EPRI celebrated Aproaching the U

Partial view of the participants to the socratic dialogue on Don Quixote

Between students and parents, 16 people participated in the event Approaching the U, organized by the Institute of Political Studies and International Relations, last March 20th 2006 at the Socratic Wing of the Academic Building in the Francisco Marroquín University.

» Approaching the U, is looking forward to be a space where students, parents, or grandparents can discuss, analyze, share their experiences, thoughts, ideas and opinions on the different recent national and international topics.  At the same time, it pretends to generate an intergenerational approach that allows us to understand better, the different opinions by one or two generations and that, occasionally, could seem against, sensitively different or event opposed», explained Pedro Trujillo, EPRI´s director.

«A good way of knowing yourself is to debate, share, understand, and above all, to dialogue.  All of which are intended to be used in this university program, so that parents, children and grandparents can share a space created for that sole purpose.  The subject that we discussed was based on the book Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes», Trujillo added.

«We read four chapters of Don Quixote for the event. In the first two, the main character makes a comparison between the man of letters and a man of arms and those who criticize without really knowing other peoples jobs; in the other two, he gives advise to Sancho Panza hoping he´ll use it when governing the island (insula) that will be assigned to him», he added.

You can see virtues, vices, advice, reflections, opinions and others, or reflections of realities from the historical moment.  What we are looking for is that, during the debate we can reflect on our current vision, their evolution, permanence, the essential content of what is said and, at the end, its current validity or how they could be visualized in our days.  Questions like if the literate man is really a stereotype, if justice must be a fundamental virtue of rulers, if power (or governance) is the essence in politics and government and, other similar questions, are the center of the proposed debate.  We hope that the opinion interchange, the debate and discussions are elements that will join us all and will create a space of interchange that increase our knowledge and principles, Trujillo concluded.

In the dialog directed by Trujillo, the participants were the families Estrada, Zepeda, Flores, Umaña, Valle, Carrillo and Arriaga.

More photos,
here.