Instead of la Mancha whose name I do not want to remember
By Nacho Cadena Owner of La Petite France
A few days ago I received a precious gift, my nanny put a special edition of the IV centenary of Don Quixote De La Mancha into my hands, without a doubt the first universal novel and maybe together with the Bible the most read book of all times. El Quixote is the masterpiece of Cervantes and one of the most admired creations of human spirit, a jewel of Castilian literature, which knew how to conquer the whole world. This commemorative edition is precious, bound in white with an impeccable print. What a gift!
The first edition of EL Quixote was printed at the beginning of 1605, maybe around these months, but I do not know this for sure, but since today we can celebrate its 400th birthday. With the ink still fresh, hundreds of copies of the novel, that is so famous nowadays, left for America on board the "Holy Spirit". Some sixty packages with books traveled to Mexico and from there to Cartagena de Indias . El Quixote certainly was never foreign in our country, on the contrary with some lost packages el Quixote started to horseback ride through America and thus paced the new continent.
DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA
 A nobleman in his fifties, packed and stuffed like a sausage into an old armor and badly armed, with a skinny body, skeleton-like similar to his horse and always accompanied by a fat, chubby and ill-mannered countryman mounted on an ass, well a donkey and sometimes serving him as a page, both of them traveling through these plains of la Mancha , dry and devastated during the winter and burning, very hot and rough during the summer, looking for adventures, encouraged by this spirit of an errant gentleman that had imbued el Quixote, always eager to defend the weak, to protect the women, to do justice, to help good prevail, and to protect anyone, whoever needed it.
Two marvelous characters embodying the 2 types of Spanish soul, the idealist and dreamer, who forgets everything material up to his most urgent needs, in order to chase after inaccessible chimeras, and the other one, the practical one, with his feet on the ground and his fancy in his belly. Two characters whose figures nowadays have a great significance and presence.
THE FICTION IN EL QUIXOTE
Fiction is a central element of the novel. He is a "lunatic" and according to many a crazy gentleman, even though no clinical manifestation could be found in this madness, but rather an allegory, a fantasy created by the books on chivalry, a fantasy about unrealistic characters well-disposed towards everything in order to do good and to establish justice. In the second part we see Sancho Panza, the same one who is presented in the first chapters as being from the land, materialistic and pragmatic to the maximum, succumbing to the enchantment of fantasy and illusion, too.
FREEDOM
At the same time of being a novel about fiction, el Quixote is also a song about freedom. I would like to pause for a moment in order to contemplate this famous phrase of Don Quixote addressing Sancho Panza: " Liberty , my dear Sancho, is one of the most valuable gifts given to man by the heavens. Neither the treasures contained on land nor those concealed by the sea can equal freedom. You can and you should risk your life for freedom as well as for honor. On the other hand captivity is the worst evil that can come to a man". Beyond the fiction of Don Quixote, the silhouette of the novel's own author, Miguel de Cervantes, begins to show. He knew very well what he was taking about, especially if we refer to the years, almost 5, that he spent captive in prison because of different debts and accusations and his other incursions in jail.
The idea of freedom, offered by Don Quixote, is the same of all of Europe during the 18th century, offered by those famous liberals who said that " liberty is the sovereignty of an individual to decide his life without pressure or conditioning but rather through his own thoughts and his own wishes. After 400 years El Quixote continues to have traces of current events, which can be appreciated in these comparisons of the novel's fundamental and central topics.
El Quixote does not believe that justice and social order are functions of the authorities, but above all, they are the work of individuals and - according to him - of errant gentlemen who have put the chore on their shoulders of making the world, in which they live, a freer place, less unjust and more prosperous.
It is the errant gentleman who, out of his own will and motivated by a generous vocation, rushes onto the roads seeking remedies for everything that functions badly on this planet. In case authority shows up, it hinders his task instead of making it easier. For our times the importance of the force of the citizens appears here, of citizens in action.
MODERN QUIXOTES
I for myself like the figure of Quixote very much, right here on my balcony I have at least three sculptures, one of a thoughtful, thinking, pensive Quixote surely entangled in the analysis of his ideals, contemplating the idea of good and bad, penetrating the fundamental concepts of injustice, liberty and order; at hand there is another wooden sculpture of Quixote, arrogant, erect on the tip of his feet, proud of his armor and his lance, pleased with his two companions, the inseparable Sancho and his very skinny horse supporting him during all his struggles; I have a third sculpture of Quixote, a Quixote in action, brave, in full battle, the shield lifted in his left hand and the lance held in a determined position in his right hand: in all three sculpture the face is the same, the classical Quixote that you and I know.
In the same way as I enjoy the figure of the sculpture, I admire so much the figure of so many Quixotes in body and soul, men of flesh and blood, from this century, of this year 2005, who just like the one from 1605, fight today for causes that every brave man should defend. Right here in Puerto Vallarta I see some Quixotes fight against windmills, insensitive and foolish, representing the lack of interest for the community, for the prosperity of this town, for a better future vision of Puerto Vallarta .
I have a great respect for all those men and women who keep thinking that we can fight for the good, detested by the great majority, that we can fight for achieving justice, for preserving noble causes, for keeping the harmony of mankind and of nature.
LET US HAVE A FEAST FOR EL QUIXOTE
I would like to think about a homage for Miguel de Cervantes and his great novel here in Puerto Vallarta . I would like to invite Dante Medina and Pepe Brú to analyze in front of all of us the importance and the transcendence of this novel for the Castilian literature and for the universal literature. I have the impression that Don Quixote de la Mancha continues being up-to-date, it continues being a book for all times, it continues to have values, intrinsic meanings, not only literary but also existential . How good would Don Miguel de Cervantes feel, if here in this small corner of the planet, where we find one of the largest and most beautiful bays of the world, we would sit down one afternoon, 400 years later, to remember the figure of this ingenious nobleman from the region of la Mancha. It is a promise Don Miguel.
THE ARTISTS
Let us change the subject in order to think about an artist that I met recently, a skillful painter, who creates unsuspected luminosities, capturing sometimes everyday things, fruit, flowers, nature and still life and sometimes capturing the invisible, the abstract, the mystical, the fantastic, that which is only seen by imagination. Her work is found in the Gradiva Gallery. Visit her work in order to enjoy singular paintings, coming from an artist with a fresh soul, a kind face, overflowing with an appetite for life and for making art. Congratulations!
Nacho Cadena - Owner of La Petite France
E-mail: nachocadena@lapetitefrance.com.mx
* From My Balcony
is an independent column of Mr. Ignacio
[Nacho] Cadena, owner of La
Petite France Restaurant
in Puerto Vallarta and source of this information.
To contact Mr. Ignacio Cadena please email
to: lapetitefrance@prodigy.net.mx
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