Guanajuato /
It was in a refugee camp in France where Eulalio Ferrer Rodríguez met who would become his friend, inspiration, savior and legacy: Don Quixote de la Mancha. The Spanish arrived at said site in the 1930s, fleeing the Spanish Civil War, and sealed their fate in an exchange: a pack of cigars in exchange for a miniature edition of the great work of Miguel de Cervantes.
This event led to one of the largest artistic collections that exist in the world about the legendary hidalgo and his eternal companion, Sancho Panza, which is currently preserved and exhibited to the public in the Don Quixote Iconographic Museum, located in the heart of Guanajuato.
“(Eulalio) opened the book and in its pages he found a perennial flash of light in the midst of the darkness and the confinement in the refugee camp. After a long journey, randomly, arrived in Mexico with his little book in his pocket and he never got rid of it in his entire life, ”says Ángela Piedad, whom the venue designates as Coordinator of special cultural projects, on one of the walls of the permanent exhibition.
The Iconographic Museum of Don Quixote began its activities on November 6, 1987 and since then it has only increased its heritage and impact on the figure of the knight errant. What’s more, It is key for Guanajuato to be considered the capital of Cervantes from America.
Myrna Quiñones, Germán Valles Fernández, Antonio Rodríguez Luna, Gilberto Aceves Navarro and Iñigo Correón are some of the artists who have added paintings and sculptures to this collection, where a mural by the Mexican Gabriel Flores stands out, which has its own room, the ‘Capilla Cervantina ‘.
On the main staircase of the venue there is also a piece that draws a lot of visitors’ attention: the work ‘Cervantinisimos’, by Luciano Trigos, which gathers key figures in the history of the Cervantino Festival: Enrique Ruelas, Eugenio Trueba and Ferrer himself .
The Don Quixote Iconographic Museum is located on Calle de Cantarranas number 1, in the downtown area of Guanajuato. It costs 30 pesos to the general public and 10 pesos to students who prove it with a credential.
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