desperation that millions of human beings live day to day, where rape, illness, kidnap and disappearances are nothing out of the ordinary. And one clear objective – that the rest of the world doesn´t forget.
Rocío Dew
Exhibition “Testigos del Olvido” is on until the 15th of May. Make like an itinerant traveler and go onto other cities such as Paris, London… Rent Madrid accommodation and be one of the first to see the exhibition.
Translated by: Poppy