Jesús Camacho, 28, a schoolteacher, recalled a time in his youth when he refused to read Don Quixote, the most famous work of Spain's celebrated writer Miguel de Cervantes. "I saw that it was the same size as the Bible,'' he said, "so I got scared."
But in July, Camacho, who is also a rapper known as Camaccho, found himself enthralled by the themes in the writer's works as he prepared to participate in the "Rap in Cervantes" competition in Spain. The event features contestants improvising lyrics based on a phrase or character from Don Quixote and other works by the writer.
Camacho said in an interview that he was surprised to discover that Cervantes dealt with many of the themes that are at the heart of his own hip-hop compositions. "Cervantes tells us,'' he said, "that you can't live without having hopes, without dreaming of something beyond your everyday reality - whether things then work out as you hoped or not - and that is exactly what I believe."
"Rap in Cervantes" is among the innovative celebrations being held this year to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Cervantes. It is a trans-Atlantic occasion, coordinated between two annual theatre events - the Almagro Classical Theater Festival in central Spain, and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato in central Mexico. Guanajuato will repeat the rap competition in October, with the same group of six finalists.
The winner here, as in Mexico, picks up euro 2,000 . But many of the artists said they viewed the event not in terms of winning but as an opportunity to bridge street and "high" culture.
Alfredo Martínez, 30, who comes from Tijuana and calls himself Danger, said: "We've been too separated, often stigmatised by society for being at a lower level culturally, but it's also true many rappers are just content with believing that all of what they do has to come from the street. I certainly want to do an intelligent hip-hop, based on culture."
Cervantes became famous mainly due to his Don Quixote of La Mancha. But he also suffered some major setbacks, particularly with his plays, which were mostly flops and were overshadowed by the works of his main rival, Lope de Vega, and other playwrights of the so-called Golden Age of Spanish Literature.
As a cultural expression, "hip-hop and rap have not been properly appreciated, which is what also happened to Cervantes during his own life with a lot of his works," Natalia Menendez, the director of the Almagro festival, said in an interview. She suggested one could link Cervantes to rap because of his concerns for social issues like the rights of the working class, rather than focusing on religion and some of the mainstream subjects of his day. For example, Cervantes pushed for the emancipation of women, Menendez said, and pointed out the difficulties faced by house servants. He also had "a sense of social justice that had nothing to do with that of his times," Menendez said.
In the competition, each rapper gets one minute to improvise a song based on a phrase, word or character created by Cervantes, like Rocinante, Don Quixote's horse. "I learned something about Cervantes tonight, including some things I sort of knew but had no idea that they came from Cervantes," said Antonio Morales, who works in an oil refinery and was in the audience gathered in the main square of this city.
Danger said he had been influenced by a wide array of writers, including the Mexican authors Carlos Fuentes and Juan Rulfo. In Mexico, 87 rappers entered the event, compared with 104 in Spain. In the final held here on July 14, however, the Spanish rappers came out on top, according to both the votes of the jury and the reception they got from an enthusiastic crowd. The audience "could probably understand more easily what we were talking about," said Jose Miguel Manzano Bazalo, 26, who is from Valencia in eastern Spain and calls himself Skone.
In his improvised lyrics, Skone praised Cervantes but also said, "I represent the current poets." The eventual winner was another Spaniard, Alfonso Campos Yuste, who goes by the name BTA.
So while Cervantes provided a starting point, the rappers improvised lyrics that focused mostly on personalities and issues of today, like political corruption in Spain and drug violence in Mexico. The Spanish competitors assailed their nation's acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and King Felipe VI, while their Mexican rivals went after their country's president.
Skone, the Spanish rapper, said: "We wanted to create something based on Cervantes but also connect with our audience, and that means finding a balance and talking to the public about things everybody knows and understands''.
But in July, Camacho, who is also a rapper known as Camaccho, found himself enthralled by the themes in the writer's works as he prepared to participate in the "Rap in Cervantes" competition in Spain. The event features contestants improvising lyrics based on a phrase or character from Don Quixote and other works by the writer.
Camacho said in an interview that he was surprised to discover that Cervantes dealt with many of the themes that are at the heart of his own hip-hop compositions. "Cervantes tells us,'' he said, "that you can't live without having hopes, without dreaming of something beyond your everyday reality - whether things then work out as you hoped or not - and that is exactly what I believe."
"Rap in Cervantes" is among the innovative celebrations being held this year to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Cervantes. It is a trans-Atlantic occasion, coordinated between two annual theatre events - the Almagro Classical Theater Festival in central Spain, and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato in central Mexico. Guanajuato will repeat the rap competition in October, with the same group of six finalists.
The winner here, as in Mexico, picks up euro 2,000 . But many of the artists said they viewed the event not in terms of winning but as an opportunity to bridge street and "high" culture.
Alfredo Martínez, 30, who comes from Tijuana and calls himself Danger, said: "We've been too separated, often stigmatised by society for being at a lower level culturally, but it's also true many rappers are just content with believing that all of what they do has to come from the street. I certainly want to do an intelligent hip-hop, based on culture."
Cervantes became famous mainly due to his Don Quixote of La Mancha. But he also suffered some major setbacks, particularly with his plays, which were mostly flops and were overshadowed by the works of his main rival, Lope de Vega, and other playwrights of the so-called Golden Age of Spanish Literature.
As a cultural expression, "hip-hop and rap have not been properly appreciated, which is what also happened to Cervantes during his own life with a lot of his works," Natalia Menendez, the director of the Almagro festival, said in an interview. She suggested one could link Cervantes to rap because of his concerns for social issues like the rights of the working class, rather than focusing on religion and some of the mainstream subjects of his day. For example, Cervantes pushed for the emancipation of women, Menendez said, and pointed out the difficulties faced by house servants. He also had "a sense of social justice that had nothing to do with that of his times," Menendez said.
In the competition, each rapper gets one minute to improvise a song based on a phrase, word or character created by Cervantes, like Rocinante, Don Quixote's horse. "I learned something about Cervantes tonight, including some things I sort of knew but had no idea that they came from Cervantes," said Antonio Morales, who works in an oil refinery and was in the audience gathered in the main square of this city.
Danger said he had been influenced by a wide array of writers, including the Mexican authors Carlos Fuentes and Juan Rulfo. In Mexico, 87 rappers entered the event, compared with 104 in Spain. In the final held here on July 14, however, the Spanish rappers came out on top, according to both the votes of the jury and the reception they got from an enthusiastic crowd. The audience "could probably understand more easily what we were talking about," said Jose Miguel Manzano Bazalo, 26, who is from Valencia in eastern Spain and calls himself Skone.
In his improvised lyrics, Skone praised Cervantes but also said, "I represent the current poets." The eventual winner was another Spaniard, Alfonso Campos Yuste, who goes by the name BTA.
So while Cervantes provided a starting point, the rappers improvised lyrics that focused mostly on personalities and issues of today, like political corruption in Spain and drug violence in Mexico. The Spanish competitors assailed their nation's acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and King Felipe VI, while their Mexican rivals went after their country's president.
Skone, the Spanish rapper, said: "We wanted to create something based on Cervantes but also connect with our audience, and that means finding a balance and talking to the public about things everybody knows and understands''.
© 2016 The New York Times