San Diego/Alcalá Sister Cities Society celebrated with great success our 7th annual Cervantes Festival on February 29th in Balboa Park.  Sincere appreciation and congratulations to all who contributed to this success with their energy and imagination.

We honored Alcalá de Henares’ favorite son, Miguel de Cervantes and his favorite son, Don Quijote de La Mancha, with a record number of well-prepared readers, including 2nd graders, our youngest group ever. We added a new language this year, American Sign Language, and even added a new banner! Our festival is more inclusive and diverse every year.

Well-organized and hard-working volunteers made it all possible and the delicious House of Spain paella and their volunteers, along with fun and lively Spanish music and dance, completed the day with a taste of Spain.

In order to entertain and teach our youngest guests about Alcalá and Spanish culture, they were invited to enjoy several activities designed especially for them:  Spanish dress-ups, painting Spanish flags and maps, drawing and painting scenes from Don Quijote, and

constructing greeting cards from photographs of Alcalá and beautiful fans.  They showed their love of paint by painting on paper, the table, the grass and even themselves!

The collaboration, goodwill and generosity of the members of our society, the students, their instructors and parents set an example of how our community comes together to celebrate our sister city, make friends, learn skills and have great fun, all centered around the love of a 17th Century Spanish writer and his gift to humanity.