To many Filipinos, Spanish culture is often equated with telenovelas, paellas, and an impeccable sense of rhythm.

But to the more historically-inclined, Spain represents an integral part of our culture, a country whose relationship with ours extends beyond the three centuries of colonial rule.

This relationship is best embodied by the Instituto Cervantes, an organization that seeks to promote Spanish as a language through activities like the Dia del Libro, or the International Book Day.

Dia del Libro has roots in Catalonia, Spain, where on St. George’s day, males and females traditionally exchange a rose for the gift of a book. It became a yearly tradition in Europe in 1995, when a Spanish delegation, supported by some 20 other countries, pitched to UNESCO the idea of proclaiming April 23 of each year as "World Day of the Book".

Here in the country, the tradition began only last year, with the Instituto Cervantes holding an event that featured more than 4,000 books written in Spanish and representing more than 22 Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Expatriates, National Artists, Spanish teachers and students all took part in the successful event.

A rush of bibliophiles

Even at 10 a.m. last April 19 when the Book Day was held, Instituto Cervantes’ sizable patio was already full of bibliophiles rummaging through dozens of books priced from P20 to P100. Instituto’s director Jose Rodriguez said they didn’t get as many books as they did last year although the crowd was more organized.

One thing that was still around from last year were the number of visitors who seemed to relish the opportunity of having their photo taken with Señor Rodriguez. While posing for a picture with a bunch of female students, Señor Rodriguez told me that the thinning of the crowds this year was due in part to the Instituto’s decision to not market the event as heavily as last year’s.

As for the fact that he seems a constant fixture among visitors looking for a photographic keepsake of the day’s events, he laughed and said: "They never seem to get a good picture of me, though."

I quickly lost Señor Rodriguez to other people looking for an audience with him, and it really wasn’t hard to find oneself distracted when one is in the presence of so many interesting books.

For people like me, whose knowledge of Spanish is limited to "Adios" and "Puede repetir, por favor?", the attraction of the International Book Day’s isn’t so much in the fact that I could read and understand the books on sale, but the fact that these books give one a peek into how other people in the world read, what kind of books people from other countries are coming up with, and how other people treat their books.

Among the many interesting books on sale at the International Book Day were this set of hardbound old Spanish pop fiction novels. Some of them were first published as far back as the ‘60s, and according to the book sellers, the original owner loved the books so much that he had them hardbound, three volumes apiece.

This year’s selection for children’s books also featured an interesting hardbound book that had beautiful colored illustrations. If I had had enough money at the time, I would have bought just for the gorgeous illustrations.

The International Book Day is also yet another opportunity to rub shoulders with the country’s literary elite, and nobody comes with better pedigree than National Artist F. Sionil Jose, who was holding an informal book signing session while everybody else was busy shopping.

Aside from guided tours around the Instituto’s new building, there was also a poetry chain, a dance presentation by Myra Beltran, Spanish film showing, an amateur photography contest, and free Spanish lessons for those who feel so inclined.

As a testament to how popular this part of the celebration is, I had failed to get slots for all three of the Spanish lessons that were lined up for the day. I had been looking forward to those since attending last year’s free lessons, and I consoled myself with the fact that I failed miserably in last year’s lessons anyway.

You see, I had expected the Spanish lessons to be exactly like the ones that I had taken when I was just in college. The teacher would still speak to us in English and Filipino as he or she taught us rudimentary Spanish, and I would be confident of the fact that I wasn’t making that big of a fool out of myself.

Imagine my shock when in walked a very Spanish man — patrician nose, pale skin, and speaking in rapid-fire Spanish – and proceeded to converse with us in the language of his Motherland. I felt like I was 16-years-old and had just found out that I was pregnant.

Adding to my horror was the fact that all the people I was with didn’t seem to need any lessons in Spanish, free or otherwise. Everything was nosotros this, vosotros that, hablamos this and hablamos that, and I was just about ready to bolt out of the room when the class finally ended. Of course, that still did not stop me from dreaming of one day taking up a Spanish class and finally, finally redeem myself in some way or another.

I instead consoled myself by immersing myself in the day’s other activities. I watched Myra Beltran’s performance entitled, Not Mine, and listened to Ronald Baytan and a host of other brave souls participate in the poetry chain and pay tribute to Sid Gomez Hildawa. Near the end of the day I had some delicious paella, stayed very far away from the Shiraz — whose alcohol content I could smell from across the table—and topped the day of by watching the Javier Bardem film Los Lunes al Sol.

All in all, it was a cool day for a bibliophile like myself. I got to browse through a lot of interesting books, have some delicious paella, and watch amazing performances from many different artists. Maybe next year, if I arrive early enough, I can habla Español with the best of them!