Celebration of Don Quixote's 400th birthday begins today

Giant windmills, daring adventures and comical observations characterize Miguel de Cervantes' 1605 novel, Don Quixote, which is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year.

Beginning today, the division of Spanish and Portuguese studies is holding a three-day celebration of this classic novel with events taking place around campus that explore the impact of Cervantes' work on various academic and artistic mediums. Events will include roundtable discussions, an adapted performance by Book-It and a guitar performance by Spanish musician Francesc de Soler.

Despite being well known, many students have not actually read Don Quixote.

"In order for these books to have meaning today, people have to read them and make them come to life, if only with their imagination," said Donald Gilbert-Santamaria, a professor in the Division of Spanish and Portuguese studies. "That's the big idea behind this event."

More than 1,000 pages long, Don Quixote follows the numerous larger-than-life adventures of errant knight Don Quixote of la Mancha and his pudgy sidekick, Sancho Panza.

Quixote, who reads chivalrous tales of heroic knights with fervor and believes them to be true, embarks on his own adventures, many of which are exaggerated in his mind. He thinks the windmills he attempts to conquer are giants and that an ordinary peasant girl is a beautiful maiden who has been put under a spell.

Some consider Don Quixote to be the first modern Spanish novel. Don Quixote is an easy book to connect to, Gilbert-Santamaria said. It is a book that anybody can just pick up and read.

"I think some of themes resonate in modern life, like the sense of adventure and the fine line that exists between genius and insanity," said Ryan Skaggs, a Spanish student.

"It's accessible in a way that a lot of other literature from this period or before isn't," Gilbert-Santamaria said.

The idea of having the anniversary celebration was conceived in a class Gilbert-Santamaria's is teaching about Cervantes this quarter. The Simpson Center for the Humanities provided funding to make the event public, reaching out to the UW campus community and the general public.

"We have these intellectual interests that can be discussed at many different levels," Gilbert-Santamaria said. "The classroom isn't the only place to talk about these ideas."

One of the event's goals is reminding people that they are part of a larger community.

"[We want] to get the audience to understand and capitalize the notion that this isn't just some dead text that sits on your shelf," he said. "It has to be brought to life."