University in Spain Runs Summer Course On Hispano-Filipino Literature

MANILA, Philippines — Spanish university Universidad Rey Juan Carlos collaborated with the Philippine Embassy in Madrid to offer a summer course on Hispano-Filipino Literature titled “Innovación Metodológica y Curricular: Humanidades Digitales y Literatura Hispanofilipina.” Rocío Ortuño Casanova of the University of Antwerp and professor Beatriz Álvarez Tardío of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos facilitated the course . Tardio, the summer course’s director, approached the Philippine Embassy to collaborate.

Philippine ambassador to Spain Philippe J. Lhuillier thanked the students for their interest in the Philippines in his remarks during the course’s opening ceremony, per the Department of Foreign Affairs. He also expressed hope that the course would “reinforce the special friendship and people-to-people relations that the Philippines and Spain enjoy.”

The course was held at the said university’s Biblioteca del Campus de Vicálvaro on July 5 to 9 and was open to the public. A limited number of attendees were allowed on the university’s campus while the rest of the participants attended online.

The Philippine Embassy held a three-hour lecture on Baybayin in Spanish on the first day. A sampling of Filipino dishes was also offered to the participants, which included pancit.

Professor Daisy Reyes of the University of the Philippines presented a lecture on poetry writing and professor Marlon James Salas of the University of Michigan gave a lecture on colonial literature. Sally Gutierrez Dewar, a Spanish-British documentarist, showed an excerpt of her film “Ta acordaba tu el Filipinas?” or “Do You Remember the Philippines?” which explores the ways that the Philippines adopted Spanish culture.

The summer course is part of the activities of the Erasmus+, a European Union program that “supports education, training, youth and sports in Europe.”