English - Students' Corner - Contributions

El Ángel Caído, by Delfín Colorado (NB1 Tues, 2009-2010)

Diego Velázquez, by Fernando (Ba1 Mon, 2008-2009)
Diego Velázquez was born in Sevilla, Spain, in 1599. He was a great painter. He was famous for painting Las meninas. He was the official painter of the court of Felipe IV. He travelled to Italy to learn some skills. Many of pintures are in the Prado Museum in Madrid. His statue is in front of this museum. He has a street with his name in Madrid.

Carlos III, by Cristóbal (Ba1Tues, 2008-2009)
I´m going to describe the statue of Carlos III in Madrid. Carlos III was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1716. He was a king of Spain from 1759 to 1788. He was the son of Fernando V and Isabel of Farnesio. He was a famous politician leader. His statue is in Puerta del Sol.

Lope de Vega, by Mayte (Ba1 Tues, 2008-2009)
I’m going to tell you about the statue of Lope de Vega in Madrid. Lope de Vega was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1562 and he died in 1635. He was a great poet and playwright in the Spanish Gilded Age. Lope de Vega wrote a lot of plays. One of them is La arcadia, and he was a writer of universal literature.

Dr Martín Navarro, by Julia (Ba1 Tues, 2008-2009)
I’m going to tell you about the statue located in a square near Carlos III University. It’s a bust of Dr Martin Navarro. He was a doctor in Getafe for many years, when Getafe was a small town. He was born in 1902. He studied Medicine at Hospital San Carlos in Madrid, as one of his sons says. Dr Ramon y Cajal and Dr Marañon were his teachers. He fell in love with a woman in Getafe. They got married and they had three sons. He lived in Getafe during the civil war. He managed the Blood Hospital, which was situated in the current Escolapios. When the war finished, he had to leave Getafe and he went to France. When he came back, he was a doctor in Getafe. He worked here until his death.
I remember his house, it was in Calle Madrid, close to number 85. It had a front garden. Next to his house there was a book shop, but it didn’t sell anything. It was "un cambio novelas": there you could exchange novels and you paid some money. But this is another story.
Most people who see his bust don’t know about his life, and they just think it is another statue.

Carlos III, by Pilar Palomo (Ba1 Mon, 2008-2009)
I'm going to write about the statue of Carlos III in “La Puerta del Sol” in Madrid (The Sun’s Door). Carlos III was born in Madrid (Spain), in 1716 and died in 1788. He was considered “The best Mayor of Madrid”. He built big avenues like Castellana and Recoletos; wonderful fountains like La Cibeles, Neptuno; and important monuments like La Puerta de Alcalá (Sabatini was the architect). He founded The Academy of Language, of History; he created the Bank of Spain, the National Lottery and The Council of Ministers.
You can see he changed the city and left us a lot monuments. Actually, he wasn´t a very good king but in the end History remembers him for his works.

Cid Campeador, by Casilda (Ba1 Tues, 2008-2009)
I'm going to write about the statue of Cid Campeador in Burgos. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, "el Cid Campeador", was born in Vivar, in a village close to Burgos, in 1043. He was a famous soldier with Alfonso VI. He conquered Valencia. He was a legendary figure, very important in the history of Spain.

Cervantes, by Mary (Ba1 Mon, 2008-2009)
I'm going to write about the statue of Cervantes in Madrid. Cervantes was born in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares. He was a great writer. His book El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha is very famous in all the world. His statue is in the Plaza de España with his more popular characters: Don Quijote and Sancho Panza.

The Statue of Liberty, by Olaya (Ba1 Tues, 2008-2009)
I’m going to tell you about the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was a gift from the France to the USA so as to celebrate the first centenary of the Declaration of Independence of the USA in 1886. The statue is a woman who holds a torch and she represents: Liberty Enlightening the World. To visit it you have to take a ferry from Manhattan or the city of Jersey to Liberty Island where the statue is. I think it has been, it is and it will be the most popular and important statue in the world.

Dalí, by Marta (Ba1 Tues, 2008-2009)
I want to write about Salvador Dalí because I love his paintings. He was born in Figueras in Spain in 1904. In 1929 Dalí did a short film with surrealist film director Luis Buñuel. It was called An Andalusian Dog. This short film is very famous! Dalí was a great artist. One of his most popular paintings is Figure at a window, for example.

Rosalía de Castro, by Paqui (Ba1 Tues, 2008-2009)
I’m going to tell you about the statue of Rosalía de Castro in Santiago de Compostela. Rosalía de Castro was born in Santiago in 1837. She was the daughter of a single mother. She married a famous journalist and she had seven children. She was a great poet and a novelist. When she was only twelve years old, she wrote her first poem in two languages (Galician-Castilian). Her masterpiece was En las orillas del Sar (Beautiful poems but a bit traditional), about of pain. Her first book was La flor and her last book was Follas Novas, where she tells us about her way of life.
Rosalia and Adolfo Bécquer were both very important because they begun the Modernist period in Spanish literature.
When Rosalía was 48 years old, she got ill and in the end she died.

María Moliner, by MJC (?)
I want to write about María Moliner. I think she hasn’t got a monument. But she needs a monument. María Moliner was born in 1900. She was a housewife. When she was 50 she started a dictionary. Today this dictionary is her monument. Her dictionary is the best dictionary in Spain, Diccionario del uso del español, like the teacher says, but she is not famous.
I checked this out. Please, read it.