Latin American Reading Club at Instituto Cervantes
Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor
Instituto Cervantes is the place to go for Spanish language culture in the city. This summer they are bringing some of the best Latin American authors to the forefront with an expertly curated reading club.
The Club is led by Mariana Casale, a former languages lecturer turned specialist in narrative bibliotherapy, Latin American, English and Comparative Literature. She obtained a PHD in Latin American Cultural Studies from the University of Manchester in 2010 and has since been working as a narrative therapist as well as sharing her passion for Latin American literature.
Embrace the broad culture of your native language or flex your bilingual brain muscles.
The club meets on a roughly fortnightly basis (not including half terms), giving you plenty of time to familiarise yourself with the texts beforehand. Each session will have a particular focus on either a particular author or authors that are from a similar era or style of writing. Some of the names the club will be exploring are Mariano Quirós, J.L. Borges, J.R. Ribeyro and Samantha Schwebling.
Participants are able to attend a one off session or sign up for multiple, depending on their preference. It’s worth noting that the sessions are suitable for native Spanish speakers or those who have an Advanced B2.1 level of Spanish. So the club is definitely not for beginners. However, it’s a space for people to embrace the broad culture of your native language or flex your bilingual brain muscles.
Reading Club is just one of the many cultural offerings from the Instituto. We cannot recommend enough checking out their other exhibitions, panel discussions and talks which are often accessible for both Spanish and English speakers alike.
