Puerto Rico will take part in the Benengeli Festival with a panel discussion from Bellas Artes de Caguas

Author Helena Sampedro will lead the event, featuring writers Mayra Santos-Febres and Huáscar Robles.

Caguas, Puerto Rico (May 8, 2025) – Bellas Artes de Caguas (BAC) will, for the first time, host one of the events of the new edition of the Benengeli Festival, presented by the Instituto Cervantes as part of the International Week of Spanish Letters.

Puerto Rico will be one of 15 destinations across five continents hosting events inspired by the theme of the fifth edition of the popular festival, “Writing with the Five Senses.”

Puerto Rican writer Helena Sampedro will moderate an engaging panel discussion with her literary colleagues, Mayra Santos-Febres and Huáscar Robles, on Friday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m., from Moneró Café Teatro & Bar. Local and international audiences will have the opportunity to explore the perspectives of these extraordinary representatives of Puerto Rican letters on the role of smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch in the art of writing in Spanish.

Admission is free.

Other cities hosting this event, either in person or virtually, include Sydney, Seoul, Bucharest, Budapest, Brussels, Manchester, Paris, Madrid, Tunis, São Paulo, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Mexico City, and Santo Domingo.

“The opportunity to host this festival is a recognition of the work done with the International Writers Congress to position Puerto Rico, and particularly Bellas Artes de Caguas, as a literary epicenter in this part of the Caribbean,” highlighted BAC Executive Director Ivonne Class. “We accepted the invitation with great enthusiasm and encourage the general public to come to Moneró Café Teatro & Bar, or join the digital broadcast, to participate in the discussion,” she added.

The 5th edition of the Benengeli Festival will run from May 26 to 30, featuring, on the festival’s website, eight unpublished stories, 12 short videos with contributions from various authors, and two special interviews with Argentine-Canadian writer Alberto Manguel and Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli.

The festival takes its name from the character “Cide Hamete Benengeli,” who appears in Miguel Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote.

This event also sets the stage for the third edition of the International Writers Congress, to be held at BAC during the first half of 2026.

For more information on events at Bellas Artes de Caguas, visit their social media on Facebook (@bellasartescaguas) and Instagram (@baccaguas), or the website: bellasartes.com

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