Top 17 Ilan Stavans Quotes

My hope is that ‘The New World Haggadah’ will open a new world for readers who will see our heritage through a multilingual prism. I wanted to feature medieval and renaissance authors, resistance in World War II, crypto-Jews and activists during the Dirty War in Latin America, songs of protest, and songs of hope.

‘Don Quixote’ is a very political book that has been used by diplomats, politicians, guerrilla fighters, to inspire people, to convince them that they themselves can become quixotic. George Washington had a copy of the book on his desk when signing the U.S. Constitution.

The mandate we have as Jews is for the story of the Exodus from Egypt to be retold every generation.

The running joke about the Premio Cervantes, the most coveted literary prize in the Spanish-speaking world, which was established by Spain’s Ministry of Culture in 1976, is that Cervantes himself wouldn’t have received it. This is because he was, in his heart, the most anti-Spanish of Spanish writers.

At its core, the United States is grateful, warm-hearted, full of unexpected twists and turns – not a cold and bullying prison – it’s a place of infinite jest.

American Jews are no longer a homogenous minority; we come in all colors and from all corners of the world.

In 2009, I edited, under the aegis of the Library of America, an anthology called ‘Becoming Americans: Immigrants Tell Their Stories from Jamestown to Today.’ It featured immigrants from different backgrounds, from black slaves like Phillis Wheatley to Yiddish-language speakers like Henry Roth.

I am an immigrant from Mexico. I came to the United States looking for a landscape where I could explore ideas freely and to test my entrepreneurial spirit.

How many different works of art have been inspired by ‘Don Quixote?’ Thousands. Most people enter the novel, for better or worse, through the musical the ‘Man Of La Mancha.’

Disinterring famous people has become a kind of sport in the Hispanic world. Before Cervantes, it happened to Evita, Che Guevara, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Pablo Neruda.

Historically, the 19th century is defined by annexations and internal turmoil. For instance, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 gave more than half of Mexican territory to the United States.

‘Hispanic’ was the term adopted by the government – by the Nixon government in particular – and that made the community feel it was being branded.

I have always considered it a beautiful metaphor that Cervantes had no fixed address in Spain. He is thus everywhere and nowhere. There are a number of sites connected with his life, but none attract hordes of travellers the way Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe Theatre in London draw Shakespeare aficionados.

‘The New World Haggadah’ is meant for American Jews in the 21st century.

Latinos are learning English. That doesn’t mean that they should sacrifice their original language or that they should give up this in-betweeness that is Spanglish.

If a writer doesn’t do anything but give a new word to his language and, from there, maybe to other languages, I think that writer redefines the world.

Spanglish is a creative way also of saying, ‘I am an American, and I have my own style, my own taste, my own tongue.’