Granada now hosts a new cultural initiative: the Hontanar Center for Thought, an interdisciplinary space for dialogue with literature as its starting point, aiming to become a “spring” of thought and humanism through gatherings that connect people with the leading figures of knowledge.
Hontanar thus presents a program of forums, workshops, and colloquies with prestigious writers and thinkers, with an intergenerational approach and from multiple perspectives. Thus, on Friday the 20th, Saturday the 21st and Sunday the 22nd of November, the writers Lorenzo Silva and Aldo Linares will lead in the Carmen de la Victoria a workshop on tools for literary research that will begin on Friday at 6:00 p.m. with a visit to the Treasury of the Virgin, will continue on Saturday after the theoretical and practical training with an evening and exclusive tour of the Abbey of Sacromonte, and will culminate Sunday morning with the presentation of Aldo Linares’ unpublished archives.
For its founder and director, Marichu García Trejo, Hontanar evokes the land from which water springs and which serves as a source of thought, knowledge, and transformation: “we want to contribute to the international recognition that Granada already enjoys as a place of intellectual creation, with our cultural activities and the presence of philosophers, scientists, artists, thinkers, theologians, and writers who help us reflect on the great contemporary questions,” says its director.
This new center of thought proposes the spring as origin, search, and center of what is essential. According to García Trejo, who quotes Dámaso Alonso in his verse “La hontana de aguas frescas, centro de todo,” the hontanar is a metaphor for “there exists an origin to return to, which helps us think about our time so changing and uncertain, with greater meaning, sensitivity, and inner freedom.”
Thus, Hontanar will develop two lines of activities: forums and conferences, open to the city and with institutional support, and workshops for creative writing and literary research for small groups, the latter requiring registration that will enable not only the learning of writing skills and tools but an exclusive immersion with the speakers over an entire weekend.