SPANISH culture has arrived in Bulgaria. On February 10, the Cervantes Centre Sofia opened its doors to the public. Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Spain inaugurated the centre on a two-day visit to Bulgaria - their first trip abroad since the birth of their four-month-old daughter Leonor. Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov also attended the opening ceremony, along with Spanish-speaking writers and publishers, including the Mexican writer Sergio Pitol - last year’s recipient of the Migual de Cervantes Literature Prize - after whom the Centre’s library has been named. The Pitol library contains books by Spanish-speaking authors from all over world.

The centre in Sofia is the most recent addition to the Cervantes Institute network, which has centres in 56 towns in 37 countries around the world.

The Sofia Echo spoke to the director of the Cervantes Institute Sofia, Luisa Fernanda Garrido.

The Cervantes centre in Bulgaria shares the aims of every Cervantes centre in the world - to promote Spanish language and culture, she says.

The centre in Sofia will most likely start with language courses for pupils and university students who want to take the DELE diploma, the international Spanish language certificate. The centre will also provide courses for beginners and, in the future, plans to provide courses for more advanced levels of Spanish.

There are also plans to organise courses in some of the other languages that are spoken in Spain. Spain is a multilingual country and if there is interest in Bulgaria, the centre will provide courses in Catalonian, Galician and Basque. There will also be the option to provide courses in business Spanish.

For those who would like not only to speak the language, but also learn more about Spanish culture, the Centre will be organising events in the areas of cinema, literature, music and art. It has already hosted a Galician bagpipe concert at Sofia’s Military Club.

Each Cervantes Centre focuses on presenting the culture of a particular Spanish-speaking region. In Bulgaria, the focus is on presenting the culture of Galicia, in northern Spain. There is currently an exhibition from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, on display in the Centre’s gallery.

Like the rest of the building, the gallery is modern, spacious and well-designed. Indeed, the building - formerly that of the diplomatic mission of the US - was a big attraction for opening the Centre in Sofia.

The idea for opening a Cervantes centre in Bulgaria has a long history in Spain, says Garrido. However, the fact that it is one of the biggest - and certainly the biggest in Southern Europe - has a simple explanation: they were lucky to find such a large, pleasant building. She says that everywhere they open centres, they try to find the best building, “but here in Bulgaria we were really lucky”. 

The centre has good links with all Bulgarian cultural institutions. As for existing cultural ties between the two countries, Garrido says, “Bulgaria and Spain have developed really good cultural relations, but there is still work to be done. We know each other, but I am sure that we can improve that and that is one of the main goals of the centre.”
Garrido also has experience of and ties with the Balkan region. Born in Madrid, she has a degree in Mediaeval Balkan History from the Autonomous University of Madrid and another from the University of Zagreb in Serbian and Croatian philology.

This is her first engagement with the Cervantes Centre, having worked previously as deputy secretary of the association of translators in Spain. She has taken part in many cultural events in Spain and last year received the most important award in Spain for translation - the “National Award for Translation”.

This is not her first visit to Bulgaria, as she has travelled a lot in Eastern Europe as part of her activities and interest in Slav literature. She thinks that Bulgaria has changed for the good and is waiting for the spring to come so that she can visit all the beautiful sites here, but right now she says, that with the recent opening of the Cervantes centre in Sofia, “there is much work to be done”.

Contact information
The Cervantes Institute,  Sofia
1 Saborna street
Tel: 810 4500
Fax: 980 2628
http://sofia.cervantes.es/