30 years of Instituto Cervantes in Manila

by Javier Galván, Instituto Cervantes Manila Director

On May 6, 1994, Her Royal Highness Infanta Elena de Borbón, accompanied by the first Director General of the Instituto Cervantes (IC), the historian Nicolás Sánchez Albornoz, inaugurated the then-new headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in Manila (ICM), in the Mayflower building, in the Malate neighborhood, at the intersection of León Guinto and Estrada streets. The property belonged to a Filipino family of Spanish origin, the Delgados. The Mayflower building, constructed in 1938, had previously housed USAID, the Embassy of Indonesia, and that of Spain.