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Hello friends, I´m Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, I imagine you must know that I am one of the most famous writers in our history, but allow me to tell you about my complicated life.

I was born in the middle of the XVI century in Alcala de Henares, a small village belonging to Madrid. My father was a humble surgeon while I, as a little boy began to write poems.

When I was still young I injured a man with my sword and I had to flee to Italy so as to escape justice.

I signed up to the Spanish Armada and fought against the Turks in the Lepanto battle where a gunshot destroyed my left hand, rendering it useless.  As from then I was nick named "the one handed from Lepanto"…

But my misfortunes didn’t end there, when I was returning to Spain by boat, pirates attacked us and I was captured as a prisoner. They then took me to an African city, Argel, where I was imprisoned for  five long years. 

When they finally freed me, as a result of a rescue operation, I eventually managed to get back to Spain. Latter I was married and began to write plays, but my cursed bad luck continued and I was not able to make a living as a writer.

I was imprisoned once again because of a money issue and it was during these months in jail where I began to write the play which has given me eternal fame, "The ingenious gentleman Don Quijote of the Mancha." In it I narrated Don Quijote´s adventures accompanied by his loyal squire Sancho Panza. Truth is, it did give me great glory and fame, but little else, as I lived the remainder of my days immersed in poverty. 

Before saying farewell, I would like to give you a little advice, in spite of having  constant bad luck, you should always fight for what you believe in and make a great effort with your responsibilities. I, even though I generally had bad luck, managed to achieve glory doing what I loved most…writing and creating. 

Miguel de Cervantes: Famous Spanish Writer

miguel-de-cervantes-famous-spanish-writer

Let's do English ESL deep listening: focus on meaning. Answer questions from the video to access listening comprehension for the students