World Book Day, Cervantes, and Hispanic Canadian Literature

Every April 23 marks World Book Day and Spanish Language Day. From Spain to South, Central and North America, the work of Miguel de Cervantes continues to connect cities, readers, and migrant experiences.

What is celebrated on April 23? 

World Book Day is celebrated on April 23 because it is a symbolic date for world literature, marking the passing of major authors, including William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, all in 1616. At the United Nations, it is also recognized as Spanish Language Day. Beyond the commemoration itself, this date invites us to reflect on the power of literature to cross borders and remain relevant across time.

Alcalá de Henares: the city where Cervantes was born

We held hands so we wouldn’t get lost. The Cervantes Market in Alcalá de Henares in Spain was overflowing with people, and we had no choice but to go with the flow, even though we didn’t really know where we were headed. It was the last day of Cervantes Week, which commemorates the baptism of Miguel de Cervantes, author of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. 

I had been told it was the largest market in Spain, with hundreds of stalls selling crafts, food, and drinks. But the crowd was so overwhelming that stopping to buy anything was almost impossible because it meant going against the tide of people setting the pace.

Since I could barely see to the sides, I focused on the signs and decorative garlands hanging from balconies. Then suddenly, the sound of bagpipes made me look down and witness something unexpected. The melody seemed to part the crowd in two, making way for the musicians leading a procession featuring none other than Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

Alcalá de Henares, about 45 minutes from Madrid, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. Not only because it was one of the first planned university cities of the Early Modern period, but also because of its role in spreading knowledge and the Spanish language. And, of course, because it is the birthplace of Cervantes. Today, his house is a museum that I couldn’t visit because the line stretched for several blocks, but it gave me a good reason to return.

Cervantes cities that keep his legacy alive

That Cervantine spirit doesn’t live only in Spain. Years before visiting Alcalá, I travelled to Azul, in the province of Buenos Aires, a city about 300 km from Argentina’s capital and more than 10,000 km away from Alcalá. It was there that I discovered the Cervantes Cities Network.

Azul was recognized in 2007 as Argentina’s Cervantes City. The reason: it holds one of the most important collections of Don Quixote editions in the Americas, with around 500 copies. It all began with the passion of a lawyer, Bartolomé J. Ronco, whose dedication to the work of Cervantes eventually became part of the city’s cultural heritage.

Alcalá and Azul are separated by the Atlantic Ocean, but they share more than just the first letter of their names. Their people are committed to celebrating literature as a living part of identity. And they are not alone. In Latin America, cities such as Guanajuato in Mexico, Recife in Brazil, and Montevideo in Uruguay are also part of this Cervantes Cities Network.

Why read Don Quixote today?

For a long time, Don Quixote felt intimidating to me. I knew it was long, old, “important.” Last year, I decided to read it as part of a personal challenge. And yes, it took time. But it also surprised me.

Beyond the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, I found a work full of humor, irony, and questions that still feel relevant to our societies today, questions about censorship, about what we consider madness or sanity, about the ideals we choose to pursue. It made me laugh and also realize something uncomfortable, I thought I knew the story without ever having read it.

Reading Don Quixote today is a reminder that classics help us understand the present. One of the quotes that most resonated with me says: “He who reads much and travels much, sees much and knows much.”

Spanish-language literature in Canada

That experience also led me to reflect on what it means to read in Spanish from places like Canada.

Shortly after arriving in this country, I attended a literature event at the University of Toronto where Mexican Canadian professor and writer Martha Batiz was one of the hosts. Discovering such an active Spanish-language literary scene brought me unexpected joy, it was a place where I belonged far away from home.

I went on to read her novel A Daughter’s Place, inspired by the women in Cervantes’ family. Mostly through the character of Isabel de Saavedra, his illegitimate daughter, the novel offers an intimate look into the rarely explored world of the lives of the women who surrounded the author of Don Quixote. The story draws you in from the very first chapter and transports you to 17th-century Spain in a captivating way.

Originally published in English in May 2025 by House of Anansi Press, Batiz’s self-translation into Spanish, Las Cervantas, has recently been released by Hachette Editorial México. 

Beyond music, food, and film, literature in Spanish plays an important role in the cultural life of the Hispanic Canadian community and offers another path to stay connected with our roots. Many public libraries offer Spanish-language collections, and initiatives such as the Feria Iberoamericana del Libro in Ottawa and Inspiradas Cultural help promote Hispanic literature and access to reading.

Cervantes’ legacy in the migrant experience

Don Quixote was an ordinary man who chose to believe he was something more. Someone who, after reading so many chivalry books, chose to live according to his imagination even when the world insisted it was madness.

Isn’t there something of that in our own lives?

For many in the Hispanic Canadian community, migration means starting over, building a home far from where we were born, and raising families that are a little from here and a little from there. In that process, language and literature become ways of belonging.

Perhaps that is why we continue to read Don Quixote. Because, in the end, we have all had to take that small leap of madness at some point, to step out and invent a different life.

 

Maria Pia Maiti

Hispanic Canadian Voices

This article is part of Hispanic Canadian Voices, a space for reflections and conversations within the Hispanic community in Canada.