Casa de América (House of America), a Spanish institution based in Madrid, celebrates its quarter century anniversary with lectures and exhibitions that reflect on the political, economic and cultural evolution of the American continent during that period of time.

Twenty-five years later, some words said by Carlos Fuentes back in the day still resonate in the memory of Rebeca Grynspan, General Secretary for Ibero-America. The Mexican writer stated more than once that the enormous Atlantic Ocean that separates the American continent from Europe could just as well have been an impassable chasm. “The contribution of Casa de América has been to build over that chasm a solid, permanent bridge of communication between Spain and the Americas,” said Grynspan at the opening of the exhibit América en su Casa: 25 años (America at Its Home: 25 Years), one of the initiatives with which the center is celebrating its anniversary. 

The voices of Cervantes, Luis de Camoens and José Martí have found echo in those of the most relevant among the contemporary Ibero-American authors, such as Gabriel García Márquez, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Elena Poniatowska, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Ricardo Piglia. House of America’s literary programs have made possible that titles and authors become known, and have enriched the conversation about the books by Latin American   writers, as well as given great publicity to literary creativity –all on both sides of the Atlantic. 

By Camila Pinzón Mendoza

Read more here: WMagazín