Yesterday began one of the most important Cultural Festivals not only in Mexico but in the whole world, but to understand the Cervantino International Festival… we have to talk about Enrique Ruelas Espinosa forerunner of this Festival.
Lawyer, professor, actor, playwright and theatrical director, who from a young age showed interest and taste for theatre, however, for his parents that was not the future they wanted for him, as they said that if he was engaged in theatre he would starve to death , so in the form of punishment he was sent with his brother to the City of Guanajuato to study law, without suspecting that far from away from his passion they would bring him closer to it; in fact, Enrique considered the audiences to resemble small plays in which all participants became actors and the endings were often unexpected.
He directed and staged several plays both the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and the Teatro de la República and the Teatro Juárez in The City of Guanajuato.
In 1947 he wanted to commemorate the 400th birthday of the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra performing a work in which the entire population had access without having to pay for it, but for various circumstances he could not carry it out; however he did not give up that desire and in 1952 when he created the School of Dramatic Art of the University of Guanajuato and founded the Teatro Universitario saw the opportunity to realize his longed-for dream albeit behind closed doors; the following year on the occasion of the celebration of the Second National Assembly of Higher Level Universities and Educational Institutions, Enrique Ruelas took the opportunity to perform outdoors in the Plaza de San Roque, a representation of the Entremeses Cervantinos in which it had the participation of students, housewives, children and much of the population; due to the success achieved year by year, such performances were held in the City of Guanajuato; in 1971 the then president Luis Echeverría Alvarez came to see the Cervantinos Entremeses, he became so fascinated that he proposed the creation of a Festival promoting cultural, artistic and humanistic communication with other countries and performing said Festival in the City of Acapulco, which at that time enjoyed great international fame; however, what made the Hors d’Oves stand out was the architecture and orography of the City of Guanajuato, so he gave up on this idea and for the year 1972 founded the Board of Trustees of the Festival and in homage to this workist that for 20 years was carried out in the City of Guanajuato decided that the Festival would bear the name of Cervantes, thus holding the first Cervantino International Festival from September 29 to October 28, 1972, where the Cervantinos Entremeses remain one of the main reasons to attend the Festival
This year the Cervantino International Festival will have as a country and state invited India and Aguascalientes, will be held from October 10 to 28
Here’s the billboard
“He was an authentic Cervantino character, hidalgo knight, always affable, correct and formal, who became a Quixote of the Mexican Theater who fought against Windmills and Giants of the Bureaucracy and against all those for whom art and culture are waste of time and money” Aimée Wagner
